# All time best Hugo Award loser **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855 "2017-02-02T21:43:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/1 "2017-02-02T21:43:34Z")
Inspired by the all time best Hugo Award winner thread (which was inspired by the all time best Newberry Award winner thread) how about your favorite Hugo nominees that _didn’t_ win? After all, there are many more of those. Since there are (typically) four losers for every winner, I’ll make the question a little easier and let you pick four losers. Still a very hard question, and my answer would probably change with my mood, but I’ll go with _Iron Sunrise_, _Blindsight_, _River of Gods_, and _Learning the World_. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/2 "2017-02-02T22:39:32Z")
Can I cheat and vote for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, which was my favorite winner (it lost the award the year before it won)? Ok so I won’t do that… the four that I picked are Flowers for Algernon, Slaughterhouse-five, The Mote in God’s Eye, and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/3 "2017-02-02T23:02:10Z")
[Reposting the link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel) in this thread might be helpful. (I’m still thinking; I may or may not be able to come up with answers in all of these threads.) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/4 "2017-02-02T23:30:31Z")
_Flowers for Algernon_ _Beggers in Spain_ _The Curse of Chalion_ _The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/5 "2017-02-03T00:17:56Z")
Y’know, on looking at the list of runners-up, it’s funny first, how many of them I haven’t read, and second, of those I have, how many were just really bad. I mean, seriously, who ever nominated _Macroscope_? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/6 "2017-02-03T00:43:00Z")
_Davy_ by Edgar Pangborn _Dying Inside_ by Robert Silverberg _The Man Who Folded Himself_ by David Gerrold _Titan_ by John Varley (the book that changed my life) ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/7 "2017-02-03T00:43:11Z")
I would say _Flowers for Algernon_, except that it a) won the Hugo as a short story in 1960, and b) was much much better as a short story than as the novel (more impact from the concept). _Slaughterhouse-Five_ _The Years of Rice and Salt_ _Protector_ _The High Crusade_ _Friday_ Yeah, yeah, I know. Five is right out. So sue me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/8 "2017-02-03T00:58:54Z")
_The Many-Colored Land_ (Julian May) _A Civil Campaign_ and _Memory_ (Lois McMaster Bujold) _Dragonquest_ (Anne McCaffrey) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/9 "2017-02-03T01:44:13Z")
_Titan_ by John Varley _Deathworld_ by Harry Harrison _Glory Road_ by Robert Heinlein _The Lathe of Heaven_ by Ursula LeGuin _The Mote in God’s Eye_ by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/10 "2017-02-03T02:06:59Z")
**His Majesty’s Dragon** , most fun I’ve seen with the Napoleonic wars, and I’m including **Jonathan Strange** in that assessment, though barely. **Perdido Street Station** , a major move forward for New Weird fiction, took my breath away. **Red Mars** , the first hard SF that I really appreciated (and IMO far better than its Hugo-winning sequels). **Cat’s Cradle** , the book that turned me on to apocalyptic fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/11 "2017-02-03T02:10:42Z")
Some really big books have lost the Hugo, like _Little, Big_ by John Crowley, and _Cryptonomicon_ by Neal Stephenson. And who remembers that Harry Potter book 2 beat out A Game of Thrones book 3? But reading over the list reminds me of smaller books that normally you wouldn’t expect to make the final cut but are fondly in my memory. _The Butterfly Kid_ by Chester Anderson is the pinnacle of hippie psychedelic sf. R. A. McAvoy’s wonderful debut novel, _Tea with the Black Dragon_. George Alec Effinger’s private eye fantasia, _When Gravity Fails_ (a Dylan reference). Thomas Disch’s brilliant _On Wings of Song_. James K. Morrow dead god oddity _Towing Jehovah_. No blockbusters, but wonderfully offbeat and individualistic writing. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/12 "2017-02-03T03:25:51Z")
And I think it’s fair to add _The Martian_, which never (due to it’s publishing history, IIRC) was nominated, but might be the best ‘hard’ SF of this young century. IMHO as always; YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/13 "2017-02-03T03:36:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And who remembers that Harry Potter book 2 beat out A Game of Thrones book 3? Harry Potter 4, not 2. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/14 "2017-02-03T10:44:33Z")
I’d have to pick the two Wolfe novels - \*Claw of the conciliator \*and _Sword of the Lictor_. The Book of the New Sun is a special book, but clearly publishing it in four parts must attenuate its impact for winning awards. _The Claw and Crowley’s Little Big_ being beaten out by CJ Cherryh’s \*Downbelow station \* in 1982 strikes me as one of the more risible award decisions. I’m a fan of Cherryh, read loads of her books, but come on now - a serious error of scale going on there. I think _The Scar_ is Meiville’s best written book (didn’t win in 03), but agree with **Left Hand of Dorkness** above that _Perdido St Station_ (nominated 02) is breathtaking. For a first novel it is so impressive with a very original voice - seems like the type of precociousness that would win awards, but I’ve not read _American Gods_ that won that year so don’t know how it stacks up ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/15 "2017-02-03T11:54:33Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > I think _The Scar_ is Meiville’s best written book (didn’t win in 03), but agree with **Left Hand of Dorkness** above that _Perdido St Station_ (nominated 02) is breathtaking. For a first novel it is so impressive with a very original voice - seems like the type of precociousness that would win awards, but I’ve not read _American Gods_ that won that year so don’t know how it stacks up Small nitpick: Mieville wrote **King Rat** in 1998, two years before Perdido Street Station. It’s nowhere near as good IMO, and ends with a pun so strained and painful that it nearly ruins the whole book. Gaiman is fun, but I don’t think he’s the astonishing author that so many others think he is. American Gods passed the time for me, no more. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/16 "2017-02-03T13:57:59Z")
I will abstain, out of politeness. 🙂 / ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/17 "2017-02-03T14:12:32Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Gaiman is fun, but I don’t think he’s the astonishing author that so many others think he is. American Gods passed the time for me, no more. Not everything he writes is a winner but _American Gods_ is excellent IMO and I’ve re-read it several times. _Anansi Boys_, however, was more of a time-passer. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/18 "2017-02-03T15:10:53Z")
Arthur C Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust is an amazing book - scientifically precise and hugely suspenseful. It lost out to The Man in the High Castle, which is perhaps understandable. TMITHC is more sweeping and innovative. I suspect in a different year, Moondust would have won. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/19 "2017-02-03T15:12:14Z")
I always feel like Gaiman should be really good and is instead just okay. People whose taste I respect often love him. He just generally leaves me flat. _The Graveyard Book_ was good, I thought. I haven’t read _American Gods_. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-time-best-hugo-award-loser/778855/20 "2017-02-03T15:16:45Z")
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