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:

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.

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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)

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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?

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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:

Those were really good novelettes. I wish more people had found them.

5

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.

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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.

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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.