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The 18 Best Locus Award-Winning Novels of All Time

By YPB Team

From cyberpunk landmarks to sweeping fantasy epics, these award-decorated novels span half a century of speculative fiction's boldest ideas. Which one takes the crown?

  1. Hyperion — ranked #11
    Hyperion
    Dan Simmons's 1990 Locus-winning space opera framing seven pilgrims' tales on a journey to the deadly Time Tombs.
    1000pts
  2. The Silmarillion — ranked #22
    The Silmarillion
    J.R.R. Tolkien's 1978 Locus Fantasy winner chronicling the mythic history of Middle-earth's First Age.
    1000pts
  3. The Fall of Hyperion — ranked #33
    The Fall of Hyperion
    Dan Simmons's 1991 Locus winner concluding the pilgrims' confrontation with the Shrike.
    800pts
  4. Barrayar — ranked #44
    Barrayar
    Lois McMaster Bujold's 1992 Locus winner in the Vorkosigan Saga centered on political intrigue and survival.
    800pts
  5. Foundation's Edge — ranked #55
    Foundation's Edge
    Isaac Asimov's 1983 Locus winner reviving his galactic Foundation saga decades later.
    709pts
  6. Speaker for the Dead — ranked #66
    Speaker for the Dead
    Orson Scott Card's 1987 Locus SF winner and haunting sequel to Ender's Game.
    709pts
  7. The Mists of Avalon — ranked #77
    The Mists of Avalon
    Marion Zimmer Bradley's 1984 Locus Fantasy winner retelling Arthurian legend from its women's perspective.
    600pts
  8. The Snow Queen — ranked #88
    The Snow Queen
    Joan D. Vinge's 1981 Locus SF winner reworking the fairy tale into planetary space opera.
    600pts
  9. Startide Rising — ranked #99
    Startide Rising
    David Brin's 1984 Locus SF winner about a crew of uplifted dolphins fleeing a galactic war.
    600pts
  10. Neuromancer — ranked #1010
    Neuromancer
    William Gibson's 1985 Locus-winning cyberpunk landmark that coined 'cyberspace' and defined the genre.
    466pts
  11. Tehanu — ranked #1111
    Tehanu
    Ursula K. Le Guin's 1991 Locus Fantasy winner returning to Earthsea with a quieter, feminist lens.
    466pts
  12. The Many-Colored Land — ranked #1212
    The Many-Colored Land
    Julian May's 1982 Locus SF winner sending misfits through a one-way time portal to the Pliocene.
    466pts
  13. Doomsday Book — ranked #1313
    Doomsday Book
    Connie Willis's 1993 Locus winner following a time-traveling historian stranded in plague-era England.
    466pts
  14. American Gods — ranked #1414
    American Gods
    Neil Gaiman's 2002 Locus SF winner pitting old myths against modern gods on a road trip across America.
    300pts
  15. Cyteen — ranked #1515
    Cyteen
    C.J. Cherryh's 1989 Locus SF winner exploring cloning, power, and identity in a spacefaring society.
    300pts
  16. Ancillary Justice — ranked #1616
    Ancillary Justice
    Ann Leckie's 2014 Locus First Novel winner narrated by a ship's AI inhabiting a single human body.
    300pts
  17. The Diamond Age — ranked #1717
    The Diamond Age
    Neal Stephenson's 1996 Locus SF winner about a nanotech primer that raises a girl in a stratified future.
    300pts
  18. Green Mars — ranked #1818
    Green Mars
    Kim Stanley Robinson's 1994 Locus winner and second volume of the Mars terraforming trilogy.
    300pts

#fantasy74#books87#sci-fi74#classics474#awards7

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