The winners of the 2016 Hugo Awards have been announced, celebrating the best in science fiction and fantasy (and then some!) from 2015. So what books and stories are out next from these notable writers?
Below is a round-up of forthcoming novels and projects from the winners in the categories related to written fiction from the 2016 Hugo Awards.
N. K. Jemisin, Best Novel winner for The Fifth Season
What isn’t N. K. Jemisin doing next? The author ran a wildly successful Patreon campaign in the early summer, allowing her to focus on writing full-time, and in that Patreon page she outlined the next projects on her to-do list:
Here are the things I’d like to accomplish in the foreseeable future:
- Finish Book 3 of the Broken Earth trilogy on time
- Write a lot more short stories, and possibly put together a short story collection (or two!);
- Write more side-stories set in the Inheritance, Dreamblood, and Broken Earth ‘verses, just for kicks;
- Get started on my next novel project, for which I’ve already written a proof-of-concept story;
For those curious about her most recent published works, the second book in the Broken Earth trilogy, The Obelisk Gate, came out on August 16th, and Tor.com is publishing a stand-alone short story by Jemisin on September 28th called “The City Born Great.” These recent fictions run side by side with Jemisin’s regular non-fiction column in The New York Times Book Review: “The Latest in Science Fiction and Fantasy,” where the author highlights upcoming releases in the genre.
Nnedi Okorafor, Best Novella winner for Binti
Nnedi Okorafor’s most recent published work is actually Binti, which was released as one of Tor.com Publishing’s launch titles in September 2015, and Okorafor’s next work is…Binti: Home, a novella that comes out in January 2017 and which will follow up on the events that occur at the end of the first story. The synopsis:
It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti [DID SOMETHING NOT UNEXPECTED BUT STILL KIND OF SPOILERY IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BINTI YET]. A year since she found friendship in the unlikeliest of places.
And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders.
Along with the Binti universe, the author has two additional story worlds that continue to grow. Okorafor has a “magical futurism” world that readers can explore in her 2015 novel The Book of Phoenix, which serves as a prequel to her 2010 novel Who Fears Death, both of which are currently out from DAW Books. Those looking for more of an action-packed sci-fi magic universe from Okorafor should check out Lagoon, out now from Saga Press. No word yet on a release date for Breaking Kola, the second book in the author’s Akata Witch series.
Hao Jingfang, Best Novelette winner for “Folding Beijing“, as translated by Ken Liu
According to author and translator Ken Liu, Hao Jingfang’s next project is a FULL-LENGTH NOVEL set in the same story universe as “Folding Beijing”!
Every 24 hours in “Folding Beijing”, the Chinese metropolis folds up…
In the early dawn, the city folded and collapsed. The skyscrapers bowed submissively like the humblest servants until their heads touched their feet; then they broke again, folded again, and twisted their necks and arms, stuffing them into the gaps.
…and unfolds elsewhere, broken into sections populated by people of the same social class, all of whom experience time and space differently than other unfolded sections of Beijing elsewhere. The sections then re-fold, merge, and unfold again in an endless cycle.
Hao Jingfang’s story is available for free through Uncanny Magazine. On November 1st it will be available in print in Tor Books’ collection Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction, along with “Invisible Planets”, Hao Jingfang’s story of the same name, originally published in Lightspeed Magazine.
Naomi Kritzer, Best Short Story winner for “Cat Pictures Please”
The outlet for Naomi Kritzer’s next short story is as-yet unknown, but interested readers can check out Kritzer’s assembled stories via two collections: Gift of the Winter King and Comrade Grandmother. The author has discounted BOTH collections to just .99 cents for a limited time following the Hugo Awards.
Neil Gaiman, Best Graphic Story for The Sandman: Overture
Although The Sandman: Overture emerged a few years after it was expected (Gaiman and his wife Amanda Palmer having a child and Vertigo Comics losing its founder probably didn’t help), it nonetheless cohered into a surprisingly necessary prequel to The Sandman series. Visually, Gaiman fans now have the American Gods TV show to look forward to in 2017, a show that thus far seems to be doing the impossible by translating Gaiman’s novel with accuracy and flair. In the world of prose, the author is currently working on a re-telling of Norse mythology, titled simply Norse Mythology, which arrives on shelves on February 7, 2017 from W.W. Norton.
After that, Gaiman hinted on Facebook in late June, he may finally complete a sequel to American Gods.
Andy Weir, John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
Andy Weir made a big splash(down?) at the 2016 Hugos, taking home the award for Best New Writer and getting to see Ridley Scott’s film adaptation of The Martian take the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form). Weir’s next big project, tentatively slated for early 2017 from Random House, will be a realistic take on the struggles of living in a city on the moon. The novel features a female lead and its story will be just as rigorously engineered and fact-checked as The Martian.
Weir has also been working on a science fiction epic known thus far as Zhek, where “there is going to be faster-than-light travel, aliens, and telepathy” but the consumer success of The Martian has increased demand for Weir’s next project to be tonally similar, pushing the multi-book, high-concept Zhek to the back burner for now.
For readers who would like to dive into new works by Andy Weir right away, a new reading app called Tapas will exclusively release a new story titled “Yuri Gagarin Saves the Galaxy” on August 29th. You can read an excerpt from it on io9.
Chris Lough writes about superheroes and fantasy on Tor.com
