The Hugo Award is an annual literary award administered by the World Science Fiction Society for the year’s best science fiction or fantasy works. It is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories.
The Hugo is considered, along with the Nebula Awards, to be the most prestigious recognition for writers of fantasy and science fiction. Find all the winners.
Best Novel
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine’s genre-reinventing, Hugo Award-winning debut, A Memory Called Empire. An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options. In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass–still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire–face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity. Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan’s destruction–and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion. Or it might create something far stranger.
Best Novella
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.They’re going to need to ask it a lot. Becky Chambers’s new series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
The specter of graduation looms large as Naomi Novik’s groundbreaking, New York Times bestselling trilogy continues in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education.
In Wisdom, Shelter. That’s the official motto of the Scholomance. I suppose you could even argue that it’s true–only the wisdom is hard to come by, so the shelter’s rather scant. Our beloved school does its best to devour all its students–but now that I’ve reached my senior year and have actually won myself a handful of allies, it’s suddenly developed a very particular craving for me. And even if I somehow make it through the endless waves of maleficaria that it keeps throwing at me in between grueling homework assignments, I haven’t any idea how my allies and I are going to make it through the graduation hall alive. Unless, of course, I finally accept my foretold destiny of dark sorcery and destruction. That would certainly let me sail straight out of here. The course of wisdom, surely. But I’m not giving in–not to the mals, not to fate, and especially not to the Scholomance.
I’m going to get myself and my friends out of this hideous place for good–even if it’s the last thing I do. With keen insight and mordant humor, Novik reminds us that sometimes it is not enough to rewrite the rules–sometimes, you need to toss out the entire rulebook.
Best Series
Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series is the story of Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children, a boarding school for kids who come home from portal fantasy worlds and can’t adjust to their new, ordinary lives.
Best Graphic Story or Comic
Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbel
The City Enduring, a booming metropolis at the edge of the universe, hasn’t experienced a violent crime in generations. The Emotion Exploit has erased its citizens’ full range of feelings, allowing three resident races to overlook their turbulent history and coexist peacefully–until now. Rookie Green Lantern Sojourner “Jo” Mullein is still adjusting to her assignment to protect this strange world when a brutal murder rattles its social order, threatening to undo centu r ies of controversia l pro gress . As the populace rises up against the legacy of the Emotion Exploit and leaders grapple for power under threat of a new war, Jo must rely on her unique instincts–as a Green Lantern and the only human in this sector–to solve the crime and guide the City Enduring toward a more promi sing future.
Best Related Work
Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders
The world is on fire.
So tell your story.
Things are scary right now. We’re all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not helpless: we have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible.
Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency, Never Say You Can’t Survive is the perfect manual for creativity in unprecedented times.
Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Dune
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey that tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence, a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential, only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
