Hugo and Nebula Award Winners

I have embarked on a quest to read all the past Hugo and Nebula award winners! I love sci-fi but was surprised to find I’ve only read a handful of these award winners. As I progress, I’ll periodically update this list with my rating and ranking for those I’ve read.

The Hugo Award is presented annually by the World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”) and is typically considered science fiction’s most prestigious award. There are currently 15 categories Worldcon votes on each year but I’ll be focused on the Best Novel category.

The Nebula Award is voted on and presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Started in 1965, the Nebula also has several categories but I’ll focus on Best Novel.

Hugo and Nebula Award Winners

Year	Award	Winner	Rating	Rank
1953	Hugo	The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester	4/5 Stars	40
1955	Hugo	They’d Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley
1956	Hugo	Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein	4/5 Stars	30
1958	Hugo	The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
1959	Hugo	A Case of Conscience by James Blish
1960	Hugo	Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein	4/5 Stars	19
1961	Hugo	A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
1962	Hugo	Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
1963	Hugo	The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick	2/5 Stars	90
1964	Hugo	Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
1965	Hugo	The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
1965	Hugo & Nebula	Dune by Frank Herbert	4/5 Stars	15
1966	Hugo	This Immortal by Roger Zelazny	3/5 Stars	59
1966	Nebula	Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes	5/5 Stars	12
1966	Nebula	Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
1967	Hugo	The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein	5/5 Stars	18
1967	Nebula	The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany	2/5 Stars	100
1968	Hugo	Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
1968	Nebula	Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
1969	Hugo	Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
1969	Hugo & Nebula	The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin	3/5 Stars	60
1970	Hugo & Nebula	Ringworld by Larry Niven	4/5 Stars	22
1971	Nebula	A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg	4/5 Stars	35
1972	Hugo	To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer	4/5 Stars	20
1972	Hugo & Nebula	The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
1973	Hugo & Nebula	Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke	5/5 Stars	7
1974	Hugo & Nebula	The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
1975	Hugo & Nebula	The Forever War by Joe Haldeman	5/5 Stars	4
1976	Nebula	Man Plus by Frederik Pohl	5/5 Stars	14
1977	Hugo	Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
1977	Hugo & Nebula	Gateway by Frederik Pohl
1978	Hugo & Nebula	Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre
1979	Hugo & Nebula	The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke	3/5 Stars	51
1980	Nebula	Timescape by Gregory Benford
1981	Hugo	The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
1981	Nebula	The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
1982	Hugo	Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh	3/5 Stars	65
1982	Nebula	No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop
1983	Hugo	Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov	5/5 Stars	17
1983	Hugo & Nebula	Startide Rising by David Brin
1984	Hugo & Nebula	Neuromancer by William Gibson
1985	Hugo & Nebula	Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card	5/5 Stars	1
1986	Hugo & Nebula	Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card	5/5 Stars	9
1987	Nebula	The Falling Woman by Pat Murphy
1988	Hugo	The Uplift War by David Brin
1988	Nebula	Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
1989	Hugo	Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh
1989	Nebula	The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Anne Scarborough	3/5 Stars	70
1990	Hugo	Hyperion by Dan Simmons
1990	Nebula	Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
1991	Hugo	The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
1991	Nebula	Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
1992	Hugo	Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
1992	Hugo & Nebula	Doomsday Book by Connie Willis	4/5 Stars	33
1993	Hugo	A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
1993	Nebula	Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson	3/5 Stars	55
1994	Hugo	Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson	3/5 Stars	56
1994	Nebula	Moving Mars by Greg Bear
1995	Hugo	Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
1995	Nebula	The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer
1996	Hugo	The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
1996	Nebula	Slow River by Nicola Griffith
1997	Hugo	Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson	3/5 Stars	57
1997	Nebula	The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre
1998	Hugo & Nebula	Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman	3/5 Stars	50
1999	Hugo	To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis	4/5 Stars	32
1999	Nebula	Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
2000	Hugo	A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
2000	Nebula	Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear
2001	Hugo	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling	5/5 Stars	25
2001	Nebula	The Quantum Rose by Catherine Asaro
2002	Hugo & Nebula	American Gods by Neil Gaiman
2003	Hugo	Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer
2003	Nebula	The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
2004	Hugo & Nebula	Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
2005	Hugo	Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2005	Nebula	Camouflage by Joe Haldeman
2006	Hugo	Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
2006	Nebula	Seeker by Jack McDevitt
2007	Hugo	Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
2007	Hugo & Nebula	The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
2008	Nebula	Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
2009	Hugo	The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2009	Hugo & Nebula	The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi	4/5 Stars	24
2010	Hugo	The City & The City by China Miéville
2010	Hugo & Nebula	Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis	3.5/5 Stars	45
2011	Hugo & Nebula	Among Others by Jo Walton
2012	Nebula	2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson
2013	Hugo	Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi
2013	Hugo & Nebula	Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
2014	Nebula	Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
2015	Hugo	The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu	3/5 Stars	52
2015	Nebula	Uprooted by Naomi Novik
2016	Hugo	The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
2016	Nebula	All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
2017	Hugo	The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
2017	Hugo & Nebula	The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
2018	Hugo & Nebula	The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
2019	Nebula	A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
2020	Hugo	A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine	4/5 Stars	21
2020	Hugo & Nebula	Network Effect by Martha Wells	4/5 Stars	23
2021	Nebula	A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
2022	Hugo	A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine	5/5 Stars	16
2022	Nebula	Babel by R. F. Kuang
2023	Hugo	Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
2023	Nebula	The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
2024	Hugo	Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Hugo and Nebula Thoughts

This is a great list to be part of and contains a ton of great sci-fi books! It’s less inclusive of fantasy but more recent years seem to have a higher prevalence of fantasy books. Not all of my favorite sci-fi books are on here so I’ll have to make a separate list of Best Sci-fi at some point! Ender’s Game is my favorite book and I doubt anything will knock it out of the #1 spot for this list but we’ll see.

A word on my rankings: many are approximate for now to leave room for more as I read the rest of the winners. They’ll likely stay near where I have them now though and won’t jump over others already ranked. I also plan to eventually get reviews written for each of these which will be linked from the rating column. Be sure to check those out for your favorites or books you may want to read yourself!

I had read 14 of these books before intentionally seeking out the Hugo and Nebula Award Winners. How many have you read and which are your favorites? Let me know in the comments!