The 2018 Hugo Awards will be presented at Worldcon 76 in San Jose, California, on August 19. The Hugo Award finalists are chosen by readers who are voting members of Worldcon. This week we’ll talk about the awards for Best Series, Best Young Adult Novel, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author. We discussed the categories for short works a few weeks ago and we’ll discuss the novels and novellas in our August 9 column.
Best series (in its second year) has a bumper crop of great stories. This category points out, once again, the difficulty in the category, with books that are definitely linked (Robert Jackson Bennett, Brandon Sanderson, for example) and series like Seanan McGuire’s books, which can be read as stand-alones. It will be interesting to watch this category evolve.
Click the title links below to read our reviews for these works and authors. We’re displaying the covers for our favorite finalists.
BEST SERIES
- THE BOOKS OF THE RAKSURA by Martha Wells, Night Shade
- THE DIVINE CITIES by Robert Jackson Bennett, Broadway/Jo Fletcher
- INCRYPTID by Seanan McGuire, DAW
- THE MEMOIRS OF LADY TRENT by Marie Brennan, Tor/Titan
- THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE by Brandon Sanderson, Tor/Gollancz
- WORLD OF THE FIVE GODS by Lois McMaster Bujold, Harper Voyager/Spectrum
Young Adult is a new category and it too is filled with strong contenders.
BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK
- Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor, Viking
- The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller, HarperTeen
- The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman, Knopf
- In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, Big Mouth House
- A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge, Macmillan/Harry N. Abrams
- Summer in Orcus by T. Kingfisher, Sofawolf Press
JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
How many of these finalists have you read? Who do you think will/should win the Hugo Award in these categories? Answer below for a chance to win a book from our stacks.
This is HARD for me I LOVED the Divine Cities, but I am a DIE hard Sanderson fan and the Stormlight Archives is his best work. I’m glade I don’t have to choose.
We all know I’m a die-hard Bennett partisan, but it’s really difficult, and once again, illustrates the difficulty of these categories. It’s really nice when the problem is that there are too many good things to choose from!
My wife is reading the Akata series right now, and I’m a long-long-time Ursula Vernon fan. I remember reading Orcus online and thinking it was fantastic.
I have The Memoirs of Lady Trent and InCryptid. Both unique takes on their genre with relatable voices.
I still haven’t read any of these :-( but i think maybe a Brandon Sanderson book will win because I’m always hearing about them.
Sanderson’s very popular. He’s earned it by delivering really good stories. He’s not my cup of tea, usually, but I understand why people like him.
Unfortunately I haven’t read most of them. :( It’s one of those moment I want to stop the time and come back here in a couple of days/weeks.
I’d go with *The Divine Cities*.
Sanderson did a good job finishing The Wheel of Time. I’m curious what the World of the Five Gods is all about.
I think “Akata Warrior” and “La Belle Sauvage” would be at the top of my list!
I’ve heard good things about The Divine Cities and have one of The Books of the Raksura, but “Summer in Orcus” sounds especially interesting because I love anything Baba Yaga.
Sanderson is the only author that I have read from this list. I need to up my game.
TDP, if you live in the USA, you win a book of your choice from our stacks.
Please contact me (Marion) with your choice and a US address. Happy reading!