The Hugo Awards for 2025 will be announced on August 16, 2025 at Seattle WorldCon.

The finalists for best novel:

• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)–reviewed in this post
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)–mentioned in this post
• A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher (Tor)
• Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom)
• Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Orbit US, Tor UK)
• Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (DAW)

Disclaimer: I only review the novels. Go to the Hugo Awards web site to find all the other finalists in many categories. Great reading experiences await!

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Del Rey, Hodderscape UK)

If you love fantasy AND mystery novels, this is the book for you. The cover tells you so, with its intricate design reminiscent of some embossed volume of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The cover does not lie. In the tradition of the best mystery novels, The Tainted Cup introduces the eager reader to a duo of detectives working a seemingly unsolvable mystery: the murder of a nobleman by vicious tree. So–a touch of horror as well.

The detectives are one of the genre’s truly delicious odd couples. Ana Dolabra, a mysterious older eccentric detective-genius, never leaves her house but sits blindfolded in her room filled with books and puts the clues together. Her wet-behind-the-ears assistant, Din, has to fight skepticism by other officials and his own insecurities, meanwhile navigating the eccentric Ana’s crazy requests and encounters. This is a novel that could have been set on Baker Street but instead inhabits an alien landscape with death by the murderous afore-mentioned tree, horrifying gigantic sea-beasts, and officials magically altered so they can do things like remember every single detail of a scene or even page that their eyes fall upon. This novel is also one of a crop of many recent books with protagonists who deal with disabilities, and Bennett handles the topic very well.

The point-of-view character, Din, is an engaging person with many fears and worries. “Of all the Sublimes who could have been my assistant, why did it have to be the one with a forty-span stick up his ass?” grumbles Din’s perhaps stark raving mad but undeniably brilliant master, Ana. As we settle into Din’s head, though, we realize how much the world misjudges him, and why. There’s a hint of romance, too. The characters are fascinating. The world-building and magic systems are very well-done. And this novel sports my favorite feature, a novel with a sequel but no cliff-hanger ending. The Tainted Cup is a satisfying read all by itself. I feel enticed to read on to the sequel, A Drop of Corruption, Book Two in Bennett’s Shadow of the Leviathan series, but not bludgeoned or tricked into doing so.

Bennett’s novel was also short-listed in the fantasy novels category of the 2025 Locus Awards, although it didn’t win, and it is short-listed in the best novel category for this year’s World Fantasy Awards, to be announced on Nov. 2, 2025. More about both the Locus and World Fantasy Awards in later posts.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press, Sceptre)

The Ministry of Time was short-listed for both the 2025 Arthur C. Clarke Awards in the novels category, and in the best first novel category for the 2025 Locus Awards.

I reviewed this novel in my posts about this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Awards. Find my review HERE. I should also note that in that review, I entered a wrong link to the novel. I’ve since corrected the error in the earlier post. This post gives you the correct link, too. Apologies!

To summarize very briefly: Bradley’s novel is wonderful, ingenious, and thrilling. I loved it.

GREAT NEWS for lovers of this book! I’m so pleased to see that the BBC has recently created a dramatic series based on The Ministry of Time. Find out more HERE. Also HERE. When can we watchers in the U.S. hope to see it? When? When?? Note: There’s a Spanish HBO series of the same name and roughly the same premise from 2015. Don’t confuse that one with this.