Yay, it’s that time of the year again, where the Hugo Finalists for the year get announced. For another year I’ve been a bit out of the loop (money and time issues mostly, I might talk more about that later) but I think we can have fun discovering some new favourite stories and games together. First though, let’s check out that ballot:

Click Here to Check Out the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists at Seattle Worldcon

A couple of things jump out immediately. First of all, the organisers were up front about two works that did qualify for the ballot being deemed ineligible. Those are The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo in the Best Series category, which was ruled ineligible due to not meeting the minimum word requirement for this category, and Dune: The Musical by Dan Collins in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category, due to having been first performed in 2023. There were also two nominees who declined their nominations. After the debacle that was the 2023 Hugo Awards in Changdu China, it’s good that this information is being shared immediately. I am obviously not the only person who was enraged by the way works were deemed ineligible for no reason in 2023, and this ballot shows that. There are two works nominated for the Best Related Work category that analyse the 2023 Hugo Awards.

Speaking of Best Related Work, r/Fantasy’s Bingo Reading Challenge got nominated in this category. That’s interesting to me not just because I have my own book bingo challenge, but because I am constantly impressed with just how wide the definition of ‘related work’ is. I think I should probably add the r/Fantasy subreddit to my morning scrolling. Or maybe even do their 2025 Bingo Challenge. It looks fun.

These Hugos have also continued to feature a Best Game or Interactive Work, which was added as an official annual category last year, but had previously appeared as a one-off category (Titled Best Video Game) in 2021. I’m glad its sticking around as an official Hugo category, and that it has been broadened to all interactive works, which could include boardgames and tabletopRPGs. If I recall correctly (and I have no source for this, I’m purely going off four-year-old memory and don’t want to delay this post to go digging) tabletop games/RPGs were eligible under the 2021 rules, but this new title makes it clearer. I like games a lot, so I’m always happy to see them getting recognition. This year it’s a mix between big name games from companies like Nintendo and BioWare, as well as games like Resistx1000 and Caves of Qud from Indie Developers. It’s an interesting mix, and I’m interested in looking into some of these games. Maybe on my stream later.

Like in 2021, the Seattle Worldcon 2025 have introduced their own special one-off category, the Hugo Award for Best Poem. Which is cool, though I am the last person who should be talking about Poetry. Still, with how many of the short fiction genre magazines have been publishing poetry over the years, I’m surprised it has taken this long for someone to make a poetry award in the Hugos. Comment if you’re excited about the Best Poem award. Or if you have any other award category suggestions. I feel they have everything covered now, but maybe I am overlooking something.

On this blog, I usually focus on the fiction categories. Lets have a closer look at those now.

Best Short Story

• Five Views of the Planet Tartarus by Rachael K. Jones (Lightspeed)
• Marginalia by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny)
• Stitched to Skin Like Family Is by Nghi Vo (Uncanny)
• Three Faces of a Beheading by Arkady Martine (Uncanny)
• We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed)
• Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld)

I’m familiar already with a few of these stories. In particular, Rachael K. Jones’s story will haunt me for a long time. It would normally feel weird for a flash fiction piece to put held up alongside regular short stories, but considering how hard that story hit, I’m not complaining about a 600 word story making the ballot. If anyone has any data about wordcount for previous Hugo winners, please point me towards it. I’m now interested what the shortest story to ever win was. I’m gonna do some research on that.

I plan to review every short story nominated for the Hugo, Nebula (ballot HERE), and Locus Awards this year. So far there are three stories that have been nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula Award (Planet Tartarus, We Will Teach You How to Read x2, and Kid in the Omelas Hole) it’ll be interesting to see how many get the triple nomination when the Locus Award finalists get announced. I wouldn’t be surprised if all three do, and I imagine a couple of the other Hugo and Nebula finalists will be on the Locus ballot too.

I find it interesting that whilst three Uncanny Magazine stories made it on the Hugo Ballot, none were on the Nebula ballot. Likewise the Nebulas featured two Reactor stories where the Hugos had none. Given that the Nebulas are chosen by writer judges and the Hugos are open to anyone, it can sometimes be interesting to see how they differ. Though with three stories shared, it seems the public and the pro perspective aligns pretty closely this year.

Now lets look at some longer stories.

Hugo Award for Best Novelette

• The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld)
• By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars by Premee Mohamed (Strange Horizons)
• The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s)
• Lake of Souls by Ann Leckie (Orbit)
• Loneliness Universe by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny)
• Signs of Life by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny)

Hugo Award for Best Novella

• The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
• The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom)
• Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
• The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom)
• The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
• What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire)

After a year of having to share the ballot, Tordotcom is back to its usual almost total domination in the Best Novella category, so Tor probably isn’t that upset that Reactor missed out earlier. Meanwhile the Best Novelette category has stories from a much larger range of magazines than the Novella or Short Story, and even has a story exclusively from an author’s short fiction collection. And that author is Ann Leckie too… why have I not heard of this before?

Last year I read and reviewed all the novellas and novelettes on the ballot, and I would like to again this year. Due to time restraints though, I’m not going to set that promise in stone the way I am with all the short story reviews.

Finally, lets look at the big one, the Hugo Award for Best Novel

• Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit and Tor)
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)
• Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)
• Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (DAW)
• A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Tor)
• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)

First thing that jumps out is that Adrian Tchaikovsky had a busy year. For the first time in a long time, this is a ballot that is completely unread by me. Which I’m not surprised by, since I only read two books released in 2024 (Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle and The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark. Both great stories despite not getting nominated.)

That does not mean I am unfamiliar with the nominees. Someone You Can Build a Nest In is a book I’ve been wanting to read for a while, and was pretty near the top of my reading queue. I think after being nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula, I have to bump it right up to the top. I’m also interested in reading more by T. Kingfisher, since everything I’ve read by her before has been a huge hit, so A Sorceress Comes to Call has been on my radar. To anyone who has already read the finalists, feel free to share your thoughts below. I want to read them all, but would still be interested in hearing who the perceived pick of the bunch is.

In years past, I made a silly type of review post called “The Hugo Winners as Pokémon”, where I made a themed Pokémon team based on the six finalists. Due to my disillusionment with the awards in 2023, I backed away from Hugo related content and stopped doing these posts. Since I do plan to read and hopefully review the six finalists, I will consider bringing these posts back.

Speaking of controversial hosts, the United States of America isn’t looking as free as it once was these days. This is obviously not something the Hugo Awards committee could have foreseen when they chose Seattle as the hosts, and probably not something that they could do much about, seeing how large of a role the US plays in the fandom. All we can hope for is that the attempts to control and censor that the current fascist government is attempting to enact don’t reach the same level as in China. Currently, hundreds of thousands of Americans are protesting what is happen in the country, and in years to come I imagine the works we see nominated for these awards will reflect that protest. Still, it seems hypocritical not to point out these concerns regarding the United States after the criticism I made about China as a host. I urge all members and guests travelling from overseas to Seattle for the con to be very careful and do their research, as entering and leaving the US seems to be becoming a lot more dangerous.

The Seattle Worldcon will take place August 13th – 17th this year. I really hope everything goes well for the convention and the awards. I am looking forward to reading as many of these works as I can, and hope I can share my thoughts with you all.

~ Jayde