The Unnecessary War has been named a finalist for the 2026 Dragon Award for Best Alternate History Novel.

I have read that sentence a dozen times, and it still does not feel real.

The Dragon Awards are a fan-choice award. There is no jury, no committee, no submission fee. Readers nominate, and readers vote. That is the part that got me. Nobody put this book on that ballot but the people who read it.

Look at the company on that ballot. Harry Turtledove, who is the reason a lot of us read alternate history at all. S.M. Stirling. John Birmingham. Richard K. Morgan. And a novel from Viking that has been on bestseller lists all summer. I am an independent author from Allen, Texas who writes about a machinist in Kansas and a fighter pilot from Missouri, and my name is on that list with theirs.

Here is where you come in.

The winners are decided by fan vote, and voting is open to anyone. You do not need a Dragon Con ticket. You do not need a membership. It is free, it takes about a minute, and every registered voter counts the same.

Go to awards.dragoncon.org, register with your name and email, confirm the email, and a ballot will be sent to you. Registration closes at 11:59 PM EDT on Friday, September 4.

If you have read The Unnecessary War and it earned it, I would be grateful for your vote in Best Alternate History Novel.

Where things stand with the books:

• A Date with Infamy, The Gathering Storm, and The Deep Pacific are out now. That is the Pacific War, the American War series.
• The Unnecessary War and The Burning Continent are out now. That is Europe.
• The Hundred-Year Reich, European War Book 3, arrives September 2, the day before Dragon Con opens.
• The Americans Are Coming follows October 2, and An Angry Giant on October 29.
• Audiobook editions of both series are in production with Podium Entertainment.

I will be at Dragon Con in Atlanta for the ceremony on Sunday, September 6. If you are there, find me. I would rather talk to readers than do almost anything else.

Thank you. Genuinely. Five years ago this was a stack of notes I could not make into a book, and now readers have put it on a ballot next to Harry Turtledove.

Every great story begins with family.

Brian