Locus Online has announced the top five finalists in each category of the 2009 Locus Awards which will be presented during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 26-27, 2009. The finalists include:
SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
• Matter, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK)
• City at the End of Time, Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey)
• Marsbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
• Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)
• Saturn's Children, Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace)
YOUNG-ADULT NOVEL
• Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
• The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)
• Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
• Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins)
• Zoe's Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)
Some of these books are widely popular, Anathem, Saturn’s Children, Little Brother, The Graveyard Book and Zoe’s Tale make up the ballot for Best Novel in the 2009 Hugo Awards.
I tried to read but quickly gave up on Matter, City at the End of Time and could not finish Anathem. I have read The Graveyard Book and I am planning to read Saturn's Children and Little Brother in advance of the Hugo Award voting. Like all Pratchett's, I will read Nation, which just won the L.A. Times Book Award.