2025 Hugo Finalists – Where to Read Complete Works or Samples for Free

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The Seattle Worldcon 2025 committee released the finalists for the Hugo Awards on April 6. Within a few weeks members of the convention will be given access to the Hugo Voter Packet. But you can start reading immediately for free many of the short fiction works, semiprozines, and fanzines, and listening to fancasts.

Samples are also available online from most of the other fiction and graphic novel finalists. (Amazon links have been used here for convenience.)

BEST NOVEL

  • Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky [SAMPLE]
  • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley [SAMPLE]
  • Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky [SAMPLE]
  • Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell [SAMPLE]
  • A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher [SAMPLE]
  • The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett [SAMPLE]

BEST NOVELLA

  • The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo [SAMPLE]
  • The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed [SAMPLE]
  • Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard [SAMPLE]
  • The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar [SAMPLE]
  • The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler [SAMPLE]
  • What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher [SAMPLE]

BEST NOVELETTE

BEST SHORT STORY

BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC

  • The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag [SAMPLE]
  • The Hunger and the Dusk: Vol. 1 written by G. Willow Wilson, art by Chris Wildgoose [SAMPLE]
  • Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed written by Marjorie Liu, art by Sana Takeda [SAMPLE]
  • My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2 by Emil Ferris [SAMPLE]
  • Star Trek: Lower Decks: Warp Your Own Way written by Ryan North, art by Chris Fenoglio [SAMPLE]
  • We Called Them Giants written by Kieron Gillen, art by Stephanie Hans, lettering by Clayton Cowles [SAMPLE]

BEST RELATED WORK

BEST SEMIPROZINE

BEST FANZINE

BEST FANCAST

BEST FAN WRITER

BEST POEM

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8 thoughts on “2025 Hugo Finalists – Where to Read Complete Works or Samples for Free”

  1. Re: Graphic Novels, if you can access Hoopla via your public library, they have The Hunger and the Dusk: Vol. 1, Monstress, Vol. 9: The Possessed, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book 2, and We Called Them Giants available for instant read.

  2. So I won’t say there’s anything surprising here as to what’s available is available, entirely versus what’s not. It’ll be interesting to see if we get what, if anything, is added to what’s available when the packet is out.

  3. Lake of Soul had a reduced price (as E-book) on German Amazon at the moment. It was one of the reasons I wasn’t suprised by the nomination. Escape Pod had his pacage only before they were oficial nominated.
    In the past the packet was very generous, and I remember that some finalist made their contribution avaible before the packet came out (fanwriters for example). We will see.

    Congrats to Michelle Morrell here.

  4. The Tainted Cup ebook is 99p on Kobo and Amazon in the UK. Worth it for anyone who isn’t getting the Hugo packet.

  5. In addition to the categories listed here, at least two of the Best Series finalists have some free online short fiction (although the main novels in those series are probably better introductions to those series than the short fiction is).

    As of the end of 2024, I think InCryptid had 13 novels in the main series plus 55 pieces of backstory / side story shorter fiction (one of which is actually an 82000-word backstory novel itself). (Those figures exclude the Ghost Roads series set in the same universe, and also exclude one noncanonical crossover story.) 24 of those pieces of shorter fiction are free on Seanan McGuire’s website; the rest are a mixture of bonus novellas included with the main novels, stories in anthologies, and stories on her Patreon.

    The Tyrant Philosophers, as well as three main novels, includes a short story Woodmask published in Uncanny.

    I haven’t found any free online short fiction in the other four Best Series finalists, though I could well have missed something.

  6. Pingback: Some Thoughts on the 2025 Hugo Finalists – with Bonus Road Trip Photos | Cora Buhlert

  7. Pingback: Where to read the 2025 Hugo Awards nominees « BlogOfTheMoon

  8. Pingback: What’s In The 2025 Hugo Voter Packet? | File 770

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