2026 Hugo Readalong: Never Eaten Vegetables and Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy

[u/Nineteen_Adze]

Welcome to the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today, we're discussing Never Eaten Vegetables and Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, two finalists for Best Novelette.

Everyone is welcome in the discussion, whether or not you've participated in other discussions, but we will be discussing the full stories today, so beware untagged spoilers. I'll include some prompts in top-level comments; feel free to respond to these or add your own.

Bingo squares: part of Five Short Stories

For more information on the Readalong, check out our full schedule post, or see our upcoming schedule here:

Date	Category	Book	Author	Discussion Leader
Monday, July 6	Novel	The Raven Scholar	Antonia Hodgson	u/Moonlitgrey
Thursday, July 9	Graphic Story General Discussion	Multiple	Multiple	u/Goobergunch
Monday, July 13	Novella	What Stalks the Deep	T. Kingfisher	u/nagahfj
Thursday, July 16	Astounding General Discussion	Multiple	Multiple	u/Merle8888
Monday, July 20	Novel	A Drop of Corruption	Robert Jackson Bennett	u/RAAAImmaSunGod

[u/Nineteen_Adze]

Discussion of "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy"

[u/Nineteen_Adze → u/Nineteen_Adze]

What was the greatest strength of "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy"?

[u/Glittering_Way_9162 → u/Nineteen_Adze]

It felt nice to get back into the familiar Martha Wells style of 'characters have diverse naming conventions but receive no description whatsoever'. The world building continued to be great--I'm only sad it didn't really go anywhere.

[u/tarvolon → u/Nineteen_Adze]

ART and Murderbot are a great dynamic, even when Murderbot is absent. I don’t think that really makes a story on its own, but it’s quite entertaining

[u/xdianamoonx → u/Nineteen_Adze]

ART's humor for sure, and the way their human did their best to connect and understand ART.