Locus Recommends
February 2nd, 2009 by Editors
The Locus Recommended Reading List for 2008 has been posted online. This is always an excellent source of ideas for Hugo Award nominations.
One small word of warning. We have been receiving rumors that this year Locus has slightly changed its definitions of the length requirements for the short fiction categories, so that they no longer match those used by the Hugos. We don’t, as yet, know how many stories (if any) are affected, but we’ll bring you more news as and when we have it.
Paul Cornell’s “Catherine Drewe” was first published in FAST FORWARD 2, edited by Lou Anders, which released October 2008. According to Lou, the story’s length is 6,674 words, and therefore, anyone wishing to nominate Paul’s story for a Hugo should categorize it under ‘Best Short Story’. I offer this clarification because LOCUS’ latest Recommended Reading List has it categorized as a novelette. If LOCUS suddenly has a different word-count standard for their poll, that’s their prerogative, but hopefully that won’t confuse potential Hugo voters. (It confused me, enough to where I had to query Paul personally for clarification.)
I’m told it’s an error caused by their word-counting software. I’m just honoured to be included.