My judging team in the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4) has been given 32 books to whittle down to just two semifinalists. Over the past three months, each of these 32 books have been evaluated by a minimum of two of our judges, and we have narrowed the field down to four books that will be sent to the remainder of the team for complete reads by our full complement of judges. We’ll spend the next two months reading these four and will determine in March which books will advance to the semifinals. But in the interim, let’s take a look at our four quarterfinalists, all of which come with a recommendation from at least one of our judges:

Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Status: QUARTERFINALIST.

Consensus: A lighthearted time travel tale with whimsy for days, this one had a smooth writing style and pleasing tone that kept our readers smiling even despite a couple plot complaints and shallow secondary characters.

A Swift and Sudden Exit by Nico Vincenty

Status: QUARTERFINALIST.

Consensus: This queer time travel romance spends a lot of energy building up the main couple, earning praise from both readers for the romantic element and for its ability to feel so much shorter than its 400 pages. Our readers did feel that the time travel plot got short shrift but enjoyed the romance enough to send it forward anyways.

The Thief by G.S. Jennsen

Status: Withdrawn from the competition by the author

Consensus: This aspires to be an accessible, functionally standalone space opera set within the author’s broader universe, and our readers found that it generally succeeds in those aims. Our readers were split on the romantic subplot, but with a compelling world, interesting characters, and strong pacing, it earned one of the strongest positive impressions in the whole scouting phase.

 

 

Note: a fourth quarterfinalist was removed for violations of the SPSFC Code of Conduct.