Welcome to my 2025 novella recommendation thread! For the rest of the year, I am going to recommend novellas in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres for the consideration of Hugo nominators. And, crucially, these are all going to be novellas NOT published by Tor. - ThreadSky

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social • 15 days ago

Welcome to my 2025 novella recommendation thread! For the rest of the year, I am going to recommend novellas in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres for the consideration of Hugo nominators. And, crucially, these are all going to be novellas NOT published by Tor.

Comments

susanloyal.bsky.social•15 days ago

Thank you! This is a service I appreciate.

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

I have a lot of time for Tor's novella line(s). They're committed to the vitality of the novella length while promoting a strong, diverse group of authors, many of them relatively unknown. But they are also extremely dominant - in 2025, six out of six best novella Hugo nominees are Tor books.

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

It's not healthy for the field for a single publisher - with, I think it's fair to say, a very distinctive editorial slant - to define a whole storytelling form. Not to mention that increasingly, it seems like the Tor novellas being nominated mostly come from the same half-dozen series.

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

So I am going to spend the rest of 2025 highlighting non-Tor novellas that I think Hugo nominators should be aware of. I invite you to add your own recommendations to the thread. More importantly, I invite you to commit to reading and nominating more broadly in this category.

mcflycahill90.bsky.social•15 days ago

Hello! Would it be appropriate to mention one's own novella coming in 2025? Thank you, and I think is a great practice!!

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

By all means!

mcflycahill90.bsky.social•15 days ago

Thanks, Abigail! Big fan of you & your work!

I've a science-fantasy/time travel & trickster god novella out in Sept from Tachyon: Audition For The Fox! Blurbs from Cat Valente, Kat Howard, Cass Khaw, and more. Would love to send you a copy if interested =]

https://tachyonpublications.com/product/audition-for-the-fox/

mariahaskins.com•14 days ago

Thank you for this thread. ❤️ I'm bookmarking it for future reference.

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

1. Pam Kowolski is a Monster! by Sarah Langan (Raw Dog Screaming Press) - we start off with a horror/SF blend in which the apocalypse is seen only obliquely by a person who is more focused on proving that her high school nemesis, now a star, is actually a villain. https://rawdogscreaming.com/book/pam-kowolski-is-a-monster/

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

This is a story that takes near-future dystopia tropes - economic precarity, climate change, omnipresent corporate AI - and layers them with supernatural horror in a way that makes it hard to see the seams. Mostly because the self-sabotaging, self-absorbed narrator is too busy to notice.

abigailnussbaum.bsky.social•15 days ago

2. A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang (Titan Books) - what seems like a familiar type of story, about a young woman bartered in marriage to the king of a much-stronger, colonizing nation, has some unexpected quirks. For one, the narrator and her people are all sentient trees.

dovelynnwriter.bsky.social•10 days ago

Since recs are okay, can I add all of the 2025 Nerezia books by Claudie Arseneault currently out?

Queer, neurodiverse JRPG vibe with found family on a road trip to figure out what the dangerous motes & one of the characters’ relation to them is.

(I’d rec reading the first 3, but you CAN jump in.)

dovelynnwriter.bsky.social•10 days ago

(My reading time is mostly tied up in project research at the moment, but I’m also looking forward to the Neon Hemlock novellas once that time clears up some.)

bettywiderski.com•15 days ago

📌

katgibrown.bsky.social•15 days ago

📌

kleonardphd.bsky.social•10 days ago

Thank you for this!

newedgeswordmag.bsky.social•14 days ago

Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery is the first book from us and it features a pair of novellas bound in one book - each a unique take on S&S inspired by Mongol history & culture, one about a claustrophobic siege the other a grand caravan trip in a Weird desert.

https://newedgeswordandsorcery.com/product-tag/double-edged-sword-sorcery/

lunamunoz.bsky.social•14 days ago

📌

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