THE 2025 HUGO AWARD FINALISTS: NOVELETTES

RATED 83% POSITIVE. STORY SCORE = 4 OUT OF 5

6 STORIES: 2 GREAT / 2 GOOD / 2 AVERAGE / 0 POOR / 0 DNF

With the exception of Eugenia Triantafyllou’s melodically painful critique of modern relationship schisms, the finalists for the 2025 Novelette Hugo Award are quite pleasant reads with a whiff of nostalgia. Sometimes for genre conventions. Sometimes for an older way of life. The stories are rich in atmosphere but lack much originality. A pleasant read, but hardly one that I consider revolutionary.

In Science Fiction, the most prestigious awards are the Hugo Awards. Voted on by the fans who buy a voting membership and are given out at The World Science Fiction Convention. The 2025 WorldCon will be taking place in Seattle on August 13-17, 2025 The list of finalists just dropped.

This is the fifth year that I am trying to review and rank all of the short fiction finalists.

Novella. Stories of between 17,500 and 40,000 words. (Reviewed: 2024, 2023 & 2022)
Novelettes. Stories of between 7,500 and 17,500 words (Reviewed: 2024, 2023, 2022 & 2021)
Short Stories. Stories of less than 7,500 words. (Reviewed: 2025, 2024, 2022 & 2021)

Best Short Story

“Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
Great. An uncanny analog of the ways that modern life breaks your most important connections and tries to reassemble them in the digital world. A woman returns to Greece to reconnect with an old friend. She slowly discovers that she is unable to communicate or interact with anyone she cares about. She comes to believe that she has slipped into an alternative universe - a Loneliness Universe - where she can only have superficial interactions with people around her.
“Lake of Souls” by Ann Leckie in Lake of Souls (Orbit)
Great A surprisingly touching story of first contact between the last survivor of a scientific space mission and a “lobster-dog” alien who wonders if he has a soul. Told from both perspectives, it is a superb look into how human and alien minds might interact. A charmingly modern take on Stanley G Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey.”
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s, September/October 2024)
Good. Surprisingly intimate story of a former marine ecologist whose career stalled after she lost her research. She finds solace in a small Massachusetts village where four stones - “The Four Sisters” of the title - stand watch over the bay where seals play. As the woman starts to reengage with the seals, she is drawn to the magic of the place and becomes suspicious of her husband. Very well written, except for a one-dimensional husband character that pulls you out of the story.
“Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 59)
Good. Magical Realism. Veronica, an aging news anchor, visits her sister in West Virginia. She feels the guilt of stealing her sister’s boyfriend and estranging them for decades. A warm welcome becomes progressively stranger as the two sisters examine the lives they’ve lived … and the lives she may have imagined into existence.
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, May 2024)
Average. The discovery of a “dead Book” leads to obsession and danger in a world where society is obsessed with altering and revising texts to make them “Perfect.”
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars” by Premee Mohamed (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024)
Average. A weary wizard who has lost her powers is saddled with a new apprentice. Despite her burnout, she tries to train the apprentice because the threat from the sea is going to come regardless of whether or not they are ready.