Here are the finalists for the 2023 Dragon Awards

Dragon Con, the enormous, multimedia convention that takes place annually in Atlanta, Georgia, is coming this Labor Day weekend. In advance of that, it's announced its finalists for the annual Dragon Award, now in its eighth year.

The award originated as something of a populist, counter-Hugo Award project from certain segments of fandom, then roiling in a bad-faith controversy over the Hugo from a bunch of right-wing jackasses looking to advance a culture war front. It had some stumbling points, but in the years since, it's become something of a wide-ranging award that hasn't devolved into the sort of alt-right vanity prize that most people expected. (Here are the finalists from 2021 and 2022.) The award does have a different flavor than that of the Hugo and Nebula, and it's – in my mind – a good demonstration that the science fiction community isn't a monolith of tastes and preferences.

This year's awards feels like it's a good snapshot of big parts of the SF/F world: you've got some critical heavyweights like Ann Leckie, Martha Wells, and R.F. Kuang, as well as some super-popular authors like Brandon Sanderson and Timothy Zahn. Overall, it feels like a ballot that aligns nicely with my own tastes and that of this newsletter's, and I hope that it'll remain that way.

The nice thing about it is that you don't need to be attending the con to take part: voting is now open to the general public.

Here's the full list of finalists:

Best Science Fiction Novel

• Eversion by Alastair Reynolds
• The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
• Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Translation Slate by Ann Leckie
• Neom by Lavie Tidhar
• The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Icarus Plot by Timothy Zahn

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

• The Witch King by Martha Wells
• Tower of Silence by Larry Correia
• Babel by R. F. Kuang
• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
• Into the Vortex by Charles E. Gannon
• The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

• The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
• The Scratch Daughters by H. A. Clarke
• Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland
• Academy Arcanist by Shami Stovall
• Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong
• Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Best Alternate History Novel

• Lost In Time by A.G. Riddle
• Hidden Voices by Dan Willis
• Halcyon by Elliot Ackerman
• The Mother by B.L. Blanchard
• The Revolutionary War by Christopher G. Nuttall

Best Horror Novel

• The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias
• Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste
• A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
• No Gods For Drowning by Hailey Piper
• The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
• The Only One Left by Riley Sager

Best Illustrative Cover

• Ashes of Man by Kieran Yanner
• River of Ashes by Sam Shearon
• But Not Broken by Cedar Sanderson
• Titan Mage: Apocalypse by Jackson Tjota
• Tower of Silence by Kurt Miller
• Wraithbound by Jeff Brown

Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel

• Dune: House Harkonnen by Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson, Michael Shelfer
  Kaya by Wes Craig
• Dawn of DC: Green Arrow by Joshua Williamson, Sean Izaakse
• Wolverine by Benjamin Percy, Juan Jose Ryp
• X-Men by Gerry Duggan, Joshua Cassara
• Night Fever by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Jacob Phillips

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet

• Andor, Disney+
• The Last of Us, HBO
• The Sandman, Netflix
• Strange New Worlds, Paramount+
• The Mandalorian, Disney+
• Picard, Paramount+
• House of the Dragon, HBO

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

• Avatar: The Way of Water by James Cameron
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves by Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley
• Everything Everywhere All at Once by Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
• Guardians of the Galaxy 3 by James Gunn
• Puss in Boots: The Last Wish by Joel Crawford
• Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Best Digital Game

• Diablo IV, Blizzard Entertainment
• Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche Software
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Respawn Entertainment
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo EPD
• Overwatch 2, Blizzard Entertainment
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Infinity Ward

Best Tabletop Game

• Frosthaven, Cephalofair Games
• Earth, Inside Up Games
• Magic the Gathering: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Wizards of the Coast
• Dorfromantik – The Boardgame, Pegasus Spiele
• Turing Machine, Scorpion Masque
• Alien Role-playing Game: Heart of Darkness, Free League