James Nicoll's posts on "Locus Poll Best First Novel" lists under "Old Tea Leaf Reviews" label

Since the last few days, James Nicoll has been making very brief posts on novels that feature in long-lists of Locus Awards under First Novel category, a year at a time, at rasfw. Note there is only one winner of the year from this long list, but he's looking at whole list.

His last post, #7, is currently at year 1987 (#1 is 1981 list). He seems to have skipped 1971-1980, perhaps as too old (these awards started in 1971).

I suppose "Old Tea Leaf Reviews" means these are reposts of originals elsewhere; don't know & Google is not much help.

I seem to have read very few from the lists, but if you are mostly into novels, you might find them interesting. In the pairs of links below, first link is to Google's rasfw archive & includes some discussion on James' posts too; second link is to original Locus Awards page from which he took the list. I add brief remarks of my own when I've something to say on an entry.

An aside. These Locus pages are interesting in their own right - long lists & winners in many categories (apart from first novel): sf novel, fantasy novel, young adult book, first novel, novella, novelette, short story, ... I've not really seen a lot of their lists, but a look at short fiction winners (as opposed to long lists, which seem to have a lot of crap) might yield interesting results.

1. (Update #2, 23 June 2008) 23 June 2008: #9 (1989); 1989 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
   
1. Ian McDonald's "Desolation Road"
2. Michaela Roessner's "Walkabout Woman"
   
3. Richard Kadrey's "Metrophage"
   
4. Elizabeth Moon's "Sheepfarmer's Daughter"
   
5. Daniel Keys Moran's "The Armageddon Blues" (free fiction of the Daniel Keys Moran)
   
6. Melanie Rawn's "Dragon Prince"
   
7. Brad Linaweaver's "Moon of Ice"
   
8. David Zindell's "Neverness"
   
9. Paul J. McAuley's "Four Hundred Billion Stars"
   
10. William Sanders's "Journey to Fusang"
    
11. Kevin J. Anderson's "Resurrection, Inc."
    
12. Matt Ruff's "Fool on the Hill"
    
13. Andrea I. Alton's "Demon of Undoing"
    
14. Gail van Asten's "The Blind Knight"
    
15. Mary Stanton's "The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West"
    
16. Stephen Fine's "Molly Dear: The Autobiography of an Android"
    
17. W. T. Quick's "Dreams of Flesh and Sand"
    
18. Eric Vinicoff's "Maiden Flight"
    
19. M. Lucie Chin's "The Fairy of Ku-She"
    
20. Richard Paul Russo's "Inner Eclipse"
    
21. Storm Constantine's "The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit"
    
22. Phillip C. Jennings's "Tower to the Sky"
    
23. Delia Sherman's "Through a Brazen Mirror"
    
2. (Update #1, 22 June 2008) 21 June 2008: #8 (1988); 1988 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
   
1. Emma Bull's "War for the Oaks"
   
2. Pat Cadigan's "Mindplayers"
   
3. C. S. Friedman's "In Conquest Born"
   
4. Christopher Hinz's "Liege-Killer"
   
5. Loren J. MacGregor's "The Net"
   
6. Mercedes Lackey's "Arrows of the Queen"
   
7. Rebecca Ore's "Becoming Alien"
   
8. Michael Armstrong's "After the Zap"
   
9. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's "Reindeer Moon"
   
10. Ellen Kushner's "Swordspoint"
    
11. H. F. Saint's "Memoirs of an Invisible Man"
    
12. Hayford Peirce's "Napoleon Disentimed"
    
13. Joe Clifford Faust's "A Death of Honor"
    
14. Stephen Billias' "The American Book of the Dead"
    
15. Thomas R. McDonough's "The Architects of Hyperspace"
    
16. Bruce Fergusson's "The Shadow of His Wings"
    
17. Judith Moffett's "Pennterra"
    
18. Robert Reed's "The Leeshore": I haven't read this one, but have generally a good impression of Reed's short fiction.
19. Dave Duncan's "A Rose-Red City"
    
20. Michael Blumlein's "The Movement of Mountains"
    
21. Andrew Weiner's "Station Gehenna"
    
22. Paul Park's "Soldiers of Paradise"
    
23. Heather Gladney's "Teot's War"
    
24. Midori Snyder's "Soulstring"
    
25. Jerry Oltion's "Frame of Reference"
    
3. 20 June 2008: #7 (1987); 1987 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
   
1. Jack McDevitt's "The Hercules Text"
   
2. Lois McMaster Bujold's "Shards of Honor"
   
3. Robert Charles Wilson's "A Hidden Place"
   
4. Bradley Denton's "Wrack and Roll"
   
5. Leo Frankowski's "The Cross-Time Engineer"
   
6. Anne Moroz's "No Safe Place"
   
7. Terry A. Adams's "Sentience: A Novel of First Contact"
   
8. Tom Deitz's "Windmaster's Bane"
   
9. Thomas T. Thomas's "The Doomsday Effect"
   
10. Robert R. Chase's "The Game of Fox and Lion"
    
11. Katharine Eliska Kimbriel's "Fire Sanctuary"
    
12. Richard Bowes's "Warchild"
    
13. Katharine Kerr's "Daggerspell"
    
14. Kara Dalkey's "The Curse of Sagamore"
    
15. Michael Cassutt's "The Star Country"
    
16. Pat O'Shea's "The Hounds of the Morrigan"
    
17. Deborah Turner Harris' "The Burning Stone"
    
4. 19 June 2008: #6 (1986); 1986 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
1. Carl Sagan's "Contact": I read this long ago. Only remember the alien met the woman in the form of one of her relatives in familiar earthly surroundings, & had to go because too much effort was required to maintain illusion of familiar for the woman.
2. Michael P. Kube-McDowell's "Emprise"
   
3. Michael Swanwick's "In the Drift"
   
4. Guy Gavriel Kay's "The Summer Tree"
   
5. Tad Williams' "Tailchaser's Song"
   
6. Will Shetterly's "Cats Have No Lord"
   
7. M. Coleman Easton's "Masters of Glass"
   
8. Richard Grant's "Saraband of Lost Time"
   
9. Jim Aikin's "Walk the Moon's Road"
   
10. Sheila Finch's "Infinity's Web"
    
11. Judith Tarr's "The Isle of Glass"
    
12. Grant Callin's "Saturnalia"
    
13. Roger MacBride Allen's "The Torch of Honor": I haven't read this, but have good memories of the 3 Allen novels I have read - Caliban, Inferno, & Utopia - all set in Asimov's Spacer universe.
14. Susan B. Weston's "Children of the Light"
    
15. Geoff Ryman's "The Warrior Who Carried Life"
    
16. Dan Simmons's "Song of Kali"
    
17. Pamela Dean's "The Secret Country"
    
18. Melisa C. Michaels' "Skirmish"
    
19. Edward A. Byers' "The Long Forgetting"
    
20. Dave Smeds' "The Sorcery Within"
    
21. Ru Emerson' "The Princess of Flames"
    
22. Kathryn Lance's "Pandora's Genes"
    
23. Vildo Polikarpus and Tappan King's "Down Town"
    
24. Linda Steele's "Ibis"
    
25. Chuck Rothman's "Staroamer's Fate"
    
5. 19 June 2008: #5 (1985); 1985 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
1. Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Wild Shore": Author is probably best known for his Mars trilogy. I'm still part way through his Red Mars (been there for a couple of months now!).
   
2. William Gibson's "Neuromancer": Supposedly a cult novel that started cyberpunk trend, but I could not finish it. Full of negative characters & ghetto settings.
3. David R. Palmer's "Emergence"
   
4. Lucius Shepard's "Green Eyes"
   
5. Howard Waldrop's "Them Bones"
   
6. Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler's "Valentina: Soul in Sapphire"
   
7. Charles de Lint's "The Riddle of the Wren"
   
8. T. E. D. Klein's "The Ceremonies"
   
9. Lewis Shiner's "Frontera"
   
10. Kirk Mitchell's "Procurator"
    
11. Carter Scholz and Glenn Harcourt's "Palimpsests"
    
12. Geary Gravel's "The Alchemists"
    
13. Melissa Scott's "The Game Beyond"
    
14. Gwyneth Jones's "Divine Endurance"
    
15. Jerry Yulsman's "Elleander Morning"
    
16. Charles Whitmore's "Winter's Daughter"
    
17. David Mace's "Demon-4"
    
6. 18 June 2008: #4 (1984); 1984 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
1. R. A. MacAvoy's "Tea with the Black Dragon"
   
2. Timothy Zahn's "The Blackcollar"
   
3. Marjorie B. Kellogg's "A Rumor of Angels"
   
4. Sheri S. Tepper's "King's Blood Four"
   
5. John DeChancie's "Starrigger"
   
6. Robert Wilfred Franson's "The Shadow of the Ship"
   
7. Megan Lindholm's "Harpy's Flight"
   
8. Bruce T. Holmes' "Anvil of the Heart"
   
9. Gloria Rand Dank's "The Forest of App"
   
10. Clare Bell's "Ratha's Creature"
    
7. 18 June 2008: #3 (1983); 1983 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
1. Donald Kingsbury's "Courtship Rite"
   
2. Lisa Goldstein's "The Red Magician"
   
3. Warren Norwood's "The Windhover Tapes: An Image of Voices"
   
4. Diana L. Paxson's "Lady of Light"
   
5. Sandra Miesel's "Dreamrider"
   
6. David Langford's "The Space Eater"
   
7. P. C. Hodgell's "God Stalk"
   
8. Sharon Webb's "Earthchild"
   
9. Michael Talbot's "The Delicate Dependency"
   
10. Raymond E. Feist's "Magician"
    
11. Lou Goble's "The Kalevide"
    
12. Janny Wurts' "Sorcerer's Legacy"
    
13. Michael A. McCollum's "A Greater Infinity"
    
14. Pat Murphy's "The Shadow Hunter"
    
8. 17 June 2008: #2 (1982); 1982 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
1. S. P. Somtow's "Starship & Haiku"
   
2. Hilbert Schenck's "At the Eye of the Ocean"
   
3. A. A. Attanasio's "Radix"
   
4. Paul O. Williams's "The Breaking of Northwall"
   
5. Karl Hansen's "War Games"
   
6. Nancy Kress' "The Prince of Morning Bellsi"
   
7. Alexis Gilliland's "The Revolution from Rosinante"
   
8. Kenneth C. Flint's "A Storm Upon Ulster"
   
9. Jerry Earl Brown's "Under the City of Angels"
   
10. Stephen Leigh's "Slow Fall to Dawn"
    
11. Paul Cook's "Tintagel"
    
12. Alasdair Gray's "Lanark: A Life in 4 Books"
    
13. Drew Mendelson's "Pilgrimage"
    
14. James B. Johnson's "Daystar and Shadow"
    
15. Adam Corby's "The Former King"
    
16. Steve Perry's "The Tularemia Gambit"
    
9. 17 June 2008: #1 (1981); 1981 Locus Awards home page: Includes following novels:
1. Robert L. Forward's "Dragon's Egg"
   
2. Robert Stallman's "The Orphan"
   
3. David Brin's "Sundiver"
   
4. Justin Leiber's "Beyond Rejection"
   
5. Paul Preuss' "The Gates of Heaven": The only novel I've read of this author, "Arthur C Clarke's Venus Prime, Volume 1" (of 6) - a novelization of a game based on Arthur Clarke's short story "Breaking Strain", was so utterly hopeless I will likely not touch anything by him again.
   
6. Lyndon Hardy's "Master of the Five Magics"
   
7. Gillian Bradshaw's "Hawk of May"
   
8. Joan Slonczewski's "Still Forms on Foxfield"
   
9. Paul Hazel's "Yearwood"
   
10. David J. Skal's "Scavengers"
    
11. John M. Ford's "Web of Angels"
    
12. Rudy Rucker's "White Light": Author is supposed to be famous & well regarded, but I could not like either of a couple of his short stories I've tried. Too much focus on gadgets rather than story, & that too often in ways that requires far more suspension of belief than I'm willing to grant.
    
13. Dennis R. Caro's "The Man in the Darksuit"
    
14. Tim Huntley's "One on Me"
    
15. Dale Estey's "A Lost Tale"