After whittling our initial 30-book allotment down to three, my SPSFC team has received six more semifinalists from other judging teams. Our scores of these six new books, along with our original three semifinalists, will combine with with 81 other scores (nine each from nine teams) to determine the SPSFC finalists. Each of the six… Continue reading SPSFC Semifinalist Review: In the Orbit of Sirens by T.A. Bruno
After whittling our initial 30-book allotment down to three, my SPSFC team has received six more semifinalists from other judging teams. Our scores of these six new books, along with our original three semifinalists, will combine with with 81 other scores (nine each from nine teams) to determine the SPSFC finalists. Each of the six… Continue reading SPSFC Semifinalist Review: Of Cinder and Bone by Kyoko M.
At long last, I’ve come to my last book of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) Semifinals. In front of me is Age of Order by Julian North, a young adult dystopian novel that sliced through any hint of subgenre fatigue to garner one of the top positions from its first round judges. Age of… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Age of Order by Julian North
Six Semifinalists from the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) were passed to me from first round judges who had rated them among the top three of initial 30-book allotments. My fifth book of those six was Simon Kewin’s Dead Star, which promised an interstellar journey to track down the mysterious history that led to the… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Dead Star by Simon Kewin
Judging for the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) has matched me with a few books outside my wheelhouse, but T. A. Bruno’s debut In the Orbit of Sirens promised to be an exception. A novel featuring high-stakes exploration with a first contact storyline that didn’t just devolve into reflexive war is exactly the sort of… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: In the Orbit of Sirens by T.A. Bruno
Dog Country came into the Semifinals of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) with the highest first-round score of any book in the competition. Though it promised quite a bit more war than I usually prefer in my fiction, the focus on psychological trauma and the glowing first round reviews had me especially excited to… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Dog Country by Malcolm F. Cross
My Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC) team has advanced three books to the semifinals, and in exchange, we’ve received six semifinalists from two other judging teams. Among those six—and rated extremely highly by its first round judges—was Of Cinder and Bone by Kyoko M. Of Cinder and Bone follows Jack and Kamala, a pair of… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Of Cinder and Bone by Kyoko M.
In the first round of the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC), my team sampled 30 works of self-published sci-fi before settling on three favorites to advance to the Semifinal round. Now, we receive the three favorites of two of the ten other judging teams, as we continue whittling down the 300 entries to a group… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Zero Day Threat by R.M. Olson
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. One Arm Shorter Than The Other was released April 5, 2022. Gigi Ganguly’s indie debut novella One Arm Shorter Than The Other may be the most off-the-beaten-track book I’ve read in years—at least… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Novella Review: One Arm Shorter Than The Other by Gigi Ganguly
If you spend a lot of time among heavy readers of self-published fantasy, it’s hard not to have heard of The Thirteenth Hour, Trudie Skies’ tale of a conspiracy that threatens the established order of a steampunk world of twelve races living in a tenuous peace. My SPSFC judging has shifted by indie reading heavily… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
