Month: April 2025

Nominations for this year’s Hugo Awards, the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer closed on March 14, 2025.  I submitted my final double-checked nomination ballot that evening around 8 pm EDT about 7 hours before the deadline.  Seattle Worldcon 2025 will announce the finalists on their social media and website at noon PDT on Sunday, April 6.  They will present the awards at a ceremony on Saturday, August 16 at 8 pm PDT (UTC−07:00).  Here are my selections:

BEST NOVEL

• A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher, (Tor)
• Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit)
• The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey (Orbit)
• The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey)
• The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden (Del Rey)

BEST NOVELLA

• Haunt Sweet Home, Sarah Pinsker (Tordotcom)
• The Brides of High Hill, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
• The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, Malka Older (Tordotcom)
• The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
• What Feasts at Night, T. Kingfisher (Tor Nightfire)

BEST NOVELETTE

• “Kardashev’s Palimpsest”, David Goodman (Clarkesworld 209, Feb 2024)
• “Lake of Souls”, Ann Leckie (Lake of Souls, Orbit)
• “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being”, A.W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 218, Nov 2024)
• “Signs of Life”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 59, Jul/Aug 2024)
• “The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea”, Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s Sep/Oct 2024)

BEST SHORT STORY

• “And She Had Been So Reasonable”, Rachel Bolton (Apex 147, Nov 2024)
• “Twenty-Four Hours”, H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld 213, Jun 2024)
• “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 168, May 2024)
• “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole”, Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld 209, Feb 2024)
• “Willow Wood”, Linda Niehoff (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 398, 11 Jan 2024)

BEST SERIES

• Between Earth and Sky, Rebecca Roanhorse (Mirrored Heavens)
• Burning Kingdoms, Tasha Suri (The Lotus Empire)
• Craft Sequence, Max Gladstone (Wicked Problems)
• InCryptid, Seanan McGuire (Aftermarket Afterlife)
• Stormlight Archive, Brandon Sanderson (Wind and Truth)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY

• Coda: False Dawns, Simon Spurrier and Matías Bergara (BOOM! Studios)
• Devour, Jazmine Joyner and Anthony Pugh (Abrams)
• The Hunger and the Dusk, Vol. 1, G. Willow Wilson and Chris Wildgoose (IDW)
• Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Outlaw, Tom King and Daniel Sampere (DC Comics)
• Young Hag and the Witches’ Quest, Isabel Greenberg (Abrams)

BEST RELATED WORK

• Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are, Rebecca Boyle (Random House)
• Space Oddities: The Mysterious Anomalies Challenging Our Understanding of the Universe, Harry Cliff (Doubleday)
• The Allure of the Multiverse: Extra Dimensions, Other Worlds, and Parallel Universes, Paul Halpern (Basic Books)
• Track Changes: Selected Reviews, Abigail Nussbaum (Briardene)
• Urban Fantasy: Exploring Modernity through Magic, Stefan Ekman (Lever Press)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

• Constellation (Apple TV+)
• Dune: Part Two (Legendary)
• Dune: Prophecy (Max)
• From, Season 3 (MGM+)
• House of the Dragon, Season 2 (Max)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

• “The Harmonium”, Silo (Apple TV+)
• “Rhaenyra the Cruel”, House of the Dragon (Max)
• “Shatter”, From (MGM+)
• “Sisterhood Above All”, Dune: Prophecy (Max)
• “The Wounded Angel”, Constellation (Apple TV+)

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

• John Joseph Adams
• Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• Neil Clarke
• Scott H. Andrews
• Sheree Renée Thomas

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

• Bella Pagan
• Bradley Englert
• Jennifer Hershey
• Julian Pavia
• Lindsey Hall

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

• Alyssa Winans
• Ashley Mackenzie
• Colin Verdi
• Priscilla Kim
• Tran Nguyen

BEST SEMIPROZINE

• Strange Horizons

BEST FANZINE

• Camestros Felapton
• Fantasy Book Critic
• Red Headed Femme
• The Wertzone
• Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog

BEST FANCAST

• Kitty G Books (YouTube)
• SFF180 (YouTube)
• Stitch & Bitch (YouTube Liveshows)
• The Coode Street Podcast

BEST FAN WRITER

• Adam Whitehead
• Camestros Felapton
• Chris M. Barkley
• Heather Rose Jones
• Jason Sanford

BEST FAN ARTIST

• Alison Scott
• Geek Calligraphy
• Iain J Clark
• Lar DeSouza
• Michelle Morrell

BEST POEM

• “A Selection of Book Curses”, Megan Branning (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Winter 2024)
• “A War of Words”, Marie Brennan (Strange Horizons, 16 Sep 2024)
• “Dear Charles Perrault”, Devan Barlow (Strange Horizons, 29 Jan 2024)
• “The Languages of Birds”, Mary Soon Lee (Strange Horizons, 15 Jul 2024)
• “The Past Is a Foreign Country”, Rachel Rodman (Strange Horizons, 1 Jul 2024)

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK

• Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao (Tundra)
• Moonstorm, Yoon Ha Lee (Delacorte)
• Sheine Lende, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Sleep Like Death, Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury)
• The Maid and the Crocodile, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER

• Em X. Liu
• Hannah Kaner
• Moniquill Blackgoose
• Natasha King
• Tia Tashiro

I had fun reading for this year’s special Best Poem Hugo.  I did not nominated anything for the now regular Best Game or Interactive Work category.  What were your favorites from 2024?