2025 Locus, Nebula, & Hugo lists

[Chris]

This thread is for collecting information about the big three awards to be given in 2025 for works published in 2024.

Locus Magazine has published its Recommended Reading List: https://locusmag.com/2025/02/2024-rec...
I include the categories most relevant to the club. For many more categories such as Horror and short fiction recommendations, follow the link above.

Science Fiction Novels

The Book Censor’s Library, Bothayna Al-Essa
Private Rites, Julia Armfield
The Repeat Room, Jesse Ball
Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino
The Sentence, Gautam Bhatia
The Man Who Saw Seconds, Alexander Boldizar
City of Dancing Gargoyles, Tara Campbell
Echo of Worlds, M.R. Carey
Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera
The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey
Exordia, Seth Dickinson
The Bezzle, Cory Doctorow
Morphotrophic, Greg Egan
Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Hiromi Kawakami
Beyond the Light Horizon, Ken Macleod
The Tongue Trade, Michael J. Martineck
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, Malka Older
Playground, Richard Powers
The Knife and the Serpent, Tim Pratt
Machine Vendetta, Alastair Reynolds
Lake of Darkness, Adam Roberts
Remember You Will Die, Eden Robins
Kinning, Nisi Shawl
Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Space Oddity, Catherynne M. Valente
Absolution, Jeff VanderMeer
Three Eight One, Aliya Whiteley
We Are All Ghosts in the Forest, Lorraine Wilson
Juice, Tim Winton

Fantasy Novels

The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden
Navola, Paolo Bacigalupi
The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons, Peter S. Beagle
The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett
The Last Hour Between Worlds, Melissa Caruso
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, P. Djèlí Clark
Metal from Heaven, August Clarke
The Nightward, R.S.A. Garcia
Wicked Problems, Max Gladstone
The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman
Asunder, Kerstin Hall
The Tapestry of Time, Kate Heartfield
Blackheart Man, Nalo Hopkinson
A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher
Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune
The Book of Gold, Ruth Frances Long
The Sky on Fire, Jenn Lyons
The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed
The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door, H.G. Parry
The Parliament, Aimee Pokwatka
Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan
The Briar Book of the Dead, A.G. Slatter
Days of Shattered Faith, Adrian Tchaikovsky
The City in Glass, Nghi Vo

First Novels

The Unmothers, Leslie J. Anderson
The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, Sarah Brooks
The Book of Doors, Gareth Brown
Sargassa, Sophie Burnham
A Letter to the Luminous Deep, Sylvie Cathrall
The Jaguar Mask, Michael J. Deluca
Lady Eve’s Last Con, Rebecca Fraimow
The Invisible Hotel, Yeji Y. Ham
Toward Eternity, Anton Hur
The Melancholy of Untold History, Minsoo Kang
Blood of the Old Kings, Sung-Il Kim, trans. Anton Hur
Road to Ruin, Hana Lee
The Book of Love, Kelly Link
In Universes, Emet North
The West Passage, Jared Pechaček
River Mumma, Zalika Reid-Benta
The Garden of Delights, Amal Singh
The Spice Gate, Prashanth Srivatsa
Womb City, Tlotlo Tsamaase
Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell
Hammajang Luck, Makana Yamamoto
Equimedian, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

[Chris]

The Nebula Award nominations have been announced: https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award-year/2...

Best Novel

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, Yaroslav Barsukov
Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera
Asunder, Kerstin Hall
A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher
The Book of Love, Kelly Link
🏆Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell

Awards were given on June 7: https://nebulas.sfwa.org/award-year/2...

[Chris]

Hugo Award nominations have been announced: https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-a...

Best Novel

Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell
A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher
🏆The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett

Awards were given on August 16: https://seattlein2025.org/wsfs/hugo-a...

[Chris]

The Locus Award nominations have been announced: https://locusmag.com/2025/05/2025-loc...

Science Fiction Novel

🏆The Man Who Saw Seconds, Alexander Boldizar
Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera
The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey
The Bezzle, Cory Doctorow
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, Malka Older
Kinning, Nisi Shawl
Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky
Space Oddity, Catherynne M. Valente
Absolution, Jeff VanderMeer

Fantasy Novel

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons, Peter S. Beagle
The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins, P. Djèlí Clark
The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman
Asunder, Kerstin Hall
🏆A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher
Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune
The Siege of Burning Grass, Premee Mohamed
Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan
The City in Glass, Nghi Vo

First Novel

The Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley
The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, Sarah Brooks
Sargassa, Sophie Burnham
Lady Eve’s Last Con, Rebecca Fraimow
The Book of Love, Kelly Link
The West Passage, Jared Pechaček
The Spice Gate, Prashanth Srivatsa
Womb City, Tlotlo Tsamaase
🏆Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell
Hammajang Luck, Makana Yamamoto

Awards were given on June 21: https://locusmag.com/2025/06/2025-loc...

[Alecsandra]

Great ideea. I will be following this thread.

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Thanks for doing this Chris!

[Cheryl L]

Yes, thank, Chris!

[Chris]

You're welcome!

[Chris]

Hugo nominations were announced. See message 3 above for details.

[Melanie]

Thanks Chris! This is really useful. :)

[Chris]

I belatedly added the Locus Award nominations in message 4 above.

[Chris]

The Nebula Awards were announced: https://locusmag.com/2025/06/2024-neb...

Best Novel went to Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell.

[Peter]

I thought some folks following this thread might be interested that the finalists for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize were just announced. Here's a link to the prize site: https://www.ursulakleguin.com/prize25. Happy reading!

The Ursula K. Le Guin Foundation is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction:

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera
Archangels of Funk by Andrea Hairston
Blackheart Man by Nalo Hopkinson
The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy
The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins
The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher

The recipient of this year’s prize will be chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse, and will be announced on October 21, 2025.

[CJ]

I saw the announcement on Bluesky. Interesting list. I've burnt myself out with award season reads reading through the PKD award and Nebula award shortlists, and I've read 3 of those on that list (and DNF's one--Robins) so far. But I hope to get to Killjoy and Hopkinson eventually. Haven't heard of either Whitcher or Pechaček before this, I don't think.

I enjoyed Rakesfall, and Archangels of Funk was pretty good too. I don't get why people love The City in Glass. I found it very mid, like Vo sleepwalked through writing it.

By the way, the Locus Award winners will be announced this weekend.

[Chris]

The Locus Awards were announced: https://locusmag.com/2025/06/2025-loc...

Science Fiction Novel: The Man Who Saw Seconds, Alexander Boldizar

Fantasy Novel: A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher

First Novel: Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell

[CJ]

Perhaps it's just award season has me a bit burnt out but the Locus winners are kind of meh for me. I'm interested in reading The Man Who Saw Seconds since that's a new author to me. If I had the time and energy to lead a BR, I'd try to recruit folks, but that'll have to wait. My July TBR is already so full.

Also from the Locus novel shortlists, books that interest me and hope to get to eventually: The Siege of Burning Grass by Premee Mohamed, The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark, Kinning by Nisi Shawl, Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente, and The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older, plus a few from the First Novel shortlist. So many books, so little time.

I DNF'd Wiswell's book and thought A Sorceress Comes to Call will appeal to Kingfisher fans but likely won't make many new fans.

Kingfisher also won Best Novella for What Feasts at Night.

A little disappointed that Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole won for Best Short Story (it also won the Nebula). I feel it was really overhyped and there were so many other works that were simply better in my perhaps not very humble opinion. But it wouldn't be award season if there weren't winners that didn't make me feel that way.

[Kaia]

CJ wrote: "Perhaps it's just award season has me a bit burnt out but the Locus winners are kind of meh for me. I'm interested in reading The Man Who Saw Seconds since that's a new author to m..."

I would be interested in joining a BR for The Man Who Saw Seconds, CJ! I also have no time to do it for a while. I had never even heard of the book before. I watched the awards online, and the author was so genuinely grateful and surprised by the win. It’s nice when that happens sometimes.

I agree with you about Why Don't We Just Kill The Kid in the Omelas Hole. I didn’t think it was nearly as good as We Will Teach You How to Read by Caroline Yoachim (which was my favorite from the list). I guess something about it speaks to a lot of other readers right now, since it also won the Nebula.

[Chris]

The Hugo Awards were announced: https://locusmag.com/2025/08/hugo-lod...

Best Novel went to The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.

[CJ]

I watched the Hugo awards on You Tube last night and overall I was pretty pleased/OK with the winners. But as usual I'm disappointed with the winner of best novel. I know RJB has many fans and I'll agree the book was good. Hugo good enough? Not in my opinion but hey, I didn't vote (I genuinely don't have the time or energy for that). I was rooting for Alien Clay.

Oh and a follow-up on The Man Who Saw Seconds--it was a DNF for me. Other people loved it. I thought it was derivative and mid.

[Silvana]

I scored 3 out of 4 this time for the big four categories. Only the short story that I voted (the Tartarus one) did not get a Hugo. Tainted Cup, Tusk, Four Sisters all won .
Sheine Lende winning the Lodestar was the cherry on top.

[Kaia]

Silvana wrote: "I scored 3 out of 4 this time for the big four categories. Only the short story that I voted (the Tartarus one) did not get a Hugo. Tainted Cup, Tusk, Four Sisters all won .
Sheine Lende winning th..."

I was so happy Sheine Lende won the Lodestar! I love Naomi Kritzer, and I had somehow missed her nominated novelette this year. I read it this morning online, and it is great.

[Silvana]

Kaia wrote: "Silvana wrote: "I scored 3 out of 4 this time for the big four categories. Only the short story that I voted (the Tartarus one) did not get a Hugo. Tainted Cup, Tusk, Four Sisters all won .
Sheine ..."

It is! Clear favorite to win since I read it. A great writer, can write anything from short story to novel, fantasy to SF. Crazy that she now won three years in a row for short work categories.