Category Archives: David Gemmell Legend Award

2018 Gemmell Award Winners Announced

I received the following press release a short while ago. My comments will follow.

Tonight saw the prizegiving ceremony for this year’s Gemmell Awards, marking the tenth anniversary of the event, and once again the awards were presented before a keen and enthusiastic audience at Derby’s Edge-Lit event.

The winner of the Ravenheart Award for best fantasy artwork was Richard Anderson for this work on Nicholas Eames’s Kings of the Wyld, published by Orbit with cover design from Lisa Marie Pompilio. Richard wins the award for the first time having seen off a host of previous winners and nominees taking in Kerim Beyit, Sam Green, Jackie Morris/Stephen Raw and Kerby Rosanes.

The winner of the Morningstar Award for best fantasy debut was Nicholas Eames with his title Kings of the Wyld, the first in ‘The Band’ series published by Orbit. The story follows a group of retired mercenaries clubbing together for one final mission and will be followed by the second book, Bloody Rose, this August. Eames saw off a strong field of fantasy debutants in RJ Barker, Melissa Caruso, Ed McDonald and Anna Smith Spark.

The winner of the Legend Award for best fantasy novel was Robin Hobb for Assassin’s Fate, the third book in the Fitz and the Fool series published by HarperVoyager. Hobb wins the award for the first time, beating stern competition from Miles Cameron, Steve McHugh and previous Legend recipients Mark Lawrence and Brandon Sanderson.

Awards Chair Stan Nicholls said: ‘The public have once again spoken with their votes this year, and the engagement and response for our tenth year has been fantastic. We’d like to congratulate Richard, Nicholas, Robin and all involved in making this year’s winning titles possible, and all who made the shortlists this year.’

For more information on the awards, visit http://www.gemmellawards.com/

I finished Kings of the Wyld last night. It is deserving of the award. I’ll try to have a review up within the next few days.

Adventures Fantastic would like to offer congratulations to all the nominees, and especially the winners.

Half a King is a Whole Lot of Fun

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Half a King
Joe Abercrombie
Del Rey
Trade Paper, $15, 346 p.

Half a King is on the shortlist for this year’s Gemmell Awards. It has been a few years since I read Abercrombie. (I’m still holding out for a British edition of Red Country.) I’d forgotten just how good a writer he is. It’s easy to see why this book is on the shortlist.

Half a King isn’t as dark as some of Abercrombie’s other books. Still, it’s not all sunshine at light. The book was written by the man whose Twitter handle is LordGrimDark, after all. Continue reading →

The Rest of the Summer

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Just a quick note to let you know what I’ve got on my plate leading up to Worldcon.

Speaking of Worldcon, I’m going to read at least some of the short fiction nominees, as many as time will allow, and give my thoughts. I don’t think I’m going to try to read all the novels. The publisher of two of them put a security code of the ebooks that went out in the Hugo voters’ packet. I don’t appreciate what that implies. I’m not going to upload the books to a file sharing site. I’m not a crook, nor do I care to be treated as though I were. Therefore, I won’t be reading (or voting for) Blackout by Mira Grant or 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. I do have some comments to make about this year’s nominees in general.

The Gemmell Awards are a bit later than usual this year to coincide with the World Fantasy Convention. My review copy of Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier arrived the other day. It’s on the long ballot for the Morningstar Award. I’m looking forward to reading it. I’ll post the review on the Gemmell Awards site and a notice here when it goes live. After the awards are given out, I’ll post the review here.

I’ve got a number of titles from Pyr. The ones I intend to review in July are The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick, Kindred and Wings by Phillipa Ballentine, and Wrath-Bearing Tree by James Enge. Then there’s The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich and The Doctor and the Rough Rider by Mike Resnick. Those I probably won’t get to until August.

I’ve had a copy of the conclusion of Joshua P. Simon’s Blood and Tears Trilogy, Trial and Glory on my ereader for far too long. It’s going to be reviewed within the next four to six weeks.

I don’t know what order I’m going to read them. It will depend on my mood and what I feel like reading. I’m also going to throw in a bit of shorter works, both here and over at Futures Past and Present. There are also a couple of other novels I’d like to read by the end of the summer. And somewhere in there, I’ll be reading things for my column at Amazing Stories (TM).

David Gemmel Legend Award Winners Announced

David Gemmell Legend Award Finalists Announced