

Ranking the 2025 Hugo nominees plus 4 more of the best sci-fi and fantasy books of the year!
Jul 22, 2025
32:19
In addition to ranking the six nominees, we also talk about four more amazing books that deserve to be in contention for the best speculative fiction novels of the year.
- Join the Hugonauts book club on discord
- Or you can watch the episode on YouTube if you prefer video
This episode is sponsored by Doppelgänger: An Orphan, A Prodigy, and a Murder by Chip Walter. A computer scientist awakens in a robotic body—next to his own murdered corpse, with only 72 hours to stop a conspiracy that threatens the human race. William Shatner calls it “quite a ride.” Learn more at chipwalter.com/
If you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for all the books we talked about:
- 00:00 Intro
- 1:26 Episode Sponsor - Doppelgänger by Chip Walter
- 2:03 6 - A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
- 4:58 5 - The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- 7:51 4 - Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
- 9:12 3 - Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- 12:49 - Four more great books that deserved a nomination
- 22:36 2 - Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- 27:15 1 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett