Hugo Award Winning Fantasy Novels Worth Reading 

Choosing what fantasy book to read next is never easy. One way to know you are reading a great fantasy book is it has won an award. That is why we will be looking at Hugo Award winning fantasy novels worth reading!

When I decided to write about fantasy books that won Hugo Awards, I thought I would have a lot of books to choose from. But that isn’t the case. More often than not, sci-fi books are the recipients of the Hugo Award. 

Often times, these genres overlap and can be included in both categories. But we know when a novel is mostly fantasy or sci-fi. I tried to choose novels that were easily identifiable as fantasy and didn’t think I would have a small pool to choose from.

Still, I was able to find some amazing novels that won the Hugo Award. The winner of the 2025 Hugo Award will be announced in a few months and we can’t wait for that. Until then, you can read these previous winners. You can see the full list below!

Hugo Award Winning Fantasy Novels

• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
• Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
• The City & The City by China Miéville 
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 

The Fifth Season

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is one of the best fantasy novels I have read in recent memory. The novel is unlike anything else and the world building and magic system are brilliant. It is no wonder this novel won the 2016 Hugo Award.

In fact, all three novels in The Broken Earth Trilogy won the Hugo Awards in consecutive years. That is the only trilogy to win an award for every book in the series and rightfully so. There are elements of sci-fi in this novel but I do think it is a fantasy novel first. 

The Graveyard Book

Another favorite novel of mine is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It won the 2009 Hugo Award and Gaiman has won the award many times in his career. If you want a child to get into reading, then this is the perfect novel to gift them.

The novel is well written and the plot is a simple one. But what makes this novel amazing is how Gaiman is able to spin this into a magical tale and a fantasy novel everyone needs to read. 

Conclusion

That is all for this list of Hugo Award winning fantasy books worth reading and to add to your reading list. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many fantasy books that have won the award and I do hope that trend changes in the near future. As we look forward to the 2025 winner, you can read these incredible fantasy books until then. Happy reading!

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook