I have previously reviewed three of the Best Novella finalists for the 2026 Hugo Awards: What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher; Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite; and The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. The other finalists are Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, Cinder House by Freya Marske, and The Summer War by Naomi Novik. This is a really strong list of contenders, and I’m still undecided how to vote for my second, third, and fourth choices for Best Novella, because they’re all great in different ways. Although I do have a favorite, I wouldn’t be unhappy with any of them winning. Also, these are my own thoughts and do not indicate a Skiffy and Fanty endorsement. (Spoiler warnings: My summaries below reveal that all the novellas have happy-ish endings.)
What Stalks the Deep is the third Sworn Soldier book, and I can’t honestly say it would stand alone for a new reader, which is one of my usual criteria for a Hugo award. However, I really liked it; Alex is in a new situation, exploring a new mystery in a new country with old friends and comrades, who all contribute strongly to the solution in their own ways. This book broadens the worldbuilding of the Sworn Soldier universe in a very enjoyable way.
Automatic Noodle is a cozy SF story about robots trying to build a better post-war future for themselves by turning their auto-kitchen into a noodle shop. There are some review-bombing shenanigans and some references to dark pasts, but in the end, it’s very sweet, funny, and satisfying.
The Summer War has the style of an old-fashioned fairy tale, feeling fairly detached in the beginning, describing humans in a feudal system enduring incursions by angry fairies every summer, avenging an old injury. There’s a trio of siblings: an adored oldest son, mildly approved sister Celia, and an ignored younger son. The eldest is a great warrior, but it turns out that the sister has magical powers, or at least the power to lay curses. The youngest, lacking other options, turns himself into a bard. When the sister finds herself forced into an unhappy arranged marriage, her brothers rally to her side, but she’s the one who’s clever enough to figure out how some interlocking oaths can be manipulated to save the situation. This reminded me a little bit of the resolution of Novik’s previous novel, Spinning Silver, but I loved that book, so that’s a good thing. Contract law done well, combined with bravery, determination, and an unexpected romance, make for a great story.
Cinder House by Freya Marske retells the Cinderella story in a very clever and satisfying new way: Ella is a ghost bound to her father’s house, still forced to serve her stepmother and stepsisters. She makes a frenemy of a witch and bargains with her to become tangible during the ball being thrown by the king and queen to find a marriage partner for the prince. Ella finds out that another newcomer to the court is an unexpected ally, and together they discover and thwart an evil plot. I really was not expecting some of the twists and turns that this novella took, but they filled me with glee!
Murder by Memory is very different from the other novellas here, being a space-opera murder mystery. It’s set on sort of a generation ship run by an artificial intelligence, except that instead of children, there are clone-bodies into which the memories of the original passengers are downloaded. The novella starts when Dorothy wakes up and discovers she’s been uploaded off schedule and into the wrong body, and she finds out soon that someone else is dead. As she figures out what happens, the reader finds out more and more about how this artificial society functions, and where it’s vulnerable. The worldbuilding here is intriguing, and I enjoyed finding out about it, and following Dorothy on her journey of discovery.
For me, the best novella of 2025 was The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. It’s a retelling and expansion of an old murder-ballad fairy tale, in which a musical instrument formed from a woman’s body warns her sister about danger. The story is good and satisfying. I love the worldbuilding, which gives a sense of wonder and depth without overexplaining, and the wry humor arising from perceptions of some characters. But what really stands out here, what had me reveling and reading passages aloud, is the lyrical language. From my review: “The prose is luscious and lovely, and it luxuriates in lingual ludi. Maybe my last sentence lapsed into laughability, but I’m a little drunk on words. But that’s totally fair, since the novella takes care to caution readers about the potential pitfalls of exposing oneself to grammar/gramarye; after all, words and magic can be equally transformative, often in unexpected ways.”
My thoughts on the Hugo finalists for Best Short Story and Best Novelette appear here. My roundup of previous Skiffy and Fanty reviews of all the Best Novel finalists appear here. Stephen Geigen-Miller’s thoughts about the Hugo finalists for Best Graphic Story or Comic appear here.
