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# 2025 Dragon Award finalists
- URL: https://www.andrewliptak.com/2025-dragoncon-dragon-award-corey-vandermeer/
- Published: 2025-08-05T16:09:15.000Z
- Updated: 2025-08-05T16:09:15.000Z
- Description: A good look at some of the best SF/F published in the last year
- Author: Andrew Liptak
- Tags: News, Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Book List

Awards are complicated things: the science fiction and fantasy scene has an overabundance of them, with a ton aimed at honoring the best works in fairly small categories. Aside from the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards, it's sometimes hard to get an idea of what fandom is enjoying or collectively putting out as the best works of the year. 

That's okay: it's a challenge that in and of itself helps show that "fandom" isn't one population, but a scattered collection of a whole bunch of fans. While the Hugo and Nebula Awards are still the gold standard when it comes to honoring the past year's excellence in publishing, I've been finding that the Dragon Awards, put out by the folks running DragonCon, seems to align with my particular style of SF/F fandom: not entirely the old-school Fandom-with-a-capital-F scene, but also not entirely the more modern multimedia fandoms. 

The awards were [founded in 2016](https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/13/12461038/dragon-awards-shortlist-dragoncon-science-fiction-fantasy?ref=transfer-orbit.ghost.io), and after some [growing pains](https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/9/16118054/john-scalzi-alison-littlewood-dragon-awards-controversy-sci-fi-horror?ref=transfer-orbit.ghost.io), they seem to have figured themselves out as they enter their ninth year: a solid roundup of science fiction, fantasy, horror, YA comics, games, literature, movies, and television shows. The awards are voted on by attendees and the general public, and while there were a lot of folks who were initially worried that they'd be used by fandom's more right-wing members to push their own books, they've turned out to be a pretty inclusive and far-reaching selection, which I think is a really good thing to see. 

Here are the [winners from last year](https://www.andrewliptak.com/here-are-the-winners-of-the-2024-dragon-awards/).

DragonCon has [announced the finalists](https://awards.dragoncon.org/2025-ballot/?fbclid=IwY2xjawL%5FAl5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFobHJVUW9Mak1zZkxhVE1mAR5lO7NTXRJ6CRF819GqKqUtLPDeY3QBPKVyN81z68G8ZqDiJs77HaP0PkhmOw%5Faem%5FO2Fcuj8haFwwObCOCCIvoQ&ref=andrewliptak.com) for this year's awards (eligible works go to ones published starting last fall to this summer), and voting is now open: you can go register to vote [here](https://applyto.dragoncon.org/fan%5Fawards/dc%5Ffan%5Fawards%5Fsignup.php?ref=andrewliptak.com). The winners will be announced at this year's [DragonCon](https://www.dragoncon.org/?ref=andrewliptak.com), which will be held between August 28th through September 1st in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Here are this year's finalists: 

### **Best Science Fiction Novel**

- *Alliance Unbound* by C .J. Cherryh, Jane S. Fancher
- *The Mercy of Gods* by James S. A. Corey
- *Absolution* by Jeff VanderMeer
- *Extremophile* by Ian Green
- *Nether Station* by Kevin J. Anderson
- *The Folded Sky* by Elizabeth Bear
- *This Inevitable Ruin* by Matt Dinniman

### **Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)**

- *The Last Shield* by Cameron Johnston
- *The Black Bird Oracle* by Deborah Harkness
- *Shadow of the Smoking Mountain* by Howard Andrew Jones
- *Heart of the Mountain* by Larry Correia
- *The Devils* by Joe Abercrombie
- *Long Live Evil* by Sarah Rees Brennan

### **Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel**

- *Sunrise of the Reaping* by Suzanne Collins
- *Labyrinth Arcanist* by Shami Stovall
- *Friends Indeed* by David Weber, Jane Lindskold
- *Compound Fracture* by Andrew Joseph White
- *Among Serpents* by Marc J Gregson
- *Rest in Peaches* by Alex Brown

### **Best Alternate History Novel**

- *1635: The Weaver’s Code* by Eric Flint, Jody Lynn Nye
- *1919: The Romanov Rising* by Tom Kratman, Kacey Ezell, Justin Watson
- *To Turn the Tide* by S.M. Stirling
- *The Martian Contingency* by Mary Robinette Kowal
- *Gangster* by Dan Willis
- *Gold, Gangs, and Glory* by Laurence Dahners

### **Best Horror Novel**

- *Bury Your Gays* by Chuck Tingle
- *The Vengeful Dead* by Darcy Coates
- *It Will Only Hurt for a Moment* by Delilah S. Dawson
- *Cold Eternity* by S.A. Barnes
- *The Wilding* by Ian McDonald
- *The Buffalo Hunter Hunter* by Stephen Graham Jones

**Best Illustrative Book Cover**

- *The Icarus Coda* by Dave Seeley
- *Flames of Gold* by Jeff Brown
- *Rise From Ruin* by Pierluigi Abbondanza
- *Wind and Truth* by Michael Whelan
- *Blood of Her Father* by Sam Kennedy
- *Mountain of Fire* by Kurt Miller

### **Best Comic Book / Graphic Novel**

- *Absolute Batman* by Scott Snyder, Nick Dragotta
- *Absolute Superman* by Jason Aaron, Rafa Sandoval
- *Daredevil: Cold Day In Hell* by Charles Soule, Steve McNiven
- *Transformers Volume 3* by Daniel Warren Johnson, Jorge Corona
- *Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 2* by Jonathan Hickman, Marco Checchetto
- *Ultimate Wolverine* by Christopher Condon, Alessandro Cappuccio

### **Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet**

- *Murderbot*, Apple TV+
- *Severance*, Apple TV+
- *Wheel of Time*, Amazon Prime
- *The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power*, Amazon Prime
- *Silo*, Apple TV+
- *Andor*, Disney+

### **Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie**

- *Sinners* by Ryan Coogler
- *Thunderbolts\** by Jake Schreier
- *Wicked* by Jon M. Chu
- *How to Train Your Dragon* by Dean DeBlois
- *Deadpool & Wolverine* by Shawn Levy
- *Alien: Romulus* by Fede Álvarez

### **Best Digital Game**

- *Death Stranding 2: On the Beach*, Kojima Productions
- *Split Fiction*, Hazelight Studios
- *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, Ubisoft Quebec
- *Elden Ring Nightreign*, FromSoftware
- *Monster Hunter Wilds*, Capcom
- *Kingdom Come: Deliverance II*, Warhorse Studios

### **Best Tabletop Game**

- *Arcs*, Leder Games
- *Magic the Gathering: Bloomburrow*, Wizards of the Coast
- *Magic the Gathering: Final Fantasy*, Wizards of the Coast
- *Heat: Tunnel Vision*, Days of Wonder
- *Splendor: The Silk Road*, Space Cowboys
- *Disney Lorcana: Archazia’s Island*, Ravensburger