I noticed, over at 'The Wertzone', that voting on the shortlist for the David Gemmell awards is now open so figured I'd head on over and cast a vote or two. I'm not a huge fan of the way that the Gemmell Awards are set up (a post for another time, probably) but that's not the fault of the writers on the shortlist is it? I thought I'd show them some support and get voting; at least that was the plan until I came across the Legend Award for Best Novel. The nominees are...
The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett
War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz
Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks
I found that I couldn't cast a vote here, purely because I haven't read any of the books on the shortlist. Apparently last year was worse for reading than I thought what with everything going on... I have to say though that none of these books stood out for me as 'must read' when I looked at them last year. No vote casting there then, have you guys voted on this list?
I had better luck with The Morningstar Award for Best Debut with the nominees being...
Spellwright by Blake Charlton
The Warrior Priest by Darius Hinks
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov
Tymon's Flight by Mary Victoria
I'd actually managed to read four of the five books listed here (sorry 'Tymon's Flight', reading the blurb on Amazon doesn't really count...) so felt a little easier about casting my vote here. Darius Hinks' 'The Warrior Priest' (read my review Here) is a shoe in for the award, in my opinion, if the Black Library can mobilise their fan base on the same scale as they did last time. More than that though, it's also a book that comes the closest to echoing what Gemmell himself was all about in his own work. You've probably already guessed where my vote went here.
The Ravenheart Award for Best Cover Art was also an easy one to vote on, mainly because it's all about looking at cover art and choosing the one that does it for you. The nominees are,
The Ragged Man
Power and Majesty
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Shadow King
Tymon's Flight
I still need to read 'The Ragged Man' (and should really read 'The Grave Thief' before that...) but we're only talking cover art here and Todd Lockwood's artwork will always win in a 'cover art battle'; that's where my vote went.
You can vote on these categories until the end of May with the results due a couple of weeks after that. Will you be voting?
3 comments:
the only thing I've read on any of the lists is Peter Brett's Desert Spear - I found it to be an engaging read. Warded Man was better (the ideas were all fresh and new & it was a cracking book), but Desert Spear had loads to offer. Is it a 'prize winning' book? Dunno - I'd have to have read the others to say :)
I was really torn between voting between Jemisin & Charlton - really enjoyed them both. Can't actually remember who I voted for, though (not being coy).
For the Legend, I voted for Brent Weeks because it was the only one I'd read, but also thoroughly enjoyed it. I have Warrior Priest on my shelf, but haven't got to it just yet - it is, as Graeme says, probably the closest to Gemmell's ouvre, though.
Artwork, for me, was Jemisin again. Love the artwork for all three of her novels.
Umm . . . I absolutely adored the way of kings. It was amazing. Give Sanderson a couple of years to mature and you have an author that will consistently blow peoples pants off with his mind.
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