I’ve read lots of science fiction over the years, or speculative fiction, or fantasy, or other things that sort of look like those things. I’ve realised recently that in my 50s I am increasingly seeking out award winners to purchase and read. As a librarian I am supportive of loaning and lending; folk reading books and passing them on to others. Whereas I collect and acquire, I own and I retain, I hold and I cherish. I have occasionally loaned books to others and sometimes get them back, occasionally I realise years later that there are some I don’t get back.

On to award winners. I have tended to read them incidentally, as I have come across them in my meanderings through bookshops: physically and digitally. I have read things I’ve loved that haven’t won awards, and not loved some award winners. Yet award winners tend to be at least interesting, perhaps a step in a different direction. There are some I’ve skipped eg Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book as they concern alternate histories which I’m not fond of, yet I have read alternate histories by others such as Dick’s The Man in the High Castle.

Below is a list of all the winners of the Hugo awards which I tend to regard as one of the top awards, along with the Nebula, Locus, Aurealis, Philip K Dick, and others. Anyway I thought it’d be interesting to go through each and list the ones I read and owned. A different sort of list to circulate. For each book listed I have added 2 of 3 symbols such:

• + I own
• $ I own fancy edition – usually Easton Press or Folio Society or Subterranean or Suntup or Centipede or Grim Oak etc
• # read – have I actually read the bloody thing.

I’ve included one of the Retro Hugos which were awarded much later to fill missing years. Of those I gather, only one has been awarded post 1953 when the awards themselves began – as that’s a Bradbury I can’t help but include it.

• 1953 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
• 1954 $# Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury [retro hugo]
• 1955 They’d Rather Be Right (also known as The Forever Machine) by Mark Clifton & Frank Riley
• 1956 Double Star Robert A Heinlein
• 1958 The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
• 1959 $# A Case of Conscience by James Blish [beat Heinlein’s Have Space Suit Will Travel]
• 1960 $# Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein
• 1961 +# A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M Miller
• 1962 $# Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein
• 1963 $# The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick
• 1964 +# Way Station by Clifford D Simak [also known as Here Gather the Stars]
• 1965 +# The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber
• 1966 $# [joint winner] Dune by Frank Herbert [I own multiple editions: basic omnibus, Easton Press, Folio Society, eventually Centipede Press I hope]
• 1966 [joint winner] The Immortal by Roger Zelazny [also known as …And Call Me Conrad]
• 1967 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
• 1968 Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
• 1969 $ Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
• 1970 $ The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin [I’ve read so many of her’s yet still it waits]
• 1971 +# Ringworld by Larry Niven [Centipede Press are planning to release a special edition]
• 1972 To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer [used to see it the shops and never quite bought it]
• 1973 The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
• 1974 +# Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke
• 1975 $# The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin [this was the first of her’s I read]
• 1976 The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
• 1977 Where Late the Sweet Birds Sing by Kate Wilhelm [not read much by her but have read some of a 2 volume collection of her short stories from Centipede Press]
• 1978 +# Gateway by Frederik Pohl
• 1979 +# Dreamsnake by Vonda N McIntyre [she wrote a bunch of star trek novels which is I came across her initially]
• 1980 The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke
• 1981 The Snow Queen by Joan D Vinge
• 1982 Downbelow Station by CJ Cherryh
• 1983 +# Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov [been a long time since I read his Foundation series but I tend to feel this is a weaker entry]
• 1984 + Startide Rising by David Brin [also meant to read it and read others of his]
• 1985 +# Neuromancer by William Gibson [I can’t afford the special editions of this one]
• 1986 $# Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card [love it and have read it several times, hate the politics of the author]
• 1987 +# Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card [I anticipate getting the fancy edition in a few weeks]
• 1988 The Uplift War by David Brin
• 1989 Cyteen by CJ Cherryh [never read her adnd was alas never attracted by the blurbs – perhaps I need to try her hugos at least]
• 1990 Hyperion by Dan Simmons
• 1991 +# The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
• 1992 +# Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
• 1993 +# [joint winner] A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
• 1993 [joint winner] Doomsday Book by Connie Willis [I recently skipped the SubPress edition of this as I’m nostly not interested in alternate histories]
• 1994 Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
• 1995 +# Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
• 1996 The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
• 1997 Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
• 1998 Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman
• 1999 To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
• 2000 A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge
• 2001 +# Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
• 2002 +# American Gods by Neil Gaiman [if anything I s’pose I’m disappointed he didn’t get a hugo for Sandman]
• 2003 Hominids by Robert J Sawyer
• 2004 Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
• 2005 ?# Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke [? as I can no longer find my paperback; I suspect I loaned it to someone long ago. Currently tempted to replace with a fancy edition]
• 2006 Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
• 2007 Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
• 2008 The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
• 2009 $# The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman [possibly one of my favourite Gaiman books]
• 2010 $# [joint winner] The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi [I only read it recently and then bought the fancy edition]
• 2010 $ [joint winner] The City & The City by China Mieville
• 2011 Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
• 2012 Among Others by Jo Walton
• 2013 Redshirts by John Scalzi [I have read others by him but not this one yet]
• 2014 Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie [had an opportunity in the last week to buy the fancy version of the trilogy but passed as I bought a trilogy by Jemisin – see below]
• 2015 $# The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; translated by Ken Liu
• 2016 $ The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin [Book 1 of first trilogy ever for all 3 books to get a hugo; managed to find fancy set with matching numbers this week]
• 2017 $ The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin [Book 2 of first trilogy to win hugo]
• 2018 $ The Stone Sky by NK Jemisin [Book 3 of first trilogy to win hugo]
• 2019 The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
• 2020 A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine