The shortlists for the 2018 BookNest Fantasy Awards, hosted by the BookNest.eu blog, were announced October 15. Open public voting to pick the winners continues until October 31 — to vote, click here.

AWARDS PROCESS. The BookNest Fantasy Awards are selected by a hybrid process — part jury, part popular vote, with a final sanity check on the winners.

The longlist was created with the input of nine popular Fantasy Blogs (Bookworm Blues, Fantasy Book Critic, Fantasy Book Review, Fantasy-Faction, Grimdark Magazine, The Fantasy Hive, The Fantasy Inn, The Grim Tidings Podcast & The Weatherwax Report), three big Fantasy Imprints (Gollancz, Harper Voyager & Orbit), and two well-respected Agents (John Jarrold & Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky Literary Agency). They nominated their favorite books in the first three categories (Best Traditionally Published Novel, Best Self-Published Novel, and Best Debut Novel), published between October 1st 2017 and September 30th 2018.

In the second stage and with the public’s help, the 10 books and five 5 imprints with the highest number of votes in each category made it to the shortlist.

Best Traditionally Published Novel (Shortlist)

• Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan
• A Time of Dread by John Gwynne
• Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
• Master Assassins by Robert V.S. Redick
• Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
• Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
• The Fall of Gondolin by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Girl In The Tower by Katherine Arden

Best Self-Published Novel (Shortlist)

• As Iron Falls by Bryce O’Connor
• Behind the Vale by Brian D. Anderson
• City Of Kings by Rob J. Hayes
• Death March by Phil Tucker
• Hero Forged by Josh Erikson
• Last Dragon Standing by Rachel Aaron
• Paternus: Wrath Of The Gods by Dyrk Ashton
• Pursuit of Shadows by J.A. Andrews
• Those Brave, Foolish Souls from the City of Swords by Benedict Patrick
• We Ride The Storm by Devin Madson

Best Debut Novel (Shortlist)

• Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
• City Of Lies by Sam Hawke
• Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio
• Jade City by Fonda Lee
• Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
• The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
• The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli
• The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
• The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso

Best Imprint (Longlist)

• Del Rey Books (Ebury, Penguin Random House)
• Gollancz (Orion Publishing Group)
• Harper Voyager (HarperCollins)
• Orbit (Little, Brown Book Group)
• Tor Books (Macmillan Publishers)