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My Read-Through of the Hugos: 2008

I’m a huge science fiction fan, and, having read a list of what are alleged to be the top 200 science fiction novels, I decided to next tackle a read-through of all the Hugo Award winners and nominees for best novel. Let me know your thoughts and favorites. I’ve marked the winner as well as my own choice for which novel would win, had I the choice among the nominees. I’ve also dropped a short reflection on the year’s Hugo list at the end. There may be SPOILERS for the books discussed.

Halting State by Charles Stross (My Winner)- Grade: A
Halting State is about an investigation into a massive bank robbery… that took place in an MMORPG conducted by a bunch of orcs with a dragon for backup. If you don’t want to read this book we literally have nothing in common. Truly, though, this book is a fantastic, wild ride, as with basically all of Stross’s works. He has this tendency of writing about things that were to come without even trying to do so, while also giving them that twist that makes some cyberpunk works feel so endlessly fresh and exciting. Yes, there’s a bunch of tech, yes there are battles online, and yes, there’s a central mystery that spirals out of control. If you’re ready for this, strap yourself in and then just sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s an absolute festival of fun for the sci-fi reader, with some pretty serious themes mixed in. Highly recommended.

Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer- Grade: B
What a strange, often unexpected story of first contact. I mean, first contact is technically the subgenre here, but the contact itself is mostly background noise for the primary plot. The primary story follows Don Halifax, husband of Dr. Sarah Halifax, the woman who solved the communications for first contact. A wealthy man decides to offer both of them a “Rollback” treatment, which should essentially bring them both from their late 80s to their mid-20s health and physique-wise. Unfortunately, it only works on Don, and the rest of the story mostly follows him trying to deal with the complex of feelings that goes along with that.
I can’t help but think that the novel would have been better if it had been told at least a bit from the perspective of Sarah instead. She continues to age, watching her younger husband become somewhat embittered against her while still trying to stay a loving husband. It would be a brutal, more heart-rending story in my opinion. Instead, we follow Don, and I’m not entirely sure I like the guy. For one, it doesn’t take him long to cheat on his wife of 60 years. Sure, he has a newly-young body, but it’s so obnoxious that this is the betrayal that is made to feel in the plot almost inevitable. Like, is it that hard to envision a man at some point being loyal to his wife at some point? The answer appears to be yes, and when the plot follows the complex relationship Don develops with Lenore, it somehow makes it not as horrid while simultaneously making Don seem even sleazier. I don’t really know how to explain it better than that without someone reading it.
Oh yeah! There’s also the first contact story here. The aliens are a long ways away, so the turnaround on communication takes quite a while. They wanted to be in touch with Sarah specifically, but because she’s dying and the Rollback didn’t work, some things need to get shuffled around, and they are brought to a satisfying enough conclusion.
Ultimately, this is a book that has stuck with me. I actually had read it once before I read it much more recently, and I forgot the name of it. But I recognized some of the key points immediately, and the surprisingly hopeful ending also stayed with me. I have mixed feelings overall, but I think it’s a well-told story with some compelling, messy characters (Don, I’m talking about you).

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (Winner)- Grade: C
I dig alternate history, and this is up my alley. Set in Sitka, Alaska, Chabon imagines a world in which the United States created a refuge in Alaska for European Jews, thus saving millions of lives. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the Anti-Semitism in the United States magically disappears in Chabon’s imagined world. There are still many problems in this world, though, and cultural clashes occur. My enjoyment of the book seemed to follow a similar curve with my enjoyment of Chabon’s massive The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I started out loving it and relishing Chabon’s turn of phrase. He’s a gifted writer and nearly every page has some cleverly-worded sentence. There are some high points, and Chabon takes aim at entrenched Zionism and how Christians in the United States aim to use Jews as tools in their own strange religious aims. The problem is my curve of enjoyment started dipping and then drastically falling around the halfway point because it seems Chabon gets almost obsessed with his own cleverness. Yes, every page must have some interesting turn of phrase or it’s not good enough. There must be a paragraph-length metaphor for something only barely germane to the plot. It gets tedious. And that’s a shame, because the plot for this one is great.

The Last Colony by John Scalzi- Grade: B+
The third book in the Old Man’s War universe by Scalzi, this space opera sees the main characters of the series settling into a retirement-ish life from the military. They’re on distant colony Huckleberry and trying to help the colony grow and survive. But the past is coming back to haunt them in a big way as they find themselves eventually thrust back into a series of problems they never really expected. It’s a solid read in a great series that shows Scalzi’s chops as a tongue-in-cheek writer of space opera.

Brasyl by Ian MacDonald– Grade: B-
Brasyl is a complicated book. It follows three different storylines which eventually tie together, kind of. There’s a modern-day television producer who wants to re-enact an infamous World Cup scenario to pseudo-heal the country. There’s a future Brasyl with quantum devices that can alter or break reality creeping onto the streets. Finally, there’s an 18th century exploration of Brazil’s jungles to try to put a halt to an awful evil. The star of the show is MacDonald’s depiction of Brazil itself. The land seems to ooze with the culture and excitement MacDonald put into it, and the novel reflects that against a background of these three plots. The story wasn’t quite as awesome as I was hoping it would be, though. The total impression was good, not great.

2008- What an amazing year at the Hugo Awards. I mean, look at the diversity of the entries! Space opera, alternate history, a sweeping epic of a country, first contact, whatever the hell Halting State is! It’s quite a ride this year, and I think almost any reader of speculative fiction would find at least one novel to love here. I personally thought the book that actually won the award was the weakest of the batch, but can see the upside to it as well. A fantastic year. What did you think?

Links

J.W. Wartick- Always Have a Reason– Check out my “main site” which talks about philosophy of religion, theology, and Christian apologetics (among other random topics). I love science fiction so that comes up integrated with theology fairly frequently as well. I’d love to have you follow there, too!

My Read-Through of the Hugos– Read more posts in this series and follow me on the journey! Let me know your own thoughts on the books.

SDG.

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Reading the Horus Heresy: “Vulkan Lives” by Nick Kyme

I know I’m late to the party, but I finally decided to start reading the “Horus Heresy,” a huge series of novels set in the universe of Warhammer 40,000 (though it is set much earlier than the year 40,000). I thought it would be awesome to blog the series as I go. With more than 50 novels and many, many short stories, there will be a lot of posts in this series (I doubt I’ll get to all the short stories). I’m reading the series in publication order unless otherwise noted. There will be SPOILERS from the books discussed as well as previous books in the series. Please DO NOT SPOIL later books in the series.

Vulkan Lives by Nick Kyme

There are a lot of pages in this book to just restate what the title is. I mean, I say that a bit tongue-in-cheek but truly, there’s almost no advancement of the plot here. It’s really just 400+ pages of people going back and forth saying things like how there are whispers of Vulkan being alive and then Vulkan shows up pretty early on so there’s really no big reveal here.

I know I have a resounding refrain here, but this could have easily been a short story. The decision was made to stretch out a two word title that reveals the main point into hundreds of pages, and I think it was the wrong one.

There’s plenty of action here, including some epic fight scenes. Apparently the big reveal about Vulkan being essentially unkillable was huge for the lore of Warhammer, but as someone who basically just reads novels in the Warhammer universe all over the place, I didn’t see the hugeness of it. It also seems to me like readers shouldn’t be required to be delving deeply into lore beyond reading the 25+ books it took to get to this point in order to see how huge it is.

I’m hoping the next few books in the Horus Heresy can really get the action going and give enough reason for being as long as they are.

(All Amazon Links are Affiliates)

SDG.

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My Read-Through of the Nebulas: 1972

Not the original cover, but I picked it because… what is it trying to say?

I’m continuing my read-through of every Nebula-nominated novel, having already completed my reading of all the Hugo nominated novels. I present my reviews, a grade for each, and my own pick for the winner each year.

The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (Winner)- Grade: B-
Another proof that Asimov is capable of at least somewhat interesting characters. The first part of the story is the most compelling, as an apparently free source of energy is revealed to have dire consequences and pretty much nobody cares. Free energy is free, right? So who cares if everyone will die billions of years in the future? It’s the exact kind of reasoning that would probably be used, to the end of us all. But that dire feeling is mostly lost at the end of the book as Asimov changes its tone into a kind of future look at human colonization of the moon and the problems that might face. Yes, there are still references to the earlier portions of the book, and the solutions offered are interesting, but it lost something of the truly bleak and all-too-reasonable feel of the beginning chapters.

The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg- Grade: B
I feel extremely torn about this book. It has some of Silverberg’s best (that I’ve read, anyway) atmospheric writing. He writes with whit and foreboding, sometimes together, often apart. But it is also filled with some really awful comments about women, disabilities, and more. As is often the case, it’s difficult to tell whether these last aspects are all truly representative of Silverberg’s view, or whether they are his own satirical attack on the same. If the former, I would downgrade the book significantly. If the latter, it hovers maybe a touch higher. For better or worse, The Book of Skulls is a book that is still making me think about it, weeks after reading it. It has staying power, and it wriggles its way under your skin. It’s strange, compelling, repulsive, alluring, haunting, disturbing–it needs a lot of adjectives to describe it! I’d recommend it to readers who want to dig deeply into New Wave sci-fi, warts and all.

Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg (My Winner)- Grade: A+
Considered Silverberg’s masterwork by many, I initially read this book at the beginning of my attempt to appreciate older science fiction and this is definitely not the book I would recommend to try to sell someone on vintage sci-fi. It’s dense. The prose is awkward at times. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles that at lot of people tend to expect when they hear “science fiction.” My first read of this was a disaster. I didn’t catch any of its themes. I didn’t really understand it at all. Since then, I’ve grown in appreciation of older science fiction and of Silverberg in particular. On a third reading, now, I finally understood some of its core themes. In particular, that of “Dying Inside.” This is truly a haunting tale about loss that everyone experiences, set in the mind of a telepath who is losing his abilities. The main problem I had the first time reading the book is that the main character isn’t particularly likable–he’s not. But when considered in light of this central interpretation–as a kind of metaphor or allegory of loss through aging or other loss, it becomes transformed into a thing of beauty. It haunts me. Dealing with my own loss recently, it helped me reflect on that more and come to see some of the light at the end of the tunnel. I loved this book. Give it a try… or three.

The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad- Grade: A-
The premise of this one is incredibly important: the central idea of the novel is that Adolph Hitler’s rise to power failed and he self-exiled to the United States where he became a pulp science fiction novel. In this book, we’re reading Hitler’s “greatest” novel, Lord of the Swastika, framed by an invented critical review of the invented novel. The novel–Hitler’s, that is–is terrible, and purposely so. But Spinrad manages to walk that very fine line of intentionally writing something poorly in a thought-provoking manner so that it achieves its purposes, and it largely does. The “hero” of Lord of the Swastika is a trueman, whose genetic lineage marks him as one of the few remaining true humans in a land full of “mongrels”–animalistic humanoids who can barely lift their knuckles off the ground. The entire novel–the fictitious novel–is so over-the-top in its fascistic and racist sincerity that it becomes a mockery of its themes–the very thing Spinrad was trying to achieve. When we finally get the framing narrative of the critical review, Spinrad hammers it home, eviscerating Hitler’s fascism and phallic tendencies while also assassinating his character in other ways. It’s a masterful satire, and seems to be in the same vein as Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron, which I found much less successful. Here, because of the idiot-proofing (yes, me being the idiot here) framing devices, the satire hits home more effectively. The novel-within-a-novel does overstay its welcome. Readers will get the basic points pretty quickly. But that the book is overlong doesn’t take away its forceful critique not only of fascism but also of science fiction fandom’s tendencies to forgive the same.

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner- Grade: A
Brunner is in his element in this kaleidoscopic, dystopic novel of rampant consumerism and climate emergency. Brunner wasn’t necessarily trying to be predictive here; instead, like some of his other novels (eg. Stand on Zanzibar), the point seems to lean more towards that of warning. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to observe the predictive moments here, and also the impending sense of doom that readers today may feel that perhaps wasn’t quite as immediate 50 years ago. There’s barely a central plot here, as the story is told through a number of vignettes, told over the course of a year, through various methods of storytelling. (Side note: because of the style of telling the story both this and Zanzibar were, I found, nearly impossible to listen to as audiobooks–too much jumping around.) It’s an achievement both of storytelling and of science fictional warning.

What Entropy Means to Me by George Alec Effinger- Grade: B+
What the hell did I just read? I say this in a good way. Effinger’s debut is firmly in the New Wave of sci-fi in a way some of his other works were not. I didn’t love this one as much as I love the Marîd Audran series. The latter is a cyberpunk detective-ish series. This one is… something else. It’s a testimony to storytelling and the way we tell our stories and how that can impact the reader and storyteller. It’s a somewhat insane take on a fantasy journey. It’s… completely unique and different from just about anything I’ve ever read. Effinger is a master.

When HARLIE Was One by David Gerrold- Grade: B-
Apparently this is one of the first books ever that is strictly about AI and emergent intelligence. It was fascinating in many ways, especially as the designers interacted with HARLIE and came to appreciate the difficulties of doing anything with AI. Frankly, the book may have been better if Gerrold didn’t even bother trying to put characters into it. Where it bogs down is entirely in the places where characters interact with each other, and Gerrold attempts to tie the human interactions into the AI/human interactions. Thus, the love story that is central to the characters ultimately seems nothing more than a foil for trying to explain love to HARLIE, the AI. It seems to cheapen the overall effect. Nevertheless, for a “first ever” effort in this field, this is a great, imaginative book that lays out some of the questions we’re still asking about now: like how to tell if a machine is intelligent, what that might mean, and how parameters that we set for such intelligence may be bent or broken.

1972- I mean… what is there to say? This is a simply fantastic year at the Nebula Awards, even if the weakest of all the novels is the one that ended up winning. Silverberg got robbed, let’s just acknowledge that. Dying Inside is absolutely an all-time great work of science fiction, and it got missed by both the Hugo and Nebulas that year. ’72 is well entrenched in the New Wave science fiction, with Silverberg x2 novels, and the absolutely bonkers What Entropy Means to Me. But there’s also Spinrad’s masterful satire, Brunner’s incredible, dreadful work, and more. It’s one of the best years at the Nebulas.

Links

Nebula Awards- check out my other posts on the Nebula nominees and winners here. (Scroll down for more).

Hugos– I have read every single Hugo-nominated novel. Click here to read through all my posts reviewing them (still in progress).

SDG.

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My Recommendations for the Hugos: Best Series

I wanted to share my recommendations for this year’s Hugo nominations, so I am writing a series of posts highlighting my favorites and recommendations in various categories. Where possible, I will link to the works or ways to purchase/peruse them. Let me know if you read any of them and what you think! Also let me know your own recommendations. And yes, I know you can only nominate 5 in each category, but I haven’t whittled all of my categories down to that many nominations yet.

The Sumerians by Emma H. Wilson– Criminally overlooked, this series follows Inanna, goddess daughter; Gilgamesh, mortal warrior son of the gods; and Ninshubar a warrior woman thrust into bigger events as they live in the earliest recorded times in human history. It’s based upon the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Wilson’s prose takes it to another level. There are a lot of retellings of Greek myth making awards lists, but I haven’t seen nearly enough buzz about this fantastic trilogy. The eligible work is Ninshubar (August 2025).

The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison- Addison wraps up the story begun in The Goblin Emperor with a thoughtful, emotional conclusion that examines many themes, particularly about death. The eligible work is The Tomb of Dragons (March 2025).

The Empire of the Wolf by Richard Swan- A dark fantasy epic that follows one of the people charged with being a Justice of the King, whose role is to enforce the King’s law in the outskirts of his domain. One of the few fantasy series that considers logistics of law in any way, it also tells a spellbinding story filled with dark magic, terrible threats, and heroic action. The eligible work is the novella, The Scour (October 2025). The novella tells a side story within the series that features the same powerful storytelling as Swan brings to the novels.

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi- A military (sometimes) space opera, this series explores humanity’s struggle to expand and interact with a broader universe full of threats. They feature Scalzi’s characteristic witty way of telling stories with humor amidst the seriousness of the themes. The eligible work is The Shattering Peace (September 2025).

The Grand Tour by Ben Bova (and Les Johnson)- Bova died in 2020, but the eligible work (Pluto, November 2026) was in progress to tell another story of humanity’s expansion across the Solar System. I’ll admit that this one is more of a legacy pick for me. It’s on my list because of the many, many hours I’ve spent in Bova’s Solar System and the way it directed my sci-fi reading as a kid (more on my in memoriam here). So this series is here because a new entry–while not the strongest–makes it eligible again. And some of these books are absolutely etched into my memory (such as the Mars trilogy).

The War Arts Saga by Wesley Chu- What happens when a prophesied hero is just not that prophesied hero after all? The War Arts Saga explores this in a Wuxia-inspired world. It has characters who actually grow quite a bit over the course of the trilogy, great actions scenes, and an intriguing story. The trilogy sticks the landing, too. The eligible work is The Art of Legend (August 2025).

The Warden series by Daniel M. Ford- The life of a Warden is not what Aelis de Lenti might have thought it should be. It’s not as glamorous or wrapped in glory as she dreamed. But it turns out that even in the midst of disappointment and in a backwater town, she finds herself embroiled in things that show she might be who and where she needs to be. The eligible work is Advocate (April 2025).

The Eidyn Saga by Justin Lee Anderson- times of peace can be just as difficult as times of war. While the massive upheaval and destruction of the war is ended, there are still issues with demons, crops, and plague threatening the world. But is there an even more sinister threat–one that no one has predicted–looming? Anderson writes quite the yarn, and these novels absolutely deliver on the action and intensity of dark fantasy. The eligible work is The Damned King (August 2025).

Conclusion

I’d love to hear what you think of these and other stories. Let me know in the comments!

SDG.

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My Hugo Awards Recommendations for 2026: Best Novel

I wanted to share my recommendations for this year’s Hugo nominations, so I am writing a series of posts highlighting my favorites and recommendations in various categories. Where possible, I will link to the works or ways to purchase/peruse them. Let me know if you read any of them and what you think! Also let me know your own recommendations. And yes, I know you can only nominate 5 in each category, but I haven’t whittled all of my categories down to that many nominations yet.

Best Novel Nominations

Grave Empire by Richard Swan- Towing the line between dark fantasy and horror, this novel spans the borders of the Empire of the Wolf as it faces plague and warfare. It’s a fantastic story told with several viewpoints. Epic fantasy at its finest.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett- The sequel to the Hugo-winning novel The Tainted Cup, we’ve got another mystery that can only be solved by the reclusive Ana Dolabra and her trusty sidekick Dinios Kol. Weird magic, strange mushrooms, and more abound in this fantasy tale.

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji- a sci-fi noir story becomes much, much more in this science fiction thriller by Adam Oyebanji. I admit I was completely taken aback by some of the twists and turns in this novel, and its ultimate conclusion was quite satisfying. Highly recommended.

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson- One of the best books I’ve read in the last couple years, this fantasy epic centers around the selection of a new ruler for an Empire. Every so many years, the Emperor must step down, and various schools of thought and practice modeled by animals (eg. the Raven or the Tiger) send their best and brightest (adult, skilled) individual to compete in a series of trials. Part murder mystery, part Hunger Games, and part epic fantasy, this novel had me churning through pages and desperate for more. Truly an incredible fantasy debut from an author who apparently normally writes mysteries.

The Tomb of Dragons by Katherine Addison- The conclusion of her stories about Thara Celehar, the Witness for the Dead, who has lost his ability to speak with the dead. But the obligations of his role remain, and he must see his life–and the deaths of others–through to the end.

Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay– Filled with beautiful prose and wonderfully robust world-building, this fantasy story is a kind of fantasy retelling of Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years War. It’s fantastic.

A Far Better Thing by H.G. Parry- A fantasy reimagining of A Tale of Two Cities, this story focuses on the idea of what the fae might have been doing during the events of that classic novel. It works surprisingly well, and even reads like the narrative voice of Dickens at times. It does have some of the foibles of Dickens–quite the slow burn–but it wriggled into my heart and I love it.

Inner Space by Jakub Szamalek- On the International Space Station, international politics aren’t supposed to be part of what’s happening. But they can’t not be part of it. When things start to go wrong on the American side of the station, are the Russians to blame, or is something else going on? The story follows happenings both ground- and space-side and does a fantastic job building a mystery and delivering a hard sci-fi story in the process.

Ten Incarnations of Rebellion by Vaishnavi Patel- It’s an alternate history where India has not gained independence and we follow a young Hindu girl as she grows up in the shadow of the British Empire trying to make her resistance known. But Vishnu might just be made for rebellion. Another story with phenomenal prose, this one warrants careful reading.

Slow Gods by Claire North- When a deity-like entity comes through one’s locale hollering a warning about impending destruction from a star going nova, what does one do if one is a dictatorship trying to keep its population under control? This space opera asks that question, among others, and delivers a spectacular science fiction story of the big scope that has seemed to be rare of late.

There is No Antimemetics Division by qtnm– What do you do with a division that explores things that make you forget them? What if one of those things is a threat–no, not that kind of threat–like an actual reality-destroying threat? This novel got a ton of buzz in indie spaces when it came up years ago. It’s been heavily edited and published traditionally now and it is a ripping good read.

LATE ADDITION: The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow- A local book club was reading this for their book of the month and I read it and so did my wife and it is… so good. It’s kind of an Arthurian tale, but gender swapped, in a different world, and with time travel. It’s hauntingly beautiful and superb in many ways.

My Selection Process

We can only nominate 5 things in each category. I’m guessing that to narrow my selections down I will probably drop all the novels that are in the middle of a series. That knocks out A Drop of Corruption and The Tomb of Dragons. Both are excellent reads, but I tend to lean towards thinking the Hugo should be for standalones or first in series books rather than middle of series works. It’s not a rule; just a preference. I could drop books that are parts of series off entirely. That would eliminate The Raven Scholar, Grave Empire, and, depending how you look at it, Written on the Dark. The problem is that I genuinely think The Raven Scholar might be the best fantasy novel I’ve read in years. So it’s gotta stay. And Written on the Dark could easily be read as a standalone, so I think it’s unfair eliminating such a beautiful novel that way.

That means it might be good to go through and just pick my absolute must-haves first. The Raven Scholar, Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, and Slow Gods are must-haves. That is 3/5 slots filled already.

There is No Antimemetics Division might not be eligible based on how one interprets its editing and publishing process, so I think I’ll drop that one. That means I have 2 slots to fill with Written on the Dark, Inner Space, Esperance, and A Far Better Thing. [And the late add of The Everlasting.] I don’t know. They’re all so good. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

Conclusion

I’d love to hear what you think of these and other stories. Let me know in the comments!

SDG.

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Disheartened on Indie/Self-Publishing

I’m getting fairly disheartened in indie publishing spaces. I have been an advocate for years of indie and self-published sci-fi/fantasy, including judging a contest (the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest) for 4 years. However, the inroads AI has been making into those spaces are disturbing on many levels. The number of books I’ve picked up, only to notice horrendous and obvious AI writing, is absurd. Before, I only had to worry about poor writing or editing, and then could move on. Now, just selecting a new indie/self-pubbed book to read feels like running a gauntlet of trying to avoid AI slop.

I am trying to figure out the best way to keep supporting indie authors while also not having to wade through mountains of garbage. I have had a Kindle Unlimited subscription since I got one during Covid for reading more. I have realized I’m not using it as much as I was, in part due to the heavy library usage I have, but also in part due to the extreme amounts of work I have to do to find a non-AI slopped sci-fi/fantasy novel.

There are many on my backlog that I’m fairly sure aren’t AI. But I’m thinking about taking the $12/month I use on Kindle Unlimited and instead use that to purchase books of individual indie works, whether via ebook or paperback. I’m leaning toward ebook still due to shelf space limitations (and pricing). I also would prefer to give less $ to Amazon so buying from author websites might work better.

I’m just wondering if there are others out there navigating this same space and finding ways to support indie authors/get through the slog. What recommendations do you have?

The thing that prompted this as something I want to take action on is I saw an ad for a book with the premise of a space station with a zombie outbreak. Sounded like a cool conceptual mashup of space opera and zombies, both of which I enjoy. But looking at the acutal page, I noted some weird wording/repetition. Then I saw reviews saying it used AI and there were obvious hallucinations. Alas.

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My Hugo Awards Recommendations for 2026: Best Novella

I wanted to share my recommendations for this year’s Hugo nominations, so I am writing a series of posts highlighting my favorites and recommendations in various categories. Where possible, I will link to the works or ways to purchase/peruse them. Let me know if you read any of them and what you think! Also let me know your own recommendations. And yes, I know you can only nominate 5 in each category, but I haven’t whittled all of my categories down to that many nominations yet.

2025 was a completely fantastic year for novellas. I love seeing this rise of the novella in recent years, as more are published and so many quality novellas are written.

The Lure of Stone by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Uncanny #66, Sept/Oct 2025)

A Mesoamerican inspired setting and the rise of an oppressive religion form the backdrop for this novella from Silvia Moreno-Garcia. When Yalxi embarks on a quest of discovery, she quickly encounters adherents to this new, nefariously spreading faith. They want her to pledge her allegiance to their new god, but she manages to evade them and begins to dig into the truth of what’s actually happening. This novella reads like a fantasy epic and manages to deliver on that impression, giving readers a truly excellent fantasy story in a shorter format.

Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon (Tordotcom)

The use of masks that grant various powers embedded within them (such as the ability to leap like a rabbit through muscle memory) sets the stage for this cyberpunk action story. Wylla, our main character, gets an alert about a rare artifact, but runs into others who will stop at nothing to acquire it. The story turns into a kind of chase with Wylla trying to protect what she’s found while also learning more about her history and the world. It’s a fantastic read that keeps the pages churning swiftly.

Making History by K.J. Parker (Tordotcom)

A despotic ruler wants to justify war with a neighboring country, so he enlists the help of several experts in the ancient world to fabricate an ancient civilization that can be discovered and provide the outraged justification for such a war. But as these scholars are pressed into service, they realize there may be more going on than they were told. A fascinating story of historiography and fantasy, this was one of my favorite reads of the year across all categories.

The Signal and the Idler by Ted Komsmatka (Asimov’s Sept/Oct 2025)

When he’s recruited for a blind study off the street, Porter thinks he’s just cashing in as he looks for a long-term job. But the company running the study keeps asking him to come back and repeat the same cryptic trials. He enters a room, gets a code phrase, and then is supposed to keep an eye on a stock; depending on the results, he returns. Eventually, he finds out more about what’s going on and the answer is bigger than he could have imagined. This novella had me turning the pages and thinking about it while I was doing other stuff. It’s a great story that’s perfectly constructed to keep you reading.

The Apologists by Tade Thompson (Clarkesworld 230 Nov. 2025)

A sci-fi noir turns out to be a story of an entirely different sort in this novella from Tade Thompson. It would be difficult to say much more without spoiling the central conceit of the story, so I feel I have to leave it there. An excellent ending real seals the deal for this great novella.

Threat Assessment by Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera (Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine Summer 2025)

When she’s brought to a completely top secret (to the point of agreeing to be killed if she reveals what she sees) facility on the Moon, Dr. Nasha Okoye is asked to converse with an incredible threat to humanity. Why? She’s not entirely sure. When she speaks with this entity, she quickly finds her trust in the story she’s been told fading away. “Threat Assessment” was an incredible page-turner that absolutely delivered the goods both on the conspiracy-laden premise and the ending. Highly recommended reading.

Conclusion

I’d love to hear what you think of these and other stories. Let me know in the comments!

SDG.

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My Hugo Awards Recommendations for 2026: Best Novelette

I wanted to share my recommendations for this year’s Hugo nominations, so I am writing a series of posts highlighting my favorites and recommendations in various categories. Where possible, I will link to the works or ways to purchase/peruse them. Let me know if you read any of them and what you think! Also let me know your own recommendations.

“The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor Mag)

A constructed facade for a fake life has been built around the daughters of a wealthy CEO in order to ensure the line of cloned children takes over for the company and runs it properly. This novelette is about identity, wealth, and poverty. The way it treats the interplay between its themes is fascinating, and Cameron Reed has rapidly ascended into the upper echelon of must-read authors for me despite having few published works (but a new novel coming this year!).

“Donacon” by Paul E. Franz (Analog Sept/Oct 2025)

The invention of a nanomachine-driven health remediation technology has led to the creation of superhumanly attractive and physically fit people. The first beneficiaries are those working for the health company that invented the process. But as the technology proliferates and the standards for the “perfect” human form get higher and higher, Ian, the main character and an employee high up in the company, discovers that his own view of reality ahs become skewed by the relentless pursuit of that perfection. This novelette is a wonderfully done look at the human obsession with the human form, and it has an ending that absolutely sticks it. Highly recommended reading.

“Understudies” by Greg Egan (Clarkesworld 229)

When it became possible to implant an AI in the brains of newborns, many of the wealthiest opted in. Their children have grown up with another voice in their heads–one that could immediately search for any answer online. When Vince, born without such an AI implant, gets some extra brain training, he tries to navigate his way in a world where humans are devalued and the jobs that should have always been there are fading away. He channels his newfound skills into a contest of wits against a number of AI enhanced students, doing a kind of quiz bowl game that challenges them to see if they can do better than a non-enhanced group of math and logic whizzes. The story becomes a series of these quiz bowl games with incredibly complicated questions. I confess that I wasn’t able to follow many of them–and certainly not solve them–but I enjoyed the reading nonetheless. It’s partially a story of human achievement and mostly a series of cleverly constructed world problems and their solutions. It’s unlike almost anything I’ve read before.

Conclusion

I’d love to hear what you think of these and other stories. Let me know in the comments!

SDG.

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My Hugo Awards Recommendations for 2026: Best Short Story

I wanted to share my recommendations for this year’s Hugo nominations, so I am writing a series of posts highlighting my favorites and recommendations in various categories. Where possible, I will link to the works or ways to purchase/peruse them. Let me know if you read any of them and what you think! Also let me know your own recommendations. And yes, I know you can only nominate 5 in each category, but I haven’t whittled all of my categories down to that many nominations yet.

Short Story

“Termina” by Subodhana Wineyeratne (Analog Nov/Dec 2025)

“Termina” is filled with fantastic prose and heart-rending scenes that are astonishingly frequent in a short story. The plot follows a human and an AI companion watching her. A series of vignettes follow the human’s life and the despairing scenario she’s in. The story is bleak and beautiful and I love it.

“Imperfect Simulations” by Michelle Z. Jin (Clarkesworld 231, Dec 2025)

“Schadenfreude” by Liza Wemaker (FIYAH Spring 2025)

The ghosts that haunt this town are not benevolent; they are spirits that have stayed behind from acts of violence and racial oppression. And, it is time that one of them start to get back at those who have caused these wrongs. Far from being a simple revenge story, this moving tale constructs a past of systemic oppression and then shows how such chains might be broken, even if it takes another life. Beautiful.

“Strays” by Scott William Carter (Asimov’s Sept/Oct 2025)

A married couple spends their life hunting down lost ordinance from a long-lost war in order to prevent them from being navigational dangers. The story navigates a number of different genres and feelings, but is tightly woven, too. The central couple isn’t happy; they are struggling. But what happens when they face a threat–that is a story worth reading. It’s a haunting story that will stay with me for a while.

“The Time Grandma Jumped into a Lake and Became a Kung Fu Warrior” by E.A. Noble (FIYAH 35: Summer 2025)

Grandma has dementia and her calls have become increasingly deranged. Or… is she actually living in a greater reality than might have first been perceived? This story is from a Black Isekai special edition of FIYAH magazine and it absolutely hit me at the right time. When I read it, my own grandma had recently died from dementia–a terrible, awful disease that I hate. I got some semblance of healing from this story, and that’s about the highest praise you can give.

“A Shaky Bridge” by Marissa Lingen (Clarkesworld August 2025)

A man’s diagnosis of dementia leads to his family using a neural bridge–a new health treatment–to try to help him. While the neural bridge does indeed help him, it also has some unwanted features or bugs from its billionaire entrepreneur’s mind, such as occasionally making it seem like he’s a walking advertisement. Again, this one hit hard with my grandma having died of dementia, but I think it’s a fantastic story regardless of that context (as is the previous one). What would we be willing to give up for our brains to get the treatment they need? Is “curing” dementia worth an ad subscription? This moving tale asks those questions, and more.

Conclusion

I’d love to hear what you think of these and other stories. Let me know in the comments!

SDG.

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The Great Honor Harrington Read-Along: “In Fire Forged” edited by David Weber

The Great Honor Harrington Read Along is a read along led by me with critical analysis and SPOILER FILLED looks at the Honor Harrington series and related works by David Weber and collaborators. I’ve read the whole main series and the overwhelming majority of the offshoots, but some of these will still be first time reads. However, spoilers will be abundant throughout these posts, including for much later books in the series.

In Fire Forged edited by David Weber

In Fire Forged is another collection of stories from the Honorverse. As such, we’ll look at each story individually.

Ruthless by Jane Lindskold

Judith Templeton, who escaped from Masada with the help of Michael Winton (yes, THAT Michael Winton of the royal family) in the story “Promised Land,” must use all her resources to find her kidnapped daughter. The story develops well, and I appreciate that the villains have some wrinkles in their motivations that make them more than one dimensional evil people, as is often the case in the Honorverse. Lindskold spins a compelling yarn and shows she has the chops to write in the Honorverse, something Weber clearly noticed as he enlister her to later co-author offshoot books in the Beautiful Friendship series.

Judith Templeton is one of the most interesting characters in these offshoots, having used her mental prowess after being kidnapped herself by Masadans to escape from that oppressive patriarchy. Having her then work towards finding her own daughter kidnapped, this time, by Manticoran separatists makes for a bit of a rehash, but also a compelling yarn that I don’t mind retreading. Michael Winton getting some time on the page is also nice. I like their developing relationship and hope to see more of both in the future.

An Act of War by Timothy Zahn

Basically a story about the attempt to get Manticore and the Andermani Empire to go to war against each other. I enjoyed it well enough, but it didn’t blow me away at any point. It gives a little insight into some of the tension found between those two powers in the mainline books.

Let’s Dance by David Weber

Honor Harrington investigates, finds, and destroys a slave trade. Again, a story that doesn’t advance much for any side characters, but does fill in a little bit for parts of the Honorverse, especially related to the Audubon Ballroom. Overall, just okay.

Conclusion

I think In Fire Forged is uneven. I especially enjoyed “Ruthless” as a continuation of one of my favorite Honorverse stories. The other two basically just give some background filler on questions that might naturally arise from reading the mainline Honor Harrington entries. Not bad, but the Lindskold story is the star. What do you think of this collection?

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Links

The Great Honor Harrington Read Along– Follow along as I read through and review all the books and offshoots in this series!

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SDG.