Locus, February 2013

by Locus Publications

  Sorry Please Thank You, Charles Yu (Pantheon)

  ANTHOLOGIES

  ORIGINAL

  After, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling eds., ed. (Hyperion)

  Rip-Off!, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Audible.com)

  AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers, Ivor W. Hartman, ed. (StoryTime)

  The Future Is Japanese, Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington, eds. (Haikasoru)

  Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, Eduardo Jimenez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. (Small Beer)

  Breaking the Bow: Stories Inspired by the Ramayana, Anil Menon & Vandana Singh, eds. (Zubaan)

  Ishtar, Amanda Pillar & K.V. Taylor, eds. (Gilgamesh)

  Edge of Infinity, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

  Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Random House)

  L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXVIII, K.D. Wentworth, ed. (Galaxy)

  Solaris Rising 1.5, Ian Whates, ed. (Solaris)

  REPRINT/BESTS

  Epic: Legends of Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Tachyon)

  The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)

  The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin; Robinson as The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 25)

  Rock On: The Greatest Hits of Science Fiction & Fantasy, Paula Guran, ed. (Prime)

  The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 Edition, Paula Guran, ed. (Prime)

  Year’s Best SF 17, David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Harper Voyager)

  The Sword & Sorcery Anthology, David G. Hartwell & Jacob Weisman, eds. (Tachyon)

  The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2012, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime)

  The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: Volume 23, Stephen Jones, ed. (Robinson; Running Press)

  Digital Rapture: The Singularity Anthology, James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel, eds. (Tachyon)

  Beyond Binary, Brit Mandelo, ed. (Lethe)

  The Century’s Best Horror Fiction: Volume One and Volume Two, John Pelan, ed. (Cemetery Dance)

  The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Six, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade)

  Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution, Ann VanderMeer, ed. (Tachyon)

  Robots: The Recent A.I., Rich Horton & Sean Wallace, eds. (Prime)

  NON-FICTION

  An Exile on Planet Earth, Brian Aldiss (Bodleian Library)

  Angela Carter: New Critical Readings, Sonya Andermahr & Lawrence Phillips, eds. (Continuum)

  Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010, Damien Broderick & Paul Di Filippo, eds. (NonStop)

  Reflections: On the Magic of Writing, Diana Wynne Jones (Fickling UK; Greenwillow)

  Astounding Wonder: Imagining Science and

  Science Fiction in Interwar America, John Cheng (University of Pennsylvania Press)

  On Conan Doyle, Michael Dirda (Princeton University Press)

  Distrust That Particular Flavor, William Gibson (Putnam)

  The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn, eds. (Cambridge University Press)

  We Wuz Pushed: Joanna Russ and Radical Truth-Telling, Brit Mandelo (Aqueduct)

  London Peculiar and Other Nonfiction, Michael Moorcock (PM Press)

  As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality, Michael Saler (Oxford University Press USA)

  Some Remarks, Neal Stephenson (Morrow)

  ART BOOKS

  Spectrum 19: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood)

  Spectrum Fantastic Art Live!, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)

  Brian Froud & Wendy Froud, Trolls (Abrams)

  Exposé 10, Ronnie Gramazio, ed. (Ballistic)

  Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration, Scott Tracy Griffin (Titan)

  Frank Reade: Adventures in the Age of Invention,

  Paul Guinan & Anina Bennett (Abrams Image)

  J.R.R. Tolkien: The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien,

  Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull, eds. (Houghton Mifflin)

  Star Wars Art: Illustration, Eric Klopfer, ed. (Abrams)

  Stephan Martiniere, Velocity (Design Studio Press)

  Steampunk: An Illustrated History, Brian J. Robb (Aurum)

  The Art of the Dragon, Patrick Wilshire & J. David Spurlock, eds. (Vanguard)

  Fantasy+ 4, Vincent Zhao, ed. (CYPI Press)

  NOVELLAS

  ‘‘The Moon Belongs to Everyone’’, Michael Alexander & K.C. Ball (Analog 12/12)

  ‘‘Hand of Glory’’, Laird Barron (The Book of Cthulhu II)

  ‘‘In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns’’, Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 1/12)

  ‘‘Twenty Lights to ‘The Land of Snow’’’, Michael Bishop (Going Interstellar)

  ‘‘Maze of Shadows’’, Fred Chappell (F&SF 5-6/12)

  ‘‘Gods of Risk’’, James S.A. Corey (Orbit Short Fiction)

  On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)

  ‘‘The Last Judgment’’, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 4-5/12)

  After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)

  ‘‘The Stars Do Not Lie’’, Jay Lake (Asimov’s 10-11/12)

  ‘‘The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future’’, Jay Lake (Subterranean Spring ’12)

  ‘‘Let Maps to Others’’, K.J. Parker (Subterranean, Summer ’12)

  ‘‘Sudden, Broken, and Unexpected’’, Steven Popkes (Asimov’s 12/12)

  ‘‘Murder Born’’, Robert Reed (Asimov’s 2/12)

  ‘‘Eater-of-Bone’’, Robert Reed (Eater-of-Bone)

  ‘‘Katabasis’’, Robert Reed (F&SF 11-12/12)

  ‘‘The Mongolian Book of the Dead’’, Alan Smale (Asimov’s 10-11/12)

  ‘‘Sky’’, Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls)

  The Boolean Gate, Walter Jon Williams (Subterranean)

  NOVELETTES

  ‘‘Holmes Sherlock: A Hwarhath Mystery’’, Eleanor Arnason (Eclipse Online 11/12/12)

  ‘‘Mating Habits of the Late Cretaceous’’, Dale Bailey (Asimov’s 9/12)

  ‘‘The Witch of Duva: A Ravkan Folk Tale’’, Leigh Bardugo (Tor.com 6/6/12)

  ‘‘Frontier Death Song’’, Laird Barron (Nightmare 10/12)

  ‘‘Invisible Men’’, Christopher Barzak (Eclipse Online 12/10/12)

  ‘‘Faster Gun’’, Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com 8/12)

  ‘‘No Decent Patrimony’’, Elizabeth Bear (Rip-Off!)

  ‘‘The Telling’’, Gregory Norman Bossert (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 11/29/12)

  ‘‘Beasts’’, Elizabeth Bourne (Interzone 5-6/12)

  ‘‘The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi’’, Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity)

  ‘‘The Ghosts of Christmas’’, Paul Cornell (Tor.com 12/19/12)

  ‘‘Weep for Day’’, Indrapramit Das (Asimov’s 8/12)

  ‘‘Troll Blood’’, Peter Dickinson (F&SF 9-10/12)

  ‘‘Close Encounters’’, Andy Duncan (The Pottawatomie Giant & Other Stories)

  ‘‘Black Box’’, Jennifer Egan (The New Yorker 6/4/12)

  ‘‘The Keats Variation’’, K. M. Ferebee (Strange Horizons 6/4/12-6/11/12)

  ‘‘The Journeyman: On the Short-Grass Prairie’’, Michael F. Flynn (Analog 10/12)

  ‘‘The Wish Head’’, Jeffrey Ford (Crackpot Palace)

  ‘‘The Castle that Jack Built’’, Emily Gilman (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 1/26/12)

  ‘‘The Grinnell Method’’, Molly Gloss (Strange Horizons 9/3/12-9/10/12)

  The Thorn and the Blossom: A Two-Sided Love Story, Theodora Goss (Quirk)

  ‘‘Siege Perilous’’, Daniel Hatch (Analog 11/12)

  ‘‘Game’’, Maria Dahvana Headley (Subterranean Fall ’12)

  ‘‘Scry’’, Anne Ivy (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 3/8/12)

  �
��‘The Pest House’’, Carole Johnstone (Black Static 4-5/12)

  ‘‘After the People Lights Have Gone Off’’, Stephen Graham Jones (Phantasmagorium 11/12)

  ‘‘Declaration’’, James Patrick Kelly (Rip-Off!)

  ‘‘Fake Plastic Trees’’, Caitlín R. Kiernan (After)

  ‘‘The Color Least Used by Nature’’, Ted Kosmatka (F&SF 1-2/12)

  ‘‘The Lady Astronaut of Mars’’, Mary Robinette Kowal (Rip-Off!)

  ‘‘Liberty’s Daughter’’, Naomi Kritzer (F&SF 5-6/12)

  ‘‘Significant Dust’’, Margo Lanagan (Cracklescape)

  ‘‘Unsilenced’’, Karalynn Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/12)

  ‘‘The Battle of Candle Arc’’, Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld 10/12)

  ‘‘Old Paint’’, Megan Lindholm (Asimov’s 7/12)

  ‘‘Arbeitskraft’’, Nick Mamatas (The Mammoth Book of Steampunk)

  ‘‘Bruce Springsteen’’, Paul McAuley (Asimov’s 1/12)

  ‘‘Swift, Brutal Retaliation’’, Meghan McCarron (Tor.com, 1/4/12)

  ‘‘Ninety Thousand Horses’’, Sean McMullen (Analog 1-2/12)

  ‘‘Electrica’’, Sean McMullen (F&SF 3-4/12)

  ‘‘The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward’’’, Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear (Drabblecast 8/31-9/6/12)

  ‘‘Nahiku West’’, Linda Nagata (Analog 10/12)

  ‘‘One Little Room An Everywhere’’, K.J. Parker (Eclipse Online 10/22/12)

  ‘‘In the Palace of the Jade Lion’’, Richard Parks (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 7/26/12)

  ‘‘Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls’’, Rachel Pollack (F&SF 7-8/12)

  Genie, Richard Powers (Byliner)

  ‘‘What Did Tessimond Tell You?’’, Adam Roberts (Solaris Rising 1.5)

  ‘‘The Contrary Gardener’’, Christopher Rowe (Eclipse Online 10/8/12)

  ‘‘Heaven’s Touch’’, Jason Sanford (Asimov’s 8/12)

  ‘‘The Bernoulli War’’, Gord Sellar (Asimov’s 8/12)

  ‘‘Sinking Among Lilies’’, Cory Skerry (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/5/12)

  ‘‘Goddess of Mercy’’, Bruce Sterling (The Future Is Japanese)

  ‘‘The Peak of Eternal Light’’, Bruce Sterling (Edge of Infinity)

  ‘‘The Sea of Trees’’, Rachel Swirsky (The Future Is Japanese)

  ‘‘Astrophilia’’, Carrie Vaughn (Clarkesworld 7/12)

  ‘‘Fireborn’’, Robert Charles Wilson (Rip-Off!)

  SHORT STORIES

  ‘‘The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times’’, Eleanor Arnason (F&SF 7-8/12)

  ‘‘Things Greater than Love’’, Kate Bachus (Strange Horizons 3/19/12)

  ‘‘Great-Grandmother in the Cellar’’, Peter S. Beagle (Under My Hat)

  ‘‘The Deeps of the Sky’’, Elizabeth Bear (Edge of Infinity)

  ‘‘Bird Walks in New England’’, Michael Blumlein (Asimov’s 7/12)

  ‘‘Twenty-Two and You’’, Michael Blumlein (F&SF 3-4/12)

  ‘‘How We Escaped Our Certain Fate’’, Dan Chaon (21st Century Dead )

  ‘‘Scattered Along the River of Heaven’’, Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 1/12)

  ‘‘Immersion’’, Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 6/12)

  ‘‘The Ballad of the Wayfaring Stranger and the Dead Man’s Whore’’, Sean Demory (Self published 4/12)

  ‘‘Nightside Eye’’, Terry Dowling (Cemetery Dance 4/12 )

  ‘‘Nanny Grey’’, Gemma Files (Magic)

  ‘‘Blood Drive’’, Jeffrey Ford (After)

  ‘‘A Natural History of Autumn’’, Jeffrey Ford (F&SF 7-8/12)

  ‘‘A Love Supreme’’, Kathleen Ann Goonan (Discover 10/12)

  ‘‘England Under the White Witch’’, Theodora Goss (Clarkesworld 10/12)

  ‘‘In Autotelia’’, M. John Harrison (Arc 1.1)

  ‘‘Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream’’, Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed 7/12)

  ‘‘Beside Calais’’, Samantha Henderson (Strange Horizons 5/14/12)

  ‘‘The Easthound’’, Nalo Hopkinson (After)

  ‘‘The Least of the Deathly Arts’’, Kat Howard (Subterranean Winter ’12)

  ‘‘Over the Waves’’, Louise Hughes (Strange Horizons 8/13/12)

  ‘‘Valedictorian’’, N.K. Jemisin (After)

  ‘‘A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight’’, Xia Jia (Ken Liu, translator) (Clarkesworld 2/12)

  ‘‘The Burst’’, C. W. Johnson (Asimov’s 1/12)

  ‘‘Mantis Wives’’, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 8/12)

  ‘‘Bricks, Sticks, Straw’’, Gwyneth Jones (Edge of Infinity)

  ‘‘Goggles (c. 1910)’’, Caitlín R. Kiernan

  (Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution)

  ‘‘The Education of a Witch’’, Ellen Klages (Under My Hat)

  ‘‘Scrap Dragon’’, Naomi Kritzer (F&SF 1-2/12)

  ‘‘Elementals’’, Ursula K. Le Guin (Tin House Fall ’12)

  ‘‘Uncle Flower’s Homecoming Waltz’’, Marissa K. Lingen (Tor.com 2/12)

  ‘‘Two Houses’’, Kelly Link (Shadow Show)

  ‘‘Mono No Aware’’, Ken Liu (The Future Is Japanese)

  ‘‘The Man’’, Paul McAuley (Arc 1.2)

  ‘‘Antarctica Starts Here’’, Paul McAuley (Asimov’s 10-11/12)

  ‘‘Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden’’, Paul McAuley (Edge of Infinity)

  ‘‘Chitai Heiki Koronbin’’, David Moles (The Future Is Japanese)

  ‘‘Blue Lace Agate’’, Sarah Monette (Lightspeed 1/12)

  ‘‘The Magician’s Apprentice’’, Tamsyn Muir (Weird Tales Winter ’12)

  ‘‘About Fairies’’, Pat Murphy (Tor.com 5/12)

  ‘‘Nightside on Callisto’’, Linda Nagata (Lightspeed 5/12)

  ‘‘Breathe’’, Steven Popkes (F&SF 11-12/12)

  ‘‘Tyche and the Ants’’, Hannu Rajaniemi (Edge of Infinity)

  ‘‘Prayer’’, Robert Reed (Clarkesworld 5/12)

  ‘‘The Water Thief’’, Alastair Reynolds (Arc 1.1)

  ‘‘Patagonia’’, Joel Richards (Asimov’s 3/12)

  ‘‘Burning Castles’’, M. Rickert (Under My Hat)

  ‘‘The Ballad of Boomtown’’, Priya Sharma (Black Static 4-5/12)

  ‘‘Dumb Lucy’’, Robert Shearman (Magic)

  ‘‘Joke in Four Panels’’ AKA ‘‘Madalyn Morgan’’, Robert Shearman (www.justsosospecial.com)

  ‘‘Ruminations in an Alien Tongue’’, Vandana Singh (Lightspeed 4/12)

  ‘‘Twember’’, Steve Rasnic Tem (Interzone 3-4/12)

  ‘‘Rebecka’’, Karin Tidbeck (Jagannath)

  ‘‘Reindeer Mountain’’, Karin Tidbeck (Jagannath)

  ‘‘The Memcordist’’, Lavie Tidhar (Eclipse Online 12/24/12)

  ‘‘A Brief History of the Great Pubs of London’’, Lavie Tidhar (Pandemonium)

  ‘‘Under the Eaves’’, Lavie Tidhar (Robots: The Recent A.I.)

  ‘‘(To See the Other) Whole Against the Sky’’, E Catherine Tobler (Clarkesworld 11/12)

  ‘‘One Breath, One Stroke’’, Catherynne M. Valente (The Future Is Japanese)

  ‘‘Coming of Age on Barsoom’’, Catherynne M. Valente (Under the Moons of Mars)

  ‘‘A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones’’, Genevieve Valentine (Clarkesworld 10/12)

  ‘‘The Philosophy of Ships’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Interzone 11-12/12)

  LOCUS POLL AND SURVEY

  The print edition of Locus includes a special pullout section with our Poll and Survey. To fill out the survey and the poll – and vote for the Locus Awards – visit our website: http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/2013/PollAndSurvey.html

  Return to In This Issue listing.

  2012 BOOK SUMMARY

  The number of books dipped below 3,000 this year, the first year of decline after five years of record numbers. This year, the number of hardcovers actually increased while trade paperback
s saw only a slight decline; the big drop was in mass-market paperbacks, which are suffering from competition with e-books, which continue to grow dramatically. We plan to start tracking e-books in 2013; for 2012, we’re still only covering print books.

  Publisher changes had little effect on our figures this year. Amazon acquired children’s publisher Marshall Cavendish, which only produced three titles we counted this year. Angry Robot launched young-adult imprint Strange Chemistry in the fall, from which we saw five titles; they announced crime fiction imprint Exhibit A, to start in 2013. Penguin/Berkley/NAL added a graphic novel imprint, Inklit, from which we saw two titles. ChiZine added a ChiTeen imprint, to start in 2014.

  The big news came toward the end of the year, with the announcement of a merger between Random House and Penguin, to form Penguin Random House — the world’s largest publisher, with 16% of trade publishing. Pending government approval, the change wouldn’t take effect until late 2013. Quercus (which includes Jo Fletcher Books) announced plans to launch a North American division in fall 2013.

  We saw genre material from 275 publishers, down from 277 last year. We’re not certain how many are POD publishers, since we can’t always tell a book is POD, but we noted definite POD books from 86 publishers. Tracking print-on-demand books remains problematic for us; the books don’t really exist until a copy is ordered and printed, so they don’t really compare to traditional books. Complicating matters, there’s no way to spot POD titles unless the book has the distinctive bar code on the last page used by some publishers. Some small presses order a large number of copies printed with POD technology and distribute them through traditional channels, and say they shouldn’t count as POD, but if the stock sells out the titles are usually still available as POD, and we can’t tell the difference, unless the initial print run is put out as a signed, numbered, limited edition. Some major publishers use POD to keep some backlist in print. Counting reprints and reissues becomes pointless. Despite POD gaining a certain amount of respect, it’s a staple of self-publishing and subsidy services, which come very close to being vanity presses, and produce far too many really bad books. We try not to list books we know are from vanity presses, but it’s hard to tell for certain anymore. A number of large publishers have added services for self-publishing; this year Penguin’s parent Pearson acquired the self-publishing services company Author Solutions, which now includes several publishers we’ve previously considered vanity/subsidy presses, including Xlibris, AuthorHouse, Trafford, and iUniverse; Simon & Schuster announced plans to team with Author Solutions for their self-publishing Archway Publishing. Just how ‘‘legitimate’’ this makes their services remains to be determined.