* Disclaimer *
Everyone is different and likes and dislikes different things. Reading is no exception. One person’s all-time favorite might seem too bland or too high stakes for another. That being said, the opinions of our judges in this contest are just that, opinions. Just because we let a book go, doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It could be your next favorite, who knows?
However, since this is a contest, there can be only one winner. Hence it is necessary to work our way down to our favorite from our batch of thirty titles. We will be letting books go five at a time, until we reach our semi-final list for Round One. These groups of five are being let go in no particular order. So, the books we say goodbye to today are not worse than books we let go in the next batch. They are just the first ones we read that didn’t quite click with us as a group.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can learn more about the contest here.
Today we say goodbye to our fourth group of books from Round One of SPFBO#8. In this group of five are some intriguing concepts, good writing, and interesting characters. Unfortunately, for different reasons, they didn’t stack up against the rest of the competition.
Here are our Fourth Five to Fall.
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The Darkness Calling by Kaleigh McCann
There are few things more dangerous or more destructive than a bad man who thinks he is doing a good thing.
The Isles of Jara are burning. An unseasonable drought is slowly killing the land, choking it in a patient and merciless fist of rising fire and dust.
On the prosperous Northern Isle, King Taavi Fulbright, senile and raving, edges closer to death while his Viceroy, the flint-hearted Cullen Fitzgerald, continues with his plans for subjugating the South and crushing the contemptible, stinking peasants who farm it under his heel.
Deep in the brutal highlands of the Southern Isle, an outfit of desperadoes, bandits and cattle-thieves, led by the infamous Gray siblings, make a living from waylaying the Crown’s cattle drovers and stealing their stock. Vali Gray, head of this crew, is looking forward to completing one last score before he leaves the road-life for good and settles down to fatherhood. Vali cares little for the fate of the many, being concerned only with the lives of those closest to him; his sister and brother, Ylva and Gunnar, his lifelong love, Erika, and their unborn child.
That is until the captivatingly psychotic Raibert MacBain comes strolling back into their lives after a decade-long absence. MacBain is a monster and, like all good monsters, is a monster of Vali’s own creation. Once a polite and conscientious young nobleman, MacBain is the bastard son of Viceroy Fitzgerald and has been twisted by a love unrequited, the scorn of those he wished only to help, and the revulsion of a father who only ever saw him as a disappointment.
MacBain is hunting for one who is rumoured to be endowed with powers long believed to be lost to legend. They are the powers of the Empathy, an elemental magic that could bring the Isles of Jara back from the brink of the fire––or cast it into the flames.
Now, Vali and his band find themselves inexorably drawn into a choking world of revisited childhood sins that have sown the seeds from which fiends grow, soul-ripping jealousies, false prophesies, and blood-soaked feuds that promise little in the way of relief for any of them.
Vali Gray must face a trifecta of hard questions and an even tougher choice; is the saving of his world, the keeping of a final promise, and the defeating of a monster he helped mould worth becoming a monster himself for?
The answering of these questions will take the Grays and their crew of outlaw riders on a bloody journey, a journey that will reveal how the human heart is a torment and a masterpiece.
The Darkness Calling contains both blood family and found family, and the judges loved following the group of siblings and their interactions, rather than the standard romantic relationships found in most stories. (There is romance too, but the family part was our favorite.) It was also interesting to see the dynamics between the two main characters. They are bitter enemies, but as one judge put it, they are also “cut from the same sort of wood”.
The book is dark and brutal, but doesn’t quite fall into grimdark territory. And while our judges liked some of the characters, others felt a bit flat and tended towards the tropey side of things. The judges were split on the ending, but agreed the book was an interesting read. Overall though, not interesting enough to continue on in the contest.
The Heart of the Bloodstone by Philinna Wood
Avalan is a hunter in a cage.
In the village of Hydrus, a vastness secluded from the Stone Lands, Avalan was born. He swam its warm waters, hunted through its blackwood forest, played the goat games on its white shore.
Now, he watches the chief erect a mighty palisade to keep his tribe contained, forbid the magic of the birthstones, exile his childhood friend, and punish the tribe of Hydrus for daring to love, hope, dream. As the chief’s madness grows, so does Avalan’s longing to lead the tribe to freedom.
But Avalan’s dagger is no match for the chief’s powerful stone magic. Much as Avalan hates the stones for being the chief’s weapon, he realizes there’s only one path to freeing his tribe: find what was denied to him, the missing piece of his soul.
Our judges were unanimous in our love for the gorgeous cover on The Heart of the Bloodstone and went in with high expectations! The beginning was really promising, but our judges found the pace didn’t keep up the way we hoped it would. The prose is heavy on description and detail and the plot meanders more than we liked. And while the animal familiars were great, the characters were a bit flat.
Overall, this story felt a little too in-depth for us and we had to let it go. However, if you are epic fantasy lover, you should definitely give this one a try!
Master of the Flying Broom by Joseph J. Bailey
Kensaro Hatanu’s soul was born the day his master handed him his first sword.
Except Kensaro’s master did not hand him a sword to walk the path of the otana hanji, the sword saints of legend. His teacher handed Kensaro a broom. A broom to clean the monastery.
While the other martial ascetics of Guai Lu practiced their physical and spiritual disciplines, Kensaro swept, mopped, and dusted, imagining he was slaying monsters, saving villagers, and meting out justice.
Until the demons came and his broom was called to action.
Master of the Flying Broom is described by its author as “wuxia inspired noblebright” and it fits that description to a T. Our judges were thrilled to read a story on the lighter side of things with a main character that is just an overall good person. And while at first the light atmosphere and positive attitude of the main character kept us reading, the pace slowed down a bit too much to keep us interested.
If you like noblebright or cozy fantasy, or are just tried of grimdark, we would suggest you pick this one up! But for our judges its bright story didn’t quite outshine the other books in our group, and we had to let it go.
Raven: Reawakening by Mitchell Hogan
A woman transformed by the blood of demons.
Deadly beyond reckoning.
Raven was once a member of the Grim Hand, a group of demonically altered assassins—until she staged her own death and began a new life free from brutality and murder.
But some secrets refuse to stay buried, and the past is reluctant to loosen its grip on those who hide from it.
When faceless assassins strike, Raven must return to a world of intrigue and violence, if only to save herself. Alone, trapped, and fighting a vengeful enemy that easily outmatches even Raven’s demon-hybrid abilities, she is forced to seek help from the man she once loved.
A man with a revelation that will shake Raven to the core and change her world forever.
Raven: Reawakening is probably the exact opposite of Master of the Flying Broom: the grimmest of grimdark, like the fantasy version of a Tarantino movie. And while our judges do not have weak stomachs, and have enjoyed books by the author before, Raven did not quite live up to our expectations. While we enjoyed the main character, there was not enough meat in the story to really sink our teeth into.
If you love stories of demons and bloody fights, you might enjoy this as well, but for us it didn’t hold up to the other books in our group.
The Scorpion’s Lullaby by Juliet Vane
The Scorpion Raiders have three rules: Be ruthless. Be rich. Live like gods.
Joella’s band of thieves lives deep in the jungle. Riding on giant scorpion dragons, they search the beautiful landscape for villages and caravans to rob.
When insidious forces interrupt a routine raid, Joella becomes separated from her people. She’s alone except for a stolen book of legends and Marc, a pacifist dedicated to preserving the ways of the old goddess.
Searching for their tribes, Joella and Marc brave violent beasts, deceitful clans, the sweltering days, and freezing nights of their beloved jungle. They must trust each other to right the wrongs of the past and save themselves, or risk the very landscape they hold so dear.
Our judges loved both the jungle setting of The Scorpion’s Lullaby and the titular scorpions themselves. It was refreshing to read a story set away from the typical European fantasy settings, and it’s always fun to run across a creature that we rarely see in fantasy.
The issues our judges had with the book leaned not towards the creatures or even the characters, but their interactions with each other, especially the romance bits. The relationships between the main character and the men around her didn’t hit the way we thought they should. And while we enjoyed the giant beasties who are both friends, protectors, and familiars to the main characters, they were not enough to keep this book on our list.
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We would like to thank all the authors for letting us read their work! We congratulate you on having the courage to enter the contest and wish you all much success in the future!
Our judges this year are Julia Kitvaria Sarene, Kartik Narayanan, Kerry Smith, Max Freeman, and Jennie Ivins (me). If you’d like to learn more about us, including our likes and dislikes, you can read about them here.
Any queries should be directed at me, Jennie Ivins, via DM (Facebook/Twitter).
Title image by Katja Heigl.
JC Kang