2016 David Gemmell Awards Longlists

Longlists for The David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy — the Legend, Morningstar, and Ravenheart Awards — have been posted. The awards recognize the best in fantasy fiction and artwork. Open voting to determine the finalists has begun and will continue until midnight on Friday June 24.

Next, voting on the shortlist will open midday on Friday July 8 and close at midnight on Friday August 19. The awards will be presented September 24 at Fantasycon in Scarborough, UK.

LEGEND AWARD

The Legend Award, is presented to the fantasy title judged the year’s best by open vote.

  • Joe Abercrombie, Half A War  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Bradley Beaulieu, Twelve Kings  (Gollancz)
  • Peter V. Brett, The Skull Throne  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Terry Brooks, The Darkling Child  (Orbit)
  • Jim Butcher, The Aeronaut’s Windlass  (Orbit)
  • Miles Cameron, The Dread Wyrm  (Gollancz)
  • Trudi Canavan, Angel of Storms (Orbit)
  • Larry Correia, Son of the Black Sword  (Baen)
  • Edward Cox, The Cathedral of Known Things  (Gollancz)
  • David Dalglish, Skyborn  (Orbit)
  • Stephen Deas, The Silver Kings  (Gollancz)
  • Aliette de Bodard, The House of Shattered Wings  (Gollancz)
  • Sebastien de CastellKnight’s Shadow  (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • Kate Elliott, Black Wolves  (Orbit)
  • David Guymer, Gotrek & Felix: Slayer (Black Library)
  • John Gwynne, Ruin  (Pan Macmillan)
  • David HairAscendant’s Rite  (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • Joanne Hall, Spark and Carousel  (Kristell Ink)
  • Markus Heitz, Devastating Hate  (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • Robin Hobb, Fool’s Quest  (Harper/Voyager)
  • John Hornor Jacobs, Foreign Devils  (Gollancz)
  • NK Jemisin, The Fifth Season  (Orbit)
  • Drew Karpyshyn, Chaos Unleashed  (Del Rey)
  • Julia Knight, Swords and Scoundrels  (Orbit)
  • Snorri KristjanssonPath of Gods  (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • M.D. Lachlan, Valkyrie’s Song  (Gollancz)
  • Glenda Larke, The Dagger’s Path  (Orbit)
  • Mark Lawrence, The Liar’s Key  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Rebecca Levene, The Hunter’s Kind  (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • Tom Lloyd, Old Man’s Ghosts  (Gollancz)
  • Alex Marshall, A Crown For Cold Silver  (Orbit)
  • Gail Z. Martin, War of Shadows  (Orbit)
  • Brian McClellan, The Autumn Republic(Orbit)
  • Naomi Novik, Uprooted  (Pan Macmillan)
  • Den Patrick, The Boy Who Wept Blood  (Gollancz)
  • Daniel Polansky, Those Above  (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • Steven Poore, The Heir to the North  (Kristell Ink)
  • Anthony Ryan, Queen of Fire  (Orbit)
  • Rob Sanders, Archaon: Lord of Chaos  (Black Library)
  • Brandon Sanderson, Shadows of Self  (Gollancz)
  • Anna Sheehan, Spinning Thorns  (Gollancz)
  • Brian Staveley, The Providence of Fire  (Pan Macmillan)
  • Adrian Tchaikovsky, Guns of the Dawn  (Pan Macmillan)
  • Ian Tregillis, The Mechanical  (Orbit)
  • Angus Watson, Reign of Iron (Orbit)
  • David Weber, The Sword of the South  (Baen)
  • Django Wexler, The Price of Valour  (Del Rey)
  • Jen Williams, The Iron Ghost  (Headline)

MORNINGSTAR AWARD

The Morningstar Award honors the author judged to have made the year’s best debut in fantasy fiction.

  • Stephen Aryan, Battlemage  (Orbit)
  • Seth Dickinson, The Traitor  (Pan Macmillan)
  • Francesca Haig, The Fire Sermon  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Lucy Hounsom, Starborn  (Pan Macmillan)
  • Peter Newman, The Vagrant  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes  (Harper/Voyager)

RAVENHEART AWARD

The Ravenheart Award is given to the creator of the year’s best fantasy book cover art.

  • James Annal for Uprooted by Naomi Novik  (Pan Macmillan)
  • Tommy Arnold for Skyborn by David Dalglish  (Orbit)
  • Kerem Beyit for The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron  (Gollancz)
  • Jason Chan for The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Wendy Chan for Swords and Scoundrels  by Julia Knight  (Orbit)
  • Alejandro Colucci for The Boy Who Wept Blood  by Den Patrick  (Gollancz)
  • Bastien Lecouffe Deharme for The Darkling Child  by Terry Brooks  (Orbit)
  • Krzysztof Domaradzki for Old Man’s Ghosts  by Tom Lloyd  (Gollancz)
  • Larry Elmore & Carol Russo Design for Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia (Baen)
  • Mark Ferrari for The Flotsam Trilogy Omnibus by Peter M Ball  (Apocalypse Ink Productions)
  • Christopher Gibbs for The Cathedral of Known Things  by Edward Cox (Gollancz)
  • Sam Green for Shadows of Self  by Brandon Sanderson  (Gollancz)
  • Manuela Hackl for Knight’s Shadow by Sebastien de Castell  (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • Mohamad Hani/Archangel Images for An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (Harper/Voyager)
  • Teddy Eduardo Iglesias for The House of Shattered Wings  by Aliette de Bodard (Gollancz)
  • Patrick Insole for The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams  (Headline)
  • Jaime Jones for The Vagrant by Peter Newman  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Nik Keevil & Nick Castle for Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan(Orbit)
  • Patrick Knowles for Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs  (Gollancz)
  • Laura B for Spinning Thorns  by Anna Sheehan  (Gollancz)
  • Tim McDonagh for The Hunter’s Kind by Rebecca Levene  (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • Chris McGrath for The Aeronaut’s Windlass  by Jim Butcher  (Orbit)
  • Jackie Morris for Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Lauren Panepinto for The Fifth Season  by NK Jemisin  (Orbit)
  • Lauren Panepinto, Gene Mollica & Michael Frost for The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan  (Orbit)
  • Rhett Podersoo for Those Above by Daniel Polansky  (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • Larry Rostant for The Skull Throne by Peter V Brett  (Harper/Voyager)
  • Larry Rostant for Black Wolves  by Kate Elliott  (Orbit)
  • Larry Rostant for War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin  (Orbit)
  • Larry Rostant for Reign of Iron by Angus Watson  (Orbit)
  • Duncan Spilling for Angel of Storms by Trudi Canavan  (Orbit)
  • Steve Stone for Battlemage by Stephen Aryan(Orbit)
  • Steve Stone for The Dagger’s Path by Glenda Larke  (Orbit)
  • Raymond Swanland for Archaon: Lord of Chaos by Rob Sanders (Black Library)
  • Andrew Unangst for Twelve Kings by Bradley Beaulieu  (Gollancz)
  • Stephen Youll for The Silver Kings by Stephen Deas  (Gollancz)
  • Paul Young for Ruin by John Gwynne (Pan Macmillan)
  • Paul Young for Acendant’s Rite by David Hair  (Jo Fletcher Books)
  • Paul Young for Valkyrie’s Song  by MD Lachlan  (Gollancz)

22 thoughts on “2016 David Gemmell Awards Longlists

  1. Wow. When they say “longlist”, they mean “longlist”. But how is anyone to read fifty novels between now and June 24? I mean, I read rapidly; I can usually manage two or so novels a week. I’ve read <counting> six of them already, so that’s only 44 novels to go. In 31 days. With breaks for, oh, I dunno. Sleeping. And eating. And going to work…

    I just don’t see how I can possibly give an informed vote on this award.

  2. Voting for the downselection from long list to short list seems to be “pick one for each of the three categories”. I don’t see any statement on how long the short lists will be, but I could have missed it. It may be that the administrators will use their judgement, based on the votes they get.

  3. Cassy B: At this stage they’re winnowing the field to create a shortlist — you can only vote for one item under each award anyway. The sophist’s approach to defining “favorite” might be the way to go — treat whatever you have read as eligible to be your favorite, and eliminate everything else.

  4. To be fair, if the Ravenheart Award is for “the fantasy title judged the year’s best”, then you don’t have to read the book, just the title. I’m rather fond of the title “The Flotsam Trilogy Omnibus”, myself. Dunno if the books live up to it or not….

    (edit) Ooh! Fifth!

  5. David Shallcross: Last year there were five items shortlisted for each award. Five being the magic number, I’m confident they’ll do that again…

  6. Andrew M.: It looks like the longlists are created from publisher submissions, augmented by public suggestions — see this post on Facebook.

    Self-published works are not considered.

  7. I note that the Sekrit Tor Cabal utterly failed to get any works at all on any of these longlists. Why, it’s almost as though there was no Sekrit Tor Cabal….

  8. I perceive a startling lack of titles from “the greatest living author”. Somewhither couldn’t crack the top 50?

  9. Kind of bizarre that there are only six titles on the Morningstar longlist. Were there so few debuts worthy of this award? Or at least, submitted for this award?

    The Gemmell Awards are British-based, so I suppose that could have winnowed the pool. But still . . . only six?

  10. It was a good year for Fantasy. The Fifth Season, The Mechanical, A Crown For Cold Iron, The Autumn Republic, Half a War, Shadows of Self and Uprooted were all books I found to be really great reads. I thought Son of the Black Sword’s covert art better than the usual trying too hard for nostalgia of other Baen works but I’m amazed it was considered award worthy.

  11. I’ve only read 6 of the longlist so far — but I think any one of 5 of those winning would be justified.

    It’s really nice to see Twelve Kings in Sharakhai and The Mechanical getting some love.

    But what the hell are they thinking, not having a single page with thumbnails of all the cover nominees? People are supposed to click on 39 different links???

  12. @Matt Y: I know, the thought of ANY Baen book getting a nomination for cover art made me laugh too. At best they’re serviceable. Just because the house was founded in the 1980’s is no reason for their graphic design to have remained stuck there.

    Entire list has ridiculous lack of 🐙 Especially the cover art.

  13. Well, having clicked on all 39 links now, I have to say that most of the covers are much of a muchness. Very few of them really stand out.

    I guess my favorites are Uprooted, Spinning Thorns, The Cathedral of Known Things, and The Fifth Season (which is nicely complemented by the cover for its sequel, The Obelisk Gate).

  14. Bartimaeus: I’m glad they went with the UK cover for Fool’s Quest; the US edition is a travesty.

    I wouldn’t call it a “travesty” — but it looks just like about 35 of the covers linked up there ^, nothing distinctive.

  15. Looks like site only uses cookies to determine if you have voted. Unless they are filtering and then checking based on IPs, it’s trivial to rig this vote.

    Luckily Pox doesn’t care… He only wants his Hugo.

  16. So many good choices for Ravenheart, of which I’d read half. Ember in the Ashes and Battlemage were good, but The Traitor… I’m still pissed it wasn’t on the Hugo list. I’m hoping it wins the Alfie.

    And I voted for the Warhammer cover because I thought that was the most dynamic and bad ass one.

  17. lurkertype on May 13, 2016 at 5:48 pm said:

    @Matt Y: I know, the thought of ANY Baen book getting a nomination for cover art made me laugh too. At best they’re serviceable. Just because the house was founded in the 1980’s is no reason for their graphic design to have remained stuck there.

    Entire list has ridiculous lack of ? Especially the cover art.

    Yeah how’d they miss Watchmaker for cover art? That was great.

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