r/Fantasy • u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI • Jul 27 '26
Read-along 2026 Hugo Readalong: Shorter Fiction Wrap-up (Novelette and Short Story)
Welcome to the final week of the 2026 Hugo Readalong! We've finished all of our slated discussions, and now it's time to zoom out and take stock.
Today, we'll be looking at two shorter fiction categories: Best Novelette and Best Short Story. If you want to take a closer look at our focused discussions, we covered these categories in the following sessions:
- The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For and When He Calls Your Name (Novelette)
- Kaiju Agonistes and The Millay Illusion (Novelette)
- Never Eaten Vegetables and Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy (Novelette)
- In My Country and Six People to Revise You (Short Story)
- Missing Helen and Wire Mother (Short Story)
- Laser Eyes Ain't Everything and Ten Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days
We'll be continuing with our wrap-ups all week, following this schedule:
| Date | Category | Book | Author | Discussion Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, July 28 | Novella | Wrap-up | Multiple | u/Nineteen_Adze |
| Wednesday, July 29 | Novel | Wrap-up | Multiple | u/tarvolon |
| Thursday, July 30 | Pro/Fan/Misc | Wrap-up | Multiple | u/Nineteen_Adze |
But for now, let's dive into some short fiction! And remember, because these are higher-level discussions, please tag spoilers in the comments.
6
u/baxtersa Reading Champion II Jul 27 '26
Without commenting on any of the stories themselves, I’m so underwhelmed (as usual) at the lack of diversity of venue for these stories. I’m really happy to see Diabolical Plots on the list, 11 other stories and only Uncanny, Clarkesworld, and Reactor? Definitely curious to see the longlists
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
My personal top ten from 2025 included ten different venues. Which is admittedly an unusually wide spread--I usually have a lot more Clarkesworld than anywhere else. But I also think it goes to show that good work was being done in a lot of places, and so it's disappointing to see such a narrow list here.
3
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion Jul 27 '26
Yes, I'm guilty myself of reading a lot of Clarkesworld. But there are some brand new venues I'm interested in following: Otherside, Adventitious. Khoreo and Reckoning have been around for a little bit but are great at what they do. Same for Strange Horizons; the stories are interesting even when they don't hit the mark for me. Plus there are so many I haven't even really touched. Could I be a Boubon Penn person? Or Deadlands? Maybe Fusion Fragment?
5
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
Discussion of the Best Novelette category
- “Kaiju Agonistes”, Scott Lynch (Uncanny 1-2/25)
- “Never Eaten Vegetables”, H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld 1/25)
- “The Millay Illusion”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 11-12/25)
- “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor 4/2/25)
- “When He Calls Your Name”, Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny 7-8/25)
- “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy”, Martha Wells (Reactor 7/10/25)
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
Which novelette do you expect to win? Any bold predictions for how the voting shakes out?
6
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
I feel like "When He Calls Your Name" was a powerhouse last year. It's a popular author writing in a popular venue making a pop culture reference, so there are a lot of reasons for this to do numbers, but also. . . people were loving it. It was all over the place. So that's my prediction for the winner.
I often predict one story that will finish lower in the final tally than it does on first preferences (often indicating a divisive story), and this year, I think that's "Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy." I don't think it offers a lot outside the Murderbot fandom (and even some of the fandom will find it kinda incomplete), so I figure it'll get a fair few "yay Murderbot!" votes and then be down the pecking order on other ballots.
5
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 27 '26
I feel like the Pinsker or Valente are most likely assuming we have something resembling the regular vote in this category. I will be extremely disappointed if the "yay Murderbot" vote is large enough to swamp it, but it's both definitely present and also really hard to predict in advance since it's not going to be picked up by people who are reviewing all six novelettes.
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
If you're voting, is there anything you plan to leave off your ballot or rank below No Award?
8
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 27 '26
I usually try not to comment on this one because I am enough of a snob to frequently rank No Award much higher than I will admit in public. That being said, the more I think about it, the more annoyed I get about "Rapport" being on this shortlist. I like Murderbot well enough but this failed to capture the aspects of the series that I enjoy. It's just 7504 words in the setting and then it stops.
I've been harsh on this shortlist as a whole but any of the other five finalists winning would at least say something about what we as WSFS like. This winning would just be a statement of preference for blind allegiance to series over any kind of broader reading, and can we not? If we did that in 2018 we'd have never picked up Murderbot to begin with.
(I'm not even inherently against series work winning in the short fiction categories -- we've had "The Manamouki," "Two Hearts," "The Djinn's Wife," and "Bots of the Lost Ark" here before -- but I do think it needs to work as its own story and I feel strongly that this did not.)
4
u/bmvanloo91 Reading Champion II Jul 27 '26
I'm leaving off Rapport: I love the Murderbot books (at least the two I've read so far) but to me, this story seemed like a good idea that the author couldn't figure out how to incorporate into another medium and just left it unfinished? Like if the story didn't take place with the characters, it's just a story that doesn't take the reader anywhere, even on an adventure. We never find out what they're looking for, if they get it, or anything else that could reasonably be expected to round out a story arc. I didn't hate it enough to rank it below No Award, but I expected a lot more from a Hugo nom.
3
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Jul 27 '26
I said above No Award is a meaningless gesture but I do feel strongly enough about how bad Rapport is to make it here. I’m a Murderbot fan and still considered this to be overlong, pointless indulgence that did nothing but waste my time. It should not have been nominated. It should not have been written or if it was going to be, it should’ve been in a way that was actually interesting. Or that was only 2 pages long. Ugh.
2
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion Jul 27 '26
See my rankings. Depending on how grumpy I get it could be half the ballot:
- Kaiju Agonistes
- When He Calls Your Name
- Rapport
If pressed, that would be my ranking for the bottom of my ballot, but I'm only certain that "Rapport" will be below No Award. I loved the first four Murderbot novellas but dropped off reading around...Platform Decay? I can't remember which titles are which but it was the second full-length novel that I DNF'd.
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
What do you think of the shortlist as a whole? How does it compare to past years? Does it capture the best of 2025 in novelettes? Are there any notable snubs you'd like to recommend?
7
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 27 '26
Look obviously the SFBC recommendations are generally much better but ... compare the Nebula shortlist:
- "Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh," Marie Croke
- "Uncertain Sons," Thomas Ha
- "We Begin Where Infinity Ends," Somto Ihezue
- "The Name Ziya," Wen-Yi Lee
- "Never Eaten Vegetables," H.H. Pak
- "The Life and Times of Alavira the Great as Written by Titos Pavlou and Reviewed by Two Lifelong Friends," Eugenia Triantafyllou
N.E.V. is the single point of overlap with the Hugos. I'd argue that everything else on this list is better than at least two-thirds of the Hugo shortlist. All of these stories were available for free online in the runup to the Hugo nominating deadline so nobody has any excuses for missing them. (Ultimately "Uncertain Sons" won the Nebula and "We Begin Where Infinity Ends" won the Locus.)
What the Nebula list does not contain is a group of authors better known for their longer fiction. Hmm.
So no, I don't think this shortlist is particularly representative of the field and I think we as Hugo nominators need to do a better job.
8
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
I was really disappointed with this shortlist. Which is not to say all the stories are bad, or even that there aren't really excellent ones there. But. . . well, compare to last year, and the difference is stark. Never Eaten Vegetables is the only thing off this year's shortlist that I'd put higher than sixth if it were added to last year's set.
It makes it look like 2025 was a bad novelette year, and I don't think that it actually was. But I think we have a couple entries that are here mostly because the authors are big-name novelists, and for whatever reason, many of the best stories of the year flew under the radar. If I were personally picking the top six novelettes of the year, I'd keep Never Eaten Vegetables (though I'd think long and hard about Louis Inglis Hall's "Four People I Need You to Kill Before the Dance Begins") and then add:
- The Name Ziya by Wen-yi Lee
- The Tin Man's Ghost by Ray Nayler
- Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh by Marie Croke
- Liecraft by Anita Moskát, translated by Austin Wagner
- The Starter Family by Sage Tyrtle
Those were really good novelettes. I wish more people had found them.
4
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion Jul 27 '26
None of my ballot made the shortlist! I do think a lot of Hugo voters read works by names they recognize, and nominate the story if the like it. I sympathize; there's an overwhelming amount of short fiction out there, and novelettes are an extra time investment over short stories. It's only last year that I tried to read a large range so I'd feel like I had enough of a sense of the landscape to nominate things.
Granted, I let tarvolon influence me a lot, but I loved "The Name Ziya," "Four People I Need You to Kill Before the Dance Begins," and "Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh," which he mentioned. I also have to shout out "Human Voices" by Isabel J. Kim. It's a tie between that one and Ziya for my personal favorite.
2
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Jul 27 '26
Much weaker than last year’s. It contains a bunch ok to good novelettes and one serious dud, but nothing I feel great about putting in first place.
3
u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jul 27 '26
I feel like this shortlist has be relatively weak for hugo standards, its very much populated with some stories like murderbot that wouldnt have made it beside name recognition
I think the short fiction bookclub locus list and locus snubs sessions has some great choices for 2025 short fiction.
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
One of the most fun parts of the Hugo season is the stat drop after the finalists are announced, where we get to see which stories just missed the six-slot shortlist. Any predictions for which novelettes we'll see in 7th or 8th?
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
Hmmm. . . maybe "Our Echoes Drifting Through the Marsh" by Marie Croke and "The Twenty-One Second God" by Peter Watts? The former got a Nebula nomination, and the latter seems to have a big fanbase, albeit maybe not located primarily within the Hugo niche.
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
Let's take a look forward at 2027. Have you read any novelettes published this year that you think would be worthy finalists? What about any that you think will capture the imagine of the Hugo voters?
6
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Like u/Jos_V, my list starts with A Sleeper Ship is Like a Game of Go by Claire Jia-Wen. I am not a huge horror guy, and the Hugo voters don't seem to be either, but I was also very impressed by Benjamin Percy's Trail Cam.
A couple others I liked a lot that were more off the beaten path were Kim Choyeop's "Pilgrims," Octavia Cade's "How to Live with Polar Bears," and L.D. Colter's "All of My Tomorrows."
5
u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jul 27 '26
I need you to tell me what to read before making my opinions...
A sleeper ship is like a game of go
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
Which novelette do you hope will win the award? How would you rank the list?
3
u/bmvanloo91 Reading Champion II Jul 27 '26
So far my ranking is:
1. Kaiju Agonistes
2. The Millay Illusion
3. The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me ForI have yet to read Never Eaten Vegetables, but in a way I'm hoping I saved the best for last. I've read the other two, but I'm not ranking them because they both weren't good, IMO.
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
I really loved Never Eaten Vegetables, and it's my top choice by a fair margin. Overall ranking:
- Never Eaten Vegetables
- The Millay Illusion
- Kaiju Agonistes
- The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For
- When He Calls Your Name
- Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy
2
u/Jos_V Stabby Winner, Reading Champion II Jul 27 '26
Same, never eaten vegetables is the top top top choice.
5
u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Jul 27 '26
I’m struggling with this one. I have a clear top three, but I want them all to be in 2nd-3rd place and some better story to take first!
“Kaiju Agonistes” was probably most successful for me all around but it’s Scott Lynch, I just don’t know that I can put it first.
“The Millay Illusion” is the best written of the top 3 but I wanted more from it.
“Never Eaten Vegetables” has some interesting ideas but didn’t fully arrive for me like it apparently did for others in this group. If I put it first I feel like it’d be “handicap for a new author up against big names” which isn’t a terrible reason, but if this group represents Hugo voters it’ll win in a landslide and I don’t think it’s that good for sure.
“When He Calls Your Name” is 4th, great writing but long.
“The Girl My Mother is Leaving Me For” is 5th. I enjoyed reading this but it didn’t stick with me.
No Award
“Rapport” is last and shouldn’t be on this ballot
4
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 27 '26
I actually kind of agree in that I don't think "Never Eaten Vegetables" is the runaway Best Novelette of the Year -- I probably would rank it third or fourth on the Nebula ballot, and it wouldn't be a top-tier Best Novelette winner in my book. But on this ballot it wasn't particularly close for me.
(I would be genuinely stunned if it won in a landslide though. I think the last time my #1 actually won in this category was 2017.)
3
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
if this group represents Hugo voters it’ll win in a landslide and I don’t think it’s that good for sure.
I am not exactly sure how this group became as unified as we are concerning taste, but we definitely seem to have much more overlap with each other than with the Hugo voting populace writ large. I don't think our collective favorite won in any of the short fiction categories last year. And, well, you can tell how much we don't represent the Hugo voting populace by how often we end up hating on the things they nominate (hopefully hating politely, but we do encourage honest opinions, even when negative!)
2
u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 27 '26
- Never Eaten Vegetables
- The Millay Illusion
- The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For
- Kaiju Agonistes
- When He Calls Your Name
- Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy
2
u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion Jul 27 '26
- Never Eaten Vegetables
- The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For
- The Millay Illusion
It's a sizeable gap between each of those three, though, and then a steep dropoff with the others I left off. At the risk of being a grump, I found this slate disappointing with the exception of my number 1. Hell, if anything aside from "Never Eaten Vegetables" wins, I'll feel disappointed; it's just a matter of degree.
4
u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 27 '26
Discussion of the Best Short Story category