The 2025 Goonhammer Book Awards: And the Winners Are...

You’ve heard of the Oscars and the Emmies, the Tonies and the Grammies… but what if I told you there was a prestigious and exclusive prize even better than all of those? Better, perhaps, than even hitting the “EGOT” of all four?

We here at Goonhammer have the honor to unveil the first-annual Goonhammer Book Awards- or ‘the Goonies’ for short!

Two weeks ago, we kicked off our first-ever Goonhammer Book Awards for the books of 2025, and invited the readers to vote to choose the winners in seven different categories.

Boy did you ever! It was an exciting week while the polls were open, with leads changing hands multiple times in almost every category. Today, we're excited to unveil these inaugural winners!

While "Goonhammer Book Award-Winner" isn't quite at the level of "New York Times Bestseller" yet, each of our winners (save one₁) will be receiving a physical award recognizing them for this momentous accomplishment.

We're very excited to see what 2026 brings us for next year's awards, but for now we've got some winners to announce.

So without further ado... the envelopes please!

Winner: Starseer's Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Runner-Up: Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion, by Dale Lucas

The winner of this year's Best Age of Sigmar Novel jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, with Adrian Tchaikovsky's tale of Irixi the Seraphon striking a big chord with Age of Sigmar readers.

Image credit: Games Workshop

"It’s probably not too early to say that Starseer’s Ruin is not only my choice for my [personal] Age of Sigmar Book of the Year," I wrote in my review, "but a shortlist candidate for my Black Library Book of the Year as well. It’s just that good."

Clearly I wasn't alone in that regard, and big congratulations to Adrian- and Irixi!

The runner-up award goes to Dale Lucas for the delightful Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion. It's a common complaint amongst the Black Library community that we get books named after towering characters in the Warhammer universe, only to find precious little of that character within its pages. Lucas makes that approach work here, however, using Ushoran and his rival, Grand Patriarch Voranov, as twin lenses with which to examine and contrast one another. It's an approach that pays off.

"This is a gripping story," I said at the time, "and requires very little Age of Sigmar lore background to fully enjoy." Well done, Dale!

Winner: Voidscarred, by Mike Brooks

Runner-Up: Dropsite Massacre, by John French

If there were two books that dominated the popular landscape this year in the Black Library, these were the ones. Voidscarred took runner-up in the official Black Library Book of the Year voting, and pips Dropsite Massacre at the post by a handful of votes.

Mike Brooks has probably done more than any other writer to anchor queer identity and romance within the grim, dark future from his very first novella (2018's Necromunda yarn Wanted: Dead) onwards. As in 2024's Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives the romance is just one spicy ingredient amongst many, joining swashbuckling Corsair action and Ork villainy to deliver one of the year's breakout hits.

Image credit: Games Workshop

John French's Dropsite Massacre- the winner of the official Black Library Book of Year- swaps places for the Best Warhammer 30K/40K Novel Goonie!

From my review: "For what it is- an action story- Dropsite Massacre is a masterpiece. I don’t use that word lightly, but it’s clear that French understood the magnitude of the assignment that had been handed him and harnessed the peak of his powers."

Big congratulations to Mike and John for these remarkable books.

Winner: The Lords of Silence Illustrated and Annotated Edition, by Chris Wraight

Runner-Up: Trollslayer Mega Limited Edition, by William King

It's worth noting right off the bat that the runaway winner of the Best Black Library Deluxe Edition was also- by no small margin- it's least expensive contender. At just $40, the Illustrated and Annotated Edition pulled off the trifecta of being a reprint of a highly-demanded out of print novel, filled with terrific additional art and insightful author commentary, and positioned to be a great point of entry for collecting "deluxe" Black Library volumes.

"I’d love to see more products like this," I noted in a recent Black Library Bibliophiles column, "ones that offer a bit of shine and polish to a library and encourage readers to begin building a collection."

Image credit: Games Workshop

Just when it looked like we'd make it through 2025 without getting a Mega Limited Edition

For the other side of the coin, the runner-up position belongs to the most expensive product on the list. William King's Trollslayer Mega Limited Edition combined a stunning treatment of the book in a box packed with goodies, from leatherette coasters to metal coins.

The funny thing about this category is that we'll likely never know who did the work we're recognizing, since it takes a team of editors and designers to plan and execute on a deluxe edition. To the Games Workshop staff who developed both of these products, take a bow!

Co-Winners: Avalon Irons, Russell Zimmerman

A day before the polls officially closed, Avalon Irons and Russell Zimmerman reached out with an interesting proposal.

Given that they were well ahead in the polling, only trading the lead back and forth with one another as they entered the home stretch... would it be possible for them to share the award?

Given that the Goonhammer Book Awards are meant to be more celebration than competition, we were delighted to accept.

Both Irons and Zimmerman were the writers of shorts I declared "best in show" for their respective Subscription Weeks: Irons with Imperfect Engines for Cult Mechanicus Week, and Zimmerman for Seven Ships in Heretic Astartes Week. Both also had stories appear in published paper anthologies this year as well, and Irons also had an Iron Warriors tale The Only Way is Through appear in the Heretic Astartes Week.

A big congratulations to the both, and we look forward to all the stories to come from both of these terrific talents.

Winner: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Runner-Up: John French

With awards season often seeing Age of Sigmar titles sidelined in favor of their grimdark counterparts, it was exciting to witness Best Black Library Writer come down to the absolute wire between the authors of Starseer's Ruin and Dropsite Massacre. There was a lot of back and forth here, as fans of each rallied in support of their favorite quill-wielding wordsmith!

In the end, Sigmar's favor was just enough as Tchaikovsky took first- by a single-digit margin. But really, aren't we all winners for getting two absolute bangers for our library?

The only thing that would have made this even better would be a couple of deluxe editions, but that's well beyond an author's control. So big congratulations to Adrian and John!

Winner: Dan Abnett

Runner-Up: Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Let's be honest, it was always going to be Dan, wasn't it? That doesn't take a thing off of our other finalists in the category, but time and again when people talk about the books that "got them into Warhammer" Gaunt's Ghosts or Eisenhorn are almost always in the mix.

From his beginnings writing comic scripts and short stories for the nascent Black Library through Interceptor City winning third place in the official 2025 Black Library Book of the Year, Abnett's Warhammer career is extraordinary not only for its notable works but also its incredible breadth of time. Since 1997, there was only one year (2022) that didn't see something new from him- and our shared universe is so much the richer for it.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden authored one of the greatest trilogies in the Black Library, giving a depth of character and even pathos to those much-maligned sadists, the Night Lords. With books like Betrayer and The First Heretic he's had an outsize impact on the arc of the Horus Heresy, and his body of work scintillates with stories like Helsreach, The Emperor's Gift, and The Talon of Horus.

We promise, Aaron's runner-up position has nothing whatsoever to do with his effusive and well-documented love for Goonhammer.

Congratulations to Dan and Aaron!

Tie: Outfoxed by Bryan Young, Violent Inception by Russell Zimmerman

Sharing glory must be Russell Zimmerman's destiny this year, for not only did he and Avalon Irons agree to split the Best Black Library Debutant award but he also drew even with Bryan Young's Outfoxed for Best (Non-GW) Tie-In Novel with the serialized Violent Inception.

The real winner here, of course, is surely Battletech, the universe from which both of these titles hail and which captured just shy of two-thirds of all votes against a field that included novels from Dungeons & Dragons and Aliens. With the short story periodical Shrapnel, Catalyst Games clearly has taken a page out of the Black Library playbook, and it's exciting to see a storied franchise like Battletech continue to thrill readers and gamers.

And that's it for 2025! Thanks for helping us celebrate an incredible year of fiction with our inaugural awards. This has been a tremendous success and we're already looking for ways to make it even more exciting next year.

Until then, here's to all the reading ahead!

Footnotes

Alas, the person(s) who designed the winner of the Best Black Library Deluxe Edition book is unknown to us, so we have no award to offer beyond recognition of a job very well done indeed!

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Tags: black library | goonhammer book