Congrats to the winners of the inaugural Dragon Awards. I won’t do a long post on the awards. Mainly because I still don’t have internet at home post-Hermine and would prefer to spend my precious bar-with-wifi time otherwise. But partly because (1) I haven’t read many of the winners (although I want to read almost all of them), (2) I’m not a gamer, so I can’t comment intelligently on those categories, and (3) it’s tough to comment in a meta-sense without statistics (I’ve been told these will be released next month). The winners skew Pup-heavy. This may reflect a real preference among readers for those works. Or it may reflect heavy motivation to participate by the Puppies after being rejected by Hugos voters. Time will tell, but even if it’s the latter, that may not matter as the Dragon Awards grow in stature. They will, I suspect, pass the Hugos in luster. But at this point, that isn’t saying much. Much more interesting will be whether they can match what the Hugos used to be.
Pic of the beautiful award from the DragonCon website
A few quick comments. I am a big fan of The Fifth Season (although I didn’t put it first on my Hugo ballot), but Ctrl Alt Revolt! really is even better. It’s interesting to see that this year’s Hugo Award winner for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form and last year’s Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story both picked up (well deserved) Dragon Awards (you can find my review of The Martin here, and my reviews of Ms. Marvel here, here, here, and here). This may suggest that the mainstream really does like Puppies or it may suggest that the Puppies really were influential at the Hugos.
While Strider cowered from the storm, other Puppies were getting ready to roar
The full list of winners:
Best Science Fiction Novel
Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm by John C. Wright
Best Fantasy Novel
Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel
The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel
Hell’s Foundations Quiver by David Weber
Best Alternate History Novel
League of Dragons by Naomi Novak
Best Apocalyptic Novel
Ctrl Alt Revolt! by Nick Cole
Best Horror Novel
Souldancer by Brian Niemeier
Best Comic Book
Ms. Marvel
Best Graphic Novel
The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman
Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series
Game of Thrones – HBO
Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie
The Martian
Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC/Console Game
Fallout 4 by Bethesda Softworks
Best Science Fiction of Fantasy Mobile Game
Fallout Shelter by Bethesda Softworks
Best Science Fiction of Fantasy Board Game
Pandemic: Legacy by ZMan Games
Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures/Collectible Card/Role Playing Game
Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game (7th edition) by Chaosium Inc.
Every Day Should Be Tuesday 