The Hugo ballot is out! Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists.
I had a couple of days’ advance knowledge and prepared these tables of the finalists’ standings on Goodreads and LibraryThing; some of these numbers will have changed on GR and LT in the meantime.
Best Novel
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| reviewers | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir | 239,092 | 4.53 | 2,252 | 4.3 |
| She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan | 22,276 | 3.96 | 525 | 4.07 |
| The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers | 15,679 | 4.44 | 628 | 4.42 |
| A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine | 13,345 | 4.37 | 512 | 4.18 |
| A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark | 9,601 | 4.15 | 462 | 3.95 |
| Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki | 6,184 | 4.14 | 279 | 4.16 |
All very highly rated, though with a clear leader.
Last year’s winner was third on this metric, but had the highest reader rating on both systems.
The 2020 winner was fourth on this metric, and had the second highest rating on Goodreads and joint third highest on LibraryThing.
The 2019 winner was third on this metric, had the second highest rating on Goodreads (again) and the second lowest on LibraryThing.
The 2018 winner was second on this metric and had the top ratings on both systems.
The 2017 winner was also second on this metric, had the third highest rating on Goodreads and the second highest on LibraryThing.
The 2016 winner was fifth on this metric, but had the top ratings on both systems.
The 2015 winner was fourth (out of five) on all counts.
The 2014 winner was third (out of five) on this metric (counting all the Wheel of Time as one) and in the middle-ish on ratings (depending on how you count the Wheel of Time)
The 2013 winner was top on both metrics (uniquely!) and third (out of five) in ratings on both systems.
The 2012 winner was last on both Goodreads owners and ratings, and had the lowest rating on Goodreads, but was ranked and rated third (out of five) on LibraryThing.
It’s clearly an imperfect indicator. The eventual winner was in the top half of the table in four of the last nine years, in the botto, half four times, and in the middle once.
Best Novella
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| reviewers | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers | 22,031 | 4.29 | 581 | 4.23 |
| Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire | 12,367 | 3.82 | 328 | 3.96 |
| A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow | 12,986 | 3.7 | 302 | 4 |
| Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard | 3,229 | 3.51 | 186 | 3.85 |
| Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky | 4,061 | 4.2 | 114 | 4.03 |
| The Past Is Red, by Catherynne M. Valente | 1,825 | 4.18 | 124 | 4.41 |
Again, all very highly rated, though again with a clear leader.
Last year’s winner was third on this metric, but had the highest LT rating and second highest GR rating.
The 2020 winner ranked top on this metric.
The 2019 winner was second on this metric but had top ratings from readers.
And I don’t seem to have done it previously.
Best Graphic Story or Comic
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| reviewers | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| Lore Olympus, vol. 1 | 36,248 | 4.43 | 354 | 4.16 |
| Monstress, vol. 6: The Vow | 1,645 | 4.45 | 126 | 4.22 |
| Far Sector | 1,376 | 4.29 | 60 | 3.73 |
| Once & Future, vol. 3: The Parliament of Magpies | 741 | 4.17 | 33 | 3.94 |
| DIE, vol. 4: Bleed | 672 | 4.18 | 34 | 3.82 |
| Strange Adventures | 679 | 4.21 | 18 | 3.7 |
A clear leader in ownership, but a different leader on user ratings.
Last year’s winner was third on this metric, third on GR ratings, but only fifth on LT ratings.
The 2020 winner was actually last on this metric, and had the second lowest ratings.
The 2019 winner was third and had the second highest ratings.
Best Related Work
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| reviewers | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee, by Abraham Riesman | 901 | 3.8 | 51 | 4.38 |
| Never Say You Can’t Survive, by Charlie Jane Anders | 442 | 4.27 | 57 | 4.63 |
| Being Seen, by Elsa Sjunneson | 221 | 4.55 | 21 | 3.75 |
| Dangerous Visions and New Worlds, by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre | 34 | 3.91 | 26 | – |
| The Complete Debarkle, by Camestros Felapton | 1 | 4 | 2 | – |
| “How Twitter can ruin a life”, by Emily St. James (Vox, Jun 2021) | – | – | – | – |
The last of these is not a standalone publication, and The Complete Debarkle clearly hasn’t hit the bookstore shelves. The LT reader rating for Never Say You Can’t Survive is the highest for any of these books. I don’t think I’ve done this for BRW before.
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book
| Goodreads | LibraryThing | |||
| reviewers | av rating | owners | av rating | |
| The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik | 37,980 | 4.34 | 612 | 4.25 |
| Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao | 26796 | 4.25 | 461 | 4.13 |
| Redemptor, by Jordan Ifueko | 5345 | 4.31 | 117 | 4 |
| Victories Greater Than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders | 1987 | 3.55 | 212 | 3.66 |
| A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger | 1450 | 4.12 | 101 | 3.55 |
| Chaos on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer | 538 | 4.18 | 63 | 4.07 |
Again, a clear leader.
Last year’s winner was third on this metric and fourth on both GR and LT ratings.
The 2020 winner had the second lowest place on the metric, and among Goodreads reviewers; but LibraryThing readers ranked it top.
I skipped this category in 2019.
The 2018 YA Award winner was top on the metric, and among Goodreads reviewers, but only rated fifth out of six by LibraryThing users.