Here are the winners of this year's Dragon Awards

Some of the best genre works from the 2025 and 2026

Image: Andrew Liptak

DragonCon took over Atlanta, Georgia this last holiday weekend, and part of the festivities include the presentation of this year's Dragon Awards.

The award has been handed out annually for the last decade, and its winners are decided by an open call for votes from fandom at large. This year's winners come right on the heels of this year's Hugo Awards, and I've always found this awards slate to be a solid list of popular books to check out.

I was particularly pleased to see that Joe Hill's King Sorrow earned the award for Best Horror, given that it's ya' know, about dragons (and it's excellent). I was also a little surprised that Matt Dinniman's latest installment of his Dungeon Crawler Carl series, A Parade of Horribles didn't get a nod, but given his popularity, I'm not surprised that his non-DCC book, Operation Bounce House, won for science fiction.

Here are this year's winners (marked in bold):

Best Science Fiction Novel

The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
Radiant Star by Ann Leckie
Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman
Slow Gods by Claire North
The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi
God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)

Red City by Marie Lu
Queen Demon by Martha Wells
Academy of Outcasts by Larry Correia
Hell to Pay by Sherrilyn Kenyon
The Lost Reliquary by Lyndsay Ely
Twelve Months by Jim Butcher

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel

Make Me a Monster by Kalynn Bayron
The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard
Hazelthorn by CG Drews
Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson
Sky on Fire by E.K. Johnston
Queen of Faces by Petra Lord

Best Alternate History Novel

Powerless by Harry Turtledove
World War 3.2 by John Birmingham
The Winds of Fate by S.M. Stirling
The Unnecessary War by Brian C. Thompso
A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan
No Man’s Land by Richard K. Morgan

Best Horror Novel

It Was Her House First by Cherie Priest
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Girl in the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas

Best Illustrative Book Cover

Brigands & Breadknives by Carson Lowmiller
The Ishtar Deception by Dominic Harman
The Sapphire Heart by Jeff Brown
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
Pretenders to the Throne of God by Joe Wilson
The Second Death of Locke by Anna Moshak

Best Comic Book / Graphic Novel

Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta
Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman
Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera
Daredevil by Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett
X-Men: Elsewhen by John Byrne
Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series, TV or Internet

Strange New Worlds Season 3, Paramount+
Foundation Season 3, Apple TV
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO
Alien: Earth, FX
Fallout Season 2, Amazon
Plur1bus, Apple TV
The Boys Season 5, Amazon
Widow’s Bay, Apple TV

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie

Superman, by James Gunn
Project Hail Mary, by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Disclosure Day, by Steven Spielberg
Predator: Badlands, by Dan Trachtenberg
Frankenstein, by Guillermo del Toro
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, by Jon Favreau
Toy Story 5, by Andrew Stanton
The Sheep Detectives, by Kyle Balda

Best Digital Game

Hades II, Supergiant Games
Hollow Knight: Silksong, Team Cherry
Silent Hill f, NeoBards Entertainment
Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch Productions
Forza Horizon 6, Playground Games
Battlefield 6, Battlefield Studios

Best Tabletop Game

Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn, Wizards of the Coast
ACKS II Revised Rulebook, Autarch
Magic: the Gathering – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wizards of the Coast
7 Wonders Dice, Repos Production
Warhammer 40,000 The Maelstrom, Games Workshop
Wingspan Americas Expansion, Stonemaier Games