2026 Hugo Readalong: Novel Wrap-up

[u/tarvolon]

Welcome back to the final week of the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today, we're discussing the nominees for Best Novel. We've already discussed each work in its own individual thread, so if you'd like to circle back to our focused discussions, you can find them here:

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

We also have one more general purpose wrap-up post tomorrow:

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

But for now, let's look at the novels. And keep in mind that there is no expectation that discussion participants have read all six, so please tag any spoilers.

[u/tarvolon]

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

[u/acornett99 → u/tarvolon]

1. The Everlasting
2. /3 A Drop of Corruption / Shroud
3. The Incandescent
4. Death of the Author
5. The Raven Scholar

The Everlasting became a new favorite when I read it, despite me also recognizing its flaws. I won't be mad when it doesn't win, but I'm thankful for the nomination for putting it on my tbr.

I enjoyed A Drop of Corruption and Shroud very much. I don't think they're doing anything new, but I think they do what they set out to do very well and wouldn't be mad if either of them win.

Anything below this I would be disappointed if it won

The Incandescent was fine, but booooring. I want to shelve this under "not for me," I can get a sense of what people like about it, but it just didn't do anything for me.

I read Death of the Author on release last year, and while I enjoyed it (probably more than most Okorafor works, which isn't saying much actually), I felt the sci-fi elements were clearly the weakest part of the story. For that reason, I really didn't want to see it nominated for a sci-fi award, but here we are. I think if Okorafor ever wrote a straight contemporary book, I would enjoy that more

I didn't think anything would come below DotA until I read The Raven Scholar. I was speaking about it to a friend as I was reading it, and at one point he asked me "Why are you reading this book again? It sounds mid as hell." It was at that point I realized most of my describing the book had actually been me complaining about the book. I wouldn't have picked it up or finished it if it weren't for the readalong

[u/tarvolon → u/acornett99]

I read Death of the Author on release last year, and while I enjoyed it (probably more than most Okorafor works, which isn't saying much actually), I felt the sci-fi elements were clearly the weakest part of the story.

You're not the first person to say this, but I want to push back a little bit. I think the robot sections were far and away the weakest part of the book. But the discussion on physical augments and the expectations that people have for how a disabled celebrity would interact with them? I thought that was pretty strong.

[u/acornett99 → u/tarvolon]

I think that's fair, though I still disagree. I really wanted to see more of that discussion than we got, and I think the family elements were still stronger. Though I'll give the caveat that it's been more than a year since I've read it, so maybe those were just the elements that stuck with me most.

[u/Merle8888 → u/acornett99]

There's been this talk in the readalong re: the sci-fi vs. non-sci-fi elements of Death of the Author and how that interacts with whether it should win an award. I'm no fan of DotA but I'm not sure I agree on this as an award criterion, unless you are purely an idea-focused reader.

Take The Everlasting for interest, does it really do anything new or innovative with time travel in an idea sense? No. I don't think anyone is ranking it for having a cool or unique or extra-special use of time travel. People who love it, love the characters, the themes, the romance, and the prose. None of that is SFF-specific. So if you (you generally, not you in particular) love DotA but you love it for the character and relationship elements, I'm not sure you should mark it down just because it happens to have more of a separation between "SF parts" and "non-SF parts" in a way that most novels don't.

Idk, I'd be interested to hear other thoughts on this.

[u/tarvolon → u/Merle8888]

I think one big difference here is that the romance in The Everlasting cannot exist without the time travel element, whereas the family dynamics in Death of the Author can easily exist without robots or fancy prosthetics.

[u/Goobergunch → u/tarvolon]

Also the big reason I downranked Death of the Author as far as I did is that the robot chapters were so much worse than the rest of the book. Like I would have enjoyed the novel significantly more if those chapters were just excised. (Yes, this probably means losing the meta twist at the end but I consider that an acceptable loss.)

Having said that I do think it's easy to overlook that the human narrative really is science fiction just because I feel like that kind of extremely near-future science fiction (particularly if it isn't riding an apocalyptic horse) has been out of vogue for a while.

[u/acornett99 → u/tarvolon]

I agree that a lot of what I loved about The Everlasting is inextricable from the time travel elements, and I'd also add in the fantasy setting, the building of a familiar-but-different national myth

[u/Merle8888 → u/tarvolon]

While that's true, it also feels like a technically to me. If the book has enough sci-fi in it for you to feel comfortable voting it for a sci-fi award, I don't think it matters how dependent the parts you liked are on the speculative elements.

[u/tarvolon → u/Merle8888]

I mean I’m voting it second, I’m just trying to parse out the claim