The Tor.com posts drew frequent discussion, with comments from editors Gardner Dozois, David G. Hartwell and Rich Horton that responded to and sometimes disagreed with Walton's analyses.

[12] Walton states in the introduction that her goal is to analyze whether the Hugo nominees were the best five books of the year, and to examine how well they have stood the test of time.

[17] PW remarked on Walton's substantial essays on individual books, a comment echoed by Gary K. Wolfe in his review for Locus Magazine.

PW highlighted Walton's essay on Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven, while Wolfe noted her entries on Robert Heinlein's Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, and Thomas M. Disch's On Wings of Song.

He called the book "a singular, essential critical appreciation" for the Hugo nominees, and said that although they were pre-selected as some of the best SF ever written, "Walton doesn't always agree, and is more than ready to tell you why".

[18] Reviewers noted Walton's openness about her personal biases: for instance, she "adores much of Robert Heinlein and C. J. Cherryh",[16] but dislikes Philip K. Dick and William Gibson.

[16] Mandelo's review highlighted the transformation from conversational blog posts to a static book, and noted the uniqueness of the cross-platform approach, saying that it made for "a dragonfly-in-amber effect on reading".