Best Series Hugo: Eligible Series From 2016

By JJ: Worldcon 75, to be held in Helsinki in August 2017, has announced that it will exercise its right under WSFS Constitution to run a special Hugo category for “Best Series.”

To assist Hugo nominators, listed below are the series believed to be eligible as of this writing for the 2017 Best Series Hugo next year*.

Each series name is followed by the main author(s) name and the 2016-published work.

  • 1632 by Eric Flint and a cast of thousands, 1635: A Parcel of Rogues (with Andrew Dennis)
  • 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, The Last Star
  • Age of Legends by Kelley Armstrong, Forest of Ruin
  • Alcatraz Smedry by Brandon Sanderson, The Dark Talent
  • The Alchemy Wars by Ian Tregillis, The Liberation
  • Alien Hunter by Whitley Strieber, The White House
  • Alpennia by Heather Rose Jones, Mother of Souls
  • American Faerie Tales by Bishop O’Connell, The Returned
  • Ark Royal by Chris Nuttall, Fear God and Dread Naught
  • Ascendant Kingdoms by Gail Z. Martin, Shadow and Flame
  • Bel Dame Apocrypha by Kameron Hurley, The Heart is Eaten Last (novella on Patreon)
  • Betsy the Vampire Queen / Wyndham Werewolf by MaryJanice Davidson, Undead and Done
  • Black Blade by Jennifer Estep, Bright Blaze of Magic
  • Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward, The Beast
  • Blackdog / Marakand by K.V. Johansen, Gods of Nabban
  • Blackthorn & Grim by Juliet Marillier, Den of Wolves
  • Bloodbound by Erin Lindsey, The Bloodsworn
  • Broken Empire / Red Queen’s War by Mark Lawrence, The Wheel of Osheim
  • Bryant & May by Christopher Fowler, Strange Tide
  • Cainsville by Kelley Armstrong, Betrayals
  • Cal Leandros by Rob Thurman, “Impossible Monsters” (short story)
  • Carpathian by Christine Feehan, Dark Promises, Dark Carousel
  • Case Files of Justis Fearsson by David B. Coe, Shadow’s Blade
  • Castle by Steph Swainston, Fair Rebel
  • Celaena / Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas, Empire of Storms
  • Chaos Station by Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen, Inversion Point
  • Chicagoland Vampires by Chloe Neil, Midnight Marked
  • Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara, Cast in Flight
  • Chronicles of Exile by Marc Turner, Red Tide
  • Chronicles of St. Mary’s by Jodi Taylor, Lies, Damned Lies, and History
  • Clan Chronicles by Julie E. Czerneda, The Gate To Futures Past
  • Clockwork Dagger by Beth Cato, Final Flight (novelette) (possibly not enough total words)
  • Colours of Madeleine by Jaclyn Moriarty, A Tangle of Gold
  • Commonweal by Graydon Saunders, Safely You Deliver
  • Commonwealth by Peter F Hamilton, Night Without Stars
  • Cosmere / Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Secret History, The Bands of Mourning (novellas)
  • Court of Fives by Kate Elliott, The Poisoned Blade
  • Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone, Four Roads Cross
  • Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham, The Spider’s War
  • Dark Eden by Chris Beckett, Daughter of Eden
  • Dark Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Dragonmark
  • Dark Tower by Stephen King, Charlie the Choo-Choo (graphic novel / scary children’s book)
  • Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Nuttall, The Barbarian Bride
  • Devices by Philip Purser-Hallard, Trojans
  • Diamond City Magic by Diana Pharaoh Francis, Whisper of Shadows
  • Diving Universe by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Falls
  • Dragonships of Vindras by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Doom of the Dragon
  • Dread Empire’s Fall by Walter Jon Williams, Impersonations (novella)
  • Dream Archipelago by Christopher Priest, The Gradual
  • Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, “Cold Case” (short story)
  • Dune by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson, Navigators of Dune
  • Elder Races by Thea Harrison, Moonshadow
  • Elemental Assassin by Jennifer Estep, Bitter Bite, Unraveled
  • Elemental Masters by Mercedes Lackey, A Study in Sable
  • Elfhome / Steel City by Wen Spencer, Project Elfhome (collection including novella)
  • Elves on the Road / SERRAted Edge by Mercedes Lackey, Silence (with Cody Martin)
  • Emberverse by S.M. Stirling, Prince of Outcasts
  • Europe by Dave Hutchinson, Europe in Winter
  • Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines, Ex-Isle
  • Expanse by James S.A. Corey, Babylon’s Ashes
  • Fairyland by Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home
  • Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire by Rod Duncan, The Custodian of Marvels
  • Fever by Karen Marie Moning, Feverborn
  • Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh, Visitor
  • Frontlines by Marko Kloos, Chains of Command
  • Gaia Chronicles by Naomi Foyle, The Blood of the Hoopoe
  • Gallow and Ragged by Lilith Saintcrow, Roadside Magic, Wasteland King
  • GhostWalkers by Christine Feehan, Spider Game
  • Gor by John Norman, Plunder of Gor
  • Greatcoats by Sebastien de Castell, Saint’s Blood
  • Grisha by Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom
  • Guardians by Nora Roberts, Island of Glass
  • Guild Hunter by Nalini Singh, Archangel’s Heart
  • Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts (scripts)
  • Heartstrikers by Rachel Aaron, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished
  • Her Instruments by M.C.A. Hogarth, A Rose Point Holiday (online serial novel)
  • Honorverse by David Weber, Shadow of Victory
  • Humanity’s Fire by Michael Cobley, Ancestral Machines
  • In Death by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts), Brotherhood in Death
  • InCryptid by Seanan McGuire, Chaos Choreography
  • Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, The Burning Page
  • Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, Staked
  • Ixia / Sitia by Maria V. Snyder, Night Study
  • Jane Yellowrock by Faith Hunter, Shadow Rites, Blood of the Earth
  • Johannes Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard, The Fall of the House of Cabal
  • Kara Gillian by Diana Rowland, Legacy of the Demon
  • Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews (Ilona Gordon and Andrew Gordon), Magic Binds
  • Kitty Katt by Gini Koch, Camp Alien
  • Lady Trent by Marie Brennan, In the Labyrinth of Drakes
  • Laundry Files by Charles Stross, The Nightmare Stacks
  • League by Sherrilyn Kenyon, Born of Legend
  • Learning Experience by Chris Nuttall, The Black Sheep
  • Leopard by Christine Feehan, Leopard’s Fury
  • Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, Alliance of Equals
  • Lightbringer by Brent Weeks, The Blood Mirror
  • Long Earth by Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett, The Long Cosmos
  • Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry), Shattered Spear
  • Magic Ex Libris by Jim C. Hines, Revisionary
  • Malazan / Kharkanas by Steven Erikson, Fall of Light
  • Mancer by Ferrett Steinmetz, Fix
  • Maradaine by Marshall Ryan Maresca, The Alchemy of Chaos
  • Matthew Corbett by Robert McCammon, Freedom of the Mask
  • Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs, Fire Touched
  • Midnight, Texas by Charlaine Harris, Night Shift
  • Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences by Pip (Philippa) Ballantine and Tee (Thomas Earl) Morris, The Ghost Rebellion
  • Monster Hunter by Larry Correia, Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge (with John Ringo)
  • Mutant Files by William C. Dietz, Graveyard
  • Myth Adventures by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye, Myth-Fits
  • Newsflesh by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire), FeedBack
  • October Daye by Seanan McGuire, Once Broken Faith
  • Old Kingdom / Abhorsen by Garth Nix, Goldenhand
  • Others by Anne Bishop, Marked in Flesh
  • Pantheon by James Lovegrove, Age of Heroes
  • Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger, Romancing the Inventor, Poison or Protect (novellas)
  • Perry Rhodan / Lemuria by a cast of billions, The First Immortal, The Last Days of Lemuria, The Longest Night
  • Polity by Neal Asher, War Factory
  • Poseidon’s Children by Alastair Reynolds, Poseidon’s Wake
  • Psy-Changelings by Nalini Singh, Allegiance of Honor
  • Psycop by Jordan Castillo Price, Psycop Briefs (collection including 4 new stories)
  • Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen, Fate of the Tearling
  • Raksura by Martha Wells, The Edge of Worlds
  • Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King
  • RCN by David Drake, Death’s Bright Day
  • Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson, Calamity
  • Red Rising by Pierce Brown, Morning Star
  • Rivers of London / Peter Grant by Ben Aaronovitch, The Hanging Tree
  • Riverside by Ellen Kushner, Tremontaine
  • Royal Sorceress by Chris Nuttall, Sons of Liberty
  • Russell’s Attic by S.L. Huang, Plastic Smile
  • Safehold by David Weber, At the Sign of Triumph
  • Saga of Shadows by Kevin J. Anderson, Eternity’s Mind
  • Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey, The Perdition Score
  • Santi / Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Cixin Liu, Death’s End
  • Schooled in Magic by Chris Nuttall, Infinite Regress
  • Sea Haven by Christine Feehan, Fire Bound
  • Secret History by Simon R. Green, Dr. DOA
  • Shade of Vampire by Bella Forrest, A Sword of Chance
  • Shadow Campaigns by Django Wexler, The Guns of Empire
  • Shadow Police by Paul Cornell, Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?
  • Shannara by Terry Brooks, The Sorcerer’s Daughter
  • Simon Canderous by Anton Strout, “Solus” (novelette)
  • Sorcery Ascendant by Mitchell Hogan, A Shattered Empire
  • Spellwright by Blake Charlton, Spellbreaker
  • Split Worlds by Emma Newman, A Little Knowledge
  • Tao by Wesley Chu, The Days of Tao (novella)
  • Temeraire by Naomi Novik, League Of Dragons
  • Thessaly by Jo Walton, Necessity
  • Thrones and Bones by Lou Anders, Skyborn
  • Time and Shadows by Liana Brooks, Decoherence
  • Twenty-Sided Sorceress by Annie Bellet, Magic to the Bone
  • Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey, Closer to the Chest
  • Victory Nelson, Investigator/Henry Fitzroy by Tanya Huff, “If Wishes Were” (novelette)
  • Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
  • Walker Universe by C.E. Murphy, “Slaying the Dragon” (short story on Patreon)
  • Wall of Night by Helen Lowe, The Daughter of Blood
  • War Dogs by Greg Bear, Take Back the Sky
  • Warhammer 40K / The Horus Heresy by a cast of gazillions, Pharos
  • Wild Cards by George R.R. Martin and a cast of thousands, High Stakes
  • Women of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong, Driven (novella)
  • World of the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric and the Shaman (novella)
  • World of the Lupi by Eileen Wilks, Dragon Spawn
  • Xanth by Piers Anthony, Isis Orb
  • Xuya Universe by Aliette de Bodard, A Salvaging of Ghosts (23 short fiction works, including 2 novellas, may or may not meet the word count)
  • Young Wizards by Diane Duane, Games Wizards Play

* no warranties are made about series eligibility based on word count (or lack thereof)

no warranties are made about the presumed quality of listed series (or lack thereof)

Please feel free to add comments regarding series which have been missed.

Update 10/01/2016: Added series pointed out in comments. Update 10/8/2016: Made more additions. Update 01/13/17: Added three more series. Update 01/14/17: And three more.

188 thoughts on “Best Series Hugo: Eligible Series From 2016

  1. @Kendall: ISTM that Best Series should be for text-only works — but the rules as I read them aren’t written that way. Can anyone cite a combination of existing rules and business-passed-on that would bar a graphic-novel series from this new category?

    @JJ: so you’d throw a tantrum if a rule was interpreted as written rather than as you want it to be? How Puppyesque.

  2. Chip Hitchcock: so you’d throw a tantrum if a rule was interpreted as written rather than as you want it to be? How Puppyesque.

    I did not say that anywhere.

    What I said was that I would say “OH HELL NO”, and if it got onto the ballot, I would No Award it.

    It’s very interesting to hear that you consider people exercising their rights as Hugo nominators and voters based on their own taste as “throwing a tantrum” and “being a Puppy”.

    Does that mean that you’re throwing a tantrum when you No Award something you don’t feel belongs on the ballot? How very Puppy-esque of you.

  3. I personally wouldn’t have a problem with a work making the shortlist for Best Novel or Best Novella, even if it’s part of a Best Series finalist. To me, the series as a whole seems significantly different from its individual components. However, I definitely agree that the Business Meeting should clarify the rule so that it can be applied consistently every year.

    Even if the Business Meeting does end up deciding that both a component of a series and the series as a whole can be finalists in the same year, I suspect that this won’t happen much in practice. We may know more after this trial run, since Penric and the Shaman and the Five Gods series both seem like plausible finalists to me.

  4. I’m sure that the Vorkosigan series by Bujold is not eligible for the Hugo. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen was released in ebook in 2015 and considered eligible for the 2016 Hugos. I don’t think there’s grounds to count it twice, and the 2016 pub date is incorrect. The ‘Five Worlds’ series is eligible.

  5. Tasha Turner: Timeout.

    Please do not presume to play mama to me. It’s insulting and offensive.

    There are a lot of times when I would have liked to tell you that one of your posts was out-of-line or otherwise not helpful, but I chose to refrain from doing so. I would appreciate seeing the same courtesy from you.

  6. Jonathan Strahan: I’m sure that the Vorkosigan series by Bujold is not eligible for the Hugo. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen was released in ebook in 2015 and considered eligible for the 2016 Hugos. I don’t think there’s grounds to count it twice, and the 2016 pub date is incorrect.

    This was discussed at great length here a year ago, and the upshot of the discussion was that 1) the Hugo rules consider the publication date as printed on the book (2016) the official publication date, so a serious case could be made that it was a 2016 book, and 2) no determination was ever made as to whether it was actually eligible for the Hugos in 2015, as it did not make the shortlist, which is the only time that the Hugo Admins will issue an opinion/verdict (you are possibly thinking of the Nebulas, which did issue a determination that it was eligible last year).

  7. [Although I’m chairing the 2017 WSFS Business Meeting, I am not a Hugo Administrator for 2017, so I can safely express a public opinion on this subject, I think.]

    The way “story” is defined in the WSFS Constitution includes Best Graphic Story and the four existing prose categories (Novel through Short Story). Thus I think a graphic story series, if it met the word count requirement, would be eligible. There is no metric for converting pictures to words (“a picture is worth a thousand words” is just a saying and has no technical meaning here), and there aren’t going to be a lot of graphic-story series that are going to have enough words in them to meet the minimum.

    I do not think that dramatic presentations count as “stories” for the purpose of Best Series.

    Mind you, the Administrators are highly unlikely to rule on anything that doesn’t get enough nominations to make the ballot. No hypothetical rulings and all that. So it’s up to the nominators to make the initial call.

  8. Sean Kirk said:

    For that matter how about The Avengers, The X-Men, The Justice League, etc? 240K words would be a drop in the bucket for series such as these.

    If it’s possible to clearly delineate one amongst the title changes and spinoffs and renumbering, then certainly! The more, the merrier!

    Kevin Standlee said:

    There is no metric for converting pictures to words (“a picture is worth a thousand words” is just a saying and has no technical meaning here), and there aren’t going to be a lot of graphic-story series that are going to have enough words in them to meet the minimum.

    Yeah, I don’t think there will be a lot of people trying to convert pictures to word count.

    One way of mostly getting graphic novels out of the series category would be to add the language from 3.2.6 about the prose categories being for “works in which the text is the primary form of communication”. Although that probably still wouldn’t render Prince Valiant ineligible.

  9. I am not sure if it is you JJ or Mike who is adding eligible series to this list for the 2017 Best Series Hugo, but when you get a chance if you would please add two more to the list.

    The Dark Tower by Stephen King, Charlie the Choo-Choo (graphic novel / scary children’s book) November 11, 2016

    A Song Of Ice And Fire by George R. R. Martin, Arianne (short story) May 10, 2016

    Thanks

  10. I see that the third in The Alchemy Wars trilogy by Ian Tregillis (started with The Mechanical, now ending with The Liberation) is due in December as will be eligible. Only read the first, but I’ll need to get to the rest because it was extremely good.

  11. I would absolutely vote No Award to any attempt to nominate Spider-Man or Donald Duck for best series. Same with Girl Genius. On the other hand, I’m not really fond of a Best Series Hugo anyhow. Unless people are going to vote for comics in it, I will most likely refrain from voting. Or just No Award on pure principle.

  12. Hampus Eckerman: I have a question – what about the Girl Genius Novels? TTBOMK, there are currently three of them: Agatha H. and the Airship City, Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, and Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle. See https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00CJDHORS/ – the differentiator between the pure text novels and the graphic novels is the H. vs. Heterodyne.

  13. The Girl Genius novels are prose novel adaptations of the graphic novels. If there’s enough words (I haven’t checked), that series is clearly eligible.

  14. The Tanya Huff story in the Shadowed Souls anthology, edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie Hughes, is a Vicki Nelson story entitled “If Wishes Were”, which makes the Vicki Nelson series eligible for the best series Hugo.

    The anthology also includes a Harry Dresden story by Jim Butcher, a Simon Canderous story by Anton Strout and an Incryptid story by Seanan McGuire, making those series eligible as well.

  15. The series by Butcher and McGuire are already on the main list. I’ll try to get an update to Mike for the Huff, the Strout and a couple of others submitted since the last update.

  16. @Mike Glyer & @JJ: FYI the formatting is a little messed up; Monster Hunter’s entry runs into the previous entry.

    @Anyone: Dare I ask who gets the award if “Perry Rhodan/Lemuria” wins? 😉

    @Me 3 Months Ago: T.A. Pratt’s “Marla Mason” series may not be eligible because “Closing Doors” has a 2017 copyright date. On the other paw, I received my Kickstarter copy in December, 2016. Eligible or not? Hmm.

    @JJ: Jordan Castillo Price’s “PsyCop” series (which I mentioned October 1st) is even more eligible, due to four more short stories that came out in 2016 in the collection “PsyCop Briefs” since my comment. It didn’t make the list above – not sure if that was just timing, an oversight, or some other reason, but FYI.

    And thanks again to you and Mike for this list. As I look over my text file of “things I’m thinking of nominating,” I realized I’d forgotten to write down the series I was considering! So here I am again at this useful post. 😀

  17. Kendall: Fixed now. That post has been up since October, so you should appertain yourself some real vintage stuff!

  18. @Mike Glyer: Heh, thanks! Lessee, maybe some old wine from . . . ugh, wait, that’s vinegar! Gotta find something better.

  19. Any chance this could be made a “page” so it shows up on the front page? I just spent literally a minute or two looking for this page before finding it on google.

  20. @Mike – Thanks! I hadn’t realized you couldn’t just magically convert this from a post to a page.

    Having now gone through this post and figured out what works I’d consider nominating, I realize:
    – The one series I’ve read in full is one I don’t think necessarily deserves a Hugo (I like it, but it’s fluffy).
    – I need to read one or two books to catch up on four of the series that I would strongly consider nominating
    – Two of the series I would probably nominate, but also probably can’t catch up in time.
    – Two of the series I probably wouldn’t nominate, but might, if they end well, but also probably can’t catch up in time.
    – Four of the series are either on my to-read list or in my TBR, but I haven’t even read a single of them (including Malazan, oy!). I probably have no hope with any of those.

    Triage time.

  21. kathodus: Having now gone through this post and figured out what works I’d consider nominating, I realize:

    My personal take on it is if you’ve read at least a couple of the books from a series and feel that it’s worthy based on that, it’s perfectly ethical to nominate the series.

  22. @JJ – that would certainly make things simpler, given the reading I’m now embarking on to catch up.

  23. kathodus: @Mike – Thanks! I hadn’t realized you couldn’t just magically convert this from a post to a page.

    I could duplicate the content on a new page, but couldn’t attach the comments already left on the post. And I don’t want to have discussion split in two places. So for my purposes it makes more sense to set up a page containing a link.

  24. @Mike – That makes sense. Thanks again.

    Oh yeah, also, another series that’s eligible, I’m pretty sure.

    The Commonweal, Graydon Saunders, Safely You Deliver

    I’m not 100% sold on the third and latest book (and am currently less than 50% through it), but the first two alone comprise some great world-building and narrative style.

  25. I believe Lian Hearn’s (Gillian Rubinstein’s) Tale of Shikanoko series, which comprises four novels that all came out in 2016 (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), and which forms a prequel series to her earlier series, Tales of the Otori, is eligible for this category. I highly recommend the Shikanoko books, which are not only miles better than the Otori series, but much more fantastical, dark, and I would argue verges into the genre of the New Weird. Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty, the second book of which, The Wall of Storms, came out in 2016, is also eligible (and should have no problems meeting the word count minimum!).

  26. Sean A. Guynes: Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty, the second book of which, The Wall of Storms, came out in 2016, is also eligible (and should have no problems meeting the word count minimum!).

    It looks as though the Hearn works are indeed eligible, but the Liu series has thus far only 2 volumes and is therefore not eligible.

    I’ll get the Hearn update in shortly.

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  29. Please include James A. Moore’s “Seven Forges” series. The final installment is The Silent Army. It was published in June of last year.

    A fabulous series.

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