As is usual, late summer seems to start a variety of awards for fiction. Some nonfiction, too, but I’m more aware of and concerned about fiction awards, specifically speculative fiction. Consequently, I thought it might be helpful to alert spec faith visitors which books are up for award. It’s always good, in my opinion, to take a look at books that others thought were at the top of the list.

Realm Makers actually has two different kinds of awards. First is the type that is similar to other award organizations, only the categories involve speculative titles. Here are the three finalists for the Realm Awards—“among the best speculative titles published in 2018”—which will be presented during the Realm Makers Conference dinner:

Debut

The Story Peddler by Lindsay Franklin
Launch by Jason Joyner
Identity Revealed by J. M. Butler

Fantasy

Seeds: A Christian Fantasy by Rachel Starr Thomson
Dagger’s Sleep by Tricia Mingerink
Fierian by Ronie Kendig

Science Fiction

Through Chaos by Joshua A. Johnston
Fraught by Kerry Nietz
No Road Among the Stars by A. Walker Scott

Supernatural/Paranormal/Horror/Other

Shade: The Complete Trilogy by Merrie Destefano
The Breeding by Avily Jerome
Forsaken by Gina Detwiler

Young Adult

The Story Peddler by Lindsay Franklin
Launch by Jason Joyner
The Wolf Prince by Claire Banschbach

The other type of award is The Alliance Award, a readers’ choice award given for the best book. Here are the finalists:

The Story Peddler by Lindsay Franklin
Fawkes by Nadine Brandes
Mark of the Raven by Morgan Busse

The website also references the Parable Award, recognizing the best book cover of the year. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a list of finalists there or on the Facebook page. Hopefully we’ll be able to announce the winner after the awards dinner, July 19, so stay tuned.

Of course there are many other awards that include speculative fiction. The American Christian Fiction Writers organization offers the Carol Awards while the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association presents the Christy Awards. Both have categories for speculative literature—the former called Speculative and the latter, Visionary. Apparently the finalists in those have not yet been announced.

Other awards are available from various conferences:
Oregon Christian Conference offers the Cascade Awards. The category is Speculative and the awards will be presented at the conference in August. The finalists are
The Ruins of Jienrenil: Helkrom by Randall Rutherford
Konnor the Collector by Pat Schantz
Quest of the Queen by Dawn Shipman

The Blue Ridge Mountains Writers Conference offers the Selah Award. The finalists in the speculative category this year were
Mark of the Raven by Morgan L. Busse (Bethany House/Baker)
Sky Light Falls by Donna E. Lane (Bear’s Place Publishing)
The Revolutionary by Kristen Hogrefe (Write Integrity Press)

The winner, announced last month at the Blue Ridge conference, was Mark of the Raven.

There are undoubtedly other awards and I hate to present an incomplete picture, but I hope this list will start readers thinking about the books that are out there which you could add to your summer reading, ones that have at least reached the finals stage, which means someone has judged them—either professionals in the writing industry or readers, who may be the best judges of all.