Letteratura fantasy e scifi, il meglio del 2014 secondo Locus Magazine12 min read

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Locus è un mensile di letteratura fantasy e scifi pubblicato dal 1968 conosciuto negli Usa da esperti e appassionati; non a caso ha vinto per ben otto volte il Premio Hugo (ambito riconoscimento del fantastico) come migliore fanzine e rivista semiprofessionale. Ogni anno Locus pubblica una lista di autori che consiglia di leggere. L’ultima è stata postata il 1 febbraio sul sito. Si tratta, per la verità, di più liste dato che sono prese in considerazione varie categorie. Alcuni autori sono conosciuti anche da noi.

Romanzi – fantascienza

Ultima, Stephen Baxter (Gollancz; Roc 2015) War Dogs, Greg Bear (Orbit US; Gollancz) Shipstar, Gregory Benford & Larry Niven (Tor; Titan 2015) Chimpanzee, Darin Bradley (Underland) Cibola Burn, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Book of Strange New Things, Michel Faber (Hogarth; Canongate) The Peripheral, William Gibson (Putnam; Viking UK) Afterparty, Daryl Gregory (Tor; Titan) Work Done for Hire, Joe Haldeman (Ace) Tigerman, Nick Harkaway (Knopf; Heinemann 2015) Europe in Autumn, Dave Hutchinson (Solaris US; Solaris UK) Wolves, Simon Ings (Gollancz) Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Artemis Awakening, Jane Lindskold (Tor) The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu (Tor) The Causal Angel, Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor; Gollancz) The Memory of Sky, Robert Reed (Prime) Bête, Adam Roberts (Gollancz) Lock In, John Scalzi (Tor; Gollancz) The Blood of Angels, Johanna Sinisalo (Peter Owens) The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell (Random House; Sceptre) Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor (Hodder; Saga 2015) All Those Vanished Engines, Paul Park (Tor) Annihilation/Authority/Acceptance, Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals; Fourth Estate; HarperCollins Canada) Dark Lightning, John Varley (Ace) My Real Children, Jo Walton (Tor; Corsair) Echopraxia, Peter Watts (Tor; Head of Zeus 2015) World of Trouble, Ben H. Winters (Quirk)

Romanzi – Fantasy

The Widow’s House, Daniel Abraham (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Tor) Steles of the Sky, Elizabeth Bear (Tor) City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett (Broadway; Jo Fletcher) Hawk, Steven Brust (Tor) The Boy Who Drew Monsters, Keith Donohue (Picador USA) Bathing the Lion, Jonathan Carroll (St. Martin’s) Full Fathom Five, Max Gladstone (Tor) The Winter Boy, Sally Wiener Grotta (Pixel Hall) The Magician’s Land, Lev Grossman (Viking; Arrow 2015) Truth and Fear, Peter Higgins (Orbit; Gollancz) The Mirror Empire, Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot US) Resurrections, Roz Kaveney (Plus One) Revival, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton) The Dark Defiles, Richard K. Morgan (Del Rey; Gollancz) The Bees, Laline Paull (Ecco; Fourth Estate 2015) The Godless, Ben Peek (Thomas Dunne; Tor UK) Heirs of Grace, Tim Pratt (47North) Beautiful Blood, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean) A Man Lies Dreaming, Lavie Tidhar (Hodder & Stoughton) The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, Genevieve Valentine (Atria) California Bones, Greg van Eekhout (Tor)

Young Adult

Half a King, Joe Abercrombie (Del Rey; Voyager UK) Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo (Holt; Indigo) Girl on a Wire, Gwenda Bond (Skyscape) The Doubt Factory, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown) Waistcoats & Weaponry, Gail Carriger (Little, Brown; Atom) Exo, Steven Gould (Tor) Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan Children’s UK; Amulet 2015) The Grasshopper’s Child, Gwyneth Jones (Tjoy Books) Memory of Water, Emmi Itäranta (Harper Voyager UK) Love Is the Drug, Alaya Dawn Johnson (Levine) Empress of the Sun, Ian McDonald (Jo Fletcher; Pyr) Greenglass House, Kate Milford (Clarion) Clariel, Garth Nix (Harper; Hot Key; Allen & Unwin) The Child Eater, Rachel Pollack (Jo Fletcher) Lockstep, Karl Schroeder (Tor) Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK) Dreams of Gods & Monsters, Laini Taylor, (Little, Brown; Hodder & Stoughton) Afterworlds, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Romanzi d’esordio

The Race, Nina Allan (NewCon) Elysium, Jennifer Marie Brissett (Aqueduct) The Girl in the Road, Monica Byrne (Crown; Blackfriars) A Darkling Sea, James L. Cambias (Tor) The Clockwork Dagger, Beth Cato (Harper Voyager) Unwrapped Sky, Rjurik Davidson (Tor; Tor UK) Otherbound, Corinne Duyvis (Amulet) The Angel of Losses, Stephanie Feldman (Ecco) The Memory Garden, Mary Rickert (Sourcebooks Landmark) The Emperor’s Blades, Brian Staveley (Tor; Tor UK) The Stone Boatmen, Sarah Tolmie (Aqueduct)

Raccolte

How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales, Kate Bernheimer (Coffee House) Questionable Practices, Eileen Gunn (Small Beer) The Collected Short Fiction Volume One: The Man Who Made Models, R.A. Lafferty (Centipede) Last Plane to Heaven, Jay Lake (Tor) Secret Lives of Books, Rosaleen Love (Twelfth Planet) Gifts for the One Who Comes After, Helen Marshall (ChiZine) Academic Exercises, K.J. Parker (Subterranean) Young Woman in a Garden, Delia Sherman (Small Beer) They Do the Same Things Different There, Robert Shearman (ChiZine) The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, Angela Slatter (Tartarus) The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume Nine: The Millennium Express, Robert Silverberg (Subterranean; Gateway) The Court of Lies, Mark Teppo (Fairwood) Death at the Blue Elephant, Janeen Webb (Ticonderoga) Prophecies, Libels, and Dreams: Stories of Califa, Ysabeau S. Wilce (Small Beer)

Antologie – originali

Upgraded, Neil Clarke, ed. (Wyrm) Fearful Symmetries, Ellen Datlow, ed. (ChiZine) Nightmare Carnival, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Dark Horse) Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future, Ed Finn & Kathryn Cramer, eds. (Morrow) Monstrous Affections, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, ed (Candlewick) Rogues, George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois, ed. (Bantam; Titan) Reach for Infinity, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK) Fearsome Magics: The New Solaris Book of Fantasy, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK) Kaleidoscope, Alisa Krasnostein & Julia Rios, ed. (Twelfth Planet) Solaris Rising3, Ian Whates, ed.(Solaris US; Solaris UK) Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, Rose Fox & Daniel José Older, eds. (Crossed Genres) The Book of Silverberg: Stories in Honor of Robert Silverberg, Gardner Dozois & William Schafer (Subterranean)

Antologie – riedizioni o raccolte dei migliori

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Six, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade) Lovecraft’s Monsters, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Tachyon) The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-first Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Press) The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2014, Paula Guran, ed. (Prime) Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2014 Edition, Rich Horton, ed. (Prime) The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror: 25th Anniversary Edition, Stephen Jones, ed. (Robinson; Skyhorse) Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. I, Laird Barron & Michael Kelly, eds. (Undertow) The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women, Alex Dally MacFarlane, ed. (Robinson; Running Press) The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Volume Eight, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK) The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol 2, Gordon Van Gelder, ed. (Tachyon) The Time Traveler’s Almanac, Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer, eds. (Head of Zeus; Tor)

Non-Fiction

Greg Egan, Karen Burnham (University of Illinois Press) The Heritage of Heinlein, Thomas D. Clareson & Joe Sanders (McFarland) Stay, John Clute (Beccon) Ray Bradbury Unbound, Jonathan Eller (University of Illinois Press) Vintage Visions: Essays on Early Science Fiction, Arthur Evans (Wesleyan University Press) Harry Harrison! Harry Harrison!, Harry Harrison (Tor) Call and Response, Paul Kincaid (Beccon) The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction, Rob Latham, ed. (Oxford) The Secret History of Wonder Woman, Jill Lepore (Knopf) Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Volume 2: The Man Who Learned Better: 1948-1988, William H. Patterson, Jr. (Tor) Sibilant Fricative: Essays & Reviews, Adam Roberts (Steel Quill) What Makes This Book So Great, Jo Walton (Tor; Corsair 2015)

Art Books

Sketching from the Imagination: Fantasy, Anonymous, ed. (3dtotal) Jim Burns, The Art of Jim Burns: Hyperluminal (Titan) The Art of Neil Gaiman, Hayley Campbell (Harper Design) Biomech Art: Surrealism, Cyborgs and Alien UniversesMartin de Diego Sádaba (Graffito) Virgil Finlay, The Collectors’ Book of Virgil Finlay, Robert Weinberg, Douglas Ellis, & Robert T. Garcia, eds. (American Fantasy) Spectrum 21: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk) Brian & Wendy Froud, Brian Froud’s Faeries’ Tales (Abrams) Fred Gambino, The Art of Fred Gambino: Dark Shepherd (Titan) John Harris, The Art of John Harris – Beyond the Horizon (Titan) Ian Miller, The Art of Ian Miller (Titan) The Art of Space: The History of Space Art, from the Earliest Visions to the Graphics of the Modern Era, Ron Miller (Zenith) Greg Spalenka, The Art of Greg Spalenka (Titan) Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, Dreamland (Harper)

Novellas

The Adventure of the Ring of Stones, James P. Blaylock (Subterranean) “The Man Who Sold the Moon”, Cory Doctorow (Hieroglyph) We Are All Completely Fine, Daryl Gregory (Tachyon) “Where the Trains Turn”, Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Tor.com 11/19/14) Yesterday’s Kin, Nancy Kress (Tachyon) “Children of the Fang”, John Langan (Lovecraft’s Monsters) “The Regular”, Ken Liu (Upgraded) “The Things We Do For Love”, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Summer ’14) The Madonna and the Starship, James Morrow (Tachyon) “The Mothers of Voorhisville”, Mary Rickert (Tor.com 4/30/14) “The Lightning Tree”, Patrick Rothfuss (Rogues) “The Black Sun”, Lewis Shiner (Subterranean Summer ’14) “Entanglement”, Vandana Singh (Hieroglyph) “Grand Jeté (the Great Leap)”, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Summer ’14) “Kur-A-Len”, Lavie Tidhar (Black Gods Kiss) Dream Houses, Genevieve Valentine (WSFA/Wyrm)

Romanzi brevi

“Tough Times All Over”, Joe Abercrombie (Rogues) “The End of the End of Everything”, Dale Bailey (Tor.com 4/23/14) “Skullpocket”, Nathan Ballingrud (Nightmare Carnival) “The Hand Is Quicker”, Elizabeth Bear (The Book of Silverberg) “Subduction”, Paul M. Berger (F&SF 7-8/14) “Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (the Successful Kind)”, Holly Black (Monstrous Affections) “Sleep Walking Now and Then”, Richard Bowes (Tor.com 7/9/14) “The Changeling”, James Bradley (Fearsome Magics) “The Rider”, Jérôme Cigut (F&SF 9-10/14) “A Better Way to Die”, Paul Cornell (Rogues) “The Magician and Laplace’s Demon”, Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 12/14) “Memorials”, Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s 1/14) “I’ll Follow the Sun”, Paul Di Filippo (F&SF 11-12/14) “Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts”, Cory Doctorow (Twelve Tomorrows) “Seventh Sight”, Greg Egan (Upgraded) “Shadow Flock”, Greg Egan (Coming Soon Enough) “The Litany of Earth”, Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com 5/14/14) “A Wish from a Bone”, Gemma Files (Fearful Symmetries) “A Short History of the Twentieth Century, or, When You Wish Upon a Star”, Kathleen Ann Goonan (Tor.com 7/20/14) “His Artist Wife”, John Grant (Black Static 1-2/14) “Skull and Hyssop“, Kathleen Jennings (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 12/14) The Elvis Room, Stephen Graham Jones (This Is Horror) “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i”, Alaya Dawn Johnson (F&SF 7-8/14) “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No.8)”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest) “The Cats of River Street (1925)”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest) “The Jetsam of Disremembered Mechanics”, Caitlín R. Kiernan (The Book of Silverberg) “Hey Presto!”, Ellen Klages (Fearsome Magics) “Schools of Clay”, Derek Künsken (Asimov’s 2/14) “A Hotel in Antarctica”, Geoffrey A. Landis (Hieroglyph) “The Jar of Water”, Ursula K. Le Guin (Tin House #62) “Wine”, Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld 1/14) “Draft 31″, Michael Libling (F&SF 3-4/14) “I Can See Right Through You”, Kelly Link (McSweeney’s #48) “The New Boyfriend”, Kelly Link (Monstrous Affections) “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane”, Scott Lynch (Rogues) “The Fifth Dragon”, Ian McDonald (Reach for Infinity) “Home is the Haunter”, Garth Nix (Fearsome Magics) “Heaven Thunders the Truth”, K.J. Parker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/2/14) “Bogdavi’s Dream”, Tom Purdom (Asimov’s 9/14) “The Cryptic Age”, Robert Reed (Asimov’s 12/14) “The Last Log of the Lachrimosa“, Alastair Reynolds (Subterranean Spring ’14) “Thing and Sick”, Adam Roberts (Solaris Rising3) “On Skybolt Mountain”, Justina Robson (Fearsome Magics) “Among the Thorns”, Veronica Schanoes (Tor.com 5/7/14) “Kheldyu”, Karl Schroeder (Reach for Infinity) “Ice in the Bedroom”, Robert Shearman (Fearsome Magics) Home and Hearth, Angela Slatter (Spectral Press) “On Ice”, Simon Strantzas (Burnt Black Suns) “Of Finest Scarlet Was Her Gown”, Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s 4-5/14) “Tawny Petticoats”, Michael Swanwick (Rogues) “The Insects of Love”, Genevieve Valentine (Tor.com 5/28/14) “Collateral”, Peter Watts (Upgraded) “The Colonel”, Peter Watts (Tor.com 7/29/14) “The Devil in America”, Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 4/2/14)

Racconti brevi

“The Unfathomable Sisterhood of Ick”, Charlie Jane Anders (Lightspeed 6/14) “The Scrivener”, Eleanor Arnason (Subterranean Winter ’14) “Moriabe’s Children”, Paolo Bacigalupi (Monstrous Affections) “Covenant”, Elizabeth Bear (Hieroglyph) “This Chance Planet”, Elizabeth Bear (Tor.com 10/22/14) “Slipping”, Lauren Beukes (Twelve Tomorrows) “Beside the Damned River”, D.J. Cockburn (Interzone 7-8/14) “Witch, Beast, Saint: an Erotic Fairy Tale”, C.S.E. Cooney (Strange Horizons 7/21/14) “The Days of the War, as Red as Blood, as Dark as Bile”, Aliette de Bodard (SubterraneanSpring ’14) “The Dust Queen”, Aliette de Bodard (Reach for Infinity) “The Truth About Owls”, Amal El-Mohtar (Kaleidoscope) “Printable”, Toh EnJoe (Granta Spring ’14) “Sadness”, Timons Esaias (Analog 7-8/14) “Hibbler’s Minions,”, Jeffrey Ford (Nightmare Carnival) “The Prelate’s Commission”, Jeffrey Ford (Subterranean Winter ’14) “Nanny Anne and the Christmas Story”, Karen Joy Fowler (Subterranean Winter ’14) “Cimmeria: From the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology“, Theodora Goss (Lightspeed7/14) “Ghost Story”, John Grant (Interzone 3-4/14) “The Tallest Doll in New York City”, Maria Dahvana Headley (Tor.com 2/14/14) “Cures for a Sickened World”, Brian Hodge (The Spectral Book of Horror Stories) “Left Foot, Right”, Nalo Hopkinson (Monstrous Affections) “The Saint of the Sidewalks”, Kat Howard (Clarkesworld 8/14) “The Instructive Tale of the Archaeologist and His Wife”, Alexander Jablokov (Asimov’s7/14) “Catching Flies”, Carole Johnstone (Fearful Symmetries) “Chapter Six”, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com 6/11/14) “Someday”, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s 4-5/14) “Mothers, Lock Up Your Daughters Because They Are Terrifying”, Alice Sola Kim (Monstrous Affections/Tin House #61) “Amicae Aeternum”, Ellen Klages (Reach for Infinity) “Caligo Lane”, Ellen Klages (Subterranean Winter ’14) “West to East”, Jay Lake (Subterranean Summer ’14) “Combustion Hour”, Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com 6/18/14) “The Contemporary Foxwife”, Yoon Ha Lee (Clarkesworld 7/14) “The Lady and the Fox”, Kelly Link (My True Love Gave to Me) “The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009″, Ken Liu (Clarkesworld 11/14) “Selfie”, Sandra McDonald (Lightspeed 5/14) “The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”, Usman T. Malik (Qualia Nous) “Four Days of Christmas”, Tim Maughan (Terraform 12/24/14) “Shay Corsham Worsted”, Garth Nix (Fearful Symmetries) “And Wash Out by Tides of War”, An Owomoyela (Clarkesworld 2/14) “Shatterdown”, Suzanne Palmer (Asimov’s 6/14) “Windows”, Susan Palwick (Asimov’s 9/14) “I Met a Man Who Wasn’t There”, K.J. Parker (Subterranean Winter ’14) “The Manor of Lost Time”, Richard Parks (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 6/26/14) “The Sorrow of Rain”, Richard Parks (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/2/14) “A Stretch of Highway Two Lanes Wide”, Sarah Pinsker (F&SF 3-4/14) “Invisible Planets”, Hannu Rajaniemi (Reach for Infinity) “Pernicious Romance”, Robert Reed (Clarkesworld 11/14) “In Babelsberg”, Alastair Reynolds (Reach for Infinity) “Trademark Bugs: A Legal History”, Adam Roberts (Reach for Infinity) “Fift and Shria”, Benjamin Rosenbaum (Solaris Rising3) “How to Get Back to the Forest”, Sofia Samatar (Lightspeed 3/14) “Ogres of East Africa”, Sofia Samatar (Long Hidden) “Wake-Rider”, Vandana Singh (Lightspeed 12/14) “Passage of Earth”, Michael Swanwick (Clarkesworld 4/14) “The Walking-Stick Forest”, Anna Tambour (Tor.com 5/21/14) “Vladimir Chong Chooses To Die”, Lavie Tidhar (Analog 9/14) “Aberration”, Genevieve Valentine (Fearsome Magics)