World Science Fiction Society · award year

Hugo Award 2021

The 2021 Hugo Award went to Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler, Damian Duffy, and John Jennings (Graphic Story), A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (Lodestar) and Network Effect by Martha Wells (Novel), with winners in 2 more categories. 26 books were finalists across 5 categories.

Winners

Graphic Story

  1. Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptationsource (opens in a new tab)

Lodestar

  1. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Bakingsource (opens in a new tab)

Novel

  1. Network Effectsource (opens in a new tab)

Novella

  1. The Empress of Salt and Fortunesource (opens in a new tab)

Related Work

  1. Beowulfsource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

Graphic Story

  1. Die, Volume 2: Split the Partysource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Ghost-Spider, Volume 1: Dog Days Are Oversource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Invisible Kingdom, Volume 2: Edge of Everythingsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Monstress, Volume 5: Warchildsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Once & Future, Volume 1: The King Is Undeadsource (opens in a new tab)

Lodestar

  1. A Deadly Educationsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Cemetery Boyssource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Elatsoesource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Legendbornsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Raybearersource (opens in a new tab)

Novel

  1. Black Sunsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Harrow the Ninthsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Piranesisource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The City We Becamesource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Relentless Moonsource (opens in a new tab)

Novella

  1. Come Tumbling Downsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Finnasource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Ring Shoutsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Riot Babysource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Upright Women Wantedsource (opens in a new tab)

Related Work

  1. A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butlersource (opens in a new tab)

About the Hugo Award

Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Related Work and Best Graphic Story finalists and winners 2006-2025, plus the Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (administered with the Hugos) from its first year, 2018. Novel and Lodestar rows were taken from sfadb.com (Locus Science Fiction Foundation) and checked title by title against each year's thehugoawards.org page; Novella, Related Work and Graphic Story rows were parsed from sfadb.com year pages and each title matched against the thehugoawards.org page they cite. Books only: Novella keeps only novellas published as standalone books (print or ebook), skipping those that appeared only in magazines, anthologies, collections or online, so Novella counts are lower than the official ballot. Related Work keeps books only (no podcasts, essays, blog posts, videos, websites or projects such as Buffalito World Outreach Project and Discover X), and Graphic Story keeps collected volumes and graphic novels (no webcomic strips, single issues or xkcd). Best Related Book (2006-2010) is filed as Related Work; Best Graphic Story or Comic (2021 on) as Graphic Story. sfadb omits the 2013 Graphic Story winner (Saga, Volume One); it comes from thehugoawards.org. A year has no winner row where the winner was not a book (No Award in 2015 and 2016, or a magazine novella, podcast, essay or webcomic). The 2019 Art Book special category, short fiction and Best Series are out of scope. Declined nominations are excluded (Lines of Departure, 2015). The Wheel of Time (2014) was nominated as a whole series, so it has no single ISBN. Moonstorm (2025 Lodestar) was withdrawn after finalists were announced; the official page still lists it, so it stays.

Organization: World Science Fiction Society. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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