This year, The Fantasy Inn is taking part in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO), hosted by Mark Lawrence. The Inn has long been a supporter of the self-published fantasy scene, and we’re thrilled to be able to take part in the competition this year! If you haven’t already, feel free to check out our intro post.
This page will act as a hub for all SPFBO-related content on the Inn. At a glance, you should be able to look at this page and see our most recent SPFBO reviews, which books have been eliminated, and which have still to be read.
Stage 1 Books, by Judges
The books for each individual judge are listed in the below tables. Goodreads links have been included for each book, and reviews have been included for each book that has received one at this stage. Books will be marked as either ‘read’, ‘unread’, or ‘eliminated’ based on their status in the competition at this stage. Note that a ‘read’ status can also include those books which have been DNF’d, but not yet formally eliminated.
| Judge | Book | Author | Status | Review |
| Hiu | To Target the Heart | Aldrea Alien | Eliminated | Link |
| Augury Answered | Phillip Murrell | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Emerald Brotherhood | J. Anthony Oaks | Eliminated | Link | |
| Atonement Heaven Sent Book One | JL Rothstein | Eliminated | Link | |
| Legacy of Bones | Kirk Dougal | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Nothing Mage | J.P. Valentine | Eliminated | Link | |
| Enlightened | Billie Kowalewski | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Void Revealed | Stephen J. Ethier | Eliminated | Link |
| Judge | Book | Author | Status | Review |
| Kopratic | The Moonflower | Kim May | Eliminated | Link |
| War of the God Queen | David Hambling | Eliminated | Link | |
| Silver Hollow (Borderlands Saga #1) | Jennifer Silverwood | Eliminated | Link | |
| Death of the Tree Path | Timothy S Currey | Eliminated | Link | |
| Relentless | David Folker | Eliminated | Link | |
| Nether Light | Shaun Paul Stevens | Semi-Finalist Finalist | Link | |
| Of Shadows and Blood | J.T. Williams | Eliminated | Link |
| Judge | Book | Author | Status | Review |
| Travis | RADIO | J. Rushing | Semi-Finalist | Link |
| The Demonic Compendium | David Viergutz | Eliminated | Link | |
| A Dream of Fire | J.R. Rasmussen | Semi-Finalist | Link | |
| The Broken Man | Brandon Jones | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Forbidden | Lori Holmes | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Last Benediction in Steel | Kevin Wright | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Renegade Within | Mark Johnson | Eliminated | Link |
| Judge | Book | Author | Status | Review |
| Tam | The Demon in the Metal | Blake Michael Nelson | Eliminated | Link |
| The Swordsman’s Lament | G.M. White | Eliminated | Link | |
| Midnight Monster Club | Gerhard Gehrke | Eliminated | Link | |
| Fighter Fred and the Dungeon of Doom | Jason A. Holt | Eliminated | Link | |
| The Five Trials | Mike Truk | Eliminated | N/A | |
| The Forbidden Warriors | Moud Adel | Eliminated | Link | |
| Ashes | Paul J Bennett | Eliminated | Link | |
| Patch and Max: a grimdark | Richard Switzer | Eliminated | N/A |
As a reminder, below is the process we plan to follow for judging SPFBO6, which may change slightly as we learn along the way and figure out how we can improve.
- Our 30 books are split evenly between us, with everyone assigned 7 or 8 books. We did a snake draft to pick our favorites, which was great fun and involved all the swearing.
- Each judge will try every book assigned to them. We aren’t setting a minimum requirement but we will be giving every book a fair chance and finishing those we really enjoy.
- Books that have promise but end up not being a good fit for that particular judge will be offered to another judge.
- Some books will get full reviews. Others will receive feedback in a group review with several other books.
- Each judge will select a semifinalist from their group, for a total of 4 semi-finalists from the Fantasy Inn. Each semifinalist will get a joint review from all judges, and be featured as a guest on the Fantasy Inn podcast if they are interested.
I’ve been Read! But no review yet….the tension is unbearable. And the reviewer really liked a previous read, so what are my chances. of getting through…?