Oooh, check out this fancy new site. I was able to upload images and lay out text without wanting to pull my hair out! I can’t wait to see if posting audio actually works on this thing. Although, I guess I’ll need to record some stuff before I can find out. But anyway, on with the show.

When my legs feel like jelly, my liver has turned in it’s notice, and the rest of my body is fighting off the germs of over 80,000 people it can only mean one thing. Another Dragon Con has ended. I’ve got recaps and all manner of fun stuff coming over the next few weeks. First though I thought I’d tell you about The Dragon Award winners.

If you didn’t know The Dragon Awards started two years ago to recognize exceptional contributions to our collective fandoms. Like everything else about Dragon Con it’s completely up to you (and whoever else votes) to decide the winners. 11,000 fans voted this year and while that’s much better than the last 2 years I’m sure we can still do better. Check out the winners below, and if your favorite didn’t win you only have yourself to blame for not voting. If you did vote, and your favorite didn’t win…put more pressure on your friends to vote next year. But we’ve got a long way to go until the next Dragon Con (sigh) so check back here with us to keep reliving the con. If you need a refresher on the nominees go here for the full ballot.

2018 Recipients

Best Science Fiction Novel
Artemis by – Andy Weir

Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)
Oathbringer – by Brandon Sanderson

Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel
Children of Blood and Bone – by Tomi Adeyemi

Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel
A Call to Vengeance – by David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Thomas Pope

Best Alternate History Novel
Uncharted – by Kevin J. Anderson and Sarah A. Hoyt

Best Media Tie-In Novel
Leia: Princess of Alderaan – by Claudia Gray

Best Horror Novel
Sleeping Beauties – by Stephen King and Owen King

Best Comic Book
Mighty Thor by – Jason Aaron and James Harren, Marvel Comics

Best Graphic Novel
Brandon Sanderson’s White Sand Volume 1 – by Brandon Sanderson, Rik Hoskin, and Julius M. Gopez, Dynamite Entertainment

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy TV Series
Game of Thrones – HBO

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Movie
Black Panther – directed by Ryan Coogler

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy PC / Console Game
Middle-earth: Shadow of War – by Monolith Productions

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Mobile Game
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery – by Jam City

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game
Red Dragon Inn 6: Villains – by Slugfest Games

Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Miniatures / Collectible Card / Role-Playing Game
Magic: The Gathering Unstable – by Wizards of the Coast

I’ve gotta say that I’m a little surprised that a Tolkien based game won over Fortnite. I thought that’s all the kids were playing these days. I hate playing online with strangers so I don’t know anything about it other than that’s all I hear about in gaming circles these days. It’s no shocker that Game of Thrones and Black Panther won though. And rightly so.

I’m very happy that Brandon Sanderson won both categories he was nominated for. He’s a great writer, and if you need some epic fantasy in your life then get in on The Stormlight Archives as soon as you can.

So yes, Leia: Princess of Alderaan beat out Phasma. I’m fine with that because really Leia was a better book, but I appreciated finally getting some answers about Phasma. Now that I know more about her I’m hoping she didn’t really die in The Last Jedi. With Snoke dead I feel like we’re gonna need some more bad guys around, and Hux just isn’t tough enough to tow the line behind Kylo Ren alone.

Sorry, I get pulled of on a tangent pretty easily when I’m talking Star Wars. Anyway…speaking of reading: $85,000 was raised for Literacy Action, Inc. Great job everyone. The other big charity, LifeSouth, collected 6,000 units of blood and blood products. Well done there too. I was impressed with how long the line was to give when I went to get my media badge Thursday afternoon. I was told that the line itself was 2 hours long, and that didn’t include the time it took to give the blood. Thanks to everyone who gave to Literacy Action Inc., and those that took time out from having fun to give blood. So you see, there are always going to be a few bad eggs who don’t know how to act. Numbers like these should remind us that as a group we’re pretty damn cool. After the chair throwing incident last year at the Marriott I’ve kept an eye on message boards to see if I missed anything deeply awful happening. It turns out that I didn’t – well done!

I’m going to have a whole lot more to say about Dragon Con, and you won’t want to miss hearing about the first panels I’ve ever been on. Well, you might want to miss it, but I won’t let you because they were good panels and I want to talk about them. Dave has the ones we were on together recorded (I’m sure those will be up on the site at some point. The video game character panel is a hoot), but there were only two of those so he wasn’t around for the other three I did. No matter how busy I feel at Dragon Con Dave is always much busier. I had a day to costume, and downtime between stuff, and got to see a few panels I wasn’t on. I’d like to try and take on a few more panels next year, but I’ll just have to remember not to get carried away. I like having a little time to breathe.