This post is part of the series, Reading the 2025 Hugo Finalists for Best Novel, where I am reading through all the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists for best novel. These are not book reviews. Just some scant thoughts as I think through a voting order.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradely imagines a depressing future where time travel is possible and the furthest known future is only a few hundred years away and in dire straits. So much so that the perceived "villains" of the first half of the novel end up seeming to me like the most redeemable characters in the novel. It does not end well for them in the novel's present or future and mostly I just felt bad for them by the end of the book.

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This post is part of the series, Reading the 2025 Hugo Finalists for Best Novel, where I am reading through all the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists for best novel. These are not book reviews. Just some scant thoughts as I think through a voting order.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett is just as massive as the leviathans it portrays, which are only a secondary aspect of the plot! The scope of the novel reminded me of the first time I read The Fifth Season and I suspect that the next book in Bennett's planned series will show up as a Hugo finalist next year as well (much like the Broken Earth series). One key difference that I like about The Tainted Cup is the the first person POV (as opposed to Broken Earth's third person POV). I assume this is more common for murder mysteries anyway (I don't read many), but it helped pull me deeply in to the mystery and share confusion and excitement with Din (who is an excellent storyteller).

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This post is part of the series, Reading the 2025 Hugo Finalists for Best Novel, where I am reading through all the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists for best novel. These are not book reviews. Just some scant thoughts as I think through a voting order.

Reading Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky was neither good nor bad. It was just something I did. I was excited going in to this one given some favorable reviews comparing the writing to John Scalzi and Martha Wells (for Murderbot). The first few chapters dealing with Charles's crime, the doctor's visit, and the investigation of the detective was silly and downright hilarious at parts. From there the novel felt repetitive and tedious as Uncharles traveled along with "the Wonk" and learned about the post-apocalyptic state of the world.

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This post is part of the series, Reading the 2025 Hugo Finalists for Best Novel, where I am reading through all the 2025 Hugo Award Finalists for best novel. These are not book reviews. Just some scant thoughts as I think through a voting order.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell deals with themes that most other Hugo winners I have read do not (or do little): dependence, pain, family, parenting, "otherness", self. It is a challenging read, yet has some good dark humor and a lot of action and adventure packed in.

The opening paragraphs set up the world of the novel splendidly and makes one eager to read more (quickly, in my case). From her very birth, in memory, of Shesheshen to her hibernation and immediate peril there is action and interest in her experiences -- I felt on "her side" right away and carried that relationship through the whole novel.

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Having finished reading through the past 71 years of Hugo award winners and with the 2025 Hugo Award finalists announced, I'm planning to spend the next few months reading through the best novel finalists so I can vote on the winners.

I won't be writing "reviews" of the novels by any means. I will simply be capturing my opinions about each one so I can think about them as a whole during voting. I hope to keep this up year-to-year as I am a somewhat slow reader and I can't even imagine trying to follow more novels over the course of the year in order to actually nominate something.

Reading in no particular order (just whenever I can get them from the library!) here is my ranking as I go:

1. Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
2. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
3. Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradely

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Sometime back in May 2019 I started reading award winners of the Hugo award for best novel in chronological order starting with the first novel awarded (from 1953).

I regret not taking more time to document the process. I don't even recall how I decided to follow the list. I just needed something to help me to decide what to read at all. May 2019 is my best estimate based on exchange I had with my wife on Telegram in early June about Ben Reich from The Demolished Man. Beyond that, I have kept only minimal "ratings" of the books and whatever stuck with me through 5+ years.

I finished up just in time for the announcement of the 2025 Hugo award finalists so now I'm going to take the time to read all the nominees for the year and try to do a better job documenting my thoughts.

Here are some short thoughts and recollections from all that reading (not reviews by any means!).

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