The first phase of the sixth annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off is coming to an end, and over the last five months we’ve been doing a lot of reading at the Fantasy Inn. Unfortunately, only one book from our pile of thirty can progress to the next round, which means it’s time to wield the scythe.
The following 10 books will not be progressing to Phase 2. But that doesn’t mean that something here won’t strike a chord with the right reader, so be sure to check out our mini-reviews to see if anything catches your interest!
The Demonic Compendium by David Viergutz
Reviewer: Travis
Finished or DNF: DNF
Right off the bat there are several fun things that jumped out at me. A raised-from-the-dead warlock with a sassy demon trapped in the gems embedded in his arm? Very fun. A throne that needs retaking? Always a good time. However, this fell short in a couple of key ways.
The worldbuilding seems too simplistic—and while this may be improved later or due to a POV character’s limited knowledge, it was enough to throw me off. The map at the front of the book (which is quite pretty) shows places like Second City and Third City, located on the opposite side of the continent from The Far East. The kingdom appears to be called “the Kingdom”.
Then there was a scene in which a character’s job was to scrub a middle deck inside a giant ship to replace the salt water on the deck with fresh water. Because apparently salt water is bad and the ship had so much drinkable water on hand they could waste it on meaningless tasks.
The actual writing was fairly engaging, and I had no trouble flying through pages. But between the worldbuilding and some confusing scenes, I ended up not finishing this one.
Store links: Get a copy
The Renegade Within by Mark Johnson
Reviewer: Travis
Finished or DNF: DNF
There are a lot of interesting worldbuilding choices packed into this one. Unfortunately, the way they are presented make for some very confusing opening chapters. It took a while before I had an idea of which time period the story was set in. The series title “FireWall” and the Urban Fantasy-esque cover made me think it was more modern, but the story is categorized as epic fantasy and mentions a plate-armor-wearing order of Seekers within the first page or so. And then there’s talk of holograms.
The overall story itself seemed interesting, and there are some very cool elements like the land itself seeming to be the bodies of massive gods. If the writing were a little clearer and engaging, I think this could have been excellent. But as of the first 20% of the book, the cons out-weighed the pros for me.
Store links: Get a copy
The Forbidden by Lori Holmes
Reviewer: Travis
Finished or DNF: DNF
I’m admittedly not well read in romance, but for a book billed as a prehistoric fantasy romance there was little in the way of actual romance for the first part of the novel. There is plenty of the prehistoric, though, with a unique setting taking place 40,000 years ago and featuring humans beyond just Homo sapiens.
There was quite a bit of action early on which I thought was done well. These scenes were written in a highly visual style that emphasized the terror of fighting something inhuman. However, the emotional moments felt overdramatized. Characters frequently had emotional swings that occurred suddenly and didn’t make sense, making it difficult to empathize with the main character. Similarly, the villain seemed almost a caricature of evil, and placing readers inside his POV for extended periods of time felt uncomfortably like we were supposed to root for him.
Between the push from the villain and the lack of a pull toward the main character, I was unfortunately unable to finish this book. The story itself seemed promising and I suspect many readers will find something to enjoy.
Store links: Get a copy
The Moonflower by Kim May
Reviewer: Kopratic
Finished or DNF: Finished
My full review can be found here. Overall, I was disappointed. There were a couple of pretty great scenes, but the inconsistent pacing and questionable character descriptions really brought the book down for me.
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Silver Hollow by Jennifer Silverwood
Reviewer: Kopratic
Finished or DNF: DNF
To be honest, I do think this book had great characters, and I was also enjoying the writing. The friendships were done well, and the worldbuilding wasn’t too bad either. Unfortunately, what did this book in was the pacing. It never felt like it was going anywhere, yet it made me think it was about to go somewhere. For me it continued to read like a prologue or the beginning of a book, no matter how far in I read.
Recommended for: Those who like urban fantasy; strong female characters; a blend of modern with the past
Store links: Get a copy
Relentless by David Folker
Reviewer: Kopratic
Finished or DNF: DNF
I DNF’d this one for a multitude of factors. I personally didn’t find the characters to be that interesting, nor did the plot do anything for me. In my opinion, the MC just felt too over-the-top arrogant in a way that I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. He decides to follow a man hoping to rescue someone. While I liked the idea that it might be impossible and that they’d have to traverse through incredibly dangerous places, the actual execution fell flat for me.
The world-building felt sparse and incomplete. To me it felt like a set and not immersive. However, others may feel differently! Although I will say that the concept of a mysterious, deadly Wood was super interesting to me. This book has a really cool premise, and the prose itself is pretty promising. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t suited for me personally. That being said, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying it out. Like I said, it just wasn’t for me.
Recommended for: Those who like brooding and/or cunning protagonists; teamwork with a stranger; an air of mysterious danger
Store links: Get a copy
The Emerald Brotherhood by J. Anthony Oaks
Reviewer: HiuGregg
Finished or DNF: DNF at 20%
Going into this one I was expecting a fairly standard medieval-europe epic fantasy with a pre-assembled group of protagonists. And to be fair, that’s pretty much what this seemed to be.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t really “hooked” by anything in the first fifth. I never really got a sense for who any of the characters were as people, beyond the standard tropes. There didn’t really seem to be enough complexity for my tastes. The dialogue and the prose didn’t catch my attention or interest either, and so in the end, I didn’t find anything in The Emerald Brotherhood that made it stand out.
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Enlightened by Billie Kowalewski
Reviewer: HiuGregg
Finished or DNF: DNF at 20%
Out of all the books in my batch, this book had the premise I was interested in the most. A woman investigating her own reincarnations after they all appear to die too soon.
However, I found the beginning of this book to be quite confusing. It didn’t really flow, instead having a bit of an unfocused, stop-start feel. It never really got going in the portion that I read, and while I quite enjoy a slow-paced book, my interest was never really caught in the first 20%. This did strike me as a book that might have improved after its foundations had been laid, though, and so I’d still encourage anyone interested in the premise to check it out for themselves!
Store links: Get a copy
To Target the Heart by Aldrea Alien
Reviewer: HiuGregg
Finished or DNF: DNF at 20%
I was excited to read To Target the Heart as on the surface it seemed like it could stand out from the rest just by virtue of its subgenre — M/M fantasy romance. (I was also really amused by how much one of the characters on the cover looks like Jack Rackham from Black Sails.) However, on reflection, I don’t think Aldrea Alien could have been any unluckier with her group allocation.
See, although this is a secondary world novel, it is nonetheless a Scottish Highland fantasy romance. With added Scottish-accented dialogue. And a main character called “Hamish”. That has landed at the feet of a Scottish judge.
Now, don’t get me wrong, this book handles the written accent a lot better than some other books I’ve read. For a native reader, I spotted only a few (though consistent) errors on that front. However, the application was heavy enough that the dialogue felt like a chore to read. Which is a problem considering the length of this book — I may have only read to the 20% mark, but that was over 200 pages according to my Kindle. And in the end, that’s partly why I decided to drop this one. I just didn’t feel like I could push through the remaining 80% with enough sense of enjoyment.
With all that being said, though, the writing in To Target the Heart was in my opinion among the cleanest and most polished of my initial batch. For fantasy fans who also enjoy highland romances, this might scratch an itch. It’s steamy, it has a lot of pining, and it plays with the disapproving parents trope. It wasn’t for me, but it definitely has its audience.
Store links: Get a copy
Augury Answered by Phillip Murrell
Reviewer: HiuGregg
Finished or DNF: DNF at 20%
Augury Answered runs with the idea that there is a prophesied chosen one. There is Princess Murid, whose family is slaughtered by the Corlain empire early in the book. Then there is Two Dogs of the Lacreechee tribe, who is described as an uncommonly attractive “prime specimen of a man”. His tribe is also slaughtered by the Corlains. The prophecy states that a survivor of a massacre will defeat an army from foreign lands. Which is of course ambiguous enough to mean that either Murid or Two Dogs could be the chosen one.
This felt like a pretty standard epic fantasy, with two protagonists sharing a common enemy. There’s a fair amount of opaque exposition in the beginning chapters, though the battle scenes were quite exciting and featured some magic — especially from Two Dog’s perspective. Again, though, there wasn’t a lot in these opening chapters that really engaged me. Nothing really stood out to promise that this novel would be any different from any other, and I wasn’t too big a fan of the writing style. However, I wouldn’t say I came across anything objectively “bad”, so I would encourage readers to pick this up should they like the premise!
Store links: Get a copy
Commiserations to anyone bowing out of the competition at this point! We should have another of these cut posts dropping next week, and after that it’s on to discussing our semi-finalists!
Check back for more updates, or check out our SPFBO6 Hub page to check our standings at a glance.
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