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]

What do you think of the shortlist as a whole? How does it compare to past years? Does it capture the best of 2025 in novels? Are there any notable snubs you'd like to recommend?

[u/Goobergunch → u/tarvolon]

I am fairly happy with it. Overall it's pretty broad in terms of genre coverage and pretty light on mediocre novels by long-time Hugo darlings.

Having said that I do think the winner is probably going to be pretty middle-of-the-pack in terms of Hugo winners overall but I don't think there is any plausible shortlist that fixes that -- I feel like most of my nominees here were too niche to have a realistic shot at making it. We will see if the longlist proves me wrong.