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Scifi and Fantasy Forum: Books and Book Reviews: Locus Awards
Locus Awards
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The Loce Awards anthology, printed in early 2004, is probably the best anthology of speculative short stories and novellas I've ever read, with the possible exception of The Classic Book of Science Fiction edited by Groff Conklin.
The Locus awards are very prestigious, and are presented exclusively to works of speculative nature. The anthology is valuable not only because it presents a hand-picked set of award-winning stories from the past thirty years, but also because it contains a list of all the novels, short stories, novellettes, and novella ever to have received a Locus Award.
The word Locus has been defined as "a center of activity;" and "a place of coming together." Well, it really does come together in this book.
Until I'd read this anthology, I'd never dreamed that anything could topple "Arena" from my the highest spot in my list of favorite short stories, but two of the works in this collection did that, and many of the rest came close.
My favorite stories, in order of how much I liked them, were:
1. "The Only Neat Thing to Do" by James Tiptree, Jr.
2. "Souls" by Joanna Russ
3. "Hell is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang
4. "October in the Chair" by Neil Gaiman
5. "Jeffty is Five" by Harlan Ellison
The list could go on and on, with authors like George R. R. Martin, Ursula K. LeGuin, Octavia E. Butler, and Connie Willis. If you consider yourself a fan of speculative short stories, get your hands on this book! It puts every "Year's Best" anthology to shame. Actually, it puts nearly every anthology to shame.
Posted By:  Magus Jan 13, 2005 - 01:21 pm |       | I'll really have to give this a look. I've been searching for anthologies of short stories lately, since I've gone to greater leangths to improve my writing of them, and the only good ones I've found are Stephen King ones. Don't get me wrong, Stephen is one of my favorite authors and he masterfully writes short stories, but I'm looking for some variety in authors and styles. I'll have to look this book up.
If you're looking for a good anthology of fantasy short stories, Pitch Black Books just published one called "Lords of Swords". It's available directly - maybe you could google it. I've seen some pretty good reviews on several sites, and comments on other authors' sites. I'm hoping to get into their next antho. Anyway, I hear they've got a killer story from Tanith Lee and a couple novella length stories from other authors I really like. I ordered a copy yesterday; I'll come back and post when I've received it and say what I think.
Ellen Datlow tends to put out excellent collections in her Best of Year anthologies. Short fiction is great to find when you haven't the time for novels - or even when want variety.
| Posted By: Magus Jan 13, 2005 - 01:37 pm | | I've also been meening to get a hold of some Philip K. Dick anothologies but haven't gotten around to it.
| Posted By: Aldan Jan 13, 2005 - 05:46 pm | | Well, if the round ones frighten you, try an octagonal one, as it is close in shape to a circle, but doesn't lack the all-important corners...
I've had more in tuits lately than round tuits, but maybe I'm just fantasizing. . . . Good day and good reading, fellows!
| Posted By: Magus Jan 15, 2005 - 04:57 am | | THANKS GNOLLSLAYER!!!!!
I guess I should explain what's written above, shouldn't I? Yesterday I went out to eat and then we went to see Phantom of the Opera. We got done eating much earlier then we thought and found we had a lot of time to kill. SO we went to Borders.
At Borders I picked up a trade paper back copy of The Locus Awards for $16.00, and a garcover of Everything's Eventual for $6.00.
It's a shame that I forgot my Borders giftcard, though. Oh, well. It lives to buy another day.
So thanks for the suggestion, it certainly looks awesome. I didn't read it yet 'cause I wanted to see what you recommended from it, instead I read "The Man in the Black Suite" from Everything's Eventual.
So, first on my list of reading today:
"The Only Neat Thing to Do" by James Tiptree, Jr.
| Posted By: Magus Jan 15, 2005 - 02:30 pm | | I just found something interesting online. It seems that Stephen King is no stranger to the Locus awards. Here's a list of what he's won the Locus Award for:
1982: Non-Fiction Danse Macabre
1986: Collection Skeleton Crew
1997: Novel Desperation
1999: Novel Bag of Bones
2001: Non-Fiction On Writing
Yeah, he's won a few. It has all the winners for every category listed in the back of the anthology.
I think Dan Simmons, Ursula K. LeGuin, Connie Willis, and Orson Scott Card have the most Locus awards, just from skimming the list. I didn't actually count to see who has the most.
| Posted By: Magus Jan 16, 2005 - 02:22 pm | | I just pulled the above info from his website. I saw it there a while back and just remembered it after getting the book.
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