IT IS a truth universally acknowledged that all awards are total bunk except for the ones you personally have lifted into the air in triumph. That rule doesn鈥檛 hold, however, if your prize is in some way sullied later on. This, sadly, is the situation for the winners of the 2023 Hugo awards.
The Hugos are the world鈥檚 most prestigious science fiction and fantasy (SFF) prizes, launched in 1953 and awarded every year since 1955. Writers have long dreamed of winning one, and readers trust them as a barometer of excellence.
Last year鈥檚 Hugos ceremony took place in Chengdu, China, in October, passing with little comment. But the voting data has been released and it throws up . Certain nominees were marked 鈥渋neligible鈥�, with no explanation offered. It does seem odd, in retrospect, that a hugely successful SFF book like Babel by R. F. Kuang failed to progress. Were all those marked ineligible somehow unpalatable to the Chinese state?
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There may be an innocent explanation. I am a big believer in screw-up over conspiracy. But it is unclear whether we will find out because the Hugos are awarded through a complex, decentralised system that would take a column to explain.
If consulted, I would have advised against holding a literary awards process in a country where censorship and its evil twin, self-censorship, are pillars of the state. But the Hugos-in-China debacle did spur me on to look up all since 1955.
The first thing to note is that you might imagine only men were eligible to enter in the early years. Gender issues aside, there look to have been serious omissions. How did Iain M. Banks never win a Hugo for his superb and vastly influential Culture series? (Actually, there seems to be a for that, involving UK vs US publishing.)
But the list of winners isn鈥檛 a bad guide to the best SFF over 70-odd years, especially if you look beyond 鈥淏est Novel鈥� to other categories. The great , for example, never received that gong, but did win Best Novelette and Best Short Story.
It has reminded me of so many wonderful books, from brilliant A Fire Upon the Deep to Kim Stanley Robinson鈥檚 majestic Red, Green and Blue Mars series. And over the past decade, the awards have celebrated more amazing talents, including women such as Ann Leckie.
She won Best Novel in 2014 for Ancillary Justice, a book I force on everyone I know. Massive spaceships, terrifying alien ambassadors, wonderful writing: what鈥檚 not to love?
We have also had Cixin Liu鈥檚 stunning Three-Body Problem, first of a trilogy. That鈥檚 a series I force on anyone who says they are into physics because it is a long 鈥渨hat if鈥� about how we could accelerate physics research if our fate depended on it (which, er, it may, with climate change).
And on the fantasy front, N. K. Jemisin鈥檚 dazzling Broken Earth trilogy is a triumph of world-building. Each book won a Best Novel Hugo!
This isn鈥檛 the first Hugos controversy. From 2013 to 2017, mysterious groups tried to in a fight-back against an alleged 鈥渨oke鈥� agenda. The Hugos survived, so let鈥檚 hope they continue as a beacon of good SFF. Reassuringly, the organisers of the 2024 event in Glasgow, UK, say they are committed to full transparency if anyone is marked 鈥渋neligible鈥�.
Emily also recommends鈥�
Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
Away from the Hugos, this is the third of Alastair Reynolds鈥檚 detectives-in-space series, and I think I need to go back to the beginning of the trilogy to get the fullest enjoyment.
Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of New Scientist. Gilgamesh, the second novel in her Sumerians trilogy, is out later this year. Find her website at and follow her on X at
@emilyhwilson and on Instagram @emilyhwilson1
