Hugo awards 2026

4 months ago

They've been announced but I got sidetracked by some other reading. I have made this my reading priority for June so that I can get my vote in on time. Here are the candidates.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz)
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US)
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK)
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape)

I read A Drop of Corruption previously. Bennet is a clever writer and I enjoy his books, but I don't love them enough to re-read. This is the second in a series based loosely on Holmes and Watson. Well done but not amazing. I tend to look for amazing in a Hugo. I don't always get it.

Death of the Author was better than I had anticipated. The book-within-a-book motif worked very well. Not a re-read for me, but I defintely enjoyed reading it.

Shroud. Ah, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Everyone respects him. I respect him. I have read several of his books, and I am always impressed, but I do not enjoy the process. He writes excellent, fiercely intelligent hard science fiction, but his books do not engage me. I think he is writing for people whose brains are wired differently than mine. I started Shroud but did not finish it. I already know I will vote for something else, but I will not be astonished if this book wins. I won't even begrudge it.

That leaves three more to read. I have one from the library and two more coming in the mail. The Hugo organization will supply ebooks to voting member sometimes, but I prefer not to do that unless I am voting for one of the short format categories. They can sometimes be hard to source.

Free media can be a thing in the awards world. A relative of ours by marriage was a member of the Academy until his recent retirement. He got free DVDs of every movie that was nominated for any Oscar at all, even those that had not been released to the public. I always thought it was kind of a fun perk. The Hugo organization is not that rich, and authors are definitely not that rich, so if I cannot get the books at the library I do buy them. And if I really like them a lot, I buy them anyway to support the author.

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Rosefolly z5
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3 months ago

I do use ebooks and audio books, and I enjoy them both. But printed books remain my favorites.

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Rosefolly z5
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4 months ago
Update: I am well into The Incandescent, and if it goes on the way it has begun, I may have found my candidate. It is another entry into the growing "school for magic" subgenre, but unlike either Harry Potter (fun with scary bits) or Novvik's Scholomance series (scary and dark), it is focused more on the adults running the school than the students, though they do matter too. Emily Tesh won the Hugo for Best Novel two years ago. She may well win again this year.
donnamira
4 months ago
Rosefolly, thanks for this post on the Hugo awards! I have been so behind on my reading, that I haven't read a single one of these yet! Based on your comment about the Tesh novel, I just put that one on my library holds list. I really enjoyed her first novel, Some Desperate Glory.
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bigdogstwo
4 months ago
Rosefolly - thank you for sharing synopses and your thoughts. I am interested in checking out The Incandescent.

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Rosefolly z5
Original Author
3 months ago
last modified: 3 months ago
Donnamira and Bigtwodogs, I would be interested in knowing what you think of The Incandescent. I have one novel yet to go, and at this point it is still my choice for the Hugo.

Meanwhile I have finished The Everlasting by Alix Harrow. I might conceivably have voted for it if Tesh's book had not been in the mix. Harrow is the author of Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Once and Future Witches, both of which were read by members of this forum. It is a time travel book/fantasy novel. I did enjoy it.

I have one more to read, The Raven Scholar. There was a long request line at the library so I ordered the book. It should arrive some time next week. I'm a little leery of it. For some reason I am imagining a book like Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, which my book club read. In that case it might be fun but I would not consider it at all Hugo-worthy. I have no idea where I got that impression, and I do hope I am wrong.

It is good to have so many good choices that the decision is difficult.
bigdogstwo
3 months ago
My library only has audio or e-book versions of The Incandescent and I am miffed. I certainly hope that this is not the wave of the future... many of us still prefer real books. So now I will order it.

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Rosefolly z5
Original Author
2 months ago
I should mention that I sent in my vote, The Incandescent for first place, Raven Scholar for second, and The Everlasting for third. I have mentioned before that the Hugos use ranked voting. I am predicting the Raven Scholar as the winner. I did enjoy it, and more than I had actually expected, but I just didn't think it was the best book.

It was a solid slate. Except for The Shroud, which I ended up not reading, they were all reasonable nominations. And I suspect The Shroud is also very good. It is just that I never enjoy books by Adrian Tchaikovsky, though I have read several. I just cannot imagine bringing myself to vote for a book I did not actually enjoy!
Rosefolly z5
Original Author
last month
Ending the suspense, the winner for Best Novel was announced a couple of days ago.

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Not my prediction and not my first choice, but I did enjoy reading it.
bigdogstwo
last month
At least it was one of the books you enjoyed!!!

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