I love following various SFF (sci-fi/fantasy) book awards. The winners of these four main ones I'll talk about contribute to my priority reads list for the following year. I'll be discussing the differences, as well as my opinion on recent winners for The Hugo Awards, The Nebula Awards, The Locus Awards, and The World Fantasy Awards. The winners are all decided very differently, some being more of a popularity contest among a more general audience, and some being decided upon by committees.
The Awards
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| The Hugo Awards |
The Hugo Awards are probably the most widely known award for SFF books. They are held yearly by the World Science Fiction Society, but not all of the winners are sci-fi books, many are fantasy. These awards have been marred by a few controversy's due to the fact that the winners are voted by readers who purchase a Worldcon membership for £45, or about $57 USD. One controversy was in 2003 when organized voting blocs sought to prevent female and minority authors from dominating all categories. Their attempts led to a voting system rule that was adopted in 2017.
A more current controversy happened in the last 2023 Hugo Awards held in China. A slough of authors found themselves disqualified, seemingly for no reason as they met the necessary qualifications. This led to leaked emails that stated they were disqualified to align with China's censorship rules of the host country. Moving forward, there will apparently be more transparency when it comes to the nomination process, but we will se when Worldcon is held next year in Glasgow. There is no monetary award, only a physical trophy for winning.
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| The Nebula Awards |
The Nebula Awards are organized by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and are voted by full members of the organization. Members include authors that write in English and must pay member dues and attend meetings and/or events. They are not open to the public to vote as they must meet these requirements to join. Winners must be published in English or translated to English, and are given a physical trophy but no monetary award. Even though the voters are made of authors, they are not allowed to nominate their own work.
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| The Locus Awards |
The Locus Awards are another genre award that is open to public voting. It is done via ranked vote from 1-5. Unlike the previous two, these awards separate out Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror into separate award categories. They are organized by the Locus Science Fiction Foundation and while they can be voted on publicly, the nominations are put together into a "recommended reading list" by the editors of the Locus magazine. Subscribers to the magazine also are open to vote, and since they subscribe, their vote counts as two votes rather than one. Winners get a physical award, with publishers also receiving a certificate for each winner that they publish.
Discussion
These three awards are the "main" three SFF awards that are awarded on a yearly basis. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, and while some are seen as more prestigious than others, I tend to enjoy reading some winners more than others.
In my opinion, the most prestigious, the Hugo Award, is actually the weakest among the three. Because nominations and votes are open to the public, it is mainly a popularity contest. This means books that get the most attention throughout the year are more likely to be nominated and win. I've read every winner over the last five years (since 2019) and on two occasions the same book won all three awards. In 2019, The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. You can find my review here, in which I gave it 4/5 stars. In 2021, Network Effect by Martha Wells. I ended up giving it 3/5 stars. Every other book that won the Hugo was a massively popular book of the previous year. In 2023, there most likely would have been another sweep of all three awards with Babel by R.F. Kuang had it not been disqualified for reasons listed above. Hugo winners are often raved about on booktube which means that discussions about them reach a very wide audience.
The strongest award, and my personal favorite, is the Locus Award. I love how they separate genres. It is very hard to judge sci-fi, fantasy, and horror against each other because for the most part, they aren't similar. Yes, they are all speculative and my have some overlap, but a space opera is not going to be read the same way as a cozy fantasy or slasher book. Most genre fiction readers do read from all three genres, but looking back at Hugo and Nebula winners of the past sci-fi has massively dominated. By separating the genres, it allows for more books to be up for an award. Also, since the list is put together by editors, it is less of a popularity contest than the Hugo's, although there is still some popularity going into the winners since the public can vote.
The Nebula's are also quite enjoyable in my opinion. Being closed to the public, it gives authors the chance to recognize their peers. Perhaps there can be some voting due to who is friends and who is not, but they do tend to award books to a wider variety of SFF. This is the award that has introduced me to the more subgenre's than the other two.
I make it a point to read the winners from each every year, so here is the average rating of the past five years.
Hugo - 3/5
Nebula - 3.4/5
Locus (all genre's combined) - 3.4/5
- Fantasy - 4/5
- Sci-Fi - 3/5
- Horror - 3.7/5
Clearly I have enjoyed all three award winners somewhat similarly, although I have given more Locus awards 5 stars than the others, mostly from the fantasy award. Overall, I do think that all three awards are worth reading, but in the end, it is very hard to judge art. There is no objectivity when it comes to what art is good or bad. There is merit in all books, and I am of the belief that there is no universally loved or hated book. Every book has an audience, it just needs to reach the correct one.
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