Tag Archives: David Gemmell Awards

It’s Time to Vote on the Awards Shortlist

The awards I’m talking about, of course, are the David Gemmell Awards. As I’m sure you know, there are three. The Legend Award for the best novel of the year. The Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut novel. And the Ravenheart Award for best fantasy book cover.

I’ll post the short lists below after a few comments. I’m going to read as many of these as I can, especially among the Morningstar candidates (with one exception, which I’m not going to touch).

The Legend Award is another matter. The reason is that most of the Legend nominees are parts of series, and they’re not the first installment. The exception is Joe Abercrombie’s Half a King, which I started reading last night. I intend to read some of the others, but I may not make it by the deadline as I haven’t read the books that precede them.

And regarding the other award that’s generating some attention, I’ll try to read as many of the nominees for that one as possible. I’ll read all of the short fiction nominees (that I haven’t already read) and will blog about some of them. The same is true for Best Related Work. Again, with one exception, I’ll try to get to as many of the novel nominees as I can, although as soon as my attention starts to drift, I’ll move on.

Here are the Gemmell nominees. Voting closes on July 17. Continue reading →

Cover Reveal for James A. Moore’s City of Wonders

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So here it is. The cover for the forthcoming third volume in James A. Moore’s epic fantasy series that began with Seven Forges. The artist is Alejandro Colucci, who did the first two covers. Mr. Colucci was nominated for a Gemmell Award for his cover of The Blasted Lands. Well deserved, I say. I also think he’s outdone himself with this one.

I’d like to thank Penny Reeve of Angry Robot Books for providing me a copy of the cover and inviting me to participate in the cover reveal. I’d also like to thank her for providing 5 copies of the first two books (that’s 5 copies of both Seven Forges and The Blasted Lands) as a giveaway. To get in on the goodness of this series, email me at the email address at the top of the page (keith [at] adventuresfantastic [dot] com) and tell me which book you want, Seven Forges or The Blasted Lands, and why. (Sorry, only one title per person.) I’ll forward the email to Angry Robot, and they’ll contact you about where to send the book. That will be faster than Angry Robot sending me the books to mail to you. This is, of course, first come, first served.

Here’s the cover copy:

Old Canhoon, the City of Wonders, is having a population explosion as refugees from Tyrne and Roathes alike try to escape the Sa’ba Taalor. All along the border between the Blasted Lands and the Fellein Empire armies clash and the most powerful empire in the world is pushed back toward the old Capital. From the far east the Pilgrim gathers an army of the faithful, heading for Old Canhoon.

In Old Canhoon itself the imperial family struggles against enemies old and new as the spies of their enemies begin removing threats to the gods of the Seven Forges and prepare the way for the invading armies of the Seven Kings. In the distant Taalor valley Andover Lashk continues his quest and must make a final decision, while at the Mounds, something inhuman is awakened and set free.

War is Here. Blood will flow and bodies will burn.

City of Wonders goes on sale in November. Remember in yesterday’s post how I said I hated waiting. That’s especially true here.

Gemmell vs. Gernsback, Round II

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Once again, it’s that time of the year. Award season.

And there’s one award that stands out above all the others.

It’s voted on by the fans. And not just fans in the US, either. Fans from all over the world can vote on it, making it an international award.

All fans are welcome.

The award comes with a gorgeous trophy.

It seeks to recognize the best writing and artistry in the field. Continue reading →

2014 David Gemmell Award Winners Announced

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The winners of the 2014 David Gemmell Awards have been announced.

The top prize, the Legend Award for best fantasy novel, went to Mark Lawrence for Emperor of Thorns. The Morningstar Award for best debut novel was for Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (reviewed here). And the Ravenheart Award for best cover art went to Jason Chan for Emperor of Thorns.

Adventures Fantastic would like to congratulate all the nominees and especially the winners. More detail can be found at the David Gemmell Awards page.

In Grim Company

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The Grim Company
Luke Scull
Roc, mmp, $7.99
ebook Kindle $5.99 Nook $7.99

I had hoped to have this one finished and reviewed before the voting on the Gemmell Awards closed since it’s on the short list for the Morningstar, which is the award for best first novel.

Alas, my parents’ had their 50th wedding anniversary celebration last weekend, and so I wasn’t able to finish it on time.

The title might imply that the novel is similar to Glen Cook’s Black Company. Put that idea out of your mind. This isn’t the Black Company or anything like it. But it’s still a darn good book. Continue reading →

A Review of Jo Spurrier’s Second Novel, in Which I Taunt You Again

Gemmell vs. Gernsback

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I was indulging one of my vices (reading other people’s blogs, Sarah Hoyt’s in this case) and noticed in the comments a quote from a different blog. That particular quote had some disparaging thing to say about the Gemmell Awards. I’m not going to bother linking to the quoted blog because I’m not directly responding to the argument there, which concerned the number of white male authors nominated for awards, specifically the Hugos. I will quote the relevant passage, because it’s representative of a pretty common attitude. It also kicked off a train of thought that should be addressed. Namely, the how relevant the Hugos are compared to the Gemmells.

The Gemmell Awards are named after David Gemmell and focus on heroic fantasy. The Hugo Awards are named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, who published the first magazine devoted entirely to science fiction, Amazing Stories. The Gemmell Awards specialize in heroic fantasy, while the Hugos encompass the entire sff field.

Hugo Gernsback (18841967) magazine publisher

Huog Gernsback

Here’s the quote:

“Why not just let the works speak for themselves?”

The issue is that when we let the works speak for themselves, we wind up with the Gemmell Awards: 70,000 votes (several orders of magnitudes greater than the Hugos), and every single nominee for Best Novel is a White Dude. Every best debut novel is a dude, most of them white.

Of course these comments are totally bogus. I’ll explain why in a second. But it got me to thinking, always a dangerous thing.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, in addition to the shortlist for the Gemmell Awards, the shortlist for the Hugo Awards, was announced recently. And the internet has been having a major hissy fit ever since.

Continue reading →

And Now the Award Shortlist You’ve All Been Waiting For

Walk the Path of Anger

Gemmell Award Nominees

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I’ve been reading for some reviews that won’t go up for a couple of weeks plus trying to finish George MacDonald’s Lilith, which is my next Ballantine Adult Fantasy post for Black Gate, I’ve not put much up.

Part of the problem is I’ve gotten into the habit of reading more than one book at a time, something I’ve only been doing over the last 6 months. I’m not sure how I got into the habit, but it’s got to stop. It feels like it takes forever to finish anything.

What’s this got to do with the Gemmell Awards? Well the nominated I title I requested for review arrived today. That would be The Path of Anger by Antoine Rouaud. I’m really looking forward to reading it.

I’ve just started Talus and the Frozen King by Graham Edwards. It’s a bronze age murder mystery. I may put it aside for a day or so to focus on the Gemmell Awards.

I’ve got several titles that are on this year’s ballot sitting on the shelf. These include The Grim Company (Luke Scull), Herald of the Storm (Richard Ford), Black Sun Light My Way (Jo Spurrier, whose debut novel Winter Be my Shield was one of my favorite reads last year), and The Republic of Thieves (Scott Lynch). Plus another of my favorites, Promise of Blood (Brian McClellan) was reviewed here recently.

The ballot closes on April 13, so I’m not sure how many of these I’ll be able to finish. I should be able to finish The Path of Anger at the very least and will try to finish Black Sun Light My Way. I’ll put a post a brief review at the Gemmell Awards and a more in depth review here. And while I won’t finish all of them in time to post a review on the Gemmell Awards site, I’ll review all the ones listed above sometime in the next few months.