DragonCon is a convention that takes place every year over the Labor Day weekend in downtown Atlanta, GA. It is, by all accounts, the largest sci-fi and fantasy convention on the planet Earth. If you don’t believe me, their minimum attendance every year is 60,000. It has been suggested that their attendance is over the six-figure mark, but they don’t say as much because they’re afraid that the fire marshal will shut them down. Every year, the DragonCon parade brings in about 100,000 people, who come in and watch the parade march down Peachtree Avenue.

This year is the first time that DragonCon has decided to have their own award, the Dragon. I keep calling it the Flight of Awards, but I fear that no one gets that particular reference.

The timing of this particular award is interesting, in that the award itself was only announced in April of this year. This was the month after WorldCon’s Hugo awards were voted on. The deadline for voting on the Hugo nominations was March 31, and the Dragons were announced about a week later.

The timing is also interesting when one considers that last year’s Hugo Awards presentation was a bit of a train wreck. Entire categories were nullified by a massive influx of votes insisting that no award be given in those categories where the nominees were just too conservative. These nominees were only nominated due to the effort of the Sad Puppies 3 campaign – a movement dedicated to having diversity of thought in the Hugo awards, where good fiction was promoted over “good think.” The response to that was downright Soviet in execution. Only this time it was history repeated as farce. The people behind the Hugos had a Dalek (a genocidal space Nazi from the series Doctor Who) come out and support one of the good SJWs who opposed the Puppies. Someone who won the “fan writer” award thanked a professional editor (who happened to be an SJW and Puppy Kicker) for his success.

Then, after years of people suggesting that DragonCon host their own award, they decide to start an award for their 30^th anniversary. It also happens to be the year after several “Big Dogs” among the Sad Puppies were guests at DragonCon in 2015. The timing is interesting.

After the Dragon Awards were officially announced, Brad Torgersen, the leader of Sad Puppies 3 last year, had this to say

And so: the final nail in the coffin of the Hugo awards. Looks like the Dragon Award is basically going to be doing everything Sad Puppies was hoping to get the Hugos to eventually do, but Dragon Con is doing it without having to wade through all the histrionic, caterwauling drama that resulted from the self-appointed defenders of Worldcon correctness and propriety throwing the genre’s all-time biggest temper tantrum. I raise my glass to this, and predict that within ten years, a gold-foil DRAGON AWARD label on a book is going to routinely replace both NEBULA and HUGO labels.

The Dragon award nominees are finally in. What do they look like?

1. Best Science Fiction Novel

Raising Caine by Charles E. Gannon

Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm by John C. Wright

Agent of the Imperium by Marc Miller

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Life Engineered by J-F Dubeau

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

Two interesting points come from this. One, Somewhither, by John C. Wright happens to be one of the Sad Puppy 4 picks for best novel from this year. And, while Ann Leckie’s work did make the Sad Puppy 4 recommendation list, Leckie is generally considered on the side of the anti-Puppies.

For the record, I picked John C. Wright because his book is amazing.

2. Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher

Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams

Grave Measures by R.R. Virdi

Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia

Changeling’s Island by Dave Freer

On the one hand, I do not understand why there are only five novels here. Here, we see three Sad Puppies picks from the list – Correia, Freer, and Butcher all ended up for Sad Puppies 4, which tells you that, while those books were just that good, this is not a list driven entirely by the Sad Puppies.

Dave Freer has insisted that his fans, in a tossup between him and Correia, give the award to Correia, as Freer is also in another category, YA. However, I split the difference by voting for Jim Butcher.

3. Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Changeling’s Island by Dave Freer

Updraft by Fran Wilde

Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

Trix and the Faerie Queen by Alethea Kontis

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett

Steeplejack by A.J. Hartley

Eight nominees, which means that this category is truly blowing up something fierce. The nominees are from all over the place, and I don’t even know if a single one of them has an ideological opinion. Which means I can only conclude that – gasp! Shock! Horror! – they were voted on because of merit.

I have no horse in this race … I’d usually knee-jerk and say Pratchett, but I want Dave Freer to get something. He’s awesome. And Sir Terry wouldn’t mind. He’s dead, he’s past awards.

And no, I don’t really know the others.

4. Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel

Blood in the Water by Taylor Anderson

Allies and Enemies: Fallen by Amy J. Murphy

The Price of Valor by Django Wexler

The End of All Things by John Scalzi

Chains of Command by Marko Kloos

Hell’s Foundations Quiver by David Weber

Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera by Gibson Michaels

Several things about this category.

First of all, in the comments section of the Puppy Kicker hangout, the website File 770, they disparaged every last nominee here, except for their hero, fellow Puppy Kicker John Scalzi. This is amusing since David Weber has been writing military science fiction for over 25 years, and practically invented half the concepts in modern scifi space combat.

Though the good SJWs among the Puppy Kicks are probably upset because, at the very least, this Weber series is deeply religious.

Second, at the start of the year, John Scalzi announced that he would refuse being in any and all award nominations, and insists that he refuses this one as well.

5. Best Alternate History Novel

1635: A Parcel of Rogues by Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis

Germanica by Robert Conroy

League of Dragons by Naomi Novik

Deadlands: Ghostwalkers by Jonathan Maberry

Bombs Away: The Hot War by Harry Turtledove

1636: The Cardinal Virtues by Eric Flint & Walter H. Hunt

This isn’t really a surprise. Eric Flint’s 1632 series has been around for nearly a decade. On the other hand, expect it to go to Harry Turtledove, who has been doing alternate history for decades.

I suspect the 1635 and 1636 books will cancel each other out, or they’ll have to coordinate before they decide.

6. Best Apocalyptic Novel

Ctrl Alt Revolt! by Nick Cole

A Time to Die by Mark Wandrey

Dark Age by Felix O. Hartmann

Chasing Freedom by Marina Fontaine

The Desert and the Blade by S.M. Stirling

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

This is interesting, since three of the novels here are written by conservatives: Cole, Wandrey, and Fontaine are certainly no liberals.

NK Jemisin, however, is one of the Puppy Kickers, and a racist who seems to dislike white people, and Native Americans.

7. Best Horror Novel

An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel

Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay

Souldancer by Brian Niemeier

Chapelwood by Cherie Priest

Alice by Christina Henry

Honor at Stake by Declan Finn

Brian Niemeier is another Sad Puppy choice this year. In fact, he’s one of the bigger crossovers between two different set of Puppy lists – he was nominated by both the recommended reading list of Sad Puppies 4, and the Rabid Puppy list of author and publisher Vox Day.

The only other person from the Sad Puppies list happens to be Honor at Stake, by this fellow named Declan Finn. Finn is known for being a troublemaker online, including his constant taunting of SJWs and Puppy Kickers in his Sad Puppies Bite Back series of parodies. He’s a little annoying, but he has my vote in this particular round.

When Vox Day commented on the list, going into elaborate explanations for most of the votes, his only commentary here was “Sorry Declan, you are screwed.” Which is sort of amusing.

Yes, I am Declan Finn. And I know I have no chance, but I’m going to try anyway.

Brian Niemeier’s Souldancer and Honor at Stake actually have deeply religious themes, with the former having a premise of “Space Pirates go to Hell,” and the latter using theology and Thomistic philosophy to go into vampires.

Yes, the File 770 SJW crowd does not like either pick. Tough. To be honest, I haven’t even heard of the others.

Many of the others are fairly apolitical choices, which is interesting.

8. Best Comic Book

Saga

Ms. Marvel

Daredevil

Civil War II

Astro City

Providence

DC Universe: Rebirth

I’ll say Astro City. Why? Because the art alone is amazing, and the concepts are fairly well executed.

9. Best Graphic Novel

The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman

Killing and Dying by Adrian Tomine

Sacred Heart by Liz Suburbia

March: Book Two by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin

Chicago by Glenn Head

Virgil by Steve Orlando

No idea. I won’t even discuss Neil Gaiman.

10. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series

The Expanse – Syfy

Daredevil – Netflix

The Flash – CW

Outlander – Starz

Game of Thrones – HBO

Doctor Who – BBC

Jessica Jones – Netflix

Daredevil. Definitely Daredevil. I will never suggest Jessica Jones, and I haven’t seen Doctor Who in years.

11. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

The Martian

Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens

Crimson Peak

Ant-Man

Deadpool

Captain America: Civil War

Captain America: Civil War. Because Ant-Man was week, I could barely get through Deadpool, and I’m sure Star Wars will get there eventually.

What’s that? Why not The Martian? Because I liked the book much, much better. The film was directed in such a way I thought that someone wanted to recreate 2001 with the sweeping landscape eating up precious minutes that could have included, you know, SEGMENTS OF THE BOOK.

Ahem. But that’s just me.

12. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game

Metal Gear Solid V by Konami Digital Entertainment

Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios

Overwatch by Blizzard Entertainment

Fallout 4 by Bethesda Softworks

Undertale by Toby Fox

XCOM 2 by 2k Games

Metal Gear Solid. Because Kojima.

13. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game

Quaser One by Emre Taskin

PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist by Outerminds Inc.

Fallout Shelter by Bethesda Softworks

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes by Electronic Arts

Hyper Burner by Patrick Cook

For the record, Fallout Shelter is addictive as all heck.

14. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game

Pandemic: Legacy by ZMan Games

Star Wars: Rebellion by Fantasy Flight Games

Talon by GMT Games

Codenames by Vlaada Chvatil

Monopoly: CTHULHU by USAopoly

Blood Rage by Cool Mini or Not

No bet.

15. Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls by Flying Buffalo

Magic the Gathering: Shadows over Innistrad by Wizards of the Coast

Star Wars: Armada by Fantasy Flight Games

Mousguard 2nd Edition by David Petersen & Luke Crane

Magic the Gathering: Battle of Zendikar by Wizards of the Coast

Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game (7th Edition) by Chaosium Inc.

No bet.

If you desire to vote in the Dragons, go here, click the link, and register with the Dragon Awards. You’ll get your ballot in the mail.

I will now suggest to you that you go out and purchase the DRAGON AWARD NOMINATED NOVEL FOR BEST HORROR, HONOR AT STAKE!