Chasing the Dragon (Award)

For Tinara.

Mostly for the title.

Heh.

Time for round two, shall we?

A quick recap.....

DragonCon is one of the largest SFF conventions on the planet Earth. They now have an award.

You can see the process right here.

And this isn't a calendar year eligibility process, nor are these categories by length, but by genre.

Please remember, you can wait until the end of June to nominate various and sundry novels for the Dragons. You can vote at the end of June if you like.

I don't recommend waiting quite that long, since the Dragon award website encourages early voters.

So, vote early, vote often?

.... Nah, only if you're in Chicago.

Once more, this list will show what is eligible. It will be, in part, what's best retained in my brain, and that isn't exactly what you'd call 100% reliable.

But we're going to give it our best shot, shall we?

If there is something you see that is missing from this list, I ask that you post it in the comments.

Anyway. Item the first, there are the instructions for the nomination process.

What's eligible, exactly?

Works released between 7/1/2016 and 6/30/2017 are eligible for this year’s awards.

Once again, there's nothing about nominating whole series. Sorry.

Now, keep in mind, everyone -- THE RULES SAY YOU CAN ONLY NOMINATE ONE ITEM ONCE. That's it.

What does that mean?

For example:

• You CAN NOT nominate Murphy's Law of Vampires or The Nest in best fantasy and best horror. 
• You can't vote for Codename: UnSub in best scifi and best dystopia. 
• You can't put JCW's Swan Knight series (Swan Knight's Son  / Feast of the Elfs / Swan Knight's Sword) in both best YA and best fantasy.

Now, on with the suggestions.

Note that there will be some places that are filler. mostly because I can't remember things very well. There will be no list to guide me. I'm not using Vox Day's list, as his Rabid list is using the calendar year of 2016 for his eligibility. There are no other lists that I know of .... I don't even know if the Locus list is out there yet. (Locus? Locust? Lotus?)

Once more, I'm going to ask people to comment and make suggestions, because I honestly can't do better than this list. I'm not very happy about it. Right now, I'll take suggestions from anyone who wants to help right now.

If you want to vote right this minute, you can. I'm putting together this post so you can vote as you follow along. Click here to vote.

Best Science Fiction

Escaping Infinity: Richard Paolinelli.  I reviewed this book, and it was awesome.  This is in all likelihood, my candidate.

Timothy Zahn: Thrawn -- It will come out in April, and thus eligible. I suspect this to be the Godzilla that bigfoots the entire proceedings. Any other author on this list, if you're reading this, talk all of your readers into voting NOW, before this comes out.

God, Robot, by the Wrights, et al: Missionary robots. I interviewed the authors of this anthology last year.

Torchship Pilot, Karl Gallagher. You might recall him. I interviewed him on the show a few times. He's an awesome guy, and he should probably win on the hard SF aspect alone.

Blood of Invidia, by Tom Tinney. Vampires from space. Hemophagic aliens. Yes. Interesting, ain't it. Haven't read it yet, but I've had Tom on the show twice before. 

The Secret Kings, Brian Niemeier: Book #2 won best horror in 2016, so I suppose this is also eligible there as well, but the description looks very Space Opera. Read it and you tell me below. When I asked Brian on my radio show, he didn't have an opinion. It reads like David Weber versus Cthulhu.

Discovery, Karina Fabian.

Best fantasy

Murphy's Law of Vampires: Why am I putting this here if I've been jumping up and down, screaming that you can't nominate the same book in two different categories? Well, it helps that I've got several books that have come out since 2016's Dragon Awards. If you don't have anything else here, pick this one. But you probably do. Stiffest it in the comments.  I'll take all the help I can get.

Keeping the Faith, by William Lehman: Don't let the 2015 date on Amazon fool you, this came out in November of 2016,  Take a look at it. Think of it as less urban fantasy and more .... forest fantasy. Long story.

Let's also consider Jon Van Stry and his Hammer Commission, book 3, Loose Ends. I haven't read it, but it's eligible. I would have put him in horror, even he doesn't think it works.

I was going to put JCW's, Iron Chamber of Memory ...but then I remembered, the Kindle edition came out in MARCH. So it's not actually eligible.  Nuts.

You'll notice that Ringo isn't here. Keep scrolling.

But if you feel obligated to vote for me in SOMETHING, and horror won't cut it, this will do.

Young Adult

Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland, by L. Jagi Lamplighter. I've only read book 1 of Jagi's series, but I've liked enough of it to conclude that I'd suggest people take a look at this before voting.

Swan Knight's Son  / Feast of the Elfs / Swan Knight's Sword by John C. Wright.   FOR THE RECORD,  I've asked, and if anyone votes for John under YA, he'd rather shoot for Swan Knight's Son

Path of Angels, Dawn Witzke. Yup, my cover artist has a book out. It's Christian dystopia road trip.

Yes, it is another long story. How'd you guess?

Best military science fiction 

or fantasy novel

Ringo, Monster Hunter Memiors: Sinners  and / or Ringo, Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge are both eligible. And they are both awesome. Also, I needed something for this section.

I don't know which one I'm going to vote for. I really don't.

There's also Cartwright's Cavaliers, which was mentioned in my circles lately.

Anyway, there's my suggestion.  I've since read Shadow of Victory by David Weber .... I don't recommend it. It's eligible, though, if you think Weber should have at least one Dragon Award.

And Timothy Zahn's last Manticore book is before the cut off date, but we'll see what he has coming out in the next five months. He might have another COBRA novel coming.

Best alternate history novel 

Harry Turtledove is the king of this genre. I'd guess that Armistice: The Hot War book 3, would take it.

However, Eric Fint has a LARGE  1632 fanbase.

• 1636: The Ottoman Onslaught
• 1636: Mission to the Mughals
• 1636: The Chronicles of Dr. Gribbleflotz

They're eligible. I have yet to start the series yet, so no advice from me.

Best Apocalyptic

I hate dystopias. It's one of the reason I cowrote my own.

Codename: UnSub, by me and my coauthor, turns San Francisco into a wasteland that's being haunted by a serial killer. I can say that The Injustice Gamer really liked this one.

Cadain's Watch, the sequel to Daniella Bova's Tears of paradox, is coming out ... in March.  No idea if I'll be able to read it before voting.

I suppose I should take it as a sign of improvement that I actually had candidates last year. This year? Nada.

To steal from the CLFA list, however?

People's Republic.

Liberty Lost.

Best Horror

Live and Let Bite ... As I've said before, this is the book. This is where I'm putting my money.

Yes, I have made my case for it to win a Dragon already. As I said before, this is everything from Honor at Stake and does more. Romance? Action? The stakes? Pressed down and overflowing.

Also, as I said before, it's just logical.

Yes, I would love for this book to be registered under "Urban Fantasy," and then thank God that there isn't a Harry Dresden book out thus far this year, but aside from that ... I have demons and vampires and minions with machine guns. This is probably where I will make my stand, whether I like it or not.

Murphy's Law of Vampires ... no, this I'm not recommending, again, since there's Live and Let Bite. Murphy's is merely eligible, and that's about the extent of it.

Then again, given my luck, everyone will vote for Murphy's and ignore Bite. Which will confuse me no end.

And .... that's it. Sorry, I'm not a big fan of horror -- too much nihilism, depression, and "let's kill people who are too stupid to live."

For the record, I would like someone to tell the Dragon Awards to start an Urban Fantasy genre (also known as the "Jim Butcher award"). Perhaps a paranormal romance category?

I'm going to start skipping at this point, for reasons that will become clear. Please forgive me on this.

Best science fiction or fantasy series, TV or internet: 

Grimm is in its last season. I'll guess this would get it, just so it can get one before disappearing.

Arrow ...? Maybe.

iZombie is coming back, and it is the best Zombie show ever.

Luke Cage ... was boring. Don't do it.

Yes, Lucifer is eligible, but I wouldn't suggest it this season. Too much time spent with his mother. Yes, really.

Best science fiction or fantasy movie 

Doctor Strange. 

Yeah. That's about it. And I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Fantastic Beasts etc .... shouldn't get an award.

I'd rather Dr Strange than Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

Kong: Skull Island ... maybe this weekend.

Wonder Woman ... I'm hopeful.

The Mummy? God, I hope not.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter .... no, no no and HELL NO.

Spider-man: Homecoming. .. Oh, I so want to like this one, but some of the forced "diversity" for the casting makes me nervous. So does anything in the ads that doesn't focus on superheroics.

It's a coin flip until further notice.

Best PC / console game: 

I'm sure there will be people who toss up between

• Final Fantasy XV  (Not holding my breath)
• Titanfall 2?  Perhaps. I've heard good things about it.
• Total War: Warhammer. I've seen some good reviews on this one.

As for the rest ... damned if I know. I'm still catching up to Rise of the Tomb Raider. And no one I know wants to give props to Mass Effect: Andromeda.

However, there are people out there who have some thoughts on the matter. The Injustice gamer can help you fill these in, if you're interested.

• Best comic book
• Best graphic novel  -- The Injustice Gamer has thoughts on these
• Best science fiction or fantasy mobile game
• Best science fiction or fantasy board game
• Best science fiction or fantasy miniatures / collectible card / role-playing game

Enjoy.  CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE IN DRAGON AWARDS NOW, IF YOU WANT TO. But, again, you can hold off for a little later.

Feel free to post some reminders and thoughts.

No, really. Please post your thoughts and suggestions below. I need all the help I can get.

If you haven't already, check out some of the books below.

And if you have, please leave a review.