Calling all sci-fi fans! The Hugo Award winners for 2021 have been announced! First presented in 1953, this annual award for the year’s best work of science fiction has become one of the most prestigious in the world. As a result, the careers of Hugo winners and nominees are followed with great interest from sci-fi fans the world over. Here are some of this year’s winners:
Best Novel
“For the unfamiliar, The Murderbot Diaries is an action-packed, smart science fiction series about a self-hacking robot searching for the meaning of life. This is the first full-length standalone in the series. Given time to develop characters, the peril was even more suspenseful. More than any of the other titles, this one has me hoping for a sequel. For fans of Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie.” (LibraryReads, May 2020)
Runners-Up
Best Novella
“A young novice, Chih, and their hoopoe companion make their way to the house where the Empress of Salt and Fortune once lived in exile, hoping to recover and note any artifacts for the abbey’s historical records. Instead they find an old woman named Rabbit, who tells them that back when the empress was just a northern royal named In-yo, Rabbit was her shadow, her servant, and her devoted friend, and she can tell stories no one else would know. This novella tells an epic story through small moments and intricate details, and its world-building is done with care, from the codes hidden in fortunes and linguistics to the folktales mentioned in passing in Rabbit’s story. In-yo is a transfixing figure, and Rabbit is a moody, fascinating character in her own right. Vo’s debut has it all: from sapphic love to cruel betrayals; from political intrigue to lakes that glow red to ghosts that continue to walk old paths. Despite its length, The Empress of Salt and Fortune will appeal to all fans of epic fantasy, and readers will be excited to read whatever Vo comes up with next.” — (Booklist, vol 116, number 12, p42)
Runners-Up
Best Novelette
“Stella thought she’d made up a lie on the spot, asking her childhood friend if he remembered the strange public broadcast TV show with the unsettling host she and all the neighborhood kids appeared on years ago. But he does remember. And so does her mom. So why doesn’t Stella? The more she investigates the show and the grip it has on her hometown, the eerier the mystery grows.” -Amazon.com
Runners-Up
The Inaccessibility of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard
The Pill by Meg Elison
Helicopter Story by Isabel Fall
Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super by A.T. Greenblatt
For more Hugo 2021 winners, please click here.
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Thanks for reading,
George, FTPL
