2018 Locus Recommenced Reading List is Now Available!

Every February Locus Magazine, the premier resource for speculative fiction, comes out with their Recommended Reads. From this year’s announcement:

Welcome to the annual Locus Recommended Reading List!

Published in Locus magazine’s February 2019 issue, the list is a consensus by Locus editors, reviewers, and other professionals — editor-in-chief Liza Groen Trombi; reviews editor Jonathan Strahan; Locus reviewers Liz Bourke, Katharine Coldiron, Carolyn Cushman, Paul Di Filippo, Lila Garrott, Amy Goldschlager, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, John Langan, Russell Letson, Adrienne Martini, Ian Mond, Colleen Mondor, Tim Pratt, Arley Sorg, Tom Whitmore, Gary K. Wolfe, and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; Bob Blough; online editor Mark R. Kelly; critics Paul Kincaid, Cheryl Morgan, and Graham Sleight. The YA group wrapped in Locus assistant editor Laurel Amberdine, Gwenda Bond, Barry Goldblatt, Justine Larbalestier, and Tiffany Trent. Art books were compiled with help from Arnie Fenner, Karen Haber, and Locus design editor Francesca Myman. Short fiction recommendations had help from editors and reviewers John Joseph Adams, Ellen Datlow, Lila Garrott, Liz Grzyb, Maria Haskins, Nisi Shawl, and Alison Wise plus our own reviewers.

Here is the direct link to this year’s list.

This is an excellent resource as you help readers and develop your collections. First, take this list, and check your collections. Do you own these books? You should. These are some of the best titles in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror from 2018. Second, use it to help readers who want books in these genres, but also, to help readers who want to give these genres a try-- especially the stories and novellas.

I also like looking at the catalog of lists from years’ past which you can access here. Those are not as good for collection development, but they are an excellent place to find “under the radar” suggestions for your patrons; great books, many of which you still have in your collections, that the reader in front of you might not know about.

There are many books on this list that I have read and reviewed too; including many of my speculate favorites from last year. 

This is one of my favorite resources every year. It is a treasure trove of CD and RA gold. Bookmark it and use it for guaranteed crowd pleasing suggestions for all of your speculative fiction fans.