SPFBO 10 FINALIST ANNOUNCMENT

It is time!

We have had many worthy books put forward and I really enjoyed my time with them this year. That said, only one can go on to be in the finals. It’s a bitch each and every year doing this. I don’t like cutting books in general, but when it gets time to cut down semifinalists the decisions get really difficult. Without fail each year we get a handful that stand out to us more than the rest and become our semifinalists… and then trying to choose just one of those can get intense.

These are our semifinalists this year, and the titles are links to the full reviews and where to buy them.

• The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar by Dave Dobson
  This author was a finalist and then won our sister science fiction competition. He has a wonderfully polished way of delivering lines while also having a more serious undercurrent to keep things from floating away into absurdness which I find essential to a comedy that lasts with the reader. I loved how I became increasingly invested in these characters and by the end there were some reveals that landed pretty well.
• However Many Must Die by Phil Williams
  This book will be for people who want to read about a whole cast of grey, a whole cast of broken and hurting people trying to survive one atrocity after another. It’s not a happy book, but it’s a well written and impactful book. Based on the events of WW1 this follows an all-female band of soldiers navigating a new and developing front line with the innovation of machine guns and gas bombs.
• Liberation by RM Krogman
  This will be for people who want long sprawling epic fantasy/sword and sorcery type books. There’s multiple characters, they are all thoroughly explored, and they all have a unique voice. I found this book compelling the whole way through despite it being over 700 pages.
• The Autumn Apprentice by Alexandra Runes
  This is a slow burn romance with a disabled main character. The depth to which the disabilities were explored was impressive and gave for a very different reading experience. This is a small, personal stakes kind of story with great writing.
• Runelight by JA Andrews
  This is another huge chonker that will appeal to people who like classic epic fantasy. Elves, dwarves, humans, magic, all the elements that we think of as the cornerstones of the genre. I think fans of Michael J Sullivan could take very well to this series as there’s a lot of similar elements in that these are nostalgic stories (elves, dwarves etc.) retold in a fresh way.

Typically, the Weatherwax Team is known for short, compact stories with lower stakes. Sometimes we nominate whodunnits, sometimes it’s a story about memories, sometimes it’s a romantasy — but generally we are known for personal stories told in a concise way.

This year we have two semifinalists over 700 pages. So, I suppose it’s not a normal year, and why not break some norms on the 10th anniversary of the competition?

This year we’re choosing ……

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Runelight by JA Andrews!!!!!!

CONGRATS!!

We commiserate very much with the books we’re cutting. So much so against our norms we are also nominating a senlin net book, However Many Must Die by Phil Williams. What this means is if another group wants to take However Many Must Die as their finalist they are free to do so. I genuinely believe this book could do well in the finals but we can’t choose two.