The Hugo final ballot is out, and I understand that as is usual, the Hugo team is working hard to assemble a Voter Packet which will be made available for free to all Hugo voters (WSFS members of this year’s Worldcon). This is obviously a Good Thing, but as a matter of fact you can start your Hugo reading right now; there is no need to wait until the Packet is available.

Below, I give links to works which are available for free online, and Amazon links to other works, skipping individual people and Dramatic Presentations. The Packet, when it is available, is likely to also include samples of work by individuals who are finalists, and if we’re lucky also a Dramatic Presentation or two. But you can get started right now.

Best Novel

• A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
• Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
• The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
• The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Best Novella

• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• Cinder House by Freya Marske
• Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
• The Summer War by Naomi Novik
• What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

Best Novelette

• “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch
• “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak
• “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells
• “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed
• “The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker
• “When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M. Valente

Best Short Story

• “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills
• “In My Country” by Thomas Ha
• “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg
• “Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro
• “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson
• “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim

Best Series

• Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison
• The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone
• White Space by Elizabeth Bear

Best Graphic Story or Comic

• Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon, written by Kelly Thompson, art by Hayden Sherman and Mattia de Iulis, coloring by Jordie Bellaire, lettering by Becca Carey
• A Girl and Her Fed, written by KB Spangler, art by Ale Presser
• A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham
• The Invisible Parade by Leigh Bardugo and John Picacio
• The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Caspar Wijngaard, lettering by Clayton Cowles
• The Space Cat, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford

Best Related Work

• Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid
• Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer
• Last War in Albion: “The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)” by Elizabeth Sandifer
• Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris
• “Ragnarök vs the Long Night” by Ashaya and Aziz
• The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, maintained by Renay

Best Semiprozine

• Escape Pod
• khōréō magazine
• On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic
• Strange Horizons
• The Deadlands
• Uncanny Magazine

Best Fanzine

• Ancillary Review of Books
• An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog
• Galactic Journey
• Intergalactic Mixtape
• Journey Planet
• nerds of a feather, flock together

Best Fancast

• A Meal of Thorns
• Eating the Fantastic
• Hugo, Girl!
• Octothorpe
• The Coode Street Podcast
• Worldbuilding for Masochists

Best Poem

• “Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness
• “Hex Supply Customer Support Log” by Elis Montgomery
• “How to Become a Sea Witch” by Theodora Goss
• “Landing: Seattle” by Brandon O’Brien
• “The Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu
• “The World to Come” by Jennifer Hudak

Lodestar Award for Best YA Book

• Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman
• Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee
• Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen
• Oathbound by Tracy Deonn
• Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
• They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

Finally, a couple of people have challenged me over linking to Amazon from my various book posts, such as this one. I get no reward at all for writing this blog, apart from £25 in Amazon credits about once a year from people clicking on my affiliate links. If you can point me to an independent bookselling site, preferably in the UK where the largest segment of my readers are based, where I would get similar credits for referred sales, then I’m all ears.