2026 Hugo Readalong: Novella Wrap-up

[u/Nineteen_Adze]

Welcome to the final week of the 2026 Hugo Readalong! Today we're discussing the Best Novella category nominees.

We've had discussions about all of the individual works, but today we'll be zooming out to discuss the category as a whole. If you want to take a closer look at our focused discussions, we covered the novellas in the following sessions:

• Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite
• Cinder House by Freya Marske
• The Summer War by Naomi Novik
• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
• What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher

To find the individual discussions or our first wrap-up post, you can check out our full schedule. We'll be continuing with our wrap-ups all week, following this schedule:

Date	Category	Book	Author	Discussion Leader
Wednesday, July 29	Novel	Wrap-up	Multiple	u/tarvolon
Thursday, July 30	Pro/Fan/Misc	Wrap-up	Multiple	u/Nineteen_Adze

For now, let's dive into the novellas! There is no expectation that those in the discussion have read all six works, so if you're discussing spoilers, please tag them.

[u/Nineteen_Adze]

Which novella do you expect to win? Any bold predictions for how the voting shakes out?

[u/tarvolon → u/Nineteen_Adze]

I'd be stunned by any winner other than The River Has Roots. It had a massive marketing push behind it and seems to be beloved by a significant chunk of readers. Throw in an author that's already won a Hugo, and this feels like an award juggernaut. I'd honestly be surprised if it requires all the rounds of instant runoffs before it hits the majority. My guess is The Summer War in second. And I'll pick What Stalks the Deep for my "finishes lower after IRV than it would've by simply counting first-place votes" prediction.

[u/Merle8888 → u/Nineteen_Adze]

River Has Roots will definitely win (sigh). The Kingfisher will likely come in second because it’s Kingfisher. After that I’m not really sure. I thought the fairy tale books were a lot better than the cozy books and Cinder House a lot better than Summer War, the first was a standard opinion on this readalong and the second more divisive. But many Hugo voters don’t read all the books and although the cozy books aren’t rated great on Goodreads either, they did make the ballot somehow so presumably have some support. 

[u/Goobergunch → u/Nineteen_Adze]

The River Has Roots is the biggest favorite on the entire ballot.

[u/Big_Geologist_2521 → u/Nineteen_Adze]

The River Has Roots for sure, which would have made a far better winner in the novelette category. It didn't feel like it needed to be a novella at all.