It's the BEST time of year- Hugo Award time!

  As a reader, Book Awards are really always interesting to me.  Sometimes some really inexplicable choices are made and I'm left scratching my head, or thinking that I failed to see the beauty in a certain written work. 

   Over the past several years, I've become fascinated with the Hugo Awards.  Particularly the one given for best novel.  The Hugo's as a whole are pretty broad, there's a Best Series award, the Best Novel, one for Short fiction, Best Fanzine, Best Artist, Dramatic Presentation... the list goes on and on. 

One of the reasons I have focused on the Hugo is that- in recent years- the winners have all been really solid novels that I enjoyed. So, I of course, decided I'd read all the Hugo award winning novels. Sadly for me, the early ones... are just full of sexism, and reflect a strong lack of imagination about women's roles in the world.  It's kind of amazing how Science Fiction may reflect the times it was written in much more than it really looks to the future! 

That said, after the finalists were announced, I decided to check out ALL the finalists for BEST Novel. 

 I am glad that I did this, and I hope to do it every year. 

This was an interesting exercise as I would not have actually picked up many of these books if they had not been in the list of nominees. I enjoyed them all to varying degrees! One thing for certain, they were all well written, polished pieces of fiction. You can't really go wrong with one of these as a selection. 

    It's so hard to predict a winner. For me, my TOP top read of this bunch was The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I never even actually wrote a full review of this! I finished this one in July which was a month of oblivion for my reading. I had the road trip, an unexpected surgery, and a complicated series of job interviews which lead me to conclude that my current employment is pretty darn good. While I still was reading, I was focused on reviewing advanced copies, so my apologies to Robert Jackson Bennett. 

The Tainted Cup is a winner for me based on it firstly being the most enjoyable one of the six for me as a reading experience. The characters are likeable, and unique. The story is a mystery set in a fantasy world with sci-fi elements (lots of personal augmentations). It was easy to follow, and fun to try to figure out who did what and when! I enjoyed the blending of fantasy and sci-fi, and feel like this one really reflects the Hugo Award. 

Do I think it is going to win?

I actually do not. 

Last week, I made a TikTok Video saying I think that Wiswell's Someone You Can Build a Nest In would be the winner.  Today, as I sip my coffee and stare at this screen, I'm leaning toward Alien Clay - which I liked, but didn't love. 

So lets go from my least favorite to my most. 

Service Model  I actually gave this a 3.5 /5 stars.  I enjoyed it but I did find the "robot doesn't understand" humor to be funny but repetitive. the novel read like it was written for a young audience, but it was not marketed for a young audience. 

A Sorceress Comes To Call.   Interestingly I loved this one when I read it.  My review says it all.  Fantasy with magic. Over time, however, I have found that while it was effortless to read, it was also easy to forget. Would I still recommend it?  Yes. Is it the Best SFF novel of 2025, I don't think so. 

Alien Clay  is a book that I enjoyed, but I found the beginning to be interminably slow. There is a lot of academic chatter, that I didn't really enjoy and thus, the lower ranking. It did show a wild imagination on the part of the writer, and in some ways I think because this one is literally the ONLY NOMINEE that's set in space, maybe it will win? 

Someone You Can Build A Nest In -  Was a really interesting read for me. Like The Tainted Cup, it's set in a fantasy type world with Sci-Fi elements. As an added bonus there was an element of horror involved, which I thought added to the book. Overall, I feel this has a very strong chance to win. 

The Ministry of Time  was a "Dark Horse" read for me. I really really really did not like the cover, and it made me not want to bother. In addition, it was heavily marketed on Tik Tok and I was not so sure about that. But, I fell in love with this novel, even though the end was a little messy and confusing to me. The reason it is sitting in my number two spot is that I haven't found myself burning for a second book. I haven't looked up more by the author, so I guess I am not entirely enamored.  

As I noted before, at the top is The Tainted Cup. 

My prediction... is swaying between Wiswell and Tchaikovsky. It would help if I knew more about the people who vote on this award, but... I'm going with Wiswell as a prediction (which will likely be wrong!!!) The award is going to be presented at World Con on August 16th! 

Please comment below  who you think will win and who you'd vote for!