You can read a little bit about SPFBO 11, our judging blog process and our team here. But to summarise we have divided the process of picking our finalist from our batch of thirty books into two phases.

In Phase 1a the team have been working through the first 10% or so of our batch of 30 books, RAG (Red-Amber-Green) rating each book according to how much the opening drew us in to wanting to read on.

The most enticing six books will go forward into Phase 1b where we will give each book a full read, a full Fantasy Hive review and the chance of being our chosen SPFBO 11 Finalist.

The scores for Phase 1a are all in and we are ready to reveal our third set of eliminations and our third semi-finalist.

We know it’s a disappointing time for those authors whose books are cut, but reading is very much a subjective process and different readers will have different likes. Our judges may have found a semi-finalist that engaged their interest more than the four books whose SPFBO 11 journey ends here. However, there may be other readers out there who like the glimpse we are sharing of the eliminated books and might be tempted to pick them up and read on – and please do!

Eliminations

Apex Division – by Megan Jones

There are remarkably few urban fantasy stories in our batch, and the concept of taking animal shape-shifters and forming them into an elite fighting team for some unnamed military is certainly an exciting one. Unfortunately, the story is let down by the quality of the prose. While I enjoy romance, the description of every single character in terms of how attractive they are to the narrator slows progress to a crawl and drowns out any character development or plot. – G.D.Penman

The Empire’s Bladesmen: Forbidden Relics by Clay Vagrant

I really liked the setting of the book and in a way, it indicates that the author has done their research well enough especially when it seems to be based on an Asian-inspired setting. There is also the other side of the book that has a Mummy-vibe going for it and that basically piqued a lot of my interest in this. There is a good sense of pace and solid action beats. The lead character did come across as a plain competent vanilla lead but there are hints seeded in the story adding some edge and nuance on who he really is and what his past might be. The descriptions of the place also seemed rather organic infusing a lived-in feel to the setting. All of this lead down an interesting path and I would have loved to continue with the book but an area which slowed things down was in the conversations. Some of the dialogs needed polish and refinement which I hoped would get better. Others in the team also struggled with the characterization as well as with some of the exposition. – Vinay

The Lost Pendant of Pania by Darian Smith

A short tense and fantastical prologue leads into a ‘new girl in the school’ opening chapter. There’s an interesting ‘mean girls’ meets ‘fantasy’ angle here allied with the Maori/New Zealand setting which felt new and there was some interesting mythology coming into play. In places the story flow could have been smoother – for example where the teacher delivers a chunk of exposition that links the mythic prologue to the present time of the story and its school setting. It’s an engaging opening with some elements of conflict, but the setting and the premise didn’t grab as quickly or as strongly as others did. – Theo

This week’s Honourable mention

Poisoned Past by Michael Widebrook

This is an original dystopia with very realistic characters, that builds atmosphere well and conveys information smoothly within the story. I found myself caught up quickly and keen to see where the action goes. There was some exposition-dumping with regard to the history, and the amount of ‘fantasy’ names had me a bit confused. The world-building could be genuinely great if tightened up. Promising! – Cat

And Our Third Semi-finalist

Shadows Dark and Deadly

by Andrea Marie Johnson

The prose is good and I like the magic system –  the protagonist has a cool special ability which is balanced by nice limits on its use. The world of disadvantage, exploitation and prejudice is nicely drawn. It has a sharp opening – always good to get a body in on the first page – and the whole dangerously cold environment adds a nice bit of peril. I don’t mind Romantasy – but I am a bit worried about how frequently the protagonist mentions that she and the likely love interest had sex ‘just the once’ four years ago. The pace and sense of conflict have dropped a little at the 10% point but will hopefully pick up again soon. The protagonist recruited as an assassin by a potential mentor makes for a reasonable story arc, but I am hoping to see more done with it. – Theo

While it took me a little while to fall into the rhythm of the narration, once I had, I was entirely hooked. The pseudo-Victorian setting is just different enough from your run of the mill romantasy to give this story a little more worldbuilding depth, the concept of burning calories to empower magic is mildly ingenious and… look I just want the main characters to kiss. Okay? – G. D. Penman 

This was a book that definitely started off extremely promisingly and felt rather grounded, gritty and desperate in a way that appeals to me. The setting in a Victorian-era with a combination of manners, class, etiquette and magic was pretty intriguing. The lead character felt all edges and sharp and not above bargaining for what she wants – which is always fantastic to read. I do have a concern towards the cut-off point where the book seemed to be heading into Romantasy territory jettisoning some of the early momentum. I am not necessarily against Romantasy but too much of it, especially when remarking on the number of times the leads have sex has definitely gotten me a bit worried. I am continuing this hoping that the early story momentum is captured again – Vinay

I was immediately charmed by the prose of this book, with the Fantasy-Victorian vibe being unusual and interesting. Dark tones from the first are also good, with a strong sense of the ‘real’ – this isn’t a fluffy magical world, but one that is hard and requires fighting to get on in (almost Dickensian in style). The protagonist has few options but is doing her best pragmatically, and the magic, history and geography of the world is conveyed gently as we need to know it, without any info-dumping. Well-written and enticing. – Cat

So congratulations to Shadows Dark and Deadly and commiserations to Apex Division, The Empire’s Bladesmen, The Lost Pendant of Pania and Poisoned Past.

We’ll be back next Wednesday with a third set of eliminations and our fourth semi-finalist announcement – see you all then  – Theo