Locus Award Best First Novel Winners — Complete List (1981–2026) Home › Locus Awards › Best First Novel Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou 2026LocusFirst Novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell 2025LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera 2024LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 2023LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark 2022LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger 2021LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 2020LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse 2019LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss 2018LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee 2017LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu 2016LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Memory Garden by M. Rickert 2015LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie 2014LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed 2013LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 2012LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin 2011LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi 2010LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko 2009LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill 2008LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Temeraire:His Majesty's Dragon/Throne of Jade/Black Powder War by Naomi Novik 2007LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Hammered/Scardown/Worldwired by Elizabeth Bear 2006LocusFirst Novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 2005LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow 2004LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop A Scattering of Jades by Alexander C. Irvine 2003LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey 2002LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Mars Crossing by Geoffrey A. Landis 2001LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Silk Code by Paul Levinson 2000LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson 1999LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Great Wheel by Ian R. MacLeod 1998LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Whiteout by Sage Walker 1997LocusFirst Novel Reclamation by Sarah Zettel 1997LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Bohr Maker by Linda Nagata 1996LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem 1995LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Cold Allies by Patricia Anthony 1994LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh 1993LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Cipher by Kathe Koja 1992LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop In the Country of the Blind by Michael F. Flynn 1991LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Orbital Decay by Allen Steele 1990LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Desolation Road by Ian McDonald 1989LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop War for the Oaks by Emma Bull 1988LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Hercules Text by Jack McDevitt 1987LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Contact by Carl Sagan 1986LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson 1985LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy 1984LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury 1983LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Starship & Haiku by Somtow Sucharitkul 1982LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop Dragon's Egg by Robert L. Forward 1981LocusFirst Novel AmazonBookshop
