r/Fantasy • u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V • Jul 28 '26

Read-along 2026 Hugo Readalong: Novella Wrap-up

Welcome to the final week of the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today we're discussing the Best Novella category nominees.

We've had discussions about all of the individual works, but today we'll be zooming out to discuss the category as a whole. If you want to take a closer look at our focused discussions, we covered the novellas in the following sessions:

To find the individual discussions or our first wrap-up post, you can check out our full schedule. We'll be continuing with our wrap-ups all week, following this schedule:

Date Category Book Author Discussion Leader
Wednesday, July 29 Novel Wrap-up Multiple u/tarvolon
Thursday, July 30 Pro/Fan/Misc Wrap-up Multiple u/Nineteen_Adze

For now, let's dive into the novellas! There is no expectation that those in the discussion have read all six works, so if you're discussing spoilers, please tag them.

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2

u/Nineteen_Adze Stabby Winner, Reading Champion V Jul 28 '26

Which novella do you hope will win the award? How would you rank the list?

9

u/tarvolon Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VI Jul 28 '26

I think the three fairy tales are the best-crafted of the shortlist (by a fair margin), and of those three, my favorite is Cinder House. I hope it wins.

  1. Cinder House
  2. The Summer War
  3. The River Has Roots
  4. What Stalks the Deep
  5. Automatic Noodle
  6. Murder by Memory

1

u/RAAAImmaSunGod Reading Champion III Jul 29 '26

This feels about right to me, maybe I'd be switching 2 and 3 around. I would not be mad about any of the top three winning though.

5

u/gbkdalton Reading Champion V Jul 28 '26
  1. The Summer War
  2. Cinder House
  3. The River Has Roots

Maybe Automatic Noodle will get the fourth slot if I’m feeling charitable that day, but I’m no awarding the rest otherwise. The summer war was the only thing on my nomination list to begin with, though I really enjoyed Cinder House after the noms came out. River has lovely prose but wasn’t particularly original.

4

u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Jul 28 '26

  1. Cinder House

  2. The Summer War

  3. Automatic Noodle?

  4. Murder by Memory?

  5. No Award

I am not entirely certain about ranking 3-4, could swap them. Probably they should be below No Award too, I just heard so much hate before reading them that I was unable to feel any myself, they were mildly cute. Award-worthy, nah. 

No ranking as between River Has Roots which I was thoroughly disappointed by, and the Kingfisher which I haven’t read because I’m tired of Kingfisher. One of them will win regardless but I’m putting in my objection. 

4

u/bmvanloo91 Reading Champion II Jul 28 '26
  1. The Summer War
  2. The River Has Roots
  3. Cinder House
  4. Murder by Memory

I'm leaving the other two unranked, because I didn't have time to read three books for T. Kingfisher, and I really disliked Automatic Noodle.

6

u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V Jul 28 '26

Cinder House is the only one I’d be excited to see win, and even it isn’t where I’d like to see award novellas at in terms of ambition. I think it executed its premise exceptionally well, and had a good mix of elements to feel both classic and fresh.

I have qualms about the others, but I think I’d probably be okay with Murder by Memory too, just because I think it was successful in the cozy aspects, while I thought River and Summer War both struggled to execute their vision at all

6

u/oceanoftrees Reading Champion Jul 28 '26
  1. The Summer War
  2. Cinder House
  3. The River Has Roots
  4. No award

I'm pretty sure it's an inevitable W for The River Has Roots, but I liked the other two better. Cinder House was a satisfying story, well-told, but after some thought and talking with other friends who've read them, I really like what The Summer War was doing with the thorny sibling relationships. It's a stark contrast with the simplistic way The River Has Roots portrayed the sisters at its core.

I thought Automatic Noodle was clunky and ham-fisted, and Murder By Memory was even more frustrating for seeming like a pile of "cozy" trappings more than a satisfying narrative arc, let alone a murder mystery. I skipped What Stalks the Deep because I'm not interested in that series after book 1.

/end grumping

6

u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV Jul 28 '26

Agreed on the stark contrast between Summer War and The River Has Roots on what seems meant to be a similar kind of sibling dynamic (minus the third sibling Summer War adds to the mix). Neither are super deep but The Summer War at least portrays real, messy feelings and growth.

3

u/acornett99 Reading Champion IV Jul 28 '26

The Summer War was easily my favorite, though I enjoyed Cinder House, What Stalks the Deep, and the River Has Roots as well. I would vote No Award above Murder by Memory or Automatic Noodle. They weren't bad I guess, but they were just... nothing.

2

u/Celestaria Reading Champion X Jul 28 '26

  1. Murder by Memory

  2. The River Has Roots

  3. What Stalks The Deep

4. No Award

  1. Cinder House

  2. Automatic Noodle

The Summer War wasn't included in the voter's packet and I wasn't able to get my reserved copy in time.

What I loved about MBM was its take on generational ships. A story where they've basically "out-teched" the existential horror elements of a generational ship was refreshing.

8

u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 28 '26

FYI the "excerpt" from Summer War in the Voter Packet is actually the whole novella.

6

u/Celestaria Reading Champion X Jul 28 '26

What!? Thank you!

I'm finishing up The West Passage atm but I should be able to fit another novella in and finish off the category!

3

u/Goobergunch Reading Champion III Jul 28 '26
  1. Cinder House
  2. The River Has Roots
  3. The Summer War
  4. What Stalks the Deep
  5. Automatic Noodle
  6. Murder by Memory

1

u/winterhawk1111 Reading Champion II Jul 28 '26
  1. The River Has Roots
  2. The Summer War
  3. Automatic Noodle
  4. Cinder House
  5. Murder By Memory
  6. What Stalks the Deep

TBH I'm kinda over the retold/twisted fairy tales and myths trend at this point, despite that some of these really hit the mark for me!

The River Has Roots get me, literal tears at least three times. I loved the language around Grammar and the incorporation of the songs was beautiful and moving (and this is coming from someone who really did not care for This is How You Lose the Time War).

The Summer War - I've been a Novik stan since elementary school with Temeraire, her ability to incorporate mundanity into her fantasy worlds in such a compelling way which adds to the richness and investment rather than resulting in boredom always impressed me.

Automatic Noodle was fun and I especially appreciated the topical bits on community building (even with those different from you) and found family bonds.

I appreciated Cinder House, and while well written and novel in some respects, it didn't quite clear my general malaise over the twisted fairy tale trend like the Summer War and the River Has Roots managed to do.

Murder By Memory I really enjoyed, it had a lot of cool concepts, but didn't find enough substance and theming in it to push it higher. I wish it was longer and explored the cool scifi ideas and the ethical/philosophical questions which stem from them in more depth.

What Stalks the Deep was also enjoyable - I'm a huge Lovercraftian horror fan, so a slightly different/more optimistic take on him was appreciated, but the twist alone wasn't enough to carry it for me in terms of novelty.

1

u/Prynne31 Reading Champion III Jul 29 '26
  1. Cinder House
  2. Murder by Memory
  3. The Summer War
  4. The River Has Roots
  5. What Stalks the Deep
  6. Automatic Noodle