The nominations for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2014 have been announced by the DGLA. Simultaneously, the DGLA has also announced the nominees for The Morningstar Award for Best Debut Novel, and The Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art. May we have the envelope please!

The nominees are:

Legend Award (Best Novel)

Half a King by Joe Abercrombie (HarperCollins)
Valour by John Gwynne (Pan Macmillan/Tor UK)
Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence (HarperCollins)
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)
The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks (Orbit)

Morningstar Award (Best Debut Novel)

Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell (Jo Fletcher Books)
The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley (Angry Robot)
The Godless by Ben Peek (Pan Macmillan/Tor UK)
The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Stavely (Pan Macmillan/Tor UK)
Age of Iron by Angus Watson (Orbit)

Ravenheart Award (Best Cover Art)

Laura Brett for the cover of The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss
Mike Bryan for the cover of Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
Jason Chan for the cover of Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence
Sam Green for the cover of Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
Jackie Morris for the cover of Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb

The David Gemmell Legend Award is a fan-voted award administered by the DGLA. The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel was first granted in 2009, and has now been awarded six times:

Andrzej Sapkowski for Blood of Elves (2009)
Graham McNeill for Empire: The Legend of Sigmar (2010)
Brandon Sanderson’s for The Way of Kings (2011)
Patrick Rothfuss for The Wise Man’s Fear by (2012)
Brent Weeks for The Blinding Knife (2013)
Mark Lawrence for Emperor of Thorns (2014)

See all the 2014 nominees here, and last year’s winners here.

The Legend Award is named for David Gemmell’s first novel. The trophy is a scale model of Snaga, the axe wielded by Gemmell’s famous hero Druss. It is created each year by Simon Fearnhamm of Raven Armoury. The awards presentation will take place on Saturday August 8th, at Nine Worlds Geekfest.

Voting for the award opened on Monday June 1st, and will close at midnight on Friday July 17th. Visit the DGLA website to cast your vote.

The Gemmell Award is not the only award administered by the DGLA; every year it gives out two others: The Morningstar Award for Best Debut novel and The Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Cover Art. Note that the Ravenheart award is for the UK covers.

Congratulations to all the nominees!