Below is a round up of the ten finalists that have been put forward in this year’s SPFBO (Self Published Fantasy Blog Off).  A link with more information about the competition can be found here.

Today’s post is to highlight my randomly chosen eighth book for the SPFBO.  The books I’ve read so far are:  The War of Undoing by Alex Perry, Chaos Trims my Beard by Brett Herman,  Pilgrimage to Skara by Jonathan S Pembroke, Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe, Tiger Lily by K BIrd Lincoln,  Devil’s Night Dawning (Broken Stone Chronicle #1) by Damien Black ad The Way Into Chaos by Harry Connolly (review to follow shortly.  My eighth book is The Crimson Queen by Alec Hutson – a book put forward by The Fantasy Book Critic.

A little bit more about the book:

The Crimson Queen (The Raveling #1) by Alec Hutson

Long ago the world fell into twilight, when the great empires of old consumed each other in sorcerous cataclysms. In the south the Star Towers fell, swallowed by the sea, while the black glaciers descended upon the northern holdfasts, entombing the cities of Min-Ceruth in ice and sorcery. Then from the ancient empire of Menekar the paladins of Ama came, putting every surviving sorcerer to the sword and cleansing their taint from the land for the radiant glory of their lord.

The pulse of magic slowed, fading like the heartbeat of a dying man.

But after a thousand years it has begun to quicken again.

In a small fishing village a boy with strange powers comes of age…

A young queen rises in the west, fanning the long-smoldering embers of magic into a blaze once more…

Something of great importance is stolen – or freed – from the mysterious Empire of Swords and Flowers…

And the immortals who survived the ancient cataclysms bestir themselves, casting about for why the world is suddenly changing…