Posted by Hey there, guys, it’s time to announce our finalist!
First, I want to give a brief shout-out to all the books that made it here! These are in order of the original list on Mark’s website. I also just want to say this was my best year of reading that I’ve had since becoming a judge. I swear the quality was off the charts this year with a huge portion of my books being 8/10 or higher, which made picking a finalist just stupidly difficult.
Those We See in the Dark by Robin Rakkeby
This was one of Kristen’s semifinalists! If it weren’t for the contest, this may have been one I passed over, but that’s why Kristen and I make such a good duo. This was a romance, but there was enough going on outside of the romance to keep me, a non-romance reader, engaged and interested in the outcome. This one has assassins, royalty, and an ancient evil returning to threaten the entire world. There’s expansive world-building, and clever plot twists that kept me reading! I must say this probably also has the “prettiest” prose of the batch of semifinalists.
Dogged by Michael Fletcher
This is a mix of cozy and grimdark in a way I didn’t think was possible, but I immediately needed more of this weird little niche genre that I had previously not known about. A mystery needs to be solved, and potentially the world’s most poorly equipped minion was chosen to solve the case. Why did the portal snap shut as the war dogs were going through it? This catastrophe left her mate dead, and she’s left to find out why. Even though she’s self-professed as not the smartest dog in the pack, there is one thing she has in her favor, and that’s her dogged determination. I loved this story, the character, and the ending! It’s a complete story that doesn’t leave you hanging, which is so nice in a field full of epics that you need to read thousands of pages to get to the ending.
The Stonebound Heir by LA Barnitz
This was the longest book in our batch, and I must say it has an eye-catching cover. This was one of Kristen’s semifinalists, and it’s about two foster kids/orphans who end up growing up fast when their caretaker was killed. There are a lot of interesting elements in this book. Saatkulom isn’t a real place, but it certainly feels influenced by India and its mythos/culture. After digging a little I found out the author actually lived in India for a little while, which was probably a big influence. I was a little nervous going into this book because I don’t usually love coming-of-age stories, and younger characters can rub me wrong if they’re super impulsive and full of angsty angsty feelings. However, although they were a little naive and inexperienced, these characters didn’t feel like annoying caricatures of teenagers. This book had a deep world building experience with prose that very much so sucked me into the story.
Dreams of the Fallen by AS Colworth
I really enjoyed the characters in this one – I tend to prefer 2-4 points of view so I don’t get bored, but if the characters don’t feel unique enough, if their voices all sound the same, that can be a muddy mess. The three characters we get here were great, and all felt very different. I knew immediately whose chapter I was in based on the vibes of the inner voice. Cassius was probably my favorite, as his inner vibes were “I’m already over this conversation.” I tend to like the grumpier, more matter-of-fact personality types. This book took a few familiar tropes and turned them around enough to make them feel novel again. I enjoyed my time with this one!
The Loss of the Star’s Tranquility by Tobias Begley & Travis M. Riddle
I’ve read many Travis Riddle books before, and I’ve enjoyed them all. This book was no exception! What an incredibly large set of characters, I honestly lost track of them all. This book is about a bunch of rich folks who have their flying resort crash land in the middle of the jungle, and now they all have to survive. This has major Lord of the Flies mixed with fantasy vibes. I never really knew where this was going or how it was going to turn out, and I had a ton of fun with it!
In my Time of Dying by Sherrie A Bakelar
I really loved this book. Give me more dying old ladies out for one last quest, please. What a strange and awesome take on a reluctant hero trope. Ebony’s sister dies, but she didn’t die at rest; she died with unfinished business, and she made it Ebony’s problem via haunting. Her ghost-sister nags her into finishing her quest before she dies, so she sets off on this horse she didn’t know existed to go find this guy in the woods her sister wants her to save, and she’s just hoping this chosen one who needs help actually exists, and she isn’t hallucinating all of this due to her known terminal illness. I was so down for everything in this book, lol.
OKAY SO WHO DID WE CHOOSE?!
Well, some people may have thought with the review and score that I threw down for Dogged that it was all set and done, and that we had our finalist. However, bear in mind that Kristen has bounced off military fantasy/darker fantasy before. Some examples from the past: I really loved The Aching God by Mike Shel, but Kristen sort of bounced, and we gave a middling score. I really loved Phil Williams’ book, However Many Must Die, but Kristen bounced, and so we sent forward Runelight instead. Likewise, Kristen has really loved some romances that I just didn’t get into quite as much, and so we ended up sending forward something else. We both have to really like a book for it to land as our finalist.
This year, Kristen picked some romances, but I have loved romances in the past, so it’s definitely possible for me to throw down high scores for the right kind of romance. Kristen really loves steampunk — so did The Loss of the Star’s Tranquility win her over? Did I get won over by a coming-of-age story? Did we both vibe hard with the old lady going on her last quest, as we are both heading into our middle-aged years? Did a book that reads similar to Michael J Sullivan strike a chord? Or, did Kristen go against the grain of her taste and throw down a high score for a grim dark military book?
So, let’s find out!!!!
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IT’S DOGGED YALL!!!!
We both loved this book! I can’t say enough good things about it! I looooveed the main character. I love anything ‘different’, and I love any character that is convincingly not-human, and this delivered so hard. I love the style and the tone of the prose, which was both dark and also uplifting in the weirdest way. I loved the world. I loved how the character explored the world in a very scent-oriented kind of way because she’s a fucking dog. I loved the plot. I loved solving the mystery with her. I loved all of it. It’s the highest score I’ve ever given one of my own finalists, and it’s the highest score we have ever sent forward as a team as well.