The Obligatory 2025 Dragon Awards Ballot Post

I was planning to blog about something else, but as they usually do, when you’re busy with other things, the 2025 Dragon Awards decided to drop their 2025 ballot – after posting an empty ballot page for several days.  The full list of finalists may be found here or – in a less eye-straining format – at File 770.

To recap, the Dragon Awards are a fan award given out by Dragon Con, a massive SFF media con in Atlanta, Georgia. They are in their tenth year now and have gone through quite a bit of history in those ten years, as recounted here by Camestros Felapton. I have covered the Dragon Awards since the beginning and you can also find my previous posts about the Dragon Awards and their tangled history here.

Camestros Felapton’s commentary about the 2025 Dragon Awards finalists may be found here – with some discussion in the comments.

Since it seems that I – along with Camestros Felapton and Doris V. Sutherland – am cursed to be the chronicler of the Dragon Awards, here is my analysis of the 2025 ballot:

Best Science Fiction Novel

We have a mix of the expected and unexpected here. The duo writing as James S.A Corey have had several Dragon Awards nominations and even wins. This year, they are nominated for their latest novel The Mercy of the Gods.

C.J. Cherryh is a veteran science fiction author who has been publishing since the 1970s and has multiple Hugo and Nebula nominations and wins under her belt as well as an SFWA Grandmaster Award. She is nominated along with her wife Jane S. Fancher for Alliance Unbound.

Absolution is the latest novel in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series, which was a Hugo finalist for Best Series this year. A previous Southern Reach novel also won the Nebula Award, plus the first Southern Reach novel Annihiliation was adapted as a movie in 2018.

Elizabeth Bear has had multiple Hugo and Nebula nominations and I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Folded Sky on next year’s Hugo ballot.

Kevin J. Anderson’s original fiction has never done much for me, but he is extremely popular. I haven’t read his nominated novel Nether Station.

Extremophile by Ian Green was a finalist for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke Award. It’s a kind of cyberpunk, climate change eco-thriller, which is not exactly what you’d expect to find on the Dragon Awards ballot. Coincidentally, this means that two works of ecological science fiction, Extremophile and Absolution, have made the Dragon Award ballot this year, which is sure to make puppies cry.

This Inevitable Ruin by Matt Dinniman is the latest book in Dinniman’s popular Dungeon Crawler Carl LitRPG series. It’s a self-published book, which means that Dinniman holds up the indie flag at the Dragon Awards.

Diversity Count: 3 women, 6 men (James S.A. Corey is two people, 1 author of colour, 1 international author, 1 indie author and a married lesbian couple.

Best Fantasy Novel

I’m really happy to see Shadow of the Smoking Mountain by the late Howard Andrew Jones, the third and sadly final book of the Chronicles of Hanuvar, on the Dragon Award ballot. The Chronicles of Hanuvar is an excellent series and I urge everybody who likes sword and sorcery and historical fantasy to read it.

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan is a novel I enjoyed a lot and I’m happy to see it nominated. It’s also a portal fantasy in a category dominated mostly by epic fantasy with a military bend.

Joe Abercrombie is a very popular writer of grimdark fantasy and is nominated for his latest novel The Devils.

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness is the latest book in her All Souls’ series, which is very popular.  It’s a kind of dark academia/urban fantasy type novel and the second outlier in this epic fantasy dominated category along with Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan. Interesting that the two outliers are also the only two novel written by women.

Larry Correia is a very popular with the Dragon Awards electorate and has several wins and nominations under his belt. This year’s finalist Heart of the Mountain is part of his Saga of the Forgotten Warrior epic fantasy series.

Cameron Johnston is a Scottish writer of grimdark fantasy who is quite popular. His Dragon nominated novel The Last Shield is billed as a “gender-flipped Die Hard set in a mysterious castle”, which actually sounds a lot of fun.

Diversity count: 2 women, 4 men, 1 author of colour, 2 international authors, 1 deceased author

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel 

Sunrise of the Reaping is the latest instalment in Suzanne Collins’ extremely popular Hunger Games series and not even remotely a surprising finalist.

Shami Stovall has been nominated in this category several times before, so she’s clearly popular with the Dragon Awards crowd. Her 2025 finalist is Labyrinth Arcanist.

David Webber is another perennial Dragon Award favourite with multiple nominations and wins, though I didn’t know he also write YA until today. He is nominated in this category for Friends Indeed co-written with Jane Lindskold, who is a well regarded fantasy writer. Apparently, Friends Indeed is part of a whole series and ties into David Webber’s popular Honor Harrington series.

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White would have made the Lodestar ballot this year, but the author chose to withdraw. Withdrawing from the Lodestar, but accepting a Dragon nomination is certainly unusual and now I wonder whether the Dragon Awards bothered to inform the finalists beforehand. Coincidentally, Compound Fracture with a queer and autistic protagonist is exactly the sort of book that makes puppies cry.

I have never heard of Among Serpents by Marc J. Gregson before, though it apparently was a New York Times bestseller.  The synopsis sounds more like military fantasy than YA, though it was published by a YA imprint.

I haven’t heard of Rest in Peaches by Alex Brown before either, though the novel sounds like a lot of fun and very much like YA with a murder investigation at a high school. Alex Brown has been a Locus Award finalist. Coincidentally, this is not Alex Brown, the Reactor and Locus reviewer, but a different person with the same name.

Diversity count: 4 women, 3 men, 1 author of colour, 1 indie author

Best Alternate History Novel

The most amazing thing about the Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel is that it’s still around and survived the gradual purge of the various subgenre categories that characterised the early years of the Dragon Awards. I guess someone among the faceless administrators of the Dragon Awards really likes alternate history fiction.

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal is the latest instalment in her popular Lady Astronaut series and not at all a surprising finalist.

Eric Flint has been steadily nominated in this category since its inception. This year, he is nominated for 1635: The Weaver’s Code, co-written with Jody Lynn Nye, which is part of the Ring of Fire series. What makes this nomination a little surprising is that Eric Flint died in 2022. I guess The Weaver’s Code was either an unfinished manuscript or based on notes Flint left behind.

S.M. Stirling is perennially popular – at least in the US, since I hardly ever see his books in Europe – and has been a Dragon Award finalist before. His nominated novel To Turn the Tide appears to be a kind of Lest Darkness Fall for the twenty-first century.

Both Tom Kratman and Kacey Ezell have been nominated for the Dragon Awards before. This year, they are jointly nominated for 1919: The Romanov Rising, co-written with Justin Watson.

Gangster by Dan Willis appears to be a supernatural crime novel and part of a series. I’m not familiar with this one and am also not sure whether it’s actually alternate history, since it sounds more like historical fantasy to me.

Gold, Gangs, and Glory by Laurence Dahners is another book I’ve never heard of. It seems to be a kind of multiverse hopping tale featuring a female doctor in 1918. Dahmers is an orthopaedic surgeon and indie writer.

It’s notable that most of the finalists in this category actually seem to be alternate history – only the status of Gangster by Dan Willis and Gold, Gangs, and Glory by Laurence Dahners is a little unclear. This hasn’t always been the case in the past.

Diversity count: 3 women, 6 men, 2 indie authors, 1 deceased author

Best Horror Novel

Stephen Graham Jones is one of the best and most popular horror authors writing these days. He is nominated for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Chuck Tingle is a two-time Hugo finalist, writer a satirical gay erotica, master puppy-troller and now horror author. He can now add a Dragon nomination for Bury Your Gays to his impressive resume.

Delilah S. Dawson has been nominated for the Dragon Award and the Stoker Award before. This year, she is nominated for It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, which appears to be a modern gothic.

Ian McDonald has been nominated for the Hugo Award multiple times, though this is his first Dragon Award nomination as far as I can recall. He is normally a science fiction author, but The Wilding is very clearly horror.

S.A. Barnes writes science fiction horror and has won the Goodreads Choice Award in the science fiction category. She is nominated for Cold Eternity.

Darrcy Coates is a popular Australian horror author. Her nominated novel The Vengeful Dead is part of her Gravekeeper series.

Diversity count: 3 women, 3 men, 1 author of colour, 2 international authors

Best Illustrative Book Cover

Doris V. Sutherland has kindly posted the nominated covers in the comments at Camestros Felapton’s post, so check them out.

What’s notable is that these covers tend to have the busier style of the 1980s and early 1990s rather than the more stylized style that is popular today. I don’t find most of the finalists particularly interesting and while looking up the artists, I liked many of the other works on their portfolio much better than what they are nominated for. My favourite is Michael Whelan’s cover for Brandon Sanderson’s Wind and Truth.

Diversity count: 6 men, 2 international artists

Best Comic Book / Graphic Novel

This is a very mainstream ballot dominated by Marvel and DC and A-list superheroes. We have Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Wolverine and Daredevil: Cold Day In Hell (no absolute or ultimate here).  The lone outlier is Transformers Volume 3 and that’s not exactly an obcure property

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make comics.

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series

This is basically a list of popular and well-regarded SFF series which aired/streamed in the past year. We have Murderbot, Andor, Severance, Silo, The Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power. No Marvel or Star Trek this year, but then I don’t think there was anything eligible except Daredevil Born Again. Doctor Who, which did air its most recent season during the eligibility period, is also notable by its absence.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make TV series.

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Once again, this is basically a list of popular and well-regarded SFF movies that came out during the eligibility period.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, though in trouble, is represented by Thunderbolts* and Deadpool and Wolverine. I personally don’t care for Wicked at all, but it was hugely popular and also a Hugo finalist in this category. Sinners was probably the surprise horror hit of the year and is also a very good movie. I kind of forgot that Alien: Romulus existed, because it came out at the very start of the eligibility period. The live action How to Train Your Dragon got mixed reviews and was mostly considered an unnecessary remake of a beloved animated film. But then, live action remakes of animated films do tend to do well at the box office, in spite of lukewarm reviews.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make movies. And yes, the ballot lists the directors, but you need a lot more than a director to make a film.

Best Digital Game

I can’t really say anything about this category, except that I’ve heard of Assassin’s Creed, Elden Ring and Death Standing.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make games.

Best Tabletop Game

I can’t really say anything about this category either, except that it seems to be heavy on collectible cardgames with two different Magic the Gathering expansions and Disney’s Lorcana nominated.

No diversity count, too many people are needed to make games.

Overall Thoughts

As in previous years, the 2025 Dragon Award ballot consists mainly of broadly popular works with the occasional more niche work with a passionate fanbase thrown in, so the Dragons are doing what they were created to do, namely honour the sort of popular works that are often ignored by other awards.

As is common with the Dragons, they are a lot whiter and more male and more American than most other genre awards, though there is only one category that’s all male. Baen makes a strong showing, but then Baen traditionally has a large presence at Dragon Con and also actively promotes their authors for the Dragon Awards. One thing I noticed that there are a lot of writers from Utah nominated, more than you’d normally assume.

Another thing I noticed is that the Dragon Awards have a higher tendency to nominate deceased writers than other awards. I have no idea why this might be, but it is an interesting phenomenon.

Finally, there is nothing related to Dune on the ballot – no movie, tie-in comic or tie-in novel – for the first time in years.

I haven’t found any reactions beyond happy finalists announcing their nominations about the 2025 Dragon Award finalists. If any show up, I will add them here.

ETA 08-05-2025: Larry Correia is honoured to be nominated for a Dragon Award again, but would prefer people to vote for Shadow of the Smoking Mountain by Howard Andrew Jones, which is a classy thing of him to do.

ETA 08-08-2025: Camestros Felapton shares some stats analysing the gender breakdown of Dragon Award finalists over time.

ETA 08-11-2025: Camestros Felapton delves into the Amazon rankings of various Hugo and Dragon Award winners of recent years and finds some very crazy numbers.