And today we come to the end of Round One in the 7th Annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO) with our pick for the winner of the semi-finals!
Congratulations to Kerstin Espinosa Rosero and Burn Red Skies!
This book will go on to the finalist and compete against nine other books to be the winner of this year’s SPFBO! We wish the author the best of luck and can’t wait to see what the other blogs have picked out for the competition!
You can see the list of finalists and their scores here. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can learn more about the contest here.
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Burn Red Skies by Kerstin Espinosa Rosero
It starts with a rift that burns a thousand scars into the sky.
It makes the winds stop.
It makes the stars go dark.
It awakens an ancient beast.
And with it, a new reign of blood.
It is the Summoning.
And at the heart of it is fire.
When the Summoner’s army blazes through her village, Dove is forced into hiding. Torn from everything she knows, she begins training in the elements with only one goal in mind: to find her brother. She just needs to get past the Summoner’s army—but how can she slay a dragon that is already dead?
Below are some selected thoughts from our judges on Burn Red Skies.
Jennie Ivins
Another awesome book with a disabled main character. This time her name is Dove and she is mute. But she also has fire magic, and while she has weakness due to her disability that others try to exploit, she is not herself weak or broken, just different.
The magic, worldbuilding, and politics of the story, while different from your normal fantasy fare, were easy to follow and made reading about the machinations of the world extremely interesting. And, it has dragons. What more could you ask for in a book!
Julia Kitvaria Sarene
I loved the worldbuilding, especially the airship and crew, and how real they felt. I instantly clicked with the characters, and was intrigued by the plot and mysteries (airship smuggling again!) right from the first chapter.
Kerry Smith
I loved the elemental magic—opposing forces of fire and ice. The worldbuilding is excellent, with well fleshed out characters. And I love the dragons and airships. The highlight for me was the growth of the mute girl Dove, from being a scared user of fire magic to finally a powerful force in and of herself.
Lynn K.
Thoroughly gripping from the beginning. Well done prose and well developed characters that result in a great emotional hook. The worldbuilding is excellent and the features of elemental powers combine beautifully with airship smugglers, military power, and court depravity. The story world grows beautifully through the characterizations.
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Congratulations again to Kerstin Espinosa Rosero! We highly encourage you all to check it out and we can’t wait to see how Burn Red Skies does in the finals!
Our judges this year are A. A. Freeman, Julia Kitvaria Sarene, Kartik Narayanan, Kerry Smith, Lynn K., 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 PublicDomainPictures.
Julia Kitvaria Sarene