Where To Find The 2021 Hugo Award Finalists For Free Online

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Network Effect by Martha Wells, art by Jaime Jones
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal, art by Jamie Stafford-Hill using figures by Gregory Manchess
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, art by Lauren Panepinto

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, art by John Picacio
Harrow The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, art by Tommy Arnold
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, art by David Mann

By JJ: DisCon III has announced the 2021 Hugo Award Finalists. Since the Hugo Voter’s packet will take awhile to arrive, if you’d like to get a head start on your reading, you can use this handy guide to find material which is available for free online. Where available in their entirety, works are linked (most of the Novelettes and Short Stories are free, as are the Pro and Fan Artist images, and many of the Semiprozines and Fanzines).

If not available for free, an Amazon or other purchase link is provided. If a free excerpt is available online, it has been linked.

If I’ve missed an excerpt, or a link doesn’t work, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll get it fixed.

Fair notice: All Amazon links are referrer URLs which benefit fan site Worlds Without End.

2021 HUGO AWARD FINALISTS

BEST NOVEL

BEST NOVELLA

BEST NOVELETTE

BEST SHORT STORY

BEST SERIES

BEST RELATED WORK

BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM

BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM

BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST

BEST SEMIPROZINE

BEST FANZINE

BEST FANCAST

BEST FAN WRITER

BEST FAN ARTIST

BEST VIDEO GAME

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER

* 2nd year of eligibility

[Update: Now that we have learned that Clarkesworld had the Internet Archive remove its copy of “Helicopter Story” we have taken down our link to a different online archive’s copy of the story.]

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64 thoughts on “Where To Find The 2021 Hugo Award Finalists For Free Online”

  5. Congrats to the nominees.

    Regards,
    Dann
    I don’t think I’ve met anyone with a stronger work ethic than Ray Charles. – Clint Eastwood

  7. Two Truths and a Lie
    and
    Little Free Libery
    are also awayable in Some of the Best of Tor.com as ebook for 0.00 € or $ I think. For anyone prefering an ereader over the internet.

  13. I was surprised that Arifel is over here commenting when they have me blocked on Twitter, where they talk trash about my site.

    I discovered they had me blocked months ago and was surprised, but concluded it’s because I criticized CoNZealand Fringe, which they did a lot of work on. So be it.

    But if you’re going to tweet about me, don’t be chickenshit about it.

  14. There’s a discussion on Twitter with Neil Clarke as a participant that’s about whether it is “uncivil” for File 770 to link to an archive of the Helicopter Story in posts like this one. Here’s another tangent with additional comments.

    Personally, I think the novelette reached the ballot in part because there were archived copies around to read after ClarkesWorld removed the story at Isabel Fall’s request days after publication in January 2020.

    Clarke said that it was read or heard by “several tens of thousands of people” in the short time it was online.

    It came out 14 months before nominations closed. I think that’s a long time for a work to be completely unavailable to read and still get into the top 6. I couldn’t have considered it for nomination if that was the only window of availability since I wasn’t paying attention to the controversy.

  15. My Twitter links might not show you the replies I am being shown. Auugh! You had one job, Twitter.

  17. @JJ: Thank you so much for this post! I super appreciate the work; it’s so helpful!

    @Mike Glyer: That’s very uncool (of them), and disappointing to hear. ;-(

    @rcade: Uh, WTH?! It exists! If they don’t like it existing, they (Clarke or the author or whoever) should fight the Internet Archive or wherever it is, instead of dissing File 770 for having the temerity to (gasp!) link to it! Good grief, it’s the internet; people link to things; that’s . . . how it works.

    Also LOL, I mean, the nom was accepted, no? So there’s that.

    BTW your Twitter links gave me error (FWIW, I don’t use Twitter, i.e., don’t sign in), then I clicked them again and they worked. ::shrug:: Twitter used to give weird errors sometimes when I went to someone’s Twitter “home page” (for lack of a better term), and a refresh always fixed that, too. Their site’s always seemed a bit flakey to me, TBH.

  18. rcade: There’s a discussion on Twitter with Neil Clarke as a participant that’s about whether it is “uncivil” for File 770 to link to an archive of the Helicopter Story in posts like this one.

    Fall was given the option to decline the nomination for her story. She chose to accept it. Surely she understands that Hugo voters will actually need to read it in order to decide how to rank it against the other stories.

    If she didn’t want the Hugo voters reading her story, then she should have declined the Hugo nomination. She doesn’t get to have it both ways.

  19. Is the story available online anywhere with the author’s preferred title?
    (and I’ve only seen second hand reporting that the author is who changed the title – is there an online statement from Fall to this effect?)

  20. rcade: …about whether it is “uncivil” for File 770 to link to an archive of the Helicopter Story in posts like this one.

    Since rule 3.10.1 requires that “Worldcon Committees shall use reasonable efforts to notify the finalists” and learn if they accept or decline the nomination, it is reasonable to believe that author Fall agreed to have “Helicopter Story” appear on the ballot. Accepting a nomination means you would like to win the Hugo. That objective is advanced by having people read the story.

    Also, it is within Clarkesworld’s power to ask the Internet Archive to take down their saved pages and they will do so. Clarkesworld has allowed its content to be housed there.

    So it is bullshit to be deriding File 770 for helping an author connect to an audience who will be voting on an award they want to win by pointing to Internet Archive resources that Clarkesworld is allowing to be a public resource.

  22. As I said on Twitter, I think Neil Clarke honoring her request to remove the story and it making the Hugo ballot anyway — possibly in part because it remained available elsewhere via unofficial means — is a nice outcome. I hope that Fall will support its inclusion it in the Hugo packet.

    The Wayback Machine once had a copy of the story (which was widely shared in media accounts of the controversy), but that link now says, “This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine,” which I think means a DMCA takedown request was filed by the magazine. I looked to see if a robots.txt change or page header told the Internet Archive to exclude the page but didn’t find either of these.

  23. Someone on Twitter asked Clarke, “Can we at least read it now?” He responded, “I can’t answer that yet. Will talk to Isabel.”

  24. OK, I just learned — as you’re saying — we didn’t use the Internet Archive link because Clarke DID have that taken down. So my chain of reasoning has a faulty premise. I have taken down our link to another archive’s copy of the Clarkesworld page. Clarke had already done what he could.

    People will have to wait and see if the story is included in the Hugo Voter Packet.

  25. OK, I just learned — as you’re saying — we didn’t use the Internet Archive link because Clarke DID have that taken down.

    I don’t have definitive proof that Clarke filed a DMCA takedown on the Internet Archive for the story, because I couldn’t find one in the Lumen Database, but there are at least 10 DMCA takedown requests filed by ClarkesWorld in Lumen and I couldn’t find anywhere in archived copies of its robots.txt file or the current page header that told robots to exclude it.

  26. rcade: Although the Internet Archive does respond to DMCA takedown requests, I believe they also consider direct requests from website owners to remove their material. (The IA FAQs say they do, and Richard Paolinelli did have his removed by direct request.) So you wouldn’t necessarily find a record in Lumen.

  27. I just want to encourage anyone reading in the Best Novel category who thinks they might enjoy Harrow the Ninth to treat yourself to the audiobooks. Moira Quirk does a fabulous job with both Locked Tomb books. I have listened to both of them twice through and am itching for another listen. And there is a thing she does all through Harrow that is an amazing yet very subtle support for [SPOILER] that I only realized she was doing on the second read, and, my goodness, that narrator is overdue an Audie nomination.

    Both Locked Tomb audiobooks are available not only from the usual subjects but also via Scribd for subscribers. I became a Scribd subscriber ages ago so that I could read more of the Hugo finalists, wound up chugging as much of the Rivers of Londen series as they had available because narrator Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is AMAZING, and with one thing and another I just kept the subscription going.

    ps. OMG CONGRATS ALL THE SO MANY FILERS AMONG THE FINALISTS!!!

  28. JJ: I can confirm the website definitely does work, although it moved host so you might need to hard refresh to see it. If you still won’t link to our preferred site it would be great if you could at least swap the link for the YouTube playlist rather than a search: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy4IrWj0K5NiFI-P7YUSWlxIxFMr4SaWd

    Mike: I have indeed had File 770’s Twitter blocked since you called my colleagues and I “disgusting” on this site, and I’m not interested in engaging you in a conversation about that for reasons that have nothing to do with courage. Given this specific post tends to do the rounds, however, I wanted to give JJ the opportunity to correct the link given, as I hope that professional pride in the post outweighs personal disdain for the project.

  30. Arifel: It’s reassuring to know you value our work more than Richard Fox did. Even if not much more.

  31. Arifel: I can confirm the website definitely does work, although it moved host so you might need to hard refresh to see it.

    Hi Arifel, I’ve looked into this, and it’s not my cache, it’s that your webmaster has apparently not gotten all the DNS pointers set up properly with the change to the new host.

    this one works:
    http://conzealandfringe.com

    this one, the one Google has indexed, does not work:
    https://www.conzealandfringe.com

    I’ve changed this post to refer to the working one, but you will want to get your webmaster to fix the one that Google has indexed, so that people aren’t getting the “connection refused” message.

  32. Also, Arifel, I expect to see a tweet added to your Twitter rant which acknowledges that the issue with the Fringe website link not working and therefore not being linked, was the result of a bungled IP host transfer, and not the result of some nefarious plot on my part to disadvantage your project.

    JFC. Get a grip. I spent 12 hours of my precious personal reading time putting this post together as a favor to Hugo voters, and I get abuse because of someone else’s fuckup.

  34. I’m trying to find the word “disgusting” in relation to the Fringe and utterly failing at googlefu – anyone got a link?

  35. JJ, I, for one, truly appreciate what you’ve done for the Hugo voters here. And I have to say CoNZealand Fringe’s behavior in response has negatively colored my impression of them. Which will do nothing to help them gain my vote…. <wry> Do they not think that Hugo voters pay attention to such things?

  37. Meredith: I’m trying to find the word “disgusting” in relation to the Fringe and utterly failing at googlefu – anyone got a link?

    I can’t find anything, either, Meredith. But the things that were said, were said in reference not to the people who organized the Fringe convention, but to the way that they hijacked the CoNZealand name without permission and scheduled programming against CoNZealand’s programming, which likely negatively affected its membership numbers.

    I’ve noticed that this is a really common technique with the people involved — to claim that valid criticisms of actions and methods are instead invalid personal attacks, as a way to try to deflect valid criticisms. 😐

  38. To those Filers who’ve expressed appreciation for this post, you are most welcome. These posts are my love letters to you, for enhancing my fandom experience (and the quality of my Mount Tsundoku) so much over the last 6 years. 🙂

  39. It is a bit funny with several people from Fringe calling out File 770 for not being professional, when it is themselves who weren’t professional enough to get their site to show up with working links in search engines.

    But I understand people being on edge around Hugo nominations.

  41. Jeremy Carter: Not sure about the “disgusting” quote but JJ referred to the “arrogance and entitlement” of the Fringe organisers here:

    And are you claiming that’s an unfair assessment of people who took something that didn’t belong to them and did whatever they wanted with it?

  42. <blockquote>And are you claiming that’s an unfair assessment of people who took something that didn’t belong to them and did whatever they wanted with it?

    We have very different opinions on that. But please don’t then say that you make make valid criticisms of actions which are misinterpreted as personal attacks. Calling people arrogant and entitled seems pretty personal.

  43. Earlier in that same discussion OGH said “[s]eeing the announcements for the ‘CoNZealand’ Fringe made me physically sick,” which is an expression of disgust.

    I haven’t seen anyone affiliated with ConZealand Fringe acknowledge that calling it New Zealand Fringe or securing official permission to use ConZealand in their name would have been better courses of action.

    Instead, any criticism of the event is treated like File 770 is a bunch of change-fearing conservatives squashing dissent against Worldcon and enforcing gatekeeping and exclusivity.

    The idea that outsiders might have valid criticisms of a con worth consideration isn’t being taken seriously, which is ironic since that’s the impulse which led to Fringe in the first place.

  44. It’s not a personal attack, it’s a statement of fact: They took something that didn’t belong to them, and did whatever they wanted with it.

    Sure, you can quibble as to whether that amounts to “arrogance and entitlement” – but that’s not the Get Out Of Jail Card you seem to think it is.

  45. rcade:

    “I haven’t seen anyone affiliated with ConZealand Fringe acknowledge that calling it New Zealand Fringe or securing official permission to use ConZealand in their name would have been better courses of action.”

    You have this statement from Alisdair Stuart:

    “We also screwed up, twice.

    The first was the name. We knew there were a few hard and fast things we couldn’t use (waves at WSFS), but we sailed entirely too close to CoNZealand for anyone’s comfort. Many saw that as a whole array of things – intentional slight, rude, a threat, ‘contemptible’, grandstanding, ‘award bait’, a whole list of descriptors that probably say more about the fears and views of those levelling the accusations than anything else. We had no intention of ‘counterprogramming’ anything. Fringes have taken place at Worldcons before; Dublin had one. And while ours wasn’t as integrated into CoNZealand as it could have been, it wasn’t for lack of our trying.

    Our debrief is ongoing and we’re taking steps to ensure the issue doesn’t reoccur. We’re already in conversation with a couple of other shows and have a name change forthcoming.”

  46. Pingback: Hugo Follow-Up | Cheryl's Mewsings

  47. Arifel: Mike: I have indeed had File 770’s Twitter blocked since you called my colleagues and I “disgusting” on this site,

    I am fascinated to discover that you invented this quote.

  48. Leaving the question aside, if the Fringe was disrespectul to ConZealand, is is quite somethink to come to a website, than you see as your enemy, asking to chance the link (okay that one was polite), than after you are told, why getting this much in a huff.

    And after everythink seems to be cleared we still get conspiracy theorys that are ridicolous. Can someone tell me how much it hurts them to list to their youtubechanel than to their website? I understand that they prefer their website because it has transcripts that could reach more people, but to get to a conspiracytheory like in the Pingback is quite somethink.

  49. @rcade

    Yes, that was the closest I found – but it doesn’t match the claim. Feeling upset and angry and stressed – or whatever constellation of negative emotion strong enough to provoke the physical sensation – at someone’s actions is a very different thing from saying the organisers are disgusting.

    It isn’t helpful to turn one into the other.

    @Jeremy Carter

    JJ isn’t Mike and Mike isn’t JJ. Whatever JJ says is not something which can then reasonably be put into Mike’s mouth.

  50. Before the Internet, it used to be the norm that stories were published in magazines only available for a few weeks until the next issue came out. Yet somehow, these ephemeral stories could qualify for the Hugo. Now it has been a few years since paper magazines had a Hugo nominated story, but we have not forgotten this part of our past. So the lack of permanent access to “Helicopter Story” should not exclude its nomination.

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