Overlook by Jon Mollison.

I enjoyed that one so much, I may have underplayed my review. It’s in the link if you need a refresher over  how good that was.

The short version is that we have a superhero who’s power is being the little man who wasn’t there. And he’s facing an enemy straight out of Dean Koontz. They are refreshingly evil — pure evil, not the watered down “We need to understand them” crap we’ve gotten churned out by writing courses.

Brand of the Warlock, by Robert Kroese.

Again, another winner by Rob. Again, the review is linked. This one is fantasy with a hit of “How do we outlink the problem.” It’s almost high fantasy Leverage.

And no, you can’t nominate Peace Talks this year, the eligibility date cutoff was the end of June.

The Unbearable Heaviness of Remembering by L. Jagi Lamplighter.

Jagi is so consistently good at this series, I will keep putting her up for Best YA until she (a) wins an award, (b) stops writing books, or until (c) the Dragons stop being handed out.

That’s going to go to Chris Ruocchio’s Howling Dark (Sun Eater #2). 

If Chris doesn’t like it, well, he doesn’t get a choice in the matter, since I don’t have other slots open. 

This Deadly Engine by Matt Ligon

I swear, one day I’m just going to say to heck with it and get around to reviewing all of Ligon’s books in one block review. But today is not that day. I’m busy on everything else.

Deus Vult by, well, me

Why this one and not Coven, which even Jagi says is better? 

Because this one scared reviewers. 

So, it’s better for Horror.

Also, the name. Can you get better than that? Heh.

Though if you wanted to put Coven on the list for best fantasy, I’m not going to kvetch. 🙂

Star Wars: Thrawn: Treason.

I will only pimp this one Disney-related product for one reason.

It’s Zahn writing Thrawn. Full stop. Thanks. Everyone else can just turn in their books.

While I haven’t seen all of The Witcher, what I’ve seen, I like. 

And no, I’m not giving anything to Picard. It wasn’t even up for consideration. Michael Chabon? Really? He can barely write a novel, and they put him in charge of Star Trek?

But frankly, I’d give points to The Witcher just for Henry Caville’s performance. He made himself unrecognizable to some fairly perceptive people. But then again, British actors seem to be more flexible and disappear into roles better (see David Suchet).

And, and I like The Witcher books that I’ve read. 

Someone hand the Dragon Award to Henry Caville and he can put it on the shelf next to his 40K minis.

Any thoughts? 

Again, this is a situation where we need something, otherwise a collection of mouth breathing jerks will insist on a terrible Disney product. 

Because if we don’t come up with something, The Rise of Skywalker is going to end up with it by default.

And a major problem is that Corona has screwed up so many releases of new material that we’re starting to hurt for choices.

My original assumption was that the FF 7 Remake was going to make it here… but from the reaction of a lot of fans, I’m thinking it may not make it. Heh.

However, I’ve started playing Greedfall. It’s an action RPG that’s very much colonial Art of the Deal, with enough cultures thrown into a blender, I’d have thought it was a JRPG. I seriously recommend it. Unless this goes REALLY bad for some reason, it should be on this. And it’s indie, of all things.

Again, I’ve heard some good things about the latest Star Wars game. Jedi: Fallen Order, I think the name is. I’m still waiting for the price to come down.

But I wouldn’t put it on this list. Why? Because that would be rewarding bad behavior.

This is a collection of categories for which I got nothing. Or almost nothing. 

Best Comic Book (the series)

The Immortal Hulk was on this list to start with. Why? Because it’s dark and atmospheric, and feels a lot like if Marvel tried doing HP Lovecraft. But, they’ve decided to make a character suddenly trans, out of nowhere, for no real reason that fit in the story. And it was so jarring, it’s really thrown my interest in the story. It took me out of the comic. 

Though if you want to give Immortal Hulk a quick read through at a Barnes and Noble, maybe you’ll see more of what I did when I first read it.

As for the rest …. I got nothing. So put in some of your thoughts below.

Best Graphic Novel

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game

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

You can nominate for the Dragons right here. Enjoy. And please remember to tell your friends. And share this list around the internet.


And UNLEASH THE DRAGONS.