INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Locus Year in Reviews supplement! In 2012, Locus maga- zine published over 450 reviews of SF, fantasy, horror, and young-adult fic- tion works. It was a great year for science fiction, fantasy, and especially YA, and we’ve put together a strong list of titles to recommend. How this works: Each year in the February issue, Locus publishes a survey of the past year, including our acclaimed Recommended Reading List, con- taining over 150 recommended genre titles; the Magazine Summary and the Book Summary, with publishing information and statistics; and year- end round-ups by most of our reviewers. This digital supplement is a com- pilation of titles from our Recommended Reading List – SF, fantasy, young- adult books, first novel, collections, and anthologies – and their respective Locus reviews. The list is set as the Table of Contents; click on the titles to see their full-length reviews or their descriptions from the magazine (mostly from our monthly New & Notable blurbs and year-end essay descriptions). About the list: Our Recommended Reading List is a consensus by the Locus reviewing staff, outside reviewers, other professionals, other lists, etc. First Novels and Young Adult are their own categories, and thus are not broken out into SF or fantasy. Horror titles are folded into fantasy this year (when there are sufficient recommended titles it will have its own category), and we don’t list horror without supernatural elements. The title link in the header for each review will take you out to a purchase location. And now, on to the Year in Reviews.... –Liza Groen Trombi Anyone whose interest in SF extends beyond reading it to wanting to read about it should be aware of LOCUS. –The New York Times You have to subscribe to LOCUS! –Connie Willis LOCUS is the only periodical I read from cover to cover. It is also the only magazine which makes me drop everything when it arrives... –Arthur C. Clarke SUBSCRIBE TODAY! ~ print, pdf, epub, kindle ~ 2 2012 REcoMMENDED READING LIST Click on title to see review. SCIENCE FICTION The Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M. Banks (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Bowl of Heaven, Gregory Benford & Larry Niven (Tor) Any Day Now, Terry Bisson (Overlook; Duckworth ’13) Blueprints of the Afterlife, Ryan Boudinot (Black Cat) [No Locus Review] Arctic Rising, Tobias S. Buckell (Tor) Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) Intruder, C.J. Cherryh (DAW) Caliban’s War, James S.A. Corey (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Rapture of the Nerds, Cory Doctorow & Charles Stross (Tor) The Eternal Flame, Greg Egan (Night Shade; Gollancz) Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway (Heinemann; Knopf) Empty Space, M. John Harrison (Gollancz; Night Shade ’13) Rapture, Kameron Hurley (Night Shade) Intrusion, Ken MacLeod (Orbit UK) [No Locus Review] In the Mouth of the Whale, Paul McAuley (Gollancz) Fate of Worlds, Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner (Tor) The Fractal Prince, Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz; Tor) Blue Remembered Earth, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Ace) Jack Glass, Adam Roberts (Gollancz) 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Turing & Burroughs, Rudy Rucker (Transreal) Redshirts, John Scalzi (Tor; Gollancz) Ashes of Candesce, Karl Schroeder (Tor) Lost Everything, Brian Francis Slattery (Tor) Slow Apocalypse, John Varley (Ace) The Fourth Wall, Walter Jon Williams (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Last Policeman, Ben Winters (Quirk) FANTASY Whispers Under Ground, Ben Aaronovitch (Del Rey; Gollancz) Red Country, Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz; Orbit US) The King’s Blood, Daniel Abraham (Orbit US; Orbit UK) The Troupe, Robert Jackson Bennett (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Queen’s Hunt, Beth Bernobich (Tor) The Ruined City, Paula Brandon (Spectra) The Steel Seraglio, Mike Carey, Linda Carey, & Louise Carey (ChiZine; 3 Gollancz ’13 as The City of Silk and Steel) Boneland, Alan Garner (Fourth Estate) The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce (Gollancz; Doubleday) The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc) Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor) And Blue Skies from Pain, Stina Leicht (Night Shade) Bullettime, Nick Mamatas (ChiZine) Sharps, K.J. Parker (Orbit US; Orbit UK) Hide Me Among the Graves, Tim Powers (Morrow; Corvus) The Mirage, Matt Ruff (HarperCollins) The Apocalypse Codex, Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK) Crandolin, Anna Tambour (Chomu) Worldsoul, Liz Williams (Prime) YOUNG ADULT The Drowned Cities, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown; Atom) Black Heart, Holly Black (McElderry; Gollancz) Zeuglodon, James P. Blaylock (Subterranean) The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom) The Crown of Embers, Rae Carson (Greenwillow; Gollancz) Bitterblue, Kristin Cashore (Dial; Gollancz) Pirate Cinema, Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen) Radiant Days, Elizabeth Hand (Viking) A Face Like Glass, Frances Hardinge (Macmillan) The Chaos, Nalo Hopkinson (McElderry) Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Fickling UK; Knopf as The Brides of Rollrock Island) Team Human, Justine Larbalestier & Sarah Rees Brennan (Harper Teen; Allen & Unwin) [No Locus Review] Every Day, David Levithan (Knopf) Son, Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin) Be My Enemy, Ian McDonald (Pyr; Jo Fletcher ’13) Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan) The Broken Lands, Kate Milford (Clarion) Dodger, Terry Pratchett (Harper; Doubleday UK) Apollo’s Outcasts, Allen Steele (Pyr) The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK) Days of Blood and Starlight, Laini Taylor (Little, Brown; Hodder & Stoughton) The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, 4 Catherynne M. Valente (Feiwel and Friends; Much-in-Little ’13) FIRST NOVELS Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz ’13) Goblin Secrets, William Alexander (McElderry) vN, Madeline Ashby (Angry Robot US; Angry Robot UK) Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo (Indigo as The Gathering Dark; Holt) Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling, Michael Boccacino (Morrow; Titan) Blackwood, Gwenda Bond (Strange Chemistry US; Strange Chemistry UK) Wide Open, Deborah Coates (Tor) Sanctum, Sarah Fine (Amazon Children’s Publishing) Bad Glass, Richard E. Gropp (Del Rey) Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK) The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey (Reagan Arthur; Headline Review) Rituals, Roz Kaveney (Plus One) The Games, Ted Kosmatka (Del Rey; Titan) The Man From Primrose Lane, James Renner (Crichton; Corsair ’13) Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson (Grove; Corvus) COLLECTIONS The Best of Kage Baker, Kage Baker (Subterranean) Other Seasons: The Best of Neal Barrett Jr., Neal Barrett Jr. (Subterranean) Last and First Contacts, Stephen Baxter (NewCon) [No Locus Review] Birds and Birthdays, Christopher Barzak (Aqueduct) Shoggoths in Bloom, Elizabeth Bear (Prime) The Door Gunner and Other Perilous Flights of Fancy, Michael Bishop (Subterranean) The Woman Who Married a Cloud, Jonathan Carroll (Subterranean) Earth and Air: Tales of Elemental Creatures, Peter Dickinson (Big Mouth House) The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories, Andy Duncan (PS) Windeye, Brian Evenson (Coffee House) Crackpot Palace, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) Angels and You Dogs, Kathleen Ann Goonan (PS) Errantry, Elizabeth Hand (Small Beer) Midnight and Moonshine, Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga) The Janus Tree and Other Stories, Glen Hirshberg (Subterranean) Permeable Borders, Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Fairwood) 5 Wool Omnibus, Hugh Howey (self published) At the Mouth of the River of Bees, Kij Johnson (Small Beer) Confessions of Five-Chambered Heart, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean) Fountain of Age, Nancy Kress (Small Beer) Cracklescape, Margo Lanagan (Twelfth Planet) The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth and Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands, Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer) Wonders of the Invisible World, Patricia A. McKillip (Tachyon) The At the Edge of Waking, Holly Phillips (Prime) Ancient, Ancient, Kiini Ibura Salaam (Aqueduct) Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman (ChiZine) Store of the Worlds, Robert Sheckley (New York Review) The Dragon Griaule, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean) The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg, Volume 7: We Are for the Dark, Robert Silverberg (Subterranean) Jagannath, Karin Tidbeck (Cheeky Frawg) Eater-of-Bone and Other Novellas, Robert Reed (PS) Moscow But Dreaming, Ekaterina Sedia (Prime) Dream Castles: The Early Jack Vance, Volume Two, Jack Vance (Subterranean) Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille, James Van Pelt (Fairwood) Sorry Please Thank You, Charles Yu (Pantheon) ANTHOLOGIES ORIGINAL After, Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling eds., ed. (Hyperion) Rip-Off!, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Audible.com) AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers, Ivor W. Hartman, ed. (StoryTime) The Future Is Japanese, Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington, eds. (Haikasoru) Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, Eduardo Jimenez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. (Small Beer) Breaking the Bow: Stories Inspired by the Ramayana, Anil Menon & Vandana Singh, eds. (Zubaan) [No Locus Review] Ishtar, Amanda Pillar & K.V. Taylor, eds. (Gilgamesh) Edge of Infinity, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK) Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Random House) 6 L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXVIII, K.D. Wentworth, ed. (Galaxy) Solaris Rising 1.5, Ian Whates, ed. (Solaris) REPRINT/BESTS Epic: Legends of Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Tachyon) The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade) The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection,