The award for Best First Novel was first presented in 1981. Awards presented in a given year are for works published in the previous calendar year.
Locus Award for Best First Novel Public
Created and curated by Phil in SF
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Black Powder War by Naomi Novik (Temeraire, #3)
3 stars
After their fateful adventure in China, Capt. Will Laurence of His Majesty's Aerial Corps and his extraordinary dragon, Temeraire, are …
Phil in SF says: 2007 co-winner
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3 stars
Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cook- book for cannibals... a used hangman's noose a snuff film. …
Phil in SF says: 2008 winner
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Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko
After the Singularity, there's an artificial ring around Earth…and 90 percent of humanity is gone.
Either billions of humans are …
Phil in SF says: 2009 winner
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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
4 stars
Anderson Lake is AgriGen’s Calorie Man, sent to work undercover as a factory manager in Thailand while combing Bangkok’s street …
Phil in SF says: 2010 winner
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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (The Inheritance Trilogy, #1)
3 stars
After her mother’s mysterious death, a young woman is summoned to the floating city of Sky in order to claim …
Phil in SF says: 2011 winner
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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3 stars
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the …
Phil in SF says: 2012 winner
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Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1)
3 stars
The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, home to djenn and ghuls, holy warriors and heretics, are at the boiling point of a …
Phil in SF says: 2013 winner
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Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch, #1)
4 stars
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.
Breq is both …
Phil in SF says: 2014 winner
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The Memory Garden by M. Rickert
In a beautifully written tale woven together with magic and mystery, flowers and food, Bay Singer finally discovers the secrets …
Phil in SF says: 2015 winner
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The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu (The Dandelion Dynasty, #1)
3 stars
Two men rebel together against tyranny—and then become rivals—in this first sweeping book of an epic fantasy series from Ken …
Phil in SF says: 2016 winner
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Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Machineries of Empire, #1)
3 stars
When Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for her unconventional tactics, Kel Command gives her a chance to …
Phil in SF says: 2017 winner
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The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, #1)
Based on some of literature’s horror and science fiction classics, this is the story of a remarkable group of women …
Phil in SF says: 2018 winner
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Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse (The Sixth World, #1)
4 stars
While most of the world has drowned beneath the sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse, Dinétah (formerly the Navajo …
Phil in SF says: 2019 winner
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Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #1)
5 stars
The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more …
Phil in SF says: 2020 winner
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Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant …
Phil in SF says: 2021 winner
