Hugos 2025: What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

Ursula Vernon (who usually writes for adults or even YA audiences as "T. Kingfisher") has been one of my favorite discoveries from my reading of Hugo Award finalists. Since I began in 2017, I think there hasn't been a single year where she hasn't been on the ballot in at least one category. I have very much come to appreciate her humor, her sensitivity, her focus on the forgotten and unseen. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking is particularly excellent.

What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher

Originally published: 2024
Acquired: April 2025
Read: May 2025

One of this year's Best Novella finalists is What Feasts at Night, a sequel to What Moves the Dead, her Best Novella finalist from 2023. I ranked it first, but it bafflingly finished in fourth. What Moves the Dead was about a soldier from a Ruritanian country travelling to another small European country, where they encountered evil alien fungus. I found it funny and cleverly done. It seems like fantasy horror at first, but it eventually becomes clear the book is actually science fiction.

But... did it need a sequel? Did the sequel need to be a Hugo finalist? I enjoyed going back to these characters, but unfortunately the story here is up to much less than in the first book. Someone is getting sick, and Alex very slowly investigates. It's a bit too obvious what's going on. While in the first book you might have some inkling, I think there that worked to generated dread—here it mostly drags on. What you think is going in is exactly what is going on, and unlike in What Moves the Dead, there's no clever explanation; it's just a mythical creature. I found it pretty disappointing.

But still! Kingfisher is engaging enough a writer that you still enjoy a lot of it. Lots of humor, and the narrator has a great voice, and the side characters are vivid, almost Dickensian sorts. I enjoyed most of the ride, even if I wasn't really sure why I was on it or if it was even going anywhere. I'm not really sure why this book exists, in that I think Kingfisher ought to have waited until she had a stronger premise for a second book in this sequence, and I'm really not sure why it's a Hugo finalist... but I certainly had a much less pleasant time reading some other inexplicable Hugo finalists.

Hugos 2023: What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Published: 2022
Acquired: July 2023
Read: September 2023

This retells Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"... only I've never read that. I imagine that's cleverly done (Vernon certainly makes it sound so in her afterword), but it also works totally on its own. I guess it's a piece of horror, but I didn't find it scary... that's not an indictment, though, because I did find it really interesting. When I began reading it, I assumed it was fantasy, but actually I think it's science fiction: it's about fungus, but it's all carefully done in terms of plausibility (as far as these things go, anyway).

The narrator is from a Ruritanian country, travelling to another one (but not the actual Ruritania of Prisoner of Zenda, despite what the back cover says); ka is from a country with a lot of pronouns, including specific ones for soldiers (God and priests/nuns each also get their own set). There's some interesting stuff with gender as a result, and I found ka a very fun narrator.

This is by Ursula Vernon, so the main thing to note is that it's all leavened perfectly by comedy. The narrator's Scottish batman is particularly excellent, but all the characters here are good fun. A quick, interesting read, well put together.