In less than a month, the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society judges’ decision about the winner of the 2026 Philip K. Dick Award will be announced at Norwescon‘s annual conference on April 3, 2026. I always enjoy reading the short-listed novels for these speculative fiction awards, so if you are doing that too and you’re reading through this list, you have only a few more weeks to finish up.

I also wonder why I have so much fun doing this. Partly it’s because these lists introduce me to great speculative fiction I may have otherwise missed. I’m not all that knowledgeable, just an avid reader encountering some amazing fiction. Yes, I did study literature in grad school, but not THIS literature. I’m enthralled. I want to know more. These lists are part of my self-directed course syllabus, I guess.

Partly, though, I’m always awestruck at the variety of speculative fiction out there, and the variety of ways readers approach it. Not all readers approach it the way I do, and so the judges may very well pick a book that I wouldn’t pick. YOU, dear reader, may very well pick a book I wouldn’t pick.

This list is especially challenging. It’s all apples and oranges. I don’t envy the judges. I just finished judging a statewide poetry contest posing a similar challenge, and I thought I’d lose my mind. But then I, in the privacy of my own head, one individual reader among many, had the luxury of making my own choice for this award. And I found I had no trouble at all.

Again, the Nominees:

• Sunward by William Alexander (Saga Press)
• Outlaw Planet by M. R. Carey (Orbit)
• Casual by Koji A. Dae (Tenebrous Press)
• The Immeasurable Heaven by Caspar Geon (Solaris)
• Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha (Undertow Publications)
• Scales by Christopher Hinz (Angry Robot)
• City of All Seasons by Oliver K. Langmead and Aliya Whiteley (Titan Books)

I enjoyed six of these books in, I really do believe, six very different ways. One book stood out, though. That book is:

Uncertain Sons and Other Stories by Thomas Ha (Undertow Publications)

You can read my review of it HERE, if you missed it in this series of posts. But really, get yourself a copy and read THAT. It is amazing. If the judges pick Ha’s collection of short fiction, I’ll feel gratified, but they could pick any of the others. You might pick any of the others. After all, it’s not a horse-race, even if these awards have that feel.

One reader of this blog complained I’m contributing to the horse-race atmosphere. I hope not. But he has a point, and also I have real concerns about the gate-keeping that allows one book to be considered for awards and shuts another book out, for reasons completely other than excellence. Anyway, fair point, and of course you can read any, all, or none of these books before, during, or after the judging. But if you read just one. . .

By the way, I am not in any affiliate program, do not benefit financially from this blog, and have no financial interest in any of these books or the outcome of this award. The only thing I do is sometimes–not often–flog my own books.

. . . I’m begging you . . . READ THIS BOOK.