The biggest Hugo Award upsets: when readers would have voted differently
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is voted on by science fiction fans, but readers do not always agree with the result. Comparing each winner with its rivals’ ratings, readers’ favorite finalist won in only 17 of 38 years. Here is every upset, biggest first.
Every Hugo upset, biggest first
When voters and readers agreed
In these years, the winner is also the highest-rated finalist.
- 1966: Dune by Frank Herbert (★ 4.36)
- 1970: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (★ 4.21)
- 1971: Ringworld by Larry Niven (★ 3.83)
- 1974: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (★ 4.06)
- 1975: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (★ 4.37)
- 1978: Gateway by Frederik Pohl (★ 3.87)
- 1986: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (★ 4.34)
- 1987: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (★ 4.09)
- 1988: The Uplift War by David Brin (★ 3.90)
- 1992: Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold (★ 4.16)
- 1993: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (★ 4.09)
- 1999: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (★ 4.10)
- 2010: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (★ 3.79)
- 2014: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (★ 4.00)
- 2016: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (★ 4.35)
- 2018: The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin (★ 4.35)
- 2021: Network Effect by Martha Wells (★ 4.44)
Years are skipped when the winner or every rival has fewer than 100 ratings. Fantasy finalists are not part of this library, so a few years compare fewer books.
About this data
Award records come from the Science Fiction Awards Database and cover the Novel and Novella categories of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Ratings are web-aggregated averages, counted only for books with at least 100 ratings. Everything updates automatically as new results are added. You are welcome to cite this page; please link back to it.