Reading 71 Years of Hugo Award Winners

1950s and 60s

My primary memory of the first 17 years of books is The Man in the High Castle. My only exposure to Philip K. Dick before reading this one was his influence in film: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, etc. The Man in the High Castle is the earliest of the reads with a more "believable" alternate reality. The scene that really sticks with me is Tagomi's "spiritual experience" of the alternate reality where Germany and Japan did not win World War II.

Outside of that I most enjoyed Starship Troopers, The Wanderer, Dune, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

There were two I did not enjoy at all: The Big Time, which felt more like reading a play than a novel, and Stand on Zanzibar, which I did not actually finish. I'd like to at least go back to Zanzibar someday as I don't recall what I disliked about it.

1970s

Dreamsnake dominates almost all my memories of this period. It was the best novel I read to date and remains one of my favorites of all the Hugo winners. McIntyre's development of Snake as the main character is masterful and this felt like the most developed of any female characters among Hugo winners to that point by far. If one read Dreamsnake out of the blue today, the impact may not be as great. But reading it with the context of all previous Hugo winners, it felt like something entirely different and well ahead of it's time.

The other novels from this era I enjoyed were: Ringworld, Rendezvous with Rama and The Forever War.

1980s

Just being able to produce a novel about dolphins in spaceships is an achievement in itself. Then to make the story (and ultimately the series) compelling and entertaining is just something else entirely. I remember going in to Startide Rising with a lot of skepticism but Brin builds an amazingly creative and interesting world.

The concept of uplift in general would benefit from a lot more literature and there are other novels I'll check out in the future that deal with it. The Uplift War was also a fun read and maybe only doesn't register as a favorite because Startide was some good and I read it first. I'll probably read more of Brin's series in the future (when I have decide on stuff to read on my own!).

The thing I enjoyed most about Ender's Game is that I went in to it with no background about the book or movie. The build up to the midpoint of the novel was entertaining and I didn't really expect it to develop in the way it did for the second half. The second half, Ender's experience with the queen and quest to find a new home for the "buggers", was what really drew me in and I finished this one excited to read the sequel next.

In general reading through the Hugo's in order has been kind of difficult when I come across a series or author I enjoy. I wanted to stick to the plan and avoiding reading anything else (also because I am a slow reader and wanted to actually finish/catch up the present) so getting to read a sequel right away was a treat.

I remember thinking of Speaker for the Dead as the better of the two novels. It felt like a much needed continuation of Ender's Game to explore the more interesting themes dealing with Ender's role as "speaker for the dead".

1990s

The years of Lois McMaster Bujold and Connie Willis!

The Vor Game, Barrayar, and Mirror Dance are all such fun reads! The development of Miles as a primary character that uses intellect over strength in a universe that highly prioritizes physical attributes like strength and beauty is excellent. Bujold builds good suspense and action, keeps plots moving, and creates compelling characters and storylines. While I have stayed mostly committed to the list, this is definitely a universe that I will revisit (and probably push my young children too when they are more in the "Young Adult" reading age).

1993 was a great year for the Hugo award. I thoroughly enjoyed A Fire Upon the Deep and it only suffers in memory because of how much I loved Doomsday Book. I remember feeling intimidated by Doomsday Book for it's length but ended up reading it quickly because it was just so intense and ridiculous and enjoyable. I also ending up reading and learning a lot about the Black Death and just became so attached to Kivrin's plight and the efforts to recover her. It is one of the most enthralling, terrifying, and humorous books I've ever read.

2000s

The two winners from the 2000s that stand out most in my memory are Paladin of Souls and The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

Paladin felt by far the most like a "fantasy" as opposed to sci-fi and despite my enjoyment of everything else Bujold I was a skeptical going in it. But of course the story was complex and interesting, the characters were well developed, and I read through it much faster than usual because it was so engrossing.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union reminded me of The Man in the High Castle as they both created well defined alternative realities that were easy to accept and enjoy reading about. This was also the first detective novel I have read and I found I thoroughly enjoyed it.

2010s

The 2010s were full of great novels, or maybe it's just the fact that I remember more clearly those recent reads.

Just a few years after The Yiddish Policemen's Union I ended up enjoying another detective novel in The City and the City. This was my first exposure to weird fiction and its definitely a genre I'll pursue more in the future. I also sought out and enjoyed the BBC Two TV series adaptation and was happy with how it compared to what I saw in mind (mostly).

I have loved everything Connie Willis and was really looking forward to Blackout/All Clear. Her style and substance was there but clocking in at over 1,000 pages it did feel a bit like a slog towards the end (and was very clearly meant to be one novel given how abruptly Blackout ended). By no means did it turn me off to Willis, it just felt like a lot.

Comparatively, Among Others was a fun, short read. It felt close to weird fiction, but maybe that was because I had read The City and the City so recently. I really loved the way the story hinted at magical things without committing and keeping something of an unreliable narrator vibe. It genuinely felt like I was reading a 15 year old's diary.

I went in to Redshirts without knowing anything about the novel or John Scalzi generally and boy was it a fun surprise. MY only exposure to Star Trek has been the recent films so I got to spend lots of times looking up and learning about the ridiculous and fun little things the novel poked fun at. It was nice to be read something so silly.

Reading Ancillary Justice after all the more genre-twisting entries from the 2000s and 2010s may have impacted my feelings about it. While I enjoyed the read, it felt more "old school" in a bad way and perhaps a bit boring. There are many entries from the earlier years I do not mention here for similar reasons -- they were OK, if not memorable.

The Three-Body Problem was certainly the most "hyped" novel I read of any of the Hugo winners. It was the only one I'd heard of outside the context of reading through the Hugos. I went in to thinking it must be overrated, but I was very much (and happily) wrong! It is a great sci-fi/kind of horror mix. I watched and mostly enjoyed the Netflix adaptation and someday I'll commit the time to the Chinese TV adaptation.

I absolutely loved the Broken Earth series. Just a lovely blend of sci-fi and fantasy and ultimately an insane, difficult, and touching story about motherhood. Since becoming a parent I tend to find it difficult to read books and watch TV or film that deals with parenting (or young children generally) and this series does a great job of exploring the difficulties of those relationships.

2020s (so far)

A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace felt like sort of anti-Ancillary Justice in that they brought more depth and intensity to the space opera and kind of "updated" it over their predecessors. I enjoyed the "political" aspects of the novel and how it examined language and culture. It reminded me about how much moving out of the United States for a few years got me to recognize the intricacies of culture.

Network Effect was such a joy to read. Like Redshirts, it brought some fun in to the genre and Wells's writing and humor is just wonderful. Her dry and sometimes sadistic humor reminded me of how I felt early in my life reading Vonnegut. After so many years of sticking to reading the Hugo award winners and nothing else I actually took a short break to read up everything The Murderbot Diaries and I was sad when I finished them all. I've got high hopes for the Apple TV adaptation.

Nettle & Bone was another great fantasy read like Paladin of Souls. Despite being straightforward and short I greatly enjoyed the story and it made me think of something like "fantasy fairy tales" as a separate subgenre of interest. In a similar vein, I enjoyed Uprooted as a recommended read after I finished the full list of was waiting for the 2025 nominees to be announced.