Archive Collection
Hugo Award for Best Novel Winners
1953–2025
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is the most celebrated honour in science fiction, voted each year since 1953 by the members of the World Science Fiction Convention. Winners run from Frank Herbert's Dune and Isaac Asimov to Ursula K. Le Guin, N. K. Jemisin, and Martha Wells.
About the Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Awarded by
- World Science Fiction Society
- First awarded
- 1953
- Country
- International
- Winner receives
- A trophy rather than money
When it is announced
Announced at Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention, usually in August. The date and city move each year. See the full announcement calendar.
How to enter
There is no publisher submission. Members of Worldcon nominate and then vote, so the Hugo is decided by readers rather than a panel.
Official prize site · Checked August 2026. Dates move year to year, so confirm on the official site before entering.
| Year | Title & Author | Historical Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | The Tainted Cup | The Tainted Cup won the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novel at Seattle Worldcon, and took the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in the same year, took… |
| 2024 | Some Desperate Glory | Some Desperate Glory won the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel at Glasgow Worldcon, and was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. It was… |
| 2023 | Nettle & Bone | Nettle & Bone won the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Novel at the Chengdu Worldcon, the first Worldcon held in China. That ceremony became the largest… |
| 2022 | A Desolation Called Peace | A Desolation Called Peace won the 2022 Hugo Award for Best Novel, two years after A Memory Called Empire won the 2020 award, making the Teixcalaan… |
| 2021 | Network Effect | Network Effect won the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 2020 Nebula Award and the 2021 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, taking the… |
| 2020 | A Memory Called Empire | A Memory Called Empire won the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Compton Crook Award, and its sequel A Desolation Called Peace won the Hugo… |
| 2019 | The Calculating Stars | The Calculating Stars won the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award and the Locus Award, one of a small number of novels to take all… |
| 2018 | The Stone Sky | The Stone Sky won the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novel, completing an unprecedented run. N. K. Jemisin took the award in 2016 for The Fifth Season, in… |
| 2017 | The Obelisk Gate | The Obelisk Gate won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2017, N. K. Jemisin's second in consecutive years, and no author had taken back to back Best… |
| 2016 | The Fifth Season | The Fifth Season won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel, making N. K. Jemisin the first Black writer to win the category in its six decade history.… |
| 2015 | The Three-Body Problem | The Three-Body Problem won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first translated novel ever to do so, and Cixin Liu became the first Asian writer… |
| 2014 | Ancillary Justice | Ancillary Justice won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the BSFA Award, the Locus Award for Best… |
| 2013 | Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas | Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Its full title is Redshirts: A Novel with Three… |
| 2012 | Among Others | Among Others won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 2011 Nebula Award, and was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award and won the British… |
| 2011 | Blackout/All Clear | Blackout and All Clear were published separately in 2010 and judged as a single work, which together won the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the… |
| 2010 | The City & the City | The City & the City shared the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel with Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, only the third tie in the category's history.… |
| 2010 | The Windup Girl | The Windup Girl shared the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel with China Mieville's The City & the City, only the third tie in the category since 1953,… |
| 2009 | The Graveyard Book | The Graveyard Book won the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 2009 Newbery Medal and the 2010 Carnegie Medal, and it is the only book ever to take… |
| 2008 | The Yiddish Policemen's Union | The Yiddish Policemen's Union won the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award, the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the… |
| 2007 | Rainbows End | Rainbows End won the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the fifth Hugo of Vernor Vinge's career and his third in the Best Novel category after A Fire… |
| 2006 | Spin | Spin won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Robert Charles Wilson is an American born Canadian writer who had been publishing well regarded novels… |
| 2005 | Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell | Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel and the… |
| 2004 | Paladin of Souls | Paladin of Souls won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Lois McMaster Bujold is among… |
| 2003 | Hominids | Hominids won the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the result was among the more debated in the category, since its plain prose and thesis driven… |
| 2002 | American Gods | American Gods won the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and the SFX… |
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won the 2001 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the only book in the series to do so, beating a ballot that included… |
| 2000 | A Deepness in the Sky | A Deepness in the Sky won the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Prometheus Award. It is a prequel to A… |
| 1999 | To Say Nothing of the Dog | To Say Nothing of the Dog won the 1999 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Its full title is To Say… |
| 1998 | Forever Peace | Forever Peace won the 1998 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, a triple crown no novel had taken… |
| 1997 | Blue Mars | Blue Mars won the 1997 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, three years after Green Mars took the same two… |
| 1996 | The Diamond Age | Published in 1995, The Diamond Age won the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It followed Snow… |
| 1995 | Mirror Dance | Mirror Dance won the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It was Lois McMaster Bujold's third Hugo for… |
| 1994 | Green Mars | Green Mars won the 1994 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and Blue Mars repeated both in 1997. Red Mars… |
| 1993 | Doomsday Book | Doomsday Book was published in 1992 and swept the following year, taking the Nebula Award, the Locus Science Fiction Award, and sharing the Hugo… |
| 1993 | A Fire Upon the Deep | A Fire Upon the Deep shared the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Novel with Connie Willis's Doomsday Book, the second of only three ties in the category's… |
| 1992 | Barrayar | Barrayar won the 1992 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, immediately after The Vor Game had taken the 1991… |
| 1991 | The Vor Game | The Vor Game won the 1991 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first of four Best Novel Hugos for Lois McMaster Bujold, who took the award again in 1992… |
| 1990 | Hyperion | Hyperion won the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Its immediate sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, won… |
| 1989 | Cyteen | Cyteen won the 1989 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, seven years after Downbelow Station took the 1982… |
| 1988 | The Uplift War | The Uplift War won the 1988 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, four years after Startide Rising had taken… |
| 1987 | Speaker for the Dead | Speaker for the Dead won the 1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Nebula Award, one year after Ender's Game had taken both. Orson Scott Card is the… |
| 1986 | Ender's Game | Ender's Game won the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Nebula Award, and its sequel Speaker for the Dead won both again the following year,… |
| 1985 | Neuromancer | Neuromancer won the 1985 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award, and it is the only novel ever to take all… |
| 1984 | Startide Rising | Startide Rising won the 1984 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, an unusually complete… |
| 1983 | Foundation's Edge | Foundation's Edge won the 1983 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Isaac Asimov wrote it thirty two years… |
| 1982 | Downbelow Station | Downbelow Station won the 1982 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and C. J. Cherryh won again in 1989 for Cyteen. Both belong to the Alliance Union… |
| 1981 | The Snow Queen | The Snow Queen won the 1981 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was nominated for the Nebula. Joan D.… |
| 1980 | The Fountains of Paradise | The Fountains of Paradise won the 1980 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 1979 Nebula Award, his second Hugo Award for Best Novel, after Rendezvous… |
| 1979 | Dreamsnake | Dreamsnake won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1978 and the Hugo and Locus awards the following year, an unusually complete sweep for a book that… |
| 1978 | Gateway | Gateway won the 1978 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1977 Nebula Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Locus Award, taking essentially… |
| 1977 | Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang | Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang won the 1977 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award and the Jupiter Award. The title is the fourth line of… |
| 1976 | The Forever War | The Forever War won the 1976 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1975 Nebula Award and the Locus Award, and it was the first title chosen for Gollancz's… |
| 1975 | The Dispossessed | The Dispossessed won the 1975 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award and the Locus Award, the second time Ursula K. Le Guin had taken the Hugo… |
| 1974 | Rendezvous with Rama | Rendezvous with Rama swept its field: the 1974 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1973 Nebula Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, the… |
| 1973 | The Gods Themselves | The Gods Themselves won the 1973 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1972 Nebula Award and the Locus Award. Isaac Asimov wrote it as an answer to a… |
| 1972 | To Your Scattered Bodies Go | To Your Scattered Bodies Go won the 1972 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Its title comes from John Donne's Holy Sonnet on the resurrection of the dead,… |
| 1971 | Ringworld | Ringworld won the 1971 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1970 Nebula Award and the Locus Award. It also produced the most famous engineering complaint… |
| 1970 | The Left Hand of Darkness | The Left Hand of Darkness won the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 1969 Nebula Award, and is usually named among the founding works of feminist… |
| 1969 | Stand on Zanzibar | Stand on Zanzibar won the 1969 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the British Science Fiction Association Award and, in French translation, the Prix Tour… |
| 1968 | Lord of Light | Lord of Light won the 1968 Hugo Award for Best Novel and remains Roger Zelazny's most admired book, though he is more widely read for the Amber… |
| 1967 | The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress | The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress won the 1967 Hugo Award for Best Novel, Robert A. Heinlein's fourth in the category after Double Star, Starship Troopers… |
| 1966 | This Immortal | This Immortal shared the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Novel with Frank Herbert's Dune, the first tie in the category and one of only three. It was Roger… |
| 1966 | Dune | Dune shared the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Novel with Roger Zelazny's This Immortal, the first of three ties in the category's history, and it won the… |
| 1965 | The Wanderer | The Wanderer won the 1965 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the second of Fritz Leiber's wins in the category after The Big Time in 1958. Leiber is unusual… |
| 1964 | Way Station | Way Station won the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel. It was serialised in Galaxy as Here Gather the Stars. Clifford D. Simak spent his working life… |
| 1963 | The Man in the High Castle | The Man in the High Castle won the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the only major award Philip K. Dick received in his lifetime, and it lifted him… |
| 1962 | Stranger in a Strange Land | Stranger in a Strange Land won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel and became the first science fiction novel to reach the New York Times bestseller… |
| 1961 | A Canticle for Leibowitz | A Canticle for Leibowitz won the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and has never gone out of print. Walter M. Miller Jr. flew more than fifty combat… |
| 1960 | Starship Troopers | Starship Troopers won the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and it caused the loudest political argument in the field's history. Robert A. Heinlein… |
| 1959 | A Case of Conscience | A Case of Conscience won the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novel. It grew from a 1953 novella of the same title, which forms the first half. James Blish… |
| 1958 | The Big Time | The Big Time won the 1958 Hugo Award for Best Novel, in a year when the category was defined as novel or novelette, which is how a work this short… |
| 1956 | Double Star | Double Star won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1956, the first of Robert A. Heinlein's four in the category, followed by Starship Troopers,… |
| 1955 | They'd Rather Be Right | They'd Rather Be Right won the 1955 Hugo Award for Best Novel, only the second awarded, and it has spent seventy years as the category's designated… |
| 1953 | The Demolished Man | The Demolished Man won the first Hugo Award for Best Novel, presented in 1953 at the eleventh World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia, which… |