Locus Bestsellers   HARDCOVERS Months on list Last month 1) Naked Empire, Terry Goodkind (Tor) 1 - 2) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books) 2 1 3) Ilium, Dan Simmons (Eos) 1 - 4) Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan (Tor) 5 - *) Joust, Mercedes Lackey (DAW) 1 - 6) Talon of the Silver Hawk, Raymond E. Feist (HarperCollins/Eos) 4 6 *) Changing Planes, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt) 1 - 8) The War of the Flowers, Tad Williams (DAW) 3 2 9) The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins) 3 7 10) American Empire: The Victorious Opposition, Harry Turtledove (Ballantine Del Rey) 1 -   PAPERBACKS 1) 1633, David Weber & Eric Flint (Baen) 1 - 2) Shadow Puppets, Orson Scott Card (Tor) 2 1 3) Extremes, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Penguin/Roc) 1 - 4) The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson (Bantam) 1 - 5) Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card (Tor/Starscape) 5 8 6) Drinking Midnight Wine, Simon R. Green (Roc) 1 - 7) Diplomatic Immunity, Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen) 2 2 *) American Gods, Neil Gaiman (HarperTorch) 11 3 9) American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold, Harry Turtledove (Ballantine Del Rey) 1 - 10) Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Del Rey) 1 -   TRADE PAPERBACKS 1) The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin's) 1 - 2) The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin) 30 - 3) The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde (Penguin) 3 - 4) The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin) 23 4 5) Fat White Vampire Blues, Andrew Fox (Del Rey) 1 - *) The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin) 8 1   MEDIA-RELATED 1) Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic III: Reunion, Sean Williams & Shane Dix (Del Rey) 1 - 2) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, K. J. Anderson (Pocket Star) 1 - 3) Star Trek Voyager: The Farther Shore, Christie Golden (Pocket) 2 5 4) Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming, Christie Golden (Pocket) 2 2 5) Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Matthew Stover (Del Rey) 2 1   GAMING-RELATED 1) The Thousand Orcs, R. A. Salvatore (Wizards of the Coast) 5 - 2) Halo: The Flood, William C. Dietz (Del Rey) 4 2 3) Dungeons & Dragons: The Sundered Arms, T. H. Lain (Wizards of the Coast) 1 - 4) Forgotten Realms: The Alabaster Staff, Edward Bolme (Wizards of the Coast) 1 - 5) Forgotten Realms: Condemnation, Richard Baker (Wizards of the Coast) 1 - *) Dragons of a Vanished Moon, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman (Wizards of the Coast) 6 - Naked Empire easily took first place on the hardcover list. New runner-up: Patricia McKillip's In the Forests of Serre (Ace). We had 78 nominees, well up from 60 last month. 1633 and Shadow Puppets dominated the paperback category. New runner-up: Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling (Bantam Spectra). Nominees: 93, up from 85. The Year's Best Science Fiction had no close competition in the trade paperback category. New runner-up: The Languages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth by Ruth S. Noel (Houghton Mifflin). Nominees: 54, slightly up from 53. Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic III: Reunion debuted strongly, winning the media-related category by a solid margin. Nominees: 29, up from 23. Forgotten Realms: The Thousand Orcs dominated gaming-related titles, with almost three times as many votes as the next title. Nominees: 26, up from 24. Compiled with data from Barnes & Noble/B. Dalton (USA), Basilisk Dreams (Canada), Borderlands (CA), Borders Bookstores (USA), Heroes & Dragons (CO), Lone Star (TX), Midtown Comics (NY), Mysterious Galaxy (CA), Pandemonium Books & Games (MA), John W. Rollins, Bookseller (MI), Saint Mark’s (NY), The Stars Our Destination (IL), Toadstool (2 in NH), Totem Bookshop (WA), Uncle Hugo’s (MN), University Bookstore (WA), White Dwarf (WA). Data period: July 2003.

October 2003