I've already looked these up, when looking at the Hugo nominees. Looked at sample chapters, synopses, core themes, etc. Not a single one even remotely appealed to me. At least, the Hugo nominated Shroud, which I am seriously considering giving a read.
I haven't gone as far into looking at them as you have, but just eyeballing them only two are marked as Science Fiction on Goodreads, and neither of those two grab me for what I look for in Sci-Fi. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is classified as vampires, which might be interesting, but I just learned about it writing this article. I might hit it up on audiobook if my Libby has it.
My hot take is that SFF awards in 2026 are more for writers than they are for readers.
As a digital marketer I often think about products (be they games or books or toasters) about point-of-purchase decision making. It is very hard for me to imagine a reader on the fence about a purchase who bites the bullet and buys it because they realise "oh, this book won an Aurora!"
But man, if I'm an SFF author cold pitching a new publisher or agency and I can flex a Hugo for my short story? That's absolutely a point-of-purchase decision factor for Orbit Books.
When I mapped out my posts for this quarter, I looked up conventions and award ceremonies and Nebula obviously came up. I’m not a fan of award shows in general (like the Oscars) and they sometimes feel very self-aggrandizing, so I was really trying to find a new angle on award shows that I haven’t seen people talk about before for this post.
A list like the Nebula nominees should help surface SciFi that as a reader you might check out that you wouldn’t have otherwise (or maybe challenge you to try some new SciFi you hadn’t considered) but that can easily be done with a list of “My top 7 nominees for the best Sci-Fi novel” (which isn’t a bad idea for a post for Friday, lol).
All that to say, the first comment from @KHudson pointed out (and I retroactively agree), there isn’t much in the way of SciFi being elevated in this year’s Nebula nominees — and that which is, I don’t feel compelled to read.
I've already looked these up, when looking at the Hugo nominees. Looked at sample chapters, synopses, core themes, etc. Not a single one even remotely appealed to me. At least, the Hugo nominated Shroud, which I am seriously considering giving a read.
I haven't gone as far into looking at them as you have, but just eyeballing them only two are marked as Science Fiction on Goodreads, and neither of those two grab me for what I look for in Sci-Fi. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is classified as vampires, which might be interesting, but I just learned about it writing this article. I might hit it up on audiobook if my Libby has it.
My hot take is that SFF awards in 2026 are more for writers than they are for readers.
As a digital marketer I often think about products (be they games or books or toasters) about point-of-purchase decision making. It is very hard for me to imagine a reader on the fence about a purchase who bites the bullet and buys it because they realise "oh, this book won an Aurora!"
But man, if I'm an SFF author cold pitching a new publisher or agency and I can flex a Hugo for my short story? That's absolutely a point-of-purchase decision factor for Orbit Books.
When I mapped out my posts for this quarter, I looked up conventions and award ceremonies and Nebula obviously came up. I’m not a fan of award shows in general (like the Oscars) and they sometimes feel very self-aggrandizing, so I was really trying to find a new angle on award shows that I haven’t seen people talk about before for this post.
A list like the Nebula nominees should help surface SciFi that as a reader you might check out that you wouldn’t have otherwise (or maybe challenge you to try some new SciFi you hadn’t considered) but that can easily be done with a list of “My top 7 nominees for the best Sci-Fi novel” (which isn’t a bad idea for a post for Friday, lol).
All that to say, the first comment from @KHudson pointed out (and I retroactively agree), there isn’t much in the way of SciFi being elevated in this year’s Nebula nominees — and that which is, I don’t feel compelled to read.