The 25 best Hugo Award winners

The 25 highest-ranked Hugo Award winners in our ranking of 3,056, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 61 Hugo Award winners in all. How we rank

1
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by J. K. Rowling · 1997
Harry Potter has spent ten years sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs of his cruel aunt and uncle's house when a letter arrives that changes everything: he's a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2001, for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)One of the best-selling books ever (about 120 million copies)#1 New York Times bestseller (2 weeks at #1)Hugo Award finalist (2000, for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
97.6Must-Read Score
2
Ender's Game
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card · 1985
To survive the next attack by a hostile alien race, Earth's government breeds child geniuses and trains them as soldiers.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1986)Nebula Award winner (1985)Hugo Award winner (1987, for Speaker for the Dead)33 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2013
94.5Must-Read Score
3
Dune
Dune
by Frank Herbert · 1965
On the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the universe, young Paul Atreides arrives with his noble family to take over the planet's rule, knowing it may be a trap.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1966)One of the best-selling books ever (about 20 million copies)51 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020PBS Great American Read
92.3Must-Read Score
4
The Fifth Season
The Fifth Season
by N. K. Jemisin · 2015
The Stillness is a supercontinent wracked by earthquakes, and every few centuries a catastrophic Season of ash, darkness and famine nearly ends civilization.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2016)Hugo Award winner (2018, for The Stone Sky)Hugo Award winner (2017, for The Obelisk Gate)Nebula Award finalist (2015)
91.9Must-Read Score
5
Hyperion
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons · 1989
On the eve of an interstellar war, seven pilgrims set out for the planet Hyperion, home to the Time Tombs, mysterious structures that move backward through time, and the Shrike, a terrifying creature of blades worshipped by a strange church.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1990)Hugo Award finalist (1998, for The Rise of Endymion)Hugo Award finalist (1991, for The Fall of Hyperion)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read
88.4Must-Read Score
6
The Dispossessed
The Dispossessed
by Ursula K. Le Guin · 1974
Shevek is a brilliant physicist from Anarres, a barren moon settled two centuries earlier by revolutionaries who built a society with no government, no property and no money.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1975)Nebula Award winner (1974)
86.3Must-Read Score
7
Foundation
Foundation
by Isaac Asimov · 1950
The Galactic Empire has ruled for twelve thousand years, and only one man knows it's dying.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1983, for Foundation's Edge)Nebula Award finalist (1982, for Foundation's Edge)PBS Great American ReadGuardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read
86.1Must-Read Score
8
The Tainted Cup
The Tainted Cup
by Robert Jackson Bennett · 2024
In an empire walled off from monstrous sea leviathans, a high officer is found dead with a tree erupting from his body.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2025)Edgar Award finalist (2025)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2024)
86.1Must-Read Score
9
All Systems Red
All Systems Red
by Martha Wells · 2017
In a future run by corporations, survey teams on distant planets come with a Company-supplied security android.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2021, for Network Effect)Nebula Award winner (2020, for Network Effect)Goodreads Choice (science fiction) finalist (2023, for System Collapse)Goodreads Choice (science fiction) finalist (2021, for Fugitive Telemetry)
84.4Must-Read Score
10
A Deepness in the Sky
A Deepness in the Sky
by Vernor Vinge · 1999
After thousands of years of searching, humans are about to make first contact with an alien race on a planet whose strange star switches off for centuries at a time.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2000)Nebula Award finalist (1999)
83.7Must-Read Score
11
The Forever War
The Forever War
by Joe Haldeman · 1974
William Mandella, a physics student, is drafted into an elite force to fight the Taurans, an alien race humanity has barely encountered.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1976)Nebula Award winner (1975)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read
83.5Must-Read Score
12
A Memory Called Empire
A Memory Called Empire
by Arkady Martine · 2019
Mahit Dzmare is the new ambassador from Lsel, a small, independent mining station, to the vast Teixcalaanli Empire, whose poetry-loving culture she has admired all her life.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2020)Hugo Award winner (2022, for A Desolation Called Peace)Nebula Award finalist (2019)Nebula Award finalist (2021, for A Desolation Called Peace)
83.4Must-Read Score
13
American Gods
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman · 2001
Shadow Moon is released from prison days early, after his wife dies in a car accident.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2002)Nebula Award winner (2002)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read
83.2Must-Read Score
14
Barrayar
Barrayar
by Lois McMaster Bujold · 1991
Cordelia Naismith, a scientist and ship captain from a peaceful, progressive world, has married Aral Vorkosigan, a warrior from the militaristic planet Barrayar, and moved there.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1992)Nebula Award finalist (1991)
82.9Must-Read Score
15
Paladin of Souls
Paladin of Souls
by Lois McMaster Bujold · 2003
Three years after being freed from a curse of madness, Ista, the widowed dowager queen of Chalion, is still haunted by memories, regrets and guilty secrets.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2004)Nebula Award winner (2004)
82.7Must-Read Score
16
The Three-Body Problem
The Three-Body Problem
by Cixin Liu · 2006
During China's Cultural Revolution, a young astrophysicist named Ye Wenjie watches her father beaten to death and is sent to a secret military base that searches the sky for alien life.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2015)Nebula Award finalist (2014)Hugo Award finalist (2017, for Death's End)
82.3Must-Read Score
17
Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama
by Arthur C. Clarke · 1973
In 2131, astronomers detect a huge object entering the solar system.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1974)Nebula Award winner (1973)
81.8Must-Read Score
18
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin · 1969
Genly Ai is an envoy from the Ekumen, a league of worlds, sent alone to the icy planet Gethen to invite its people to join.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1970)Nebula Award winner (1969)Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read
81.7Must-Read Score
19
The Everlasting
The Everlasting
by Alix E. Harrow · 2025
Sir Una Everlasting is the legendary lady knight who founded the nation of Dominion: an orphan who became a hero and died for her queen.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (2026)Goodreads Choice (fantasy) finalist (2025)
80.8Must-Read Score
20
Mirror Dance
Mirror Dance
by Lois McMaster Bujold · 1994
Miles Vorkosigan, born with brittle bones and a body that never grew to full height, leads a double life as a mercenary admiral.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1995)
80.8Must-Read Score
21
The Vor Game
The Vor Game
by Lois McMaster Bujold · 1990
Miles Vorkosigan graduates from the Barrayaran Imperial Military Academy and gets the assignment he dreads: weather officer at a frozen arctic base.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1991)
80.2Must-Read Score
22
Gateway
Gateway
by Frederik Pohl · 1977
Long ago an alien race called the Heechee left behind an asteroid full of working spaceships.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1978)Nebula Award winner (1977)Hugo Award finalist (1981, for Beyond the Blue Event Horizon)Nebula Award finalist (1980, for Beyond the Blue Event Horizon)
79.5Must-Read Score
23
The Diamond Age
The Diamond Age
by Neal Stephenson · 1995
In a future Shanghai where nanotechnology can build anything, society has split into tribes, the most powerful being the neo-Victorians, who have revived the manners of nineteenth-century England.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1996)Nebula Award finalist (1996)
79.4Must-Read Score
24
The Gods Themselves
The Gods Themselves
by Isaac Asimov · 1972
In the twenty-second century, a scientist discovers that a sample of tungsten has turned into a substance that can't exist in our universe.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1973)Nebula Award winner (1972)
79.2Must-Read Score
25
A Fire Upon the Deep
A Fire Upon the Deep
by Vernor Vinge · 1992
The galaxy is divided into zones where the laws of physics allow different levels of intelligence and technology.
Why it made the list
Hugo Award winner (1993)Nebula Award finalist (1992)
78.4Must-Read Score