2026 Hugo Awards: The Winners.

"Falcons get all their water from drinking blood."

T. Kingfisher, Hugo Awards Host

"Oh shit, I guess I should have attended WorldCon!" 

Jason Sanford's in absentia acceptance speech for Best Fan Writer, 
as read by Chris Barclay

Last night saw the presentation of the 2026 Hugo Awards at LAcon V, entertainingly and skillfully hosted by award-winning author T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon*) in a succession of increasingly absurd hats. 

The event suffered from a number of technical issues, but Kingfisher handled everything that happened with humour and aplomb.  (Sadly, her demonstration of grace under pressure was not rewarded by a win in the Best Novella category, but such is life.) My only minor criticism of her hosting performance is that, amusing though the obscure animal facts were, wouldn't trivia from the history of science fiction and fantasy have been more appropriate?  

Hugo Awards Administrator Tammy Coxen, who introduced the awards portion of the evening, mentioned that several of the awards were decided by a single vote, amplifying the degree to which the individual vote really is of importance.  

I was impressed by the number of noteworthy names that presented awards over the course of the evening: Neil Clarke, David Gerrold, Barbara Hambly, Ronald D. Moore, Tim Kirk, Colleen Doran, Stan Sakai, Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, and R2-D2 - well, to be completely accurate R2-D2 only delivered the Best Novel envelope to the stage, but still, impressive that he was there at all.  

The presence of R2-D2 aside, the Hugo Awards have traditionally been ignored by the television and motion picture community**, but this year's ceremony at least partially made up for the indifference of past winners. Although Ryan Coogler declined to accept the Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form award in person***, his absence was comprehensively compensated for by the Short Form winners for Murderbot: All Systems Red, who filled the stage with members of their team, including author Martha Wells and actor David Dastmalchian. 

As a group, the winners were eloquent and passionate in their comments about the ills that plague the world, particularly the United States, expressing a sense of concern and activism in their acceptance speeches that's shared by the community in general.  

And, without further ado, the 2026 Hugo Award winners are:

BEST NOVEL
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

BEST NOVELLA
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

BEST NOVELETTE
Never Eaten Vegetables by H.H. Pak

BEST SHORT STORY
In My Country by Thomas Ha

BEST SERIES
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

 BEST GRAPHIC STORY OR COMIC
A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel, written by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and art by Fred Fordham 

BEST RELATED WORK
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, LONG FORM 
Sinners, screenplay by Ryan Coogler, directed by Ryan Coogler 

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION, SHORT FORM 
Murderbot: All Systems Red, written by Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, directed by Roseanne Liang, based on the book All Systems Red by Martha Wells 

BEST GAME OR INTERACTIVE WORK
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive

BEST EDITOR SHORT FORM
Neil Clarke

BEST EDITOR LONG FORM
Diana M. Pho

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
John Picacio

BEST SEMIPROZINE
Uncanny Magazine, publisher and editor-in-chief: Michael Damian Thomas; managing editor Monte Lin; poetry editor Betsy Aoki, podcast producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky

BEST FANZINE
nerds of a feather, flock together, editors Roseanna Pendlebury, Arturo Serrano, Paul Weimer; senior editors Joe Sherry, G. Brown, Vance Kotrla

BEST FANCAST
Hugo, Girl!, presented by Haley Zapal, Amy Salley, Lori Anderson, and Kevin Anderson

BEST FAN WRITER
Jason Sanford

BEST FAN ARTIST
Yuumei

BEST POEM
Hex Supply Customer Support Log by Elis Montgomery 

LODESTAR AWARD FOR BEST YA BOOK
Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee 

ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW AUTHOR (sponsored by Must Read Books Publishing)
Antonia Hodgson (1st year of eligibility) 

The full awards ceremony can be viewed on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyarB0EVaM

(Be warned, it's over three hours, you may want to make popcorn.)  

- Sid

* It took me a few minutes to figure out who she reminded me of: she has a remarkable resemblance to my friend Christi in both look and delivery - not an exact match, but perhaps the sister that Christi has never told me about.

** As per last year's "Shame, shame, shame" statement. 

*** The joke was that apparently the invitation did not specifically invite him into the venue - IYKYK.  

Space truckin'.

In 2024, NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory satellite, originally launched in 2004, began to experience difficulties with its orbit due to unexpected atmospheric drag from atmospheric expansion caused by solar radiation. The resulting orbital decay was predicted to eventually result in the satellite's destructive re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA commissioned Katalyst Space Technologies, a US-based aerospace startup specializing in robotic spacecraft for Near Earth Orbit (NEO) operations and satellite maintenance, to undertake a rescue mission. On July 3, 2026, Katalyst's robotic LINK spacecraft was launched with the intention of capturing the Swift Observatory and boosting it to back to a safe orbit.

And it failed. 

On August 19, NASA announced that due to attitude control issues, LINK would be unable to rendezvous with the Swift satellite, which is now doomed to re-enter the atmosphere sometime in the fall of 2026. 

This is all very unfortunate, but here's the question: why is the International Space Station unable to perform this kind of satellite mission?

It would seem to be simplicity itself for a couple of astronauts to jump into some kind of NEO vehicle, something halfway between a pickup truck and a tug in function, do a quick burn, match trajectories, and use some Mini-Me equivalent of the Canadarm to capture the doomed satellite and pull it into a stable orbit. 

I realize that the above description is an enormous simplification of what would be a far more complex activity, but the concept seems sound.  As such, it seems like an odd gap in the station's capabilities.  It's as if the ISS were a private island, accessible only by helicopter, which couldn't save someone who's fallen overboard from a passing vessel because they don't own a speedboat.

To my mild surprise, I was unable to find any references to NASA giving consideration to some sort of EVA utility vehicle, just the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).  The MMU was an individual propulsion unit used for extravehicular activities outside the Space Shuttle that was introduced in 1984.  The MMU was actually used to retrieve a pair of malfunctioning satellites before being retired from use due to safety issues (along with the Space Shuttle program).

The practical requirements for a vacuum-capable utility craft seem obvious: you'd want something with lots of horsepower and a substantial fuel payload to allow for both extended missions and to provide the fuel for moving larger payloads (such as falling satellites). The space pods from 2001 are an interesting example - shirt sleeve environment, lots of work lights, capable of remote control, and, importantly, there are external controls on Discovery which are designed to be operated by the pod's manipulators.  The addition of a standardized tow point on future satellites would certainly simplify the capture process for our shuttle crew.

However, it would require substantial redevelopment of the ISS infrastructure to allow for the creation of the kind of hangar that Discovery's pods use to allow for pressurized access - it would be simpler to have a vehicle open to vacuum that's just docked to some neutral portion of the station's exterior.  I don't recall any mention of astronauts performing ISS maintenance work having to worry about micrometeorites or similar kinetic impact hazards, so our utility vehicle probably doesn't need a windshield.**

The most important modification to existing technology that our proposed vehicle requires would be an external connection from the astronaut's environment pack to air tanks on the chassis.  It seems like such a good idea to have a breathable backup in case of a problem half way around the planet from the station.  

- Sid

* Sadly, Chris Hadfield didn’t respond to my DM on Instagram asking whether anything similar had been considered - no, seriously, he seemed like a useful source of information, but I accept that he must get thousands of messages, the man has 335,000 followers.  That being said, how cool would it have been to get a response! 

** Realizing that there's no wind involved, but it's a very convenient word for a transparent barrier that shields the driver/pilot of a moving vehicle. 

Seriously, though, it is weird.

Yes, I'm looking at you, The Raven Scholar and The Incandescent.

Regardless, I managed to finish off the remaining Best Novel nominee last night, and I've submitted my votes for the Hugo Awards.  I have to admit that I used the NO VOTE option for a couple of categories:  I hadn't read all of the Best Series books, or the Lodestar Award YA novel nominees, and I didn't wade through the Editorial options, either Long or Short Form.  

That being said, it was a challenging ballot - there's a lot of really solid work out there, and it was a struggle to rank the nominees from 1 to 6, especially in the Best Novel Category, duplicate amputations aside.  And now we wait: I'm still hoping that my Voting membership will get me access to the LACon Hugo Awards livestream on the 30th - fingers crossed!

- Sid