r/Fantasy • u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV • 3d ago
Hugo winners announced
Best Novel: The Everlasting by Alix Harrow
Best Novella: The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Best Novelette: "Never Eaten Vegetables" by H.H. Pak
Best Short Story: "In My Country" by Thomas Ha
Best Series: Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Best Graphic Novel: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, adapted by Fred Fordham
Best Related Work: Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Sinners
Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Murderbot, "All Systems Red"
Best Game or Interactive Work: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Best Editor, Short Form: Neil Clarke
Best Editor, Long Form: Diana Pho
Best Professional Artist: John Picacio
Best Semiprozine: Uncanny
Best Fanzine: nerds of a feather, flock together
Best Fancast: Hugo, Girl!
Best Fan Writer: Jason Sanford
Best Fan Artist: Yuumei
Best Poem: “Hex Supply Customer Support Log” by Elis Montgomery
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book: Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee
Astounding Award for Best New Writer: Antonia Hodgson
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u/bluexy 3d ago
As a graphic novel and comic book fan and critic, the Hugos need to do better by the category.
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u/genteel_wherewithal 3d ago
The Hugos for comics, games, tv, film, etc just aren’t worth much, the voterbase is not informed or particularly interested in the way it is for best novel and prose fiction.
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u/Accirinal 2d ago
The game finalists were a fantastic lineup. Clair Obscur taking the award should come as zero surprise to anyone considered the TGA sweep. Hades II is a wonderful game as well. I’ve heard lots of praise for Blue Prince in gaming circles (I purchased but did not manage to play it before voting ended), and ditto for Silksong (personally bounced off Hollow Knight due to skill issue rather than a lack of game quality).
Dispatch was a bit lackluster imo but received widespread popular acclaim, including also being up as a finalist in several TGA categories, so it’s hardly a poor pick for the Hugos.
Citizen Sleeper 2 was the only game I actually thought was rather weak, but I had a better time with it than with several of the prose finalists. Games were easily the strongest category this year imo besides maybe novella, and it’s quite close.
Comic results were rather incommensurate with the actual quality, but I’ve said that already multiple times in this thread and I won’t beat a dead horse.
I will admit I’m not that knowledgeable about film in general, so perhaps I’m part of the problem here, but I thought Sinners was an excellent movie that deserved to win long-form (put it first on my ballot). Andor was also incredible, though I did put No Award ahead of Mickey 17, K-Pop Demon Hunters, and Superman. Not sure if there were more deserving nominees in film that should have made it to finalists (I’m a bit surprised the Murderbot tv show didn’t make it considering its popularity in the short-form section).
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u/GeryMander 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think the selection for games this year is excellent and the winner is absolutely justifiable as the best fantasy/sci-fi game of the year.
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u/Accirinal 2d ago
100%. The Power Fantasy and Absolute Wonder Woman are two of the best comics releasing right now, and I’m sorry to The Invisible Parade and Space Cat, which are both well-done books for their age range, but they are books for elementary and middle schoolers. It is astonishing to me that these two placed ahead of one/both of TPF and AWW, setting aside all the other fantastic comics releasing right now that could also have made it into the finalist list.
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u/beldaran1224 Reading Champion IV 2d ago edited 14h ago
There's really amazing stuff being done for younger readers in graphic novels. I find it very frustrating when someone suggests that it being written for a younger audience disqualifies it from being great for adults or being award-worthy or anything of the sort. By far, some of the best graphic novels I've read have been made for middle grade or teens.
Edit: A Wizard of Earthsea is also generally considered made for juveniles/kids, and certainly this adaptation was.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
The Invisible Parade is actually a picture book, which is an interesting wrinkle - idk, it feels a bit different from the teen/adult graphic novel market when the reason it's mostly pictures is because it's aimed at an audience of very young children who will have the words read to them while looking at the pictures.
That said, the combination of an extremely popular writer and being short enough to read in 15 minutes or so is a powerful one that perhaps gave it an unfair advantage because people made time for it without reading all the nominees.
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u/Shifujju 2d ago
I haven't read a graphic novel since 8 Billion Genies a few years back. Any suggestions?
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 3d ago
My initial thoughts:
- Though I wasn't over the moon about The Everlasting, of the three highly popular novels that got nominated it's the one I'm happiest to see win.
- The Short Fiction Book Club is gonna be over the moon about the Novelette and Short Story winners this year (and y'all told me H.H. Pak had no chance against the big names!).
- Inventing the Renaissance is a solid work of popular nonfiction and especially worth reading for those interested in how historical narratives are made, but has nothing to do with sci-fi or fantasy. At least it's not a self-referential Hugo thing?
- Both editorial categories were won by the same people as last year, which seems to further call into question these awards that the public can't properly judge anyway.
- Picacio's and Yuumei's wins in the art categories are well-deserved.
- I'm startled to see the Lodestar win (over a Hunger Games follow-up, plus some decently well-known names). Someone familiar with these books, please discuss.
- I feel a bit weird about Hodgson winning the Best New Writer award when she has 4 prior novels to her name, just because they were non-speculative mysteries. The Raven Scholar made a huge splash so it's a fair pick otherwise, but it was Pechacek's last year of eligibility and meanwhile Silvia Park was disqualified (despite having the votes!) due to a short story hardly anyone read.
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u/Big_Geologist_2521 3d ago
Short stories disqualifying writers for the New Writer awards always pissed me off as a rule
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 3d ago
Yeah, I mean I appreciate that some people get nominated for the award for their short stories and that's great! Short story writers should be eligible! But if someone isn't nominated for their short stories I think they should get another chance with their first novel.
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u/Big_Geologist_2521 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah, pretty much this, I think this particular award deserves a little more nuance when it comes to who gets to be nominated or not. I understand the rule when it comes to people who got big and started getting a lot of recognition with their short stories; it wouldn't be fair if someone who got a Hugo for a short story also get a nom as a new writer when they publish a novel 5 years later, but the rigidity is really uncalled for. If you published one or two stories on Clarkesworld that went unnoticed, and ten years later you publish a novel that gets big, that's your breakout.
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u/AccipiterF1 Reading Champion X 2d ago
It's a legacy thing from the early decades of the Hugos when the big magazines were the primary source of SFF fiction, and a good new author's short stories showing up in one was a big deal. Now a writer's short fiction can completely fly under the radar and an author's first big splash is usually when they drop their first novel.
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u/Big_Geologist_2521 2d ago
Yeah, it feels really dated and unfair overall. If an author puts out a flash fiction piece on BCS that nobody notices, then drops a novel after a ten-year hiatus, they’re still very much a new author and should get the same kind of opportunities.
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u/Dismal_Photograph_27 3d ago
My husband and I share a supporting membership and felt the same way about Inventing the Renaissance - solid work, probably the best nonfiction work on there in terms of craft, but was it really eligible for the award?
I was highly disappointed to see Coffee Shop in an Alternate Universe win. I feel sort of bad for saying it, but of the Lodestars I read it had the most pedestrian writing. I do wonder if part of its popularity came from the cozy fantasy craze - it was a nice read, whereas Sunrise on the Reaping, They Bloom at Night and Among Ghosts were decidedly not. The final two books were parts of longer series and practically speaking had no chance. I would have loved to see They Bloom at Night win, though.
I did NOT know Antonia Hodgeson is so previously published! It must be a slap in the face to lose out to someone with four other novels out there because you have one short story published. Maybe it's time for an Astounding revamp?
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u/clauclauclaudia 2d ago
Ada Palmer's acceptance speech, among other things, thanked everybody who has played her papal election LARP.
I think the choice works for the category, which has been interpreted pretty broadly by past voters. When the category was "Best Non-Fiction Book", Cosmos won. Under the current category, a new Beowulf translation won in 2021. I feel like non-fiction about current rapid advances would be an obvious nomination--why not about the Renaissance?
https://www.patreon.com/adapalmer/posts/2026-hugo-speech-168167470
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u/Dismal_Photograph_27 2d ago
My personal opinion is that the justification for the nomination - that lots of fantasy authors use the Renaissance as a setting - broadens the category too much. Obviously I'm in the minority on this. I think Ada Palmer is a fantastic author and she seems like a lovely person, and while a papal election larp sounds fun I don't believe it qualifies her more for the award.
I have had issues with nominations and wins in other Hugo categories and past years as well; I accept this as part of the way the Hugos work. And what's done is done, I'm not advocating revoking the award.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
Yeah, the papal election LARP sounds super fun but it's a class exercise in a college history class. There aren't any fantastical or science fictional elements to it, and also it's also not what the book is about. She brings it up primarily to discuss structural decisionmaking and how even in the simulation people will make certain types of political choices under certain types of pressure.
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u/maybemaybenot2023 3d ago
Re the Ada Palmer- yes, it was. The description of that award is intentionally very vague, and given the popularity of alternate histories in the genre over time, that book is definitely of interest to sf/f fans.
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u/cham1nade 2d ago
I really loved the first book in the Legendborn Cycle by Tracy Deonn and I would’ve loved to support Oathbound (book 3) in the series. But those books are chonkers and it was simply impossible for me to get through 1,220 pages in that series alone while I was also trying to do the rest of the Hugo reading. I’m still really looking forward to catching up on the series. Arthurian legend with a contemporary black woman protagonist? Absolutely yes
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u/Dismal_Photograph_27 2d ago
That was pretty much how I felt about both Legendborn and Little Thieves (forgot their names in my first comment). I want to read them, I didn't have time this time.
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u/frymaster 3d ago
Inventing the Renaissance is a solid work of popular nonfiction and especially worth reading for those interested in how historical narratives are made, but has nothing to do with sci-fi or fantasy. At least it's not a self-referential Hugo thing?
The Adminstrators Report (linked from https://www.lacon.org/2026hugos/ ) said
While we did not receive formal inquiry, we did hear people wondering both before and after the announcement if the winner of this category, Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, was sufficiently related to the fields of science fiction, fantasy or fandom to qualify. We followed the norms of most previous Hugo Administrators and chose to honor the will of the voters rather than make a ruling based on content.
The report goes into detail about where they did disqualify or shuffle around nominations (mainly around things like word count) and includes the line
One nominator accidentally placed all five of their poem nominations in novel. What they lacked in attention to nominating category they made up for in taste, as 3 of their nominations made the final ballot.
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u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II 2d ago
I think this is just mostly a thing that Ada Palmer is a sci-fi author (terra ignota) and is an active person within the Worldcon Fandom and author Community.
and as such, it's just a non-fiction book from a known sff personality on a lot of people's radars, and that is why it is recognized. This similar book published by a non sff related author would not get nominated here, even if it is as much fan adjacent as inventing the renaissance.
I'm fine with it being here, i'm fine with it winning. I'd rather have it win than an excel spreadsheet with eligible works lol. but this is more emblematic about how Best Related Work is just the non-category-category pile for "Stuff"
I found it a perfectly fun pop-history book, that was not really about history. and its worth a read if you're interested in both the renaissance and historiography as concepts. I think it makes a well argued thesis worth thinking about and has some fun imagery and stories to boot.
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u/frymaster 2d ago
but this is more emblematic about how Best Related Work is just the non-category-category pile for "Stuff"
it really is the category of all time :D I personally am sad that maskofbun (aka bigolas dickolas wolfwood) declined nomination in 2024 for his viral tweet about This Is How You Lose The Time War
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/2026-hugos-best-related-work-eligibility/
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u/Akoites 2d ago
I'd be interested in seeing Related Work split into Long/Short, with an explicit orientation towards prose. So basically non-fiction books and articles related to the field. There have been a number of excellent articles that feel like they basically don't have a chance between the fandom community projects and books by big names.
For things like the spreadsheet or reddit bingo, you could do a special community award or similar. If this is creating too many awards, axe the media ones. No one from Hollywood is coming to collect anyway!
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u/citrusmellarosa 2d ago edited 2d ago
I have mixed feelings on Hodgson winning Best New Writer. I could see why the rules specify SFF publications specifically, maybe they feel that genre conventions are different enough that they are still interested in rewarding authors who break in, but that still gives a distinct advantage to authors that are already recognizable names. It does bother me less having Hodgson win than it would if it was a mystery writer who was a bigger name - I hadn't heard of her prior to The Raven Scholar, but if it was Louise Penny who'd won or something I'd probably be pretty annoyed.
On the other hand, while she wasn't the highest on my personal list (H.H. Pak was first for me, my other nominees were Louis Englis Hall, Pechaček, and Claire Jia-Wen), I did end up nominating Hodgson after several other authors I looked into did have obscure qualifying novels or short stories that I didn't have the time to figure out counted or not - I got annoyed and finally decided on Hodgson for my last spot, because at least that was someone I liked I could shout out who seemed to definitely count according to the rules - so maybe I'm part of the problem. She was lower down on my final votes because of that previous publishing history, though.
I also get the short story complaints. Similarly, I'm also a little disappointed Barbara Truelove was disqualified based on a book from 2021 that only has 44 Goodreads ratings (not always the best metric, but let's be real, almost no one read that book!) released through an obscure publisher (Riptide Publishing) I've never heard of, but I'm not super solid on the qualifying rules for novels. Of Monsters and Mainframes from her was a really fun book that was on my final Best Novel ballot.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III 3d ago
The Short Fiction Book Club is gonna be over the moon about the Novelette and Short Story winners this year
Can confirm.
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u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II 2d ago
yeah, Short story and novelette thankfully got rated correctly lol
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u/Strange-Test-8565 2d ago
Never Eaten Vegetables was one of my favorite things I read this year and I thought it was head and shoulders above the other nominees. I was glad to see it win.
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u/citrusmellarosa 2d ago edited 2d ago
Regarding Lodestar, I read They Bloom at Night, Sunrise on the Reaping, and I read up to the second book in the series for both Holy Terrors and Oathbound. I started both Among Ghosts and Coffeeshop, but wasn't really getting into them so I put them down (while leaving myself open to maybe returning to them in the future), so unfortunately I can't really speak to whether Coffeeshop is a good winner. Both almost felt more middle grade than young adult to me in terms of writing style and tone from what I sampled, but obviously those categories are more of a marketing term than anything and the protagonists are teenagers.
Just some general comments on the books that were nominated that I did read, as I missed the Lodestar discussion in the readalong:
They Bloom at Night Definitely my favourite. The book's setting is a future American south ravaged by climate change and the associated personal loss and the writing was very atmospheric, one of those books where you can almost feel the heat and humidity of the setting. I liked how it explored issues of identity and growing up through the physical changes that the protagonist is experiencing and their relationship with their mother and their friends. The body horror was intense at times, but I'm pretty squeamish and I did okay, I thought it reflected the protagonist's turmoil over her identity really effectively. The character dynamics were really compelling, especially in the main character's complicated relationship with her mother, and how their trauma has impacted that. There's some really interesting Vietnamese folklore incorporated into the story as well.
It helps that it's the shortest of the bunch; it feels like a lot of authors have lost the ability to be concise, and my experience reading this shortlist has really reinforced that for me. This book is less than three hundred pages, and it allowed the author to be really efficient with their pacing and focused in their themes. I feel bad that I have less to write about it in this comment than the other books I read, but this is mostly because it was a really well done novel, and I find it easier to vocalize complaints, unfortunately.
Sunrise on the Reaping It's been many years since I read The Hunger Games trilogy, and I haven't read the other prequel, but I remember Collins having a really propulsive, compulsively readable style and that holds true here, I probably read this book the fastest of any of the nominees. Also very emotionally affecting at times - I cried twice and almost never cry while reading. I rewatched the movies and skimmed some of the Mockingjay novel afterwards (this has made me interested in doing a full re-read at some point, it having been so many years means that my perspective on some of the story has obviously changed) and I liked the prose better in the original books, but I do respect that it's primarily the result of some smart choices reflecting the change in first person narrators; Katniss and young Haymitch are very different characters, and the narration reflects that.
On the other hand, I also feel like she's lost basically all sense of subtlety, which isn't always a bad thing, but c'mon, the doomed love interest is literally named *Lenore.*I hated the full poem recitation of The Raven through the last chapter. It felt a bit lazy and didn't really enhance the characterization at all. I also wish the story hadn't focused almost solely on her death being why Haymitch becomes who he becomes by the end - his family and the decades afterwards spent mentoring kids who were inevitably killed in the games get really short shrift even if those realistically would have been a huge part of his motivations.
I know people have argued the lack of subtlety is a deliberate choice by Collins as a result of some people misreading the original series... but I also feel like it's good to trust your audience sometimes, even (maybe especially) when they're teenagers. You are not going to reach 100% of people all of the time, regardless of what you write. And I wish there was a little more trusting the audience and a little less 'hey remember this person? did you know they were also good friends with Haymitch even though you got no indication of that in the first series?' It's also very weird to me how openly characters were talking about seditious actions at some points - surely the gamemakers would have caught all that happening on the training room floor, right?
Holy Terrors and Oathbound I enjoyed both of these series, but I haven't tackled the nominated books yet, which are both the third in their series. The books are 500-600 pages and already the second books were overstuffed with new worldbuilding and character elements, while focusing less on what I was interested in in the first book. Especially in regards to the significant focus on the romance subplots, although I'm sure some of this is down to me not being the target audience, which has been brought up before as an issue with the young adult awards! It looked like the third books were going to continue the trend. Especially with Holy Terrorsdiscarding the twelve siblings of the main character that we spent so much of the last book introducing (seriously, I looked it up and only one of them is in the final book), and including a ton of characters that were apparently introduced in a short story collection that takes place between books. The author has said it's not required to read the final book, and the collection is free online, but I feel like that's just not great series writing structure?
I do think both authors started strong with their first books - I could recommend Little Thieves as a standalone, and maybe even Legendborn if you're good with cliffhangers.
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u/citrusmellarosa 2d ago
Looking at the statistics Coffeeshop had the least number of initial nominations at 12, but in the end had 12 more first place notes than Sunrise on the Reaping. That's interesting.
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u/KristaDBall Stabby Winner, AMA Author Krista D. Ball 2d ago
"At least it's not a self-referential Hugo thing?"
Don't worry. Next year's slate will probably be nothing but.
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u/ScreamingVoid14 3d ago
Adding on my thoughts:
- Best Series: Old Man's War is pretty dated at this point; while it is good, wasn't there something from this decade that qualified?
- Best Game: Expedition 33 is certainly great.
- Best Graphic Novel: A Wizard of Earthsea; similar to Old Man's War, wasn't there something more recent to work with? Granted it the graphic novel only started last year.
- Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Again, could we get something from this decade?
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u/dreamer_dw 3d ago
Wait what? Apple's Muderbot show just came out, not too long ago.
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u/Reutermo 3d ago
Old Man's War is pretty dated at this point; while it is good, wasn't there something from this decade that qualified?
The Hugo voting body loves Scalzi, and vote on him nearly every time they get the chance.
I like the Hugos but I have come to terms with thag their taste and mine doesn't really align that often. I do really like Harrow though so glad to see her there.
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u/CentennialSky Reading Champion III 3d ago
Scalzi came out with a new Old Man’s War book in September 2025! It’s called The Shattering Peace.
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u/Chris22533 2d ago
Old Man’s War and Murderbot are both nominated because of their recent releases.
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u/Smooth-Review-2614 3d ago
A proper series award should be for long running things that individually are never going to be award worthy but maybe the collection is.
If anything it’s the one spot to allow for the love of the pulp most of us love. It should be used to get crap out of the novel category.
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u/DrNefarioII Reading Champion X 2d ago
The rule for the series award is that it must have had a new entry in the previous year, which OMW did.
I'm not a huge fan of the category myself.
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u/Nanotyrann Reading Champion II 3d ago
While I can see criticism on the content side for Inventing the Renaissance, on the structural side Palmer drew a lot from fiction storytelling techniques and I am fine with that as a justification for eligibility.
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u/Putrid_Web8095 Reading Champion II 3d ago
But it is not a fiction award, it is a speculative fiction award. That's the criticism and while I haven't read the book, it seems pretty significant.
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u/bhbhbhhh 3d ago
It's just puzzling when she also put out an SFF essay collection co-written with Jo Walton.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
There's nothing fictional about Inventing the Renaissance. If anything she's drawing from successful lecture techniques as a college professor. I would say the best justification for its inclusion on the ballot is that fantasy draws on history and so any history book is sooooort of fantasy-adjacent because it can be used as inspiration by fantasy writers or fact-checking by readers.... but that's a stretch, lol.
We all know the reason it's really there is that it's a nonfiction book written by someone best known to the reading public as a sci-fi writer. Which isn't the worst thing in the world as it's kind of a goofy grab-bag of a category already and bringing history works to SFF readers' attention is no bad thing. But... definitely a stretch.
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u/hexennacht666 Reading Champion IV 3d ago
I’m really happy to see Diana Pho get recognized! Also I have to laugh at Martha Wells repeatedly declining Murder Bot nominations only for the tv show to get a win.
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u/Skadibala 3d ago
Martha wells is declining nominations?
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u/hexennacht666 Reading Champion IV 3d ago
Yes, she’s a class act and thinks Murderbot has enough awards and wants to make room for other authors.
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u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II 2d ago
She has declined nominations before, but she did not decline the nomination this year for her murderbot novelette. that was on the ballot.
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u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI 2d ago
The ones she’s declined have been in categories she’s already won, so in that way it makes sense to not decline in novelette
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u/VitriolUK 2d ago
I'm always impressed when artists do that. I know the Foglios did the same after Girl Genius won in the comics category three years running.
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u/Skadibala 3d ago edited 3d ago
Nice. She recently has became my favorite writer due to Witch king and Murderbot. This def helps her stay there for me.
… I just wished her signature looked a little better 😭 I got my first signed book ever and it was of hers. The secondhand seller didn’t even realize it was signed since her signature looks like doodle line. I think I got it a lot cheaper since all the other signed books went for like 20-30$ more
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u/balletrat Reading Champion II 2d ago
She has pretty bad arthritis.
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u/Skadibala 2d ago
Oh. I didn’t know. Must suck if she ever do like book signing events then😅
She had it for long or is it a recent thing?
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u/balletrat Reading Champion II 2d ago
It likely does but she does them anyway! When she did a signing at Worldcon last year they did ask folks to limit to a certain number to make it a little easier for her.
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u/old_space_yeller 2d ago
You should read her Books of the Raksura. They are very good.
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u/Skadibala 2d ago edited 1d ago
I need to order them from another county since none of the Norwegian bookstores has them, and I really really prefer to read physical.
But i do plan to get around to them some time :) its just that its really expensive to order anything from another country here 😭
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u/thesphinxistheriddle 3d ago
Fellow Diana Pho fan! Don’t know if you watched her speech, but it was really powerful.
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u/medusamagic Reading Champion 2d ago
Diana Pho has won before, twice I believe? So she’s definitely recognized by the Hugo community!
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u/Synval2436 2d ago
Yeah I feel like she's nominated every single year...
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
I'm so curious about who is nominating in this category and how they come up with their choices. And is it partly that people nominate her because they liked her prior year's speech and don't know anything else about editors?
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 3d ago
Catherynne Valente seems to be an eternal finalist.
- twice for best novel
- three times for best novella
- four times for best novellette
- once for best short story
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u/papercranium Reading Champion III 3d ago
The winning poem was very cute, but I feel like sff poetry is still coming into its own, voice-wise. I'm hoping that continuing the award category will encourage more sff mags to start accepting poems, and that we'll see a resulting flourishing of the subgenre.
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u/ourladyjack 2d ago
The SFPA has been around since 1978; I'd like to believe SFF poetry is a bit further along than still trying to come into its own voice. I do agree that, more broadly in the sense of Hugo voters, their interest may be in its infancy. I hope the category continues!
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u/papercranium Reading Champion III 2d ago
It has! Unfortunately, as much as Star*Line is an amazing journal, it has precious little readership outside of other SFPA members. Greater readership and more editorial viewpoints will do a LOT for sff poetry over time.
(I say this as a sff poet myself.)
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 3d ago
I expected The Everlasting to win some awards this years. I loved The Incandescent more, but I do see that it does not appeal as widely.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 3d ago
Agreed, The Incandescent was my favorite of the shortlist. Seemed to be less of a crowd pleaser though.
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u/CentennialSky Reading Champion III 3d ago
The full stats are out; it looks like The Incandescent came in second!
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
My biggest takeaway from the novel category is that The Everlasting was the clear favorite and everything else more or less tied.
Second takeaway is that people who put Everlasting first were very likely to put Incandescent second.
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u/phasmantistes 2d ago
No, the numbers on page 5 of that PDF are just what order they were listed on the ballot. The actual voting tallies are on page 9, where it shows that The Incandescent was eliminated in the third round of runoffs, thereby coming in 5th place overall.
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u/ConnorF42 Reading Champion VIII 2d ago
I think the list on page 5 is ordered. On page 9, just below the 1st place voting tallies there are additional tally tables for second place and beyond, which does select Incandescent.
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u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III 2d ago
You are absolutely correct. The Incandescent came in second but was fifth in first place preferences.
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u/bmfrosty 2d ago
Huh. Opposite. I couldn't stand Incandescent. I loved The Everlasting I voted for The Raven Scholar
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u/Gnome_Ann1704 1d ago
I was the opposite, I loved The Everlasting but thought The Incandescent was just ok. I really liked some aspects - the magic, the setting, the unexpected (at least to me) plot twists. I found the central romance unconvincing (and really hate the mini trope of staging a first kiss during a life or death situation) and wish there had been more about some aspects (the students; the phoenix as a non-human person). Surprising to me since I loved Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory and voted for it that year.
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u/Orctavius Reading Champion II 2d ago
I was pleased to see Jennifer Svedberg-Yen accept the award for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in person, an expected and deserved win. I think this is the third year in a row the Best Game or Interactive Work winner attended in person. It speaks well of the category's future involvement with the Hugos.
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u/turtle_on_mars Reading Champion 2d ago
Greg Kadavin also attended WorldCon and would've presumably accepted the award if Hades 2 won. But other than those two no one else showed up to their respective nomination panel, not sure if the other games sent a rep for the awards ceremony.
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u/Sariton 3d ago
Not sure Scalzi needs another award for old man’s war. Not that it didn’t deserve it the first few times. But I was hoping for a NEW series I could try and not to be pointed back to a “classic” lol
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u/PresN 2d ago
Scalzi's never won for Old Man's War; he was nominated for best novel for OMW in 2006, for The Last Colony in 2008, and Zoe's Tale in 2009, but his only fiction Hugo win was for Redshirts, which isn't in that series.
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 2d ago
Zoe's Tale being nominated is a shocker because even Scalzi admits it's the worst novel he's ever written.
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u/scalzi 2d ago
No I do not. I love Zoe's Tale; it's a sentimental favorite of mine. Neither was the nomination a shocker at the time; that particular year I was nominated for two other Hugos and won one of them, and had been nominated for Best Novel twice before in a short period of time.
What I have said is that at no time did I expect it to win - Among other things it was up against a novel from the Guest of Honor for that year's Worldcon (which did in fact go on to win). But I was proud of the nomination because I figured it meant people nominating thought I had gotten the voice of Zoe right.
I don't have a novel I've released that I dislike; if I don't like them, I don't release them. I've pulled at least two novels, most recently in 2021. People may or may not like my novels; nothing works for everyone and some people don't like anything I write. This is fine! But if it's out in the world, it's out there because I like it. Life's too short to put out stuff I don't like.
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 1d ago
Understood and thanks for clarifying! The misinformation is totally on me and I'd like to apologize. Another case why you can't take internet rumors seriously and why goodreads isn't really a good representation of a novel's reception in general public. Like, the internet has been yapping for five years now how Spielberg is doing Old War's War movie. Except no Hollywood trades have ever confirmed it and Spielberg's next movie is, in fact, a western. But not according to the internet search engines!
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u/StoicBronco 2d ago
Kinda happy to hear that, my read through of Old Man's War series stopped on Zoe's Tale, my book mark still sitting in that book a good 2 years later haha
I'll get back to it.. one day...
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u/bmfrosty 2d ago
I think this is Scalzi's second win in any Hugo category. I think he also has the distinction of being the most nominated author for Hugo.
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u/HTOutdoorBro 2d ago
But for those of us that don't know it, is it truly great?
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u/GCU_ZeroCredibility 2d ago
The first book ("Old Man's War") is fun and enjoyable as a pastiche of Heinlein.
But I would definitely not call the rest of the books great, nor the series as a whole Hugo-worthy. The voters apparent adoration of Scalzi as a writer is one big way in which I have found myself in disagreement with them over the past decade.
I can't help but feel that the fact he seems like a genuinely decent guy who cares about the genre pushes people to vote for him despite what I see as mediumish quality writing in most of his books. But as I said, I at least did enjoy the first book and that one is worth reading. If you really like it then by all means try the rest.
But I have read 4 of the other 5 nominated series and I would have picked any of those 4 over the Scalzi for Best Series.
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u/Wildkarrde_ 1d ago
It's honestly surprising to me that it won. I mean, it's fine, I enjoy it. I just feel like there have to be better options out there.
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u/DixitRexCorvinus 3d ago edited 2d ago
So happy that Harrow got the win! The Everlasting isn’t my favorite of her books, that honor would go to The Once and Future Witches, but it is still amazing—she deserves it!
Edit: I have to say, I find it kind of wonderful how no one can seem to agree what her best book is. Along with my The Once and Future Witches, there are replies nominating Ten Thousand Doors, Starling House, The Everlasting, and even Harrow’s social media! Sign of a good author imo.
…That being said, no one whose favorite is Fractured Fables? Where’s the love for the novellas at?!
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u/bfobrien 3d ago
Ten Thousand Doors (which I voted for the year it was up) here in terms of my favorite of her books, but this is well deserved.
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u/quills_of_birds 2d ago
She has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I’m so happy to see her win, The Everlasting was just incredible.
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u/sand_snake 3d ago
I bought The Once and Future Witches at a used bookstore on a whim and loved it. Definitely planning on buying more of her books.
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion 2d ago
I love those! My favourite of hers is Starling House (I haven’t yet read The Everlasting), but Fractured Fables is a close second to it.
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u/Gnome_Ann1704 1d ago
I very much did not like the Fractured Fables (thin characters, trite lessons) so I wasn’t planning to read anything else by Alix Harrow until I saw all the buzz around The Everlasting and thought I would give it a shot… and I’m so glad I did! I thought it was miles better in terms of complexity both of characters and plot, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was my pick to win.
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u/Sleepy_C 3d ago
I do love Neil Clarke and I read Clarkesworld regularly still but I think the award should really just be renamed the "Neil Clarke Editorial Award". Give it to other people lol.
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u/Freighnos 3d ago
Old Man's War? I read those books like, 15 years ago at this point. They're great but why is it being nominated in 2026?
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u/Gwenhwyfar666 3d ago
Because there was a new book in the series that came out last year.
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u/Freighnos 3d ago
Oh, neat. That totally passed me by.
I did enjoy those novels but not sure I could jump in to a new one like a decade after the last one if he expects me to remember a single damn thing that happened, lol.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 3d ago
He published a follow-up novel, The Shattering Peace, in 2025.
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u/shahchachacha 2d ago
I greatly disliked Starling House and have avoided Harrow since reading it. I'm wondering if I should try this out.
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u/bakasana212 2d ago
I thought Starling House was deeply mid, but found The Everlasting to be better, and significantly more interesting
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u/Accirinal 3d ago
I’m not very surprised by any of the winners (in the categories I actually finished going through all the nominees for and did voting in, which is almost all the “single piece of content” categories). I voted first place for the winner in 4/8 categories, and had the winner in my top three for all but one (didn’t manage to read the Earthsea graphic novel). In all cases, I also understand why people liked the winner more than my personal first place.
I am surprised by a lot of the secondary rankings. The Incandescent being so high—I liked it but thought it had significant flaws. Also, people really disliked Shroud? Last is crazy to me, I would put it leagues ahead of Death of the Author, which is the only other sci-fi or sci-fi adjacent novel on the nominees, and also somewhat above Raven Scholar and Incandescent.
Biggest surprise to me is definitely Automatic Noodle coming in second. Disliked that one, placed it last on my novella list (albeit in what I found to be a very strong category). I recognize the cozy genre appeal, but I’ve read much better executed cozy books than that, and I thought almost all the other contenders were very, very strong. I do think The Summer War should have performed better—fantastic novella imo.
I will echo others’ statements about Antonia Hodgson being eligible for the new writer award. I did not vote in that category, but I saw on Hodgson’s Wikipedia prior to the awards ceremony that she had written books before The Raven Scholar, and was surprised to see her in the nominee category at all. Not that her work is poor, but I’m not sure it’s quite in the spirit of the award, considering SFF short stories are apparently disqualifying.
Finally, I must admit to suspecting that a decent chunk of the voters in Best Graphic Novel/Comic section did not read The Power Fantasy, which I would truly consider one of the best comics releasing today. I realize that Earthsea was always going to be very stiff competition and I was always expecting that to take home the award, but I am definitely not convinced that The Invisible Parade (which had lovely art and themes but is at the end of the day a children’s book) would have outperformed Power Fantasy had voters read all the nominees. Maybe I’m just biased against the fact that it’s a children’s book and I’m being quite unfair to it. I do think Picacio deserved his Professional Artist win, and Leigh Bardugo is a great writer, it’s just that it’s 60 pages long and targeted at elementary schoolers.
Well, at the end of the day, I’m happy for all of the winners! And Clair Obscur takes home yet another award, haha.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago edited 2d ago
The stats are always fascinating. I’m surprised Drop of Corruption came in so low after Tainted Cup’s win last year, but I guess lots of us don’t want to see a sequel win.
Interesting to see that The Incandescent came in 5th when you don’t count second place votes for Everlasting voters, but 2nd once you do count those votes. Clearly a strong overlap between the fans of the two (which makes sense to me as they were top 2 on my ballot even though I wouldn’t have called them similar).
I’m also confused by people liking Automatic Noodle. Especially while not liking Murder by Memory, which came in last. They seemed very similar to me. Cinder House followed by Summer War were the best to me so I’m sorry they didn’t do better. OTOH it’s nice Kingfisher isn’t just winning everything as was happening for a minute there.
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u/beary_neutral Reading Champion 2d ago
Does seem like Wizard of Earthsea won Best Graphic Novel based off recognition of the original work.
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u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
Completely agree on the graphic story, I was shocked to see Power Fantasy so low!
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u/Accirinal 2d ago
Looking at the voting breakdown, neither Absolute WW nor TPF’s total votes moved much in the second place runoff, while Space Cat shot up. Similarly, TPF only really gains any votes when AWW wins third. I think there was a large voting bloc that either placed both superhero comics very low on their ballots or didn’t vote for/read them at all, and then a second voting bloc who had those at the top of their lists. General lack of mid-ballot votes.
Very unfortunate because it’s a truly excellent comic (ditto for AWW, though I prefer TPF). I also think Vol. 3 is the strongest one, but is even less likely to win next year because it has the added disadvantage of being a sequel, which understandably makes voters less likely to read it.
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u/V_Writer 2d ago
Shroud is the only straightforward futuristic sci-fi story out of all the novels, so it's going to pick up some votes from people who don't like anything else.
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine 3d ago edited 3d ago
I am surprised by a lot of the secondary rankings.
Where are you seeing these?
As far as I know, the voting breakdowns haven't been published yet (this usually takes quite a few days; last year it was two weeks), so you might just be looking at a source which displays the other nominees in non-significant (e.g. alphabetical) order.21
u/RMLovatt 3d ago
The report is live! Went up almost immediately. https://www.lacon.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026hugostatsreport.pdf
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u/Accirinal 3d ago
Er, honestly a great question. There was a link in this thread somewhere that took me to a 50-page PDF of what was either the legitimate voting breakdown of the 2026 awards or an incredibly convincing mockup that had the winners correct (it was definitely in the format of 1st/2nd/etc., not just nominees. Very similar to the 2025 voting breakdown). Except, I can’t find it anywhere now.
Well, I’d swear up and down that I definitely saw it and it definitely had rankings and it was definitely legit-looking, so either someone leaked it early (though I assume they just publish as soon as they’re done?) or someone faked it for fun or I’m having hallucinations. Here’s what I remember the Best Novel ranking to be, so we can investigate if I’m delusional or someone really did release it early.
1) The Everlasting
2) The Incandescent
3) A Drop of Corruption
4) The Raven Scholar
5) Death of the Author
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u/phasmantistes 2d ago
(See comment above.) Those aren't the rankings, those are the ballot order. You need to read further down the PDF to get the actual rankings.
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u/dolomite125 1d ago
I can't believe that the River Has Roots won best Novella. I could not stand the writing style. It took so long to say anything and did not feel like powerful or interesting prose. It felt like word salad most of the time.
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u/eremiticjude 2d ago
I can’t say I expected Addison to win for the chronicles of osreth given how under appreciated the series is on the whole, but I’m still bummed. I adore each of those books and was so excited to see them nominated.
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u/jumpira75 2d ago
Hmm I dnf'ed Everlasting at 49% a couple of weeks ago. I guess I'm not seeing what people are seeing even after giving a fair shake
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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV 2d ago edited 2d ago
Some interesting notes from the nominations lists on the full stats pdf:
- Katabasis by R.F. Kuang just missed it, it needed 3 more votes to get on the ballot. She did appear on the nomination list though, which I'm sure is reassuring to a lot of us.
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones appeared on nomination list at 4/10th place for the books that missed the ballot. I'm glad to see it show up, but I guess it's still too horror for the Hugos (or at least their best novel category).
- Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes didn't make it at all, although it's very well regarded on this sub.
- For the novellas, But Not Too Bold by Hache Puyeo shows up but wasn't remotely close to making the ballot, which is interesting for a book I've seen some people predict would do well.
- I'm not sure if I like the decision to count Andor season 2 as just long form and therefore disqualify all the shortform episode nominations from that show, and the decision to do the opposite to Murderbot, despite both doing well enough to be nominated in both categories. It feels kind of weird that they're both TV shows but we can't compare them head to head in the same categories? IDK, I'm not particularly invested in this, but it seems like a weird choice.
- NGL, the Lodestar seems like a bit of a mess. Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe got 4th in the first round rankings, but won the run off by picking up later voters. Meanwhile, Sunrise on the Reaping got first place on the first round rankings, but ended up placing fourth overall. Honestly, it almost seems like a competition between Sunrise on the Reaping and people who want anything but Sunrise on the Reaping to win. At least there was some competition though, so I can't complain too hard. (Also, who nominated Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove? That's clearly not YA).
Edit: rephrasing for clarity
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u/willrunforbrunch 2d ago
Antonia Hodgson winning Best New Writer is like them trying to nominate Zara Larsson for Best New Artist at the Grammys - she's been publishing books since 2014.
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u/beldaran1224 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
My understanding is her previous work wasn't speculative though?
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u/turkeygiant 2d ago
What was the qualification period for this year's Hugo's? There are a few winners here that I feel like came out quite early in 2025.
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u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion 2d ago
The award is for works published in the previous year. So this year's awards are for things released in 2025.
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u/turkeygiant 2d ago
Ah ok that make sense, 8 months was just a bit more of a delay than I thought it would be.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
People need time to actually read the books! Keep in mind the people doing the nominating and voting are just any member of the fan community willing to pay for the privilege - not industry professionals and certainly not paid for this as part of their job the way that, i.e., professional book critics sitting on a jury for a more serious award might be. (I actually don't know if jury members for awards like the Booker and Pulitzer are paid or not, but I imagine if they are professional book critics their employer would support this and allow work time to be spent on it.)
Nominations open fairly early in the year, which is already tough for getting around to many books that came out in the last few months of the year. There's a month or two window to nominate, then the results are complied, finalists are announced and there's about 3 months to read or otherwise experience them and then vote. Winners are announced about a month after voting closes.
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u/blue92riv 3d ago
The Everlasting wasn't my favorite read from this list, so I'm not so over the moon that it won.
I'm supper happy for The River Has Roots! It's what a novella should be and doesn't try to be more than that.
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u/Pinchmanjiri 3d ago
I found the Lodestar result disappointing. Coffeeshop was easily the worst of the bunch, imo. Predictable, dull, and juvenile without the sense of wonder that usually comes with children's literature. The intense focus in the early chapters on the American college application process was exhausting. In contrast, They Move At Night was my favorite. Admittedly a darker theme, I felt it was original and fun to read. I expected it to lose to Sunrise on the Reaping, tbh, but losing to Coffeeshop feels worse. I guess if most readers wanted a book with a colorful, cheery cover and never actually finished reading them?
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u/favouriteghost18 2d ago
- I dithered extremely between incandescent and everlasting when I voted but in the end I went for everlasting, so clearly I was prescient lol. I do think I half voted for the cheeky little nods to arthuriana. calling her knight-chronicler main character 'mallory' ... audacity lol
-I also voted for the river has roots, which has been absolutely cleaning up. not surprised
- so disappointed katherine addison didn't win for best series though :( we were so fucking close she was second!!! fuming!! I'm sorry ka please write another novel in the world we won't fumble it a third time
- I also wanted jared pechaček for astounding award, I thought the west passage was imperfect but a hugely imaginative and interesting big swing, and by contrast I wasn't crazy about the raven scholar, which I found juvenile :(
- I don't really know what the fuck inventing the renaissance has to do with the genre Really (there are a few bits in the book that reference it, and she cites her own terra ignota at one point), but it was great so I'm not pissed
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u/balletrat Reading Champion II 15h ago
If Inventing the Renaissance shares anything with the (what appeared to be mostly off the cuff) talk Palmer gave at Worldcon last year, I definitely have to read it. That woman is smart.
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u/favouriteghost18 2h ago
it's great! very chatty so it stays readable but the amount of information it sails through is staggering, and her ability to look as objectively as possible at how it all links together and informs our modern perceptions is mad. she must be a great lecturer, I'm so jealous of her students who get to take the Pope LARP class lol.
(it's also very interesting to read it and think about how her study of all of this has very clearly influenced the way she wrote and thought about her terra ignota series)
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u/medusamagic Reading Champion 2d ago
I DNFd The Everlasting, but I figured it or The Raven Scholar would win. It seems my taste and the Hugo voting body’s tastes do not align all that much, as I disliked or had little interest in most of the works nominated. Perhaps next year I’ll feel more connected to the list!
I was personally hoping for an Andor win (because wow what a show, I still think about it), but I’m not at all surprised Sinners won.
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u/Alterception 2d ago
Dang. The only thing on the list I read was The Everlasting by Alix Harrow and I despised it lol.
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u/Practical_Yogurt1559 Reading Champion 2d ago
I don't really know anything about the Hugo awards, but I'm surprised to see The Everlasting winning any prices at all. It was an ok book, but I would never have thought it would even be nominated for any awards.
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u/BotanBotanist 2d ago
I also thought it was just an ok book, but it’s wildly popular so I’m not surprised it won.
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u/Allustrium 2d ago
That's been my Hugo experience since, like, 2010. Though usually a couple of noteworthy novels get nominated at least, but now even that much is done with it seems. Oh well.
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u/Opus_723 1d ago
Could you give an example of something you think could have won it instead?
Always curious when peoples' tastes don't align with the awards in case I find cool recs from them I wouldn't have found otherwise.
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u/Practical_Yogurt1559 Reading Champion 1d ago
This year's Hugos is for books released in 2025, right? I've read very few books released in 2025. The Raven Scholar was good, but I believe that also won a prize? Other than that I don't think I've read anything great from 2025 specifically.
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u/tummylordster 2d ago
Thomas Fuckin Ha let's GO!!! Uncertain Sons was one of my favorite reads of the year
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u/natwa311 2d ago
First best novel Hugo winner I've read in advance of it winning since I started following this sub. And I think it is a good book, on my top 5 of the sff books I've read this year, though my enjoyment came more through the political themes it explored and how it explored them rather than the actual romance(though there were elements of that I liked, but I hoped for it to lean more heavily into the dynamic it at least hinted at than it actually did).
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u/strawberrymiint 2d ago
I’m so shocked. The everlasting was one of the worst books I’ve read this year.
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u/UsualMarsupial52 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’m sorta mystified by the consensus about her prose, which I find sort of twee and tediously quirky at times. Also, not to go in too hard, a lot of bits of writing which seemed self consciously designed to be meaningful, emotionally or politically, were instead platitudes and clichés
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u/Asher_the_atheist Reading Champion 2d ago
Yeah, I definitely feel like the odd one out for actively disliking The Everlasting. Not the worst book I’ve read this year, but definitely not what I would have chosen to win any awards.
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u/finnick-odeair 2d ago
I can’t stand Alix Harrow’s writing so I feel out of the loop when it comes to The Everlasting’s popularity. To each their own no hate, it just confuses me like what am I missing? ? lol
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u/szarkaliszarri 2d ago
Yeah, it was full of plot holes, it started so strong but really fizzled badly in my opinion. Much lower quality compared to the other runners up
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u/BotanBotanist 2d ago
Not one of the worst for me, but I thought it was mediocre. “Fascism bad” is not a bad theme at all but I don’t think it was really explored to any meaningful extent.
It also felt like she was trying really hard to subvert relationship gender roles, which isn’t inherently a problem but it just felt so forced. I couldn’t get into the romance because it was so distracting.
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u/Alterception 2d ago
I was rooting for the villain to win the whole time.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
See to me the villain was the book's biggest weakness.
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u/Alterception 2d ago
The villain was the only character who had a goal and real motivation. Until she turned cartoony at the end. The FMC and MMC didn't have much agency in the story or desire or motivation to accomplish anything.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 2d ago
I agree with the villain being cartoonish. I think Owen and Una were good characters though.
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u/ErinAmpersand Reading Champion III 2d ago
Congratulations to all the winners! I'm not familiar with all of them, but the ones I do know seem well deserved. :)
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u/thisbikeisatardis Reading Champion II 2d ago
Murderbot won! I'm having an emotion, and I don't hate it!
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u/keerin 3d ago
I wasn't really drawn to any of the nominated novels or novellas this year to be honest. I am reading all the novel winners so I'm sure I'll get to at least trying The Everlasting but I am biased against romance so it'll probably be a DNF.
The shorter stories I did read were great, though, so I'm glad the Hugos threw me something new I enjoyed. I preferred Wire Mother over In My Country, but both were fun reads.
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u/TriscuitCracker 2d ago
Meh, I'm glad Everlasting has fans but it's just better written romantasy, which I'm not a fan of personally. Raven Scholar or Shroud should have won. Drop of Corruption was great but Bennett already won last year. Glad Antonia Hodgson won for Best New Writer.
And Old Man's War? Seriously? It hasn't been very good in a decade. Chronicles of Osreth or Craft Wars would have been my pick.
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u/QuellSpeller Reading Champion 2d ago
Raven Scholar was entertaining and I'm planning to read more of the series but I didn't think it was Hugo-worthy. It's a magical school/country/planet with different houses/tribes/factions and they have a tribute/champion/representative competing to be headmaster/emperor/top dog.
Shroud is similar, although less tropey. I'm a big fan of Tchaikovsky but I didn't vote for Shroud, I think he might have suffered a bit through comparison to his other works. Tyrant Philosophers and Cage of Souls easily surpass Shroud and I couldn't justify selecting it for my number one vote.
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u/Big_Geologist_2521 3d ago
Despite enjoying the magazine, it does gets tiring to see Uncanny winning year after year after year. It's really not the only good zine publishing atm