First a little bit about SPFBO:

What is SPFBO?  This is a competition for self published authors of fantasy fiction.  It’s the brainchild of Mark Lawrence and its mission is :

‘The SPFBO exists to shine a light on self-published fantasy. It exists to find excellent books that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. It exists to help readers select, from the enormous range of options, books that have a better chance of entertaining them than a random choice, thereby increasing reader faith in finding a quality self-published read.’

Check out Mark Lawrence’s post here to look at this year’s entrants, judges and allocations list.

Last year’s SPFBO competition was perhaps one of the closest contests so far with the eventual winner being revealed on literally the final day – it really was that close.

The winner was Reign and Ruin, the first instalment in the Mages of the Wheel series by JD Evans and a lovely Eastern inspired story of magic and politics with a delicious slow build romance.

I highly recommend this and look forward to reading more from the series.

Check out the finalist scoreboard here.  All the reviews are linked and there is literally something for everyone amongst these finalists.  There were also some other great books discovered during the competition and I highly recommend checking out the other judge’s blogs to discover plenty more reads to topple your tbr.

This year I’m including my wrap up and intro post alongside an event that runs during the month of May known as Wyrd and Wonder – an event that is a celebration of all things fantasy, which to me makes the two a fantastic fantasy fit. Wyrd and Wonder comes to an end on the last day of May and the SPFBO begins it’s journey on the 1st of June.  It’s a perfect fit and although the event is almost complete it’s never too late to join in.  This is the fifth year that the event has run and it’s simply gone from strength to strength. Check out the details here. (IMAGE CREDITS: tree wolf image by chic2view on 123RF.com)

So, this year I will once again be teaming up with the lovely ladies from The Critiquing Chemist. Last year was a lot of fun and we’re hoping to continue in the same vein.  In previous years I’ve tried to give a brief overview of how I intend to sort through my own batch of books.  This year I’m going to change things a little.  I haven’t fully worked out my process yet but would like to keep things flexible and loose for now.  I will certainly give every book in my batch a fair chance.  I will definitely read at least 30% and more than likely complete most of the books I’ve been allocated.  I will also provide a full review for every book I complete and a shorter synopsis for those that I don’t finish with reasonings of why that particular book might not have worked for me but might well work for others.

As with previous years I would reiterate that 300 entrants to this competition will eventually be whittled down to one winner.  Those are some tough odds right there.  My advice is to come for the competition but to stay for the camaraderie.  Reach out to others.  Make friends. Have fun.

Check out the Critiquing Chemist’s intro and book cover post here.  The cover competition has now finished and the winners can be found here.  Stop and take a look – there are some amazing covers.

Finally, a huge thank you to all the authors for entering your precious book babies into this competition, we all understand what a big step this can be and how difficult to have your work held up for such public scrutiny.  Without you there wouldn’t be a competition.

Authors we salute you!