The winners of the best fantasy book cover art will this year receive a statue of Druss the Axeman!
To celebrate the sixth year of the David Gemmell Awards, and the 30th anniversary of the publication of Gemmell's influential first novel, Legend , a new trophy will be unveiled at this year's awards ceremony on Friday 13 June.
Decided by popular vote, the awards consist of three categories - the Legend Award (best novel), the Morningstar (best debut) and the Ravenheart (best book cover art). Since the instigation of the awards in 2009 the trophy for the Legend Award has been a striking half-scale Snaga, the axe borne by Druss, the hero of Legend , fashioned by Simon Fearnhamm of Raven Armoury.
And now the organisers are in a position to add to this. The Gemmell Awards committee say, "It's long been the ambition to have trophies for the Morningstar and Ravenheart as unique and as fetching as Snaga. This year sees that ambition beginning to be realised. Our new Ravenheart Award trophy, created by artist Lee Blair, is a bust of Druss the Axeman looming over a representation of Dros Delnoch, the fortress at the heart of Legend ."
The new trophy will be presented for the first time at this year's Gemmell Awards ceremony, held on Friday 13 June at London's Magic Circle headquarters. SFX will be there helping to celebrate the best in modern fantasy literature. See the shortlist at the official Gemmell Awards website . You can view some of Lee Blair's work online too , including Batman and steampunk sculpts as well as the work-in-progress Druss.
