The nominations are out, but they are not complete. Try to resist the urge to vote until after 27 May , as the DGLA have said they're still taking (and adding) crowd-sourced nominations until that date. Those folks will be at a pretty substantial disadvantage already. When you are ready, vote here.

Legend

Half a War by Joe Abercrombie

Twelve Kings by Bradley Beaulieu

The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett

The Darkling Child by Terry Brooks

The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron

Angel of Storms by Trudi Canavan

Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia

The Cathedral of Known Things by Edward Cox

Skyborn by David Dalglish

The Silver Kings by Stephen Deas

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

Knight's Shadow by Sebastien de Castell

Black Wolves by Kate Elliott

Gotrek & Felix: Slayer by David Guymer

Ruin by John Gwynne

Ascendant's Rite by David Hair

Spark and Carousel by Joanne Hall

Devastating Hate by Markus Heitz

Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb

Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Chaos Unleashed by Drew Karpyshyn

Swords and Scoundrels by Julia Knight

Path of Gods by Snorri Kristjansson

Valkyrie's Song by MD Lachlan

The Dagger's Path by Glenda Larke

The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence

The Hunter's Kind by Rebecca Levene

Old Man's Ghosts by Tom Lloyd

A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall

War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin

The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Boy Who Wept Blood by Den Patrick

Those Above by Daniel Polansky

The Heir to the North by Steven Poore

Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan

Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson

Spinning Thorns by Anna Sheehan

The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley

Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis

Reign of Iron by Angus Watson

The Sword of the South by David Weber

The Price of Valour by Django Wexler

The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams

Morningstar (Debut)

Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

Starborn by Lucy Hounsom

The Vagrant by Peter Newman

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Ravenheart (Cover)

James Annal for Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Tommy Arnold for Skyborn by David Dalglish

Kerem Beyit for The Dread Wyrm by Miles Cameron

Jason Chan for The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence

Wendy Chan for Swords and Scoundrels by Julia Knight

Alejandro Colucci for The Boy Who Wept Blood by Den Patrick

Bastien Lecouffe Deharme for The Darkling Child by Terry Brooks

Krzysztof Domaradzki for Old Man's Ghosts by Tom Lloyd

Larry Elmore & Carol Russo Design for Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia

Mark Ferrari for The Flotsam Trilogy Omnibus by Peter M. Ball

Christopher Gibbs for The Cathedral of Known Things by Edward Cox

Sam Green for Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson

Manuela Hackl for Knight's Shadow by Sebastien de Castell

Mohamad Hani/Archangel Images for An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Teddy Eduardo Iglesias for The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

Patrick Insole for The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams

Jaime Jones for The Vagrant by Peter Newman

Nik Keevil & Nick Castle for Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan

Patrick Knowles for Foreign Devils by John Hornor Jacobs

Laura B for Spinning Thorns by Anna Sheehan

Tim McDonagh for The Hunter's Kind by Rebecca Levene

Chris McGrath for The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher

Jackie Morris for Fool's Quest by Robin Hobb

Lauren Panepinto for The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Lauren Panepinto, Gene Mollica & Michael Frost for The Autumn Republic by Brian McClellan

Rhett Podersoo for Those Above by Daniel Polansky

Larry Rostant for The Skull Throne by Peter V. Brett

Larry Rostant for Black Wolves by Kate Elliot

Larry Rostant for War of Shadows by Gail Z. Martin

Larry Rostant for Reign of Iron by Angus Watson

Duncan Spilling for Angel of Storms by Trudi Canavan

Steve Stone for Battlemage by Stephen Aryan

Steve Stone for The Dagger's Path by Glenda Larke

Raymond Swanland for Archaon: Lord of Chaos by Rob Sanders

Andrew Unangst for Twelve Kings by Bradley Beaulieu

Stephen Youll for The Silver Kings by Stephen Deas

Paul Young for Ruin by John Gwynne

Paul Young for Acendant's Rite by David Hair

Paul Young for Valkyrie's Song by MD Lachlan

Here's a pretty page filled with all the covers!

First impressions...

I really like the idea of 'publish list', 'take crowd-sourced recommendations for missing titles', 'open voting', but I like it in that order. The actual order of 'publish list', 'open voting', 'take recommendations' doesn't quite do the trick.

Any weird submissions? Not so much! The Fire Sermon is pretty overtly post-apocalyptic, but that's pretty much an accepted sub-genre of epic now (which I'm good with). The Mechanical is much more alternate history, but, again, eh. But really, nothing too weird - at least that I've noticed.

Any weird absences? A few, of course. We're still not seeing much in the way of non-Abercrombie YA. (Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes, maybe?) No Six of Crows, Tearling #2, Sarah Maas, Victoria Aveyard, Daniel Jose Older... Plus some non-YA gaps. Erin Lindsey's The Bloodforged? V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic seems like something that should be here as well, maybe? Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown? Ken Liu's Grace of Kings? What about Terry Pratchett's The Shepherd's Crown?

If anyone is taking advantage of the nomination window, those would all be interesting additions.

Hey! Good news! I think we're guaranteed two women on the Morningstar shortlist, ensuring one of the most gender diverse DGLA shortlists in the award's short history! (A tie with 2011 and 2012. 2012 had three women across both the Legend & Morningstar shortlists; we can dare to dream.)

Bad news! One book is going to get shafted when the 6 nominations drop to a 5 book shortlist. Honestly, I think they should let all 6 through. However, unlike last year (cough), all the debuts actually seem to be debuts, so that's a good thing!

So who is winning?

(As always, this is what I predict, not what I want, and, more often than not, I'm terribly wrong.)

Morningstar: I have no idea, so - pass. I've heard good things about all six, and am genuinely looking forward to this year's read-through.

Ravenheart: No idea. Based on recent history, 'the artist for the Legend-winning book'?

Legend: Might as well book seats now for Joe Abercrombie's Half a War, Mark Lawrence's The Liar's Key and John Gwynne's Ruin. Brandon Sanderson's Shadows of Self isn't one of Sanderson's 'big' series, but then Alloy of Law made it and, last time I checked, Sanderson is still Sanderson - so we let's lock that one in as well.

If Voyager had entered both Half a War and Half a World, we'd be done already. But, generously (tactically?), they didn't, so instead of double-Abecrombie, we've got one more space to fill. So, who will be our fifth Legend?

Brian Staveley's The Providence of Fire and Brian McClellan's The Autumn Republic. Morningstar winners can pop up on the Legend list (see: Gwynne), and these two were particularly popular. When The Emperor's Blades was up for the Morningstar, it had more Goodreads ratings than many of the Legend shortlist. And DGLA voters are series loyalists.

David Guymer's Gotrex & Felix. Never underestimate Black Library.

Larry Correia's Son of the Black Sword. If the puppies slink over to the DGLA looking for some silverware, getting someone on the shortlist will be easy. After spending so much money on the Hugos, log-rolling the DGLA for free would be almost too easy. That said, the DGLA shortlists aren't exactly the haven of story-hatin' SJW manifestos that the puppies are out to piddle on - this would be less of a faux-political maneuver and more of an overt 'go fetch me a shortlisting'. I'm not sure that'll work as well...

And then there are the elephants locked outside the room: Aliette Bodard, Naomi Novik and N.K. Jemisin. In House of Shattered Wings, The Fifth Season and Uprooted, we have three - rather glorious - critically-lauded books that have already picked up BSFA, Nebula, Kitschies, Locus, Goodreads Choice and Hugo wins/nominations already. And... unless DGLA voting patterns change dramatically, none of them will be on the list.

I think if I had to bet on one of the above to sneak on... Novik? I think that's really optimistic, but, hell, let's do it.

Ok. So that's my bet: Abercrombie, Lawrence, Gwynne, Sanderson, Novik.

What about you? Which books do you think will make the shortlist? And, in a perfect world, which books would you want to see on the shortlist?