Last year I completed my review of the last 15 years of novels that won a Hugo Award. This year, I decided to try and read all six of the 2026 nominees for Best Novel:

  • Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor (William Morrow; Gollancz)
  • A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey; Hodderscape)
  • The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (Tor US; Tor UK)
  • The Incandescent by Emily Tesh (Tor US; Orbit UK)
  • The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Orbit US; Hodderscape)
  • Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK; Orbit US)

The vote: “1,153 ballots cast for 555 nominees. Finalists range 126-210.” The winner will be announced on August 30.

I read five of the six—

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Winner of the 2026 Locus Award, this is the most ambitious and most literary of the Hugo-award novel nominees I’ve read. It made me cry multiple times. I remain unsettled by the ending. The protagonist is a science-fiction author in the near future writing about the far future of Nigeria, while wrestling with the dynamics of her Nigerian-American family.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

⭐ ⭐ ⭐  What I wrote about its prequel, The Tainted Cup:

3 stars—An able murder mystery set in a corrupt Empire threatened by giant sea monsters. (The book is the first in The Shadow of the Leviathan series, currently consisting of two books, with a third planned.) The causes of death are magical and the two lead investigators are magically augmented, as are many of the suspects. While the novel only has two swordfights, both are really fascinating and well done. (I love a good swordfight.) The author does that thing where the narrator keeps a secret of their past from you to try and keep you in suspense. Yawn.

The first book stood alone; I hadn’t realized it was a trilogy when starting out. The sequel continued with its interesting world building of a struggling empire engaging in realpolitik. I again appreciated the verisimilitude of its magical system. Alas, the swordfights weren’t as good as the previous book, nor was the mystery as interesting. Fortunately, it didn’t have the major flaw of the prior book, of the narrator withholding information. I’m glad I read it, but I hope the final book of the trilogy is better executed. 

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ My favorite of this year’s nominees, a powerful meditation on love, storytelling, and the fascist need for an invented mythical past. Arthurian, medieval, modern. The only one on this list that I’m eager to re-read.

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ I loved Tesh’s Hugo-winning novel, Some Desperate Glory (“an action story that also addresses fascism, gender politics, and understanding one’s enemy”) and so started this with high expectations. The main character is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School, overseeing the school while also charged with keeping her students safe. Safe, because magic involves contracts with demons from the demonic plane, and when magic goes awry it can attract powerful demons. The book has excellent world building and characterization, with two great twists near the end. Arguably a romantasy (fantasy is integral, but the two romances are secondary). My high expectations were met: the best book I’ve read set in a magic school since A Wizard of Earthsea.

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

I balked at the length of this and because it is the first part of a planned trilogy. (It was the ubiquitous fantasy trilogy, which I started out loving and grew to loathe, that pushed me out of reading the genre and into reading more nonfiction.) I’ll get to it.

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Hard science fiction examining the bizarre moon of a gas giant, and it’s even more bizarre biosphere.

Photo credit: Worldcon Intellectual Property.