Post 1000
This is my thousandth Substack post. That’s remarkable, since I only got on Substack in mid-April, 2025, and it is now mid-June, 2025. Did I really average 17.85 new posts a day? No, I imported over 900 reviews from my old blog on Blogger. I did, in fact, edit every one of them by hand after import.
The large majority of my 1000 posts here are reposts of Goodreads book reviews. These are posted in my “Brok3n Engines Reviews” section, which has three subscribers: Me, me, and my sister. Most of my subscribers are subscribed only to “Brok3n Engines Creations,” where I post my own writing. That’s fine — that’s why I set up the separate newsletters.
My Hugo choices
This year for the first time I joined the World Science Fiction Society, so that I could download the Hugo packet. That also makes me eligible to vote for the winner. With the exception of some of the series, I have read all the finalists in the categories below. Here are my choices in the categories I plan to vote in.
Best Novel
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)
Best Novella
Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
Best Novelette
“Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 59)
Best Short Story
“Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 57)
Best Series
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books)
Best Poem
Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead (Titan)
Finalist list
These are the finalists for the categories I plan to vote in, from The Official Site of The Hugo Award (captalization courtesy of the original site).
Best Novel
This was between The Ministry of Time and The Tainted Cup, which are both excellent. The Tainted Cup is the first book in a series, so there will be other opportunities to honor Bennett for these books.
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US, Tor UK)
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (DAW)
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Tor)
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)
Best Novella
This was a fertile hunting ground. I enjoyed four of these novellas, with Nghi Vo and Aliette de Bodard being my favorites. De Bodard has never won a Hugo, despite having been a finalist eleven times. I’m an admirer. Since this is the first year I’ve voted, perhaps my vote will put her over the top!
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom)
Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom)
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom)
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom)
What Feasts at Night, T. Kingfisher (Nightfire)
Best Novelette
This one was not difficult. “Signs of Life” stands out above the other finalists.
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, May 2024)
“By Salt, By Sea, By Light of Stars” by Premee Mohamed (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024)
“The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea” by Naomi Kritzer (Asimov’s, September/October 2024)
“Lake of Souls” by Ann Leckie in Lake of Souls (Orbit)
“Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
“Signs of Life” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 59)
Best Short Story
This is between “Marginalia” and “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is.” Both are excellent. But “Marginalia” is more conventional, and I stiffed Vo in the Novella category, so she gets my vote for short story.
“Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones (Lightspeed Magazine, Jan 2024 (Issue 164))
“Marginalia” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 56)
“Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by Nghi Vo (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 57)
“Three Faces of a Beheading” by Arkady Martine (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
“We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed Magazine, May 2024 (Issue 168))
“Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, February 2024)
Although I have read these, I haven’t yet written reviews for most. If I’m feeling industrious, I may come back and link the reviews once written.
Best Series
I have only read two of these, Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series and Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive, but of those I have read every extant published work. They both deserve Best Series Hugos, and I hope they will both eventually get one. But this is the right year for The Stormlight Archive, which just concluded a major story arc.
Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga Press)
The Burning Kingdoms by Tasha Suri (Orbit)
InCryptid by Seanan McGuire (DAW)
Southern Reach by Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books)
The Tyrant Philosophers by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra)
I plan to read at least the first novel of Between Earth and Sky, The Burning Kingdoms, and Southern Reach. If one of them blows me away, and if it is possible to change a Hugo vote, I’ll go back and do that. But I don’t expect that to happen.
As far The Tyrant Philosophers, I have tired of Tchaikovsky, and based on the series title, this sounds like exactly the kind of Tchaikovsky work that has alienated me.
Best Poem
This is between “Your Visiting Dragon,” which is delightful, and Calypso, which is epic, literally — a novella-length epic poem about a Space Ark.
Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead (Titan)
“Ever Noir” by Mari Ness (Haven Spec Magazine, Issue 16, July 2024)
“there are no taxis for the dead” by Angela Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 58)
“A War of Words” by Marie Brennan (Strange Horizons, September 2024)
“We Drink Lava” by Ai Jiang (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 56)
“Your Visiting Dragon” by Devan Barlow (Strange Horizons, Fund Drive 2024)
I’ll eventually write a review of Calypso, and probably an omnibus post reviewing the other poems.