This years Self-Published Fantasy Book Off, or SPFBO for short, has recently started and I was intrigued about quite a few books on the list. I was also looking back at the previous years and realised just how many of the finalists I’d heard of as really good fantasy books. Of course I really wanted to read the finalists of previous years, but also read a lot of the entrants for this years competition too.
Whilst I would love to be able to read 300+ books – I realised that it wasn’t going to be realistic for me to try and read all of them especially if I wanted to keep up with this years competition. So instead I’m creating a “Try a Chapter” challenge where each week for the next month I’m going to read an hour of each of the finalists from previous years SPFBO. This is going to be the first in my series on both my blog and YouTube, and I’m going to read an hour from each of the 2019 finalist books and give my first impressions, and whether I want to continue reading it.
My system for the finalists is that I’m reading them based on the ranking they had for SPFBO. Where I start with the least liked and finish with the winner of that year. I will be reading all the books on my Kindle as the majority of these are on Kindle Unlimited, which also has a 2 month free offer right now for first time users (so now is the best time to trial it here!).
Spark City – Robert J Power
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I really did not know what to think of Spark City from it’s blurb. It’s pretty vague and all I really know from it is that Erroh is supposed to be part of The Cull trials but war is on the way and he gets in the middle of it.
First Impressions
Erroh is our main character and he really enjoys being alone, travelling, drinking and playing cards. He’s not really one to settle down and the start of the book really lays this down as a foundation for the character. His background is hinted at on the blurb, and we find out that Erroh is skilled as a warrior due to his upbringing too – but he doesn’t want to settle into the same life as his family.
For the first hour of reading the book or 11% of it we don’t meet many other characters, and the handful we do meet I don’t believe are recurring in the book. Because of this it really focuses in on Erroh’s motivations and the journey he has to take. This also gives a lot of room for expanding on the world building
The world we’re in is intriguing as because we’re traveling with Erroh, we only see the small village world building at the start. But in this world humans are split into Alphas or Lowerlines, where Alphas are depicted as beasts who are angry and war-hungry. Alphas themselves look exactly like humans, but are generally trained to be warriors from a young age. Early on in the book we’re told the perceptions from a villager, and then we also get the perspective of an Alpha family who are training their son.
The world itself isn’t totally discovered by the characters either, Erroh buys a map which is “very accurate” but there’s an emphasis that maps and learning about the world isn’t a vital part of history.
As for the plot, I still can’t quite grasp where the book is heading. Erroh is on his way into the city for The Cull, but even Erroh doesn’t know what The Cull will be. So for now it’s a lot of travelling and building up the characters and the world Spark City is set in.
Whilst you may be thinking that an hour is a long time for nothing to happen plot-wise, I actually really enjoyed reading all this info. We got a little insight into the villagers and shopkeepers, as well as an Alpha family. Plus we even started to get whispers of the upcoming war. So overall I really did want to continue reading and probably will at a later date
A Sea of Broken Glass – Sonya M. Black
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Everything about the blurb feels a little bit fairy-tale like. The Darkness and The Lady are entities which are intertwined and hunting our main character. Where The Darkness is trying to corrupt The Lady which has negative effects on the world in this book.
I honestly don’t know what to expect from this book. Not much is said about Ris as the main character, except that she has powers and the ability to save the world. War, Ruin, and Plague as demons seem interesting though, I’m wondering if they’re separate from the entities or work with them though.
First impressions
In the first 15% of this book we meet and are told about so many different characters already, but our main character is Ris. Ris is a strong character as shown by her (off-page) torture where she doesn’t give up her secrets, after she’s put on trial for being a witch. We see her still caring for the villagers who’ve watched her be accused of witchcraft too, and her being understanding that they’re in danger for going against the Bastion. So I enjoyed her being our main character.
We also meet Ris’s Cloak, Shield, and Sword who are guardians to protect her as the last of the Lady’s Vessels. Bran is Shield and is a Lord of Light/Lord of Ravens and seems to have powerful magic and a strong backstory with both Ris and the other Guardians. Michel is the Sword and a Paladin, he’s also the Guardian we see the most in the first part of the story. He immediately seems very good and noble after rescuing Ris and pledging allegiance. Then we have Aeron, the Cloak who is only mentioned but not seen yet.
The plot itself starts off pretty strong with the witch trial I mentioned before. This introduces us immediately to the Bastion and Tolbert who are after Ris, as well as Ris herself. We learn pretty quickly about Ris and the other main characters, and what each of them are to the story with the sword, cloak and shield namings. Whilst the 1 hour stopped at Ris and Michel leaving the town, I enjoy that we know where they’re heading and the simple goal of keeping Ris safe from The Darkness and The Lady.
Most of the world building in this book is around the story of The Lady and The Darkness, which I guess is similar to a religion in this world. Plus we have the additions of the Lords of Light, Paladins, the Bastion – all of which I hope the rest of the book explores in more detail.
Then there’s the magic system. It’s not explained within the first hour, but there’s a part where they’re breaking wards and magic is explained as like music. I adored this descriptor of the breaking on one piece of magic meaning an altering of the music being heard. On top of this, magic is based on the elements of air, water, earth and fire, where different people have different abilities. I’m definitely intrigued enough to want to know more.
After the first hour I’m so interested in where the concept of this book is going and would for sure keep reading it.
Blade’s Edge – Virginia McClain
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Before picking up Blade’s Edge all I really know is that we will be following two POV’s who have elemental powers, in a world where magic is banned. There will be some kind of struggle for both the girls as they are separated, where the Roju may or may not be using Magic themselves to keep themselves in power.
First impressions
In an hour I managed to read 15% of this book which feels like quite a lot compared to the others. It starts off extremely slow as it introduces us to Taka and Mishi in the orphanage, gives us a little backstory into their friendship and also their attitude towards their powers and why. It then skips to them being taken to separate places where Mishi will be trained to be a female Kisoshi and Taka will train to be a healer.
Taka is in a much harsher environment where they firmly believe that women are lesser and can’t be Kisoshi or have strong Kiso. Mishi is in a school hidden by training Male Kisoshi in the day, but training female Kisoshi in evenings to become warriors. As a whole though, this land treats women as objects which can be bought by men – so I’m excited to see these strong women prove otherwise.
McClain really shows off these characters and how truly kind and caring they are from the very first page. Like I expected this book is from both Mishi and Taka’s POV and we seem them care for one another as well as other girls they meet.
As magic is pretty much banned in this world we do see very limited use in the first few chapters. From what I can tell, most of those with Kiso can use it to heal others – and someone with stronger powers has more control over elements like fire.
When I got to the hour mark for Blade’s Edge I definitely wanted to continue reading which is always a good sign. So I will probably go back and read this and my TBR isn’t really getting smaller in this challenge.
Beggar’s Rebellion – Levi Jacobs
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So before reading this I had multiple thoughts from the blurb. It’s quite long and covers both of our main characters, Tai and Ellumia. I assume that these two will end up being love interests to be honest, but I’m excited to see the adventure they get up to.
Tai is a failed rebel who wants to help free other rebels and friends from his oppressors the Councilate. Ellumia is a runaway Councilate daughter who’s curious about magic, specifically the magic Tai has, and joins the rebel’s cause.
From the blurb I’m expecting both our characters to be morally gray at times, and it will lead to a wider rebellion whose aim is overthrow the oppressors. Other than that plotline I can’t really guess too much though.
First impressions:
At the start of the book what really threw me was that our POV character was Ella. This is Ellumia’s shortened and simplified name but it was a few pages in before I realised this. I was also expecting Tai to receive the first chapters because of the blurb, but I was happy to see our female character have centre court for this one.
For the majority of this first 11% we’re actually on a boat insert lonely island meme so we don’t see much of the world. But, Ella is a scholar and a smart girl so she knows a lot and this is told to use through her reading. Her main focus is on magic, but also gaining money to become a real Calculor instead of faking it.
Once we get to Tai’s chapter we’re introduced to his town where he’s the leader of a street gang. Between his acquaintances and the show of difference between classes – I’m intrigued to see how the rebellion mentioned in the blurb goes.
The magic in Beggar’s Rebellion is called Resonance and is available to people after they use “Yura” which seems like a plant based drug. However, Tai can use his without Yura, and Ella is searching for how to do this. Each person’s resonance is different as well, Ella can time shift (slow down time) and Tai can use the air to fly. I am intrigued by the magic system, and will probably read more just to find out this mystery.
Never Die – Rob J. Hayes
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From the blurb, Ein being and eight year old sent by the Reaper was just too good to pass up. I’m really looking forward to how he interacts with the world whilst he wants to kill an emperor, and how he goes about this.
Itami Cho on the other hand is a fully grown warrior… who can’t quite keep her oaths. She seems like a flawed character, so I’m curious for how she fits in with Ein and whether she helps him or not. Other than the characters motivations, I can’t really guess the storyline for this one though.
First impressions:
So I managed to get 16% into Never Die and I don’t really have much more information on the plot of this book. It starts off almost immediately in an action packed scene which is an extremely bloody battle. It is a bit gory with details so if that kind of thing puts you off, I wouldn’t recommend reading, although the rest of it was good.
The intro spends most of it’s time introducing us to Cho, Ein and also Zhihao. These are currently the three main characters, where Ein made a deal with a Shinigami, which I believe is a god of death in Japanese folklore. Whilst he’s 8 years old, and extremely creepy, he has the power to bring people recently killed back to life to help him in his vengeance. He’s quite secretive, and I believe there’s a lot of backstory as he’s also very intelligent for an 8 year old.
Itami Cho is the Whispering Blade, a notable warrior and the last one standing in the battle she was killed in. Apparently she often doesn’t manage to keep her oaths, so I’m intrigued to see if she keeps her oath to Ein. As he did bring her back to life, she owes him quite a lot. She’s a very noble and righteous character, which is a contrast to Zhihao.
Zhihao is also a hero of a kind, however he’s fell into an easier life of being a captain for Flaming Fist (who’s army attacks at the beginning). He is also brought back to life but does not believe Ein when told so, and so very quickly runs away from the company. He’s very morally grey and is actually one of the men that kills Cho, which are both reasons why they’re not getting on.
Our characters are on their way to help Ein, but he hasn’t shared much information apart from vengeance. I’m assuming there will be multiple sub-adventures on the way through the land, and I’m excited to see more inclusion of Japanese folklore.
The writing style is absolutely gorgeous in places, I adored when the characters were recounting heroes stories to one another at night. I believe these additional snippets of stories also adds some history to the world building. I definitely think I’ll read a bit more to see where this one is heading, but I wouldn’t say it’s a priority read though.
Kalanon’s Rising – Darian Smith
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Quite simply for the plot I was expecting our main character to “Solve the murder. Stop the war. Save the world.” but the exciting part is exactly how he’s going to do it.
There’s going to be dark magic, political tensions and a mis-match up of many different heroes to get our main character to the end of the book. The Risen are the villains of the story I believe but I have no idea what they are, or if they’re even human.
First impressions:
I got to about 13% of the way in of Kalanon’s Rising and it focuses a lot on setting up the novel in this time. The book starts of strong in the prologue, it shows us Prince Keldan as he tries to complete a trade deal but gets assassinated. The book follows a group of people who are trying to find out who did it and why.
First up we meet Brannon, who is a war hero turned physician. He’s pretty stoic but clearly trusted by many of the other characters. Our actual first intro to him was what Prince Keldan thought about him – which was an interesting writing technique to use.
Whilst our main character Brannon, we also meet Jessamine, his new apprentice; Draeson, an immortal mage; and Ula, a Djinn Prior who will be travelling to help them uncover the mystery. Each of them has their own skill sets, and I believe motivations although this hasn’t been explored much yet.
There’s also some backstory for some characters, such as Brannon and Draeson who fought together in the war. I believe this backstory will be explored a bit more to explain how both of them are so trusted by the King too.
The world building is very much your euro-centric medieval fantasy land default. It takes place in a kingdom where there’s knights/warriors and a monarchy. The Djinn and the Priors have a much more intriguing country though, and with Ula being pulled into the story I’m excited for that to be expanded upon.
Magic is a thing in this book, from both Draeson who’s a mage and other people like the Djinn who have their own type of magic I believe. I’m hoping this is explored more later on in the book, but it’s not displayed too much at the start.
As you can probably tell from all my thoughts, not much is really happening in Kalanon’s Rising at the start. So because of this I just wasn’t getting into it and I don’t think I would pick this back up again.
A Tale of Stars and Shadow – Lisa Cassidy
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My instant reaction to the blurb was that I was excited for the magical winged folk Mithranar. They’re actually the rulers of humans (and I believe are the bad guys in this book!) but I’m intrigued.
But both our main characters are humans, where Talyn is a princess and warrior. She already sounds like a tough, strong, female character and from the blurb I’m assuming she will grow stronger after she starts helping the humans in Mithranar.
Our other main character is only named as Shadowhawk which reminds me so much of Bloodhawk in Kalanon’s Rising which I just talked about. I believe they will start a rebellion and will end up needing the help of Talyn to be sucessful. I also think Shadowhawk will fill the gap for Talyn after she’s lost her Callanan partner.
First impressions:
From the first 9% of the book we get so much world building. We learn mostly about two different kingdoms, a human kingdom ruled by the Dumnorix family and Mithranar which is ruled by winged folk. We find out that there’s Callanan who are an elite fighting faction, the Aimsir who are horselords (similar to the Rohirrim of LOTR), and the Kingshield who are elite guards for the royal Dumnorix family.
At the start we learn very little of Mithranar, but I assume that once Talyn has travelled and starts to settle into Dock City we will know much more about them. Our chapter with the Shadowhawk doesn’t show us much outside of the dock area – but we start to understand the politics of Mithranar being superior to humans.
Speaking of Shadowhawk, he is almost a Robin Hood like figure in Dock City. He helps organise large scale heists to steal from the Mithranar to then give to human rebels. I actually really like this dynamic and I’m excited to see how his operation adapts throughout the book.
Talyn is a Dumnorix princess (but multiple people removed from being an heir!) and is an amazing warrior. We get a lot of backstory about her as she’s been a Callanan warrior, she’s an Aimsir, and is now in the Kingshield. Plus she has a bit of hesitation due to the loss of her partner, which I think is so well written – we really understand her pain.
Because of this hesitation to fight, Talyn is sent to Mithranar to protect the Mithrananr Prince, Cuinn, as actually he’s part of the Dumnorix bloodline too. There’s definitely a mystery here and I’m excited to keep reading and find out how this as well as Talyn and the Shadowhawk develop into a story. So overall I’m super excited to read.
Blood of Heirs – Alicia Wanstall-Burke
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From the blurb I’m getting strong female character who has to show her worth as a leader. Lidan immediately jumps out as a character to look forward to, despite her (assumed) character arc being reminiscent of many other books.
Ranoth has magic which is frowned upon, but these powers will help the pair of them in the future to get what they want. Again very similar to other books – so I’m excited to see how this book changes up the formula.
First impressions:
So first up, the characters in this book are a lot younger than I expected. Lidan is 12 and Raneth is 15, which isn’t an issue but I’m wondering if this book will cover multiple years or if there will be a time skip at all.
Lidan is interesting because she’s currently the heir of her fathers kingdom out of all her sisters, and is thankful a younger brother hasn’t come along yet. She also wants to train as a ranger to show her people that she’s capable, but her parents won’t allow her too.
Lidan’s mother, Dana Sellan is a piece of work really – and is a cause of anxiety and fear for her. She also has auguries thrown to predict the future, and leans heavily on the local crone. Her relationship with Lidan has started to be explored a bit in the first 18% that I read, but I’m intrigued to see how much more this develops.
Sellan is also Daari Erlon’s first wife, and he leads his kingdom fairly but firmly and has a lot of loyalty. I enjoyed that we saw the different interactions within his court and with his different wives (in this land you can legally have 3 I think it said). But most of his character is built from Lidan’s thoughts but also how he interacts with others – so doesn’t really show his true motivations, or his relationship with Sellan properly.
Our other POV character is Ranoth who is 15 and has something to prove in battle. His father had given him command of the hill, but when the enemy defeats him, and then overruns the main camp closer to the city he’s sent home quickly to warn the kingdom. His chapters really drive home the point that war is brutal, and I liked that whilst our main character wanted to prove himself he was still scared and horrified.
I loved one particular scene in Ranoth’s chapters and this was about Lackmah, which is a house literally full of skeletons and ghosts. Ranoth has no idea what it is and so runs towards it naively, but his guard understands but won’t talk about it. It’s always super frustrating when you know a character knows something but won’t tell the narrator – but this is really the first sense of magic we get in the book so I was just so interested. I’m hoping that and other elements of the supernatural appear later in the book.
Our two characters are both heirs of their respective kingdoms, and I believe are pretty similar as people. They both have something to prove in order to rule, and I’m excited to see how they will interact with one another.
I like that each chapter has a location as it helps us build an idea of the world. Overall the world building is based a lot around the customs of each kingdom where both of them have a warrior viking vibe (although less boats!). Overall I’m pretty intrigued as to where the book is heading so would probably pick it up again.
Fortune’s Fool – Angela Boord
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I was hooked as soon as I saw that Kyrra has an arm made of metal and that she disguises herself as a man. This doesn’t feel like your average medieval time period fantasy novel, and I really do wonder what the world building will be like.
Mercenaries, spies and smugglers sound like good company to keep within the pages of a book. But there’s really not much info from the blurb that can help be guess what will happen with these kinds of people.
First impressions:
The book starts off by immediately mentioning the metal arm and kind of explains it. I really liked that Boord focused on what makes her character different so quickly, because it was what caught my attention in the blurb. Kyrra d’Aliente is the last of her line as the d’Aliente family was executed years ago. We’re not immediately told why, but I assume this backstory of Kyrra’s will be explored more and more as the book goes on.
Whilst I only got 8% of the way into this book, a lot happens and we’re told a lot of description and backstory. I especially liked the use of flashbacks to Kyrra’s childhood/teenage years as it started to develop the story that would lead to the execution I believe. We also see a lot of relationships form which I’m sure will be important later on. The flashback was a bit long though, so I don’t know how much it will use this.
There’s multiple families in power, with different factions in the city – where Kyrra must hide her identity and dresses as a man instead. This story really is a revenge plotline against these families, and I’m intrigued to see if Kyrra will go through with it and why.
What I do love so far is that on top of Kyrra there are multiple other strong female characters. They are mothers, sisters and friends, but stubborn, independent, strong willed and also just so caring too. I love that they are actually women whilst being strong.
Between these characters and the set up of the mystery around the families, I really am intrigued. So I’m most likely going to continue reading Fool’s Fortune at some point.
The Sword of Kaigen – M. L. Wang
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Before even knowing about SPFBO I had heard of The Sword of Kaigen and so I have high hopes for this book to be a great fantasy. What caught my attention from the blurb us that the Kaigenese aren’t just warriors but Superhumans that can raise the sea and wield blades of ice. I’m intrigued by the magic that could appear in the book.
For the plot, war is coming. In this land, peace has just been an illusion in The Sword of Kaigen (which is actually where they live and not a sword!). This means Matsuda and Misaki our main characters will need to adapt and change to the secrets coming out. The mother-son relationship is also something unique for a fantasy book so I’m looking forward to it.
First impressions:
So the first thing that caught my attention was that in this village it’s extremely traditional. School is traditional, there’s a patriarchy, wives don’t work, there’s limited tech etc – BUT video games are mentioned and so are a thing in this world. Immediately I realised the world building for this book is going to have a unique spin on things.
The world building is quite expansive as it explains Kaigen as well as the surrounding areas. I liked that a regional language and common language were explained, and it was shown in italics when it changed. This gave us an understanding that the new boy at school was different and an outsider in some ways.
The book alternates between Mamoru, who is in school and training to be a fighter and Misaki, his mother who’s a stay-at-home wife. I was expecting to prefer Mamoru’s chapters but Misaki really grew on me. I mostly adored that she had a true female friendship with her sister-in-law and her neighbour, and just loved how they supported one another whilst they didn’t always understand one another.
Whilst Misaki mostly stays at home and cares for the children, she is very headstrong. She was schooled outside of this village, she’s met people from multiple regions and is extremely clever. She understands that the government is often creating propaganda to control the people, and she doesn’t want herself or family to be caught up in it. Unfortunately that kind of talk can cause trouble, so she rarely voices her opinion – although I’m hoping she does later on in the book and raises her son right.
On the other side we had Mamoru, who still has a lot to learn as he’s still a child. He’s advanced in his powers (Kaigenese have ice powers) and strength, but he doesn’t seem to think things through which I can already see being an issue. He can also be a bit cocky and arrogant, which kind of puts me off him as a character. But I’m intrigued to see how the two of them interact as the book goes on.
The magic system of ice powers isn’t explained all that much, but we know that the Kaigen empire is known for it. We see Mamoru train with it, and think proactively about increasing his strengths with them. Misaki also has some skill with powers, although it’s not shown much at the start of the book.
As for the plotline… I’m not fully sure where it’s going still! I assume the propaganda is going to be unveiled as such to Mamoru at some point and he may act on that. But I’m not sure. I’m also unsure if this really captured my attention enough to continue reading. It was actually the winner of 2019’s competition but I was pulled in more by some of the other books, so I’m thinking it must get really good in the middle and ending.
So out of ten books I really haven’t made my TBR any smaller at all. 7 of them I for sure want to pick up again at a later date. 2 of them are a probably as well. Only 1 of the books, Kalanon’s Rising, really put me off reading the entire book – although it’s most likely because not a lot happened in the part I had read.
I’ll be reading the first hour of all the finalists for SPFBO 4/2018 next week too! If you’re interested into looking at more SPFBO books, including all of this years entrants I created a SPFBO master list with links to Goodreads, Waterstones and whether the books are on Kindle Unlimited.