,

Worst novels and novellas that were given a Hugo or Nebula award and didn't deserve it in the least.

See Hugo & Nebula Awards history here:

http://www.thehugoawards.org/?page_id=6

http://www.nebulaawards.com/index.php...
1

by
4.57 avg rating — 4,129,226 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.03 avg rating — 64,198 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
3.89 avg rating — 359,366 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.86 avg rating — 87,952 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.87 avg rating — 116,525 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.27 avg rating — 292,591 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.10 avg rating — 215,213 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.87 avg rating — 252,659 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.60 avg rating — 7,251 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.95 avg rating — 32,933 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
3.72 avg rating — 79,805 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.14 avg rating — 178,833 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
3.99 avg rating — 118,066 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.37 avg rating — 3,243 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.05 avg rating — 35,229 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
4.10 avg rating — 985,000 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
3.96 avg rating — 40,604 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
4.12 avg rating — 181,906 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.80 avg rating — 13,807 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
3.55 avg rating — 6,187 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.75 avg rating — 22,617 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.84 avg rating — 10,968 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.77 avg rating — 18,860 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.31 avg rating — 1,461,961 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.23 avg rating — 4,520 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.26 avg rating — 147,241 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.18 avg rating — 97,474 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
3.71 avg rating — 25,686 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.59 avg rating — 232,529 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
4.06 avg rating — 58,218 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 17,397 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.94 avg rating — 17,237 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
4.11 avg rating — 43,894 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
3.65 avg rating — 6,403 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
3.59 avg rating — 48,522 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
3.73 avg rating — 16,536 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
4.06 avg rating — 47,152 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.92 avg rating — 325,078 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.90 avg rating — 12,495 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.86 avg rating — 27,242 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
3.69 avg rating — 5,822 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.57 avg rating — 2,132 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.99 avg rating — 117,265 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.67 avg rating — 2,747 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
4.11 avg rating — 269,168 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
4.19 avg rating — 26,912 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
4.04 avg rating — 44,068 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.01 avg rating — 1,364 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.79 avg rating — 292,212 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.62 avg rating — 6,160 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.13 avg rating — 65,960 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
3.72 avg rating — 11,494 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.33 avg rating — 163,500 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
4.08 avg rating — 477,650 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.48 avg rating — 1,658 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
55

by
3.69 avg rating — 3,658 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.74 avg rating — 4,503 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
4.15 avg rating — 563,848 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.89 avg rating — 28,182 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.27 avg rating — 26,923 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60 books · 79 voters · list created July 16th, 2009 by useFOSS (votes) .
4 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


useFOSS 1663 books
7 friends
Greyweather 2660 books
65 friends
John 851 books
53 friends
Pequeniosaltamontes 8690 books
100 friends
Randy 140 books
2 friends
Krzysztof 1721 books
80 friends
Xiro 758 books
16 friends
Bill 6641 books
391 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-18 of 18 (18 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Defaeco (new)

Defaeco The Man in the High Castle?
Neuromancer?
Rendezvous with Rama ?

Voted as worst? are you stupid?


message 2: by Eric (new)

Eric I actually agree with you about Man in the High Castle and Neuromancer - I really liked both of those. However, I thought Rendezvous with Rama was a boring, overrated novel with no suspense, character development, or even interesting ideas. It's also quite possibly the most anti-climactic novel I've ever read. Had Clarke's name not been attached to it, I question whether it even would have been noticed.

Or maybe it's truly great and I'm too "stupid" to realize why.


message 3: by Defaeco (new)

Defaeco Could be.
Man in the High Castle is a personal favorite for me and IMO his best book.
No mean to offending, good day



message 4: by Bryan (new)

Bryan I really think the Connie Willis novel Doomsday Book is one of the better winning novels - not only is it very fine SF, and very well-written, it's also very accessible to a wide audience.

Just my 2 cents worth, but Doomsday Book would be worth 6 stars on my shelf if Goodreads added an extra star.


message 5: by Peregrine (new)

Peregrine The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and Doomsday Book are three of my favourite books.


message 6: by Jim (new)

Jim I've got to give this list a big thumbs down. Some of my all time favorite books are listed, it's missing my personal "worst Hugo winner" pick and some of the listed books are NOT Hugo winners.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads It's pretty easy to add books to lists. At the top of the list, at the tab next to "all votes."

What non-winners are on?


message 8: by Tetrachromat (new)

Tetrachromat agree with and second message 6.


message 9: by Mary JL (new)

Mary JL "The Dispossesed" by Le Guin is on the list twice---#18 and #32!


message 10: by Benjamin (new)

Benjamin Atkinson Whomever placed Hyperion and Rendezvous with Rama in any list for worst novels to win any award does not understand good writing. Hyperion is a flat-out masterpiece and Rendezvous with Rama is the best of the Big Smart Object novels(tie Peter Watts Blindsight). Occasionally, I read these list and my jaw drops. Whomever voted for Hyperion please tell me why you thought this novel did not deserve the Hugo. I would love to hear your argument. Please


message 11: by Will (new)

Will This list has to be a joke. An unfunny joke.


message 12: by Benjamin (new)

Benjamin Atkinson I know right. I sometimes disagree with awards voting and it is easy to tell that certain authors are the "darlings" of the award voting; two examples are Orson Scott Card and KSR. However, this list is outrageous. I cannot believe that people actually read some of these masterpieces.


message 13: by [deleted user] (new)

This is typical.
Put people to name the worst bands and they'll name mostly bands that wrote memorable songs but they're "cool" to hate.
Many people seem to have no idea what "worst" means.

This are probably books that received high praises but the reader didn't find them to his taste, so they hate that book because it "wasted their time".
Very childish.


message 14: by Greg (new)

Greg Sheppard What a pathetic list. Absurdly wrong as well.


Susanna - Censored by GoodReads You could, of course, help make the list "more accurate" by adding your own votes. That's all any Listopia is - an opinion poll.


message 16: by Sam (new)

Sam Will wrote: "This list has to be a joke. An unfunny joke."

Shut up, Will. No one cares.


message 18: by Mitchell (last edited Jul 12, 2025 09:41PM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman of books on this list for which I have a posted review
2 - 5 stars
17 - 4 stars
10 - 3 stars
4 - 2 star
2 - 1 star


back to top



Related News

Good news, book nerds! And movie nerds! And TV nerds! It’s time once again for our regular roundup of new and upcoming book-to-screen...

Anyone can add books to this list.