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

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

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

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

Best Short Story

• “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
• “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills
• “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim

Best Series

• The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison
• The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone
• Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett
• October Daye by Seanan McGuire
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• 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
• 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
• A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham

Best Related Work

• Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid
• The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, maintained by Renay
• 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

Best Semiprozine

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

Best Fanzine

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

Best Fancast

• The Coode Street Podcast
• Eating the Fantastic
• Hugo, Girl!
• A Meal of Thorns
• Octothorpe
• 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, text on this page
• “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.

2026 Hugos: Novella | Novelette | Short Story | Dramatic Presentation, Short Form | Professional Artist | Poem
Best Novel: The Incandescent | Shroud | The Raven Scholar | The Everlasting
Best Graphic Story or Comic: The Invisible Parade | three more finalists | A Wizard of Earthsea, and my votes
Best Related Work: Colourfields | The Cuddled Little Vice | Inventing the Renaissance | Positive Obsession, and my votes
Lodestar: Holy Terrors | Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe
Where to get them | Goodreads/Librarything/StoryGraph stats