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

1. Thanks for this, JJ. It’s very useful.

   I’ll probably run across other series that might be eligible and post them here. Meanwhile, my Mom adds the Guardians trilogy by Nora Roberts.

   Plus, Rob Thurman excellent Leandros Brothers series has both a new book (no. 11, Evermore) and a short story coming out in 2016, so that one should definitely be in there.

   If short stories/novelettes count, you could also include the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, since there is a short coming out in 2016.

   Other possibilities: J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series has The Beast coming out in 2016. Thea Harrison’s Elder Races series has Moonshadow coming out in 2016. Nalini Singh’s long-running Pys-Changeling series has Allegiance of Honor coming out in 2016 and her Guild Hunter series has Archangel’s Heart. Sherrilyn Kenyon has Born of Legend in her League series and Dragonmark in her Dark Hunter series.

2. A possibly unworthy thought occurred to me: if Perry Rhodan got a Hugo, do you think they’d stop?

3. Traitor Son by Miles Cameron – A Plague of Swords

   I am sure there are more, but nothing occurs to me at the moment.

4. Cora: Rob Thurman excellent Leandros Brothers series has both a new book (no. 11, Evermore) and a short story coming out in 2016, so that one should definitely be in there. If short stories/novelettes count, you could also include the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, since there is a short coming out in 2016.

   I did look, but it does not look as though a 2016 release is yet confirmed for Evermore: no cover or Amazon record yet exists, and I could not find any info about a short story (either by Googling or ISFDB).

   Likewise, I could find no info about a Dresden Files short story coming out in 2016, either.

   Anyone who has more specific info is welcome to post it here.

   In a few days, I’ll ask Mike to update the main post with any additions and corrections.

5. A couple of more unusual maybe-eligibles I’ve noticed:

   Kameron Hurley released a Bel Dame novella, The Heart is Eaten Last, via her patreon in early 2016. Eligibility of the series relies on whether that is considered “publishing”.

   Serial Box have been doing a prequel to Ellen Kushner’s Riverside, called Tremontaine: https://www.serialbox.com/serials/tremontaine . I’ve seen the collected “season 1” on best novel eligible lists so presumably it means series as a whole meets the criteria too.

6. Night Without Stars the eighth book of Peter F Hamilton’s Commonwealth series dropped just recently, in the UK anyway. Pretty sure that any Hamilton series will meet the word count requirement…

7. Also can a case be made for tie in novels? Like, can I decide on the basis of Star Wars Bloodlines to nominate all Star Wars novels, or all novels in current canon, or would I have to specify e.g. the Aftermath sequence?

   Not realistic to update the list but just wondering…

8. Steve Wright: A possibly unworthy thought occurred to me: if Perry Rhodan got a Hugo, do you think they’d stop?

   *snort*

9. If they stopped doing Perry Rhodan what would we feed the shuggoth?!

10. Thanks for that list JJ.

11. Arifel:

    Like, can I decide on the basis of Star Wars Bloodlines to nominate all Star Wars novels, or all novels in current canon, or would I have to specify e.g. the Aftermath sequence?

    My interpretation of the rules is that both all Star Wars novels, and any reasonably defined subseries within that universe, is an eligible work. (Assuming the requirements for publication date and total word count is also met, of course – i.e. any subseries have to include a story published in 2016.)

    The rules are not totally clear, however, and I would not be surprised if there are people out there with differing opinions. (Actually, fandom being fandom, I’d be surprised if there aren’t people out there with differing opinions.) And I’m inclined to say that how to deal with very-large “shared universe”-type series is one of the main weaknesses of the category and the proposed rules for it.

12. The Jim Butcher short is Cold Case in upcoming anthology Shadowed Souls.

    I’m a bit on the fence about using short stories to bring in novel series, particularly if they’re ongoing and likely to get another chance in later years. (Note that I’m not saying it’s against the rules, just my personal consideration). I think I’d be more sympathetic to a series that was otherwise finished than to one that clearly has more novels to come.

    In the interests of fairness I will mention that Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge by Larry Correia and John Ringo was released this year and therefore brings the Monster Hunter series into eligibility.

13. @Stevie Wright

    A possibly unworthy thought occurred to me: if Perry Rhodan got a Hugo, do you think they’d stop?

    Why should they? I won’t be nominating Perry Rhodan, but I wouldn’t no award it either, if it somehow got nominated. There are series on that list I would no award.

    Talking of German SFF pulp, Ghost Hunter John Sinclair would also be eligible, as would Professor Zamorra, Maddrax and a couple of others, though these are little known outside Germany.

    @JJ
    There is both a Dresden Files short/novelette and a Cal Leandros short/novelette in the Shadowed Souls anthology. Also stories by Seanan McGuire, Tanya Huff, Kevin J. Anderson, Jim C. Hines and others, which might make further series eligible. Here is the Goodreads info http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28941103-shadowed-souls

14. Oh! I forgot. Wen Spencer’s Elfhome series. She released a collection of short stories and a novella in Project Elfhome in 2016.

15. Chris Beckett’s Daughter of Eden is out this month, which makes the Eden series eligible (subject to wordcount)

16. While I truly love the Bryant & May series by Christopher Fowler, there really isn’t any fantastical content in them (it just feels like it).

17. *ticky*
    Just what I need… more stuff TBR. Thanks!

18. Here are two more:

    Gini Koch’s long running Alien series has a new book out in 2016, called Alien Nation.

    Chloe Neil’s Chicagoland Vampires series also has a new book out in 2016, Midnight Marked. Her Devil’s Isle series also has a new book out in 2016, The Sight, but it’s only the second one, so it probably won’t meet the length requirements.

19. Queen of the Tearling series by Erika Johansen, Fate of the Tearling

20. The Dream Archipelago, Christopher Priest: The Gradual

21. Seeing Brandon Sanderson reminded me that his Reckoners series would be eligible too. Calamity was published in February. Haven’t read them, but they meet the volume requirement and should meet word count too.

22. This is an interesting development. They’re picking up some very popular works here that normally wouldn’t be considered for an award.

23. Pretty sure that any Hamilton series will meet the word count requirement…

    Pretty sure that a single Peter F. Hamiliton, followed by two blank notebooks with his name on the cover would meet the word count requirement.

24. Hmm. I know I’m not contributing anything new to the conversation by saying this but: this new category is a bit tricky to figure out innit?

    And now for an actual list assist:

    Annie Bellet’s Twenty Sided Sorceress had a new entry this year, Magic to the Bone.

    Kate Elliott’s Court of Fives has three installments (two books and a prequel novella, latest book is The Poisoned Blade) but may well not meet word count. Sorry I’m really bad at estimating!

    Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya has lots of stories of every length except novel, and A Salvaging of Ghosts was published March 2016. Again who knows if this is a quarter of a million words? What I do know is if you put all the stories in front of me and said “read all of these plus an equivalent amount for five other authors in order to vote on the best” I might be a bit intimidated. Which I think means it should be enough or even too much, no? Anyway.

    J.K Rowling is also eligible for Harry Potter (as is whoever actually wrote the play). Cursed Child plus Pottermore – substantial additions to online material and recent ebook releases – plus more that is best not dwelled upon all released this year.

25. Does Cursed Child allow Harry Potter to qualify? With the particular complication that Cursed Child isn’t prose and isn’t scripted by JK Rowling?

    ETA Ninjaed by Arifiel

26. Bob Roehm on October 1, 2016 at 5:08 am said: “While I truly love the Bryant & May series by Christopher Fowler, there really isn’t any fantastical content in them (it just feels like it).”

    The Victorian clockwork [REDACTED] in Seventy-Seven Clocks is steampunkish and sufficiently unfeasible to qualify that book, but not I think the whole series.

27. Liu Cixin – Three Body Problem

    Marhall Ryan Maresca – Thorn of Dentonhill

    Diane Duane – Young Wizards

    Michael Swanwick – Darger and Surplus

    Stephen Brust – The Incrementalists

    Bishop O’Connell – American Faery Tale

    Brenda Cooper – Spear of Light

    S.D. Smith – Ember Falls

    David Liss – Randoms/Rebels

28. The Incrementalists won’t make it to three volumes this year. I’m gutted that there’s nothing from Brust’s Dragaera setting this year to allow me to nominate it either.

    Young Wizards is a great suggestion.

29. Kevin Hearn – Iron Druid

    Bella Forrest – Shadow of Vampire/Gender Game

    Liana Brooks – Time and Shadows

    J.M. Guillen – The Dossiers of Asset 108

    Alma Alexander – Worldweavers

    Jennifer Estep – Elemental Assassin

30. @NickPheas yes the Harry Potter stuff is interesting in that I don’t think any of the 2016 additions fit into the current Hugo categories (the History of Magic in America stuff is short stories? I guess?) but the definition of a “volume” for a series has been left so deliberately broad that it would be odd for it not to be eligible on at least one count.

    C.f. this comment on Whatever.

31. Also The Second Apocalypse by R. Scott Bakker – The Great Ordeal

    Joe Abercrombie’s collection Sharp Ends also has some new stories set in his world.

32. The Balanced Sword trilogy by Ryk Spoor, concluded with Phoenix Ascendant

33. Lela E. Buis on October 1, 2016 at 6:14 am said:
    This is an interesting development. They’re picking up some very popular works here that normally wouldn’t be considered for an award.

    I think many of us are having fun just considering what is eligible right now. More serious discussion about what we feel is really worthy will come later.

34. Lela: Who’s “they”? Is JJ multiple people now?

35. @ Arifel

    Kameron Hurley released a Bel Dame novella, The Heart is Eaten Last, via her patreon in early 2016. Eligibility of the series relies on whether that is considered “publishing”.

    (also re: the Tremontaine series on SerialBox)

    I know there has been previous discussion whether making a story available to patreon supporters or via some other defined/limited-access venue counts as “publishing” with regard to first publication rights or starting the Campbell eligibility clock. (Didn’t Andy Weir get his eligibility extended for the Campbell on the premise that the original offering of The Martian was *not* “publication”?) I know different awards and publishers are going to slice the pie differently, but I don’t think I’d count “available only to patreon subscribers” as the sort of “offered to the general public” sense that publication normally has. On the other hand, I’d say that the Tremontaine serial definitely counts, since it has been available through multiple general outlets.

    More generally: Thanks JJ for starting this! And reading through the discussions, I think that Worldcon 75 is doing a valuable service in providing an actual “sandbox” in which to explore questions that might lead to fine-tuning the actual Hugo proposal.

36. Andrew Hindle’s The Final Fall of Man. Books five and six, Blaran and Molran, came out in 2016.

37. (Didn’t Andy Weir get his eligibility extended for the Campbell on the premise that the original offering of The Martian was *not* “publication”?)

    No.
    The Hugo and Campbell Awards are similar in many respects, but the Campbell rules are quite specifically for ‘Professional Publication’, which putting onto his blog was not, and self publishing via Amazon was deemed not either, though that’s an increasingly grey area IMHO.
    The book was not eligible for Hugo because of the previous publishing routes.

38. Should we start soon on winnowing out titles that won’t make the word count or book number? Because Bujold’s Penric is definitely not even a little close.

39. Isn’t the word count rule that the series runs to at least 240,000 words and is published in at least 3 books? So Penric is not close to that wordcount, but the series as a whole might be.

40. Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks – The Blood Mirror releases this month.

41. Penric: We’re taking it here that the series is the World of the Five Gods, which has three volumes apart from the current novellas – I don’t know about the wordcount, but the books didn’t seem especially short to me. (Though I do think it’s a bit odd that three totally Hugo-qualified novels might not count as a series for purposes of this award.)

    Whether it’s a good idea to give a series an award on the basis of a spin-off novella is another question. I’m inclined to say not, better wait for another novel – but do we know if LMMB intends to write more? She originally planned one book per god, but I’m not sure if she still intends this. (The novellas don’t fulfil it.)

42. @Lenora Rose

    What Nick & Andrew said. I originally suggested that Penric could create eligibility for the whole Chalion sequence under the current wording but said I thought it was an edge case.
    As Andrew notes, it’s a valid question whether that’s something that should happen, given that Penric is a clearly defined series of its own that only shares a setting with the rest of Chalion.
    I doubt that anyone could come up with wording to prevent this happening if people want to nominate it. It’ll be interesting to see what fans make of this opportunity – my prediction is that many straws will be clutched. At least we’ll know something about how it’s played out prior to the full category proposal going to the business meeting again.

43. Mark: Oh, I think it counts as part of the series, because the series is loosely constructed anyway: The Hallowed Hunt only shares the setting with the other books, as well. What holds the series together is the gods.

    But my feeling is that if you have to clutch straws to nominate something, it’s not actually in your interest to do so: it’s better to nominate series in years when they have something substantial to show. (Doesn’t being shortlisted once mean there’s a delay before you can be shortlisted again?)

44. Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara. Cast in Flight, the 12th book of the series will be released in October. Its unfortunate that the next novel in her high fantasy series written under the name Michelle West won’t also be out this year

    Also, the Lupi series by Eileen Wilkes. Dragon Spawn, the latest will be released in December.

45. @Andrew M – (Doesn’t being shortlisted once mean there’s a delay before you can be shortlisted again?)

    There are additional requirements, but they’re not time-dependent:

    3.3.X Best Series. A multi-volume science fiction or fantasy story, unified by elements such as plot, characters, setting, and presentation, appearing in at least three (3) volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words by the close of the previous calendar year, at least one of which was published in the previous calendar year. If such a work has previously been a finalist, it shall be eligible only upon the publication, since it qualified for its last appearance on the final ballot and by the end of the previous calendar year, of at least two (2) additional volumes consisting of a total of at least 240,000 words, and further provided it has not won under 3.3.X before.

46. Piers Anthony, Xanth (Isis Orb)

47. This is just my own personal opinions, but I’d not nominate the Chalion series for several reasons:

    1. Paladin of Souls won a Hugo (for best novel). Under the spirit of 3.3.X I’d only qualify later works as a series continuation if they hit 240,000 words in at least two volumes. I’m quite unsure if The Hallowed Hunt and the Penric stories manage to reach 240,000 words.

    2. Within the set of stories, three have been nominated for a Hugo, and one won. This gives to me a strong indication that the stories are readily able to stand on their own as standalone works.

    3. There is very little plot continuity between the parts, with most of it being with the second book dealing with the spiritual side-effects from the resolution in the first book.

    4. There is little character continuity between the parts. Three secondary characters from CoC take on rather larger roles in PoS, and the last two stories have the same main character. That’s all.

    5. Setting is similar, but again there is quite a separation in both time and space between the main parts of the series.

    6. The first three major parts of the series (CoC, PoS, THH) aren’t presented as sequels to each other in my hardcover copies, in fact PoS barely mentions CoC on the cover. So even presentation looks weak.

    To me, a nomination of Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga based on GJatRQ would make much more sense.

48. The Horus Heresy by Dan Abnett and a cast of thousands, Pharos.

49. Kameron Hurley released a Bel Dame novella, The Heart is Eaten Last, via her patreon in early 2016. Eligibility of the series relies on whether that is considered “publishing”.

    I’d be cautious about this. If the Hugo Administrators allow the Bel Dame series to be eligible for Best Series this year because a “volume” was available only to Patreon patrons, then they *also* would have to allow a work is eligible for a Hugo in the year it was released only to Patreon patrons, and not the year it was published publicly. Not sure I agree that a work not available to the public qualifies for a Hugo that year. Thank goodness I am not, and unlikely to be, a Hugo Administrator!

    Kind of the opposite problem of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, where it was “available” to anyone with a credit card in 2015 but formally published in 2016.

50. ULTRAGOTHA: Fiction, to be Hugo eligible, has to be published. It does not have to be “generally available” — that’s a condition only laid on fanzines.

    The axis of the Hugo rule is to avoid discrimination against stories based on other criteria like professional/nonprofessional, or paper/electronic text. The rule maximizes what can be nominated, but doesn’t set up handicaps for stories published in hard-to-access venues.

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