It's Time to Nominate Your Favorites for the Dragon Awards

And Here's Who I Nominated

For those of you who aren’t familiar (and it’s clearly my fault if you don’t. I don’t do enough to hype these things.) the Dragon Awards are given every year at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia. They are voted on by the fans. There is no charge to nominate or to vote once nominations close. It is your chance as a fan to let the whole world know what you think.

I consider it a duty to promote the Dragons, simply because I’m a fan and I care about what fans think. I believe that something like the Dragons matter and that it’s my job to promote what I want to see. It’s really that simple. This is really the only literary award I value and, should I ever be nominated for one after I’ve actually published something, one of two (the other being the Prometheus Award) that I would accept.

Then again, it’s pretty arrogant for an unpublished author to talk about receiving awards. I’ll shut up now.

But, just in case you’re interested in what I’m voting for and what my reasoning behind each vote was, I present you with my ballot

Best Science Fiction Novel: Reluctant Emissary by Fred Hughes

This is alien invasion SF at it’s finest. It’s got the action. It’s got the diplomacy. It’s got the guns, the bombs and the characters that you can’t help rooting for. It’s awesome.

It’s also LitRPG and I love LitRPG. It’s weird. It hasn’t been that long since I found out that LitRPG even existed and nowadays it might be my favorite form of Science Fiction and Fantasy. That blows my mind.

Read my review here.

Best Fantasy Novel: Ward & Measures: The Glyphwright Chronicles - Book 2 by Jeremy Fabiano

I’ll be honest. This one caught me unawares. If you read the first book in The Glyphwright Chronicles, you were perfectly justified in thinking that this was a cozy fantasy series. I like those. But then, if you pick up Book 2…

Yeah, no.

I’m not convinced that Fabiano has even heard of a cozy fantasy after reading this. It is also LitRPG and that’s one of the reasons it’s on my list. Since George RR Martin killed the Epic Fantasy genre, the only way to scratch that itch is with LitRPG. Fabiano gave me what I needed in spades. I loved this book.

Read my review here.

Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel: Fossil Force by Graham Bradley

I mean…

Fossil Force is a Middle Grade novel. It’s eligible. It was my book of the year for 2025. Did I really have a choice?

This one took me back to my childhood. Kids on bikes going places with no adults, independently doing their own thing. Awesome power armor fighting action. A bit of a mystery. And, above all, just plain fun.

My only regret about voting Fossil Force for a Middle Grade/YA award is that it could have been Best Fantasy Novel as well. I figured it’s a got a better chance here though.

Read my review here.

Best Alternate History Novel

I had thought about nominating Harry Turtledove for City in Chains. It turns out that it was released too early to be eligible. Oops. But just for giggles, here’s my review.

Best Horror Novel

I ended up not voting in this category because I don’t read a lot of horror and I didn’t think. If I had it to do over again, I’d have nominated Holding the Line: Book One of the Long Watch by Roy Griffis. It’s YA, but it’s awesome psychological horror building into a creature feature. I loved it.

I just need to learn to think before clicking send.

SIGH

Anyway, here’s my review:

Best Illustrative Book Cover: Ink & Intent: The Glyphwright Chronicles - Book 1

Listen: I’m not a visual art critic, but the book was about a kid who learns how to make magic through drawing glyphs and this was the book’s cover:

‘Nuff said.

Review Here.

Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel:

I got nothin’. I’ve read a lot of older stuff with my Kindle Unlimited subscription but it’s all older stuff that’s not eligible. Somebody send me something good that they’re releasing soon that will be eligible for next year and we’ll talk.

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

I voted for Superman. It was fun. The special effects were awesome. It told a real story and didn’t contain a social just lecture. I’d nominate this thing twice if I could. Unfortunately, I didn’t review it. I’m a goofball sometimes.

Best Digital Game

I really need to get a platform or go back to WoW. Most of what I’ve been playing over the last year has been cell phone apps. The rest of it is all old stuff on emulators. I’ve got nothin’ here.

Best Tabletop Game

I had wanted to nominate Nemesis: Retaliation for this, but it turns out that it came out in March of 2025 and the cutoff was July 1. Sucks to be me. That was all I really had, so this one got left blank, too.

And that’s what I’ve got. Let me know how you think I did in the comments. Leave your own noms there as well. And if you haven’t nominated yet, there’s still time. Nominations are open until July 12, and the ballot is available here. They’ll email you ballot for the final vote as well.