What is SPFBO 9?  This is  a competition where authors of self-published fantasy can enter their work. The objective to find a winner out of the 300 entries submitted.  Ten judges (or judging teams) each receive 30 entrants.  Each judge/team will eventually submit one finalist to the second round where a winner will eventually be decided upon. Check out Mark Lawrence’s post here to look at this year’s entrants, judges and allocations list.  Also, check out this page to see all the lovely finalists and the scoreboard for Phase 2 of the competition.

Today I’m posting my sixth review of the nine SPFBO finalists that I’ve read.  Only three more reviews left to fall – next one probably later this week.

This is a review for The Last Fang of God by Ryan Kirk.  This is a fairly short(ish) story with a strong  father/daughter focus and the journey they need to make together when the Gods start to meddle in their lives.

Kalen left his warrior life behind.  Once a master of the Runes and with a fearsome reputation he gave it all up for a quiet life in a small village.  He kept his past buried (along with his sword Fang), trying to give his daughter, Sasha, the sort of upbringing that he never had.  Unfortunately, Kalen’s God has other plans and so when Sasha begins to experience night walking episodes Kalen knows only too well what the outcome will be.  He consults one of the local women who reads the signs and confirms Kalen’s suspicions.  Sasha must return to Kalen’s old home, she is being called by his God and to ignore the call is basically a death sentence.  Of course, Sasha is not happy about leaving her life and everything she knows behind, she’s particularly unhappy to discover that her father has been keeping secrets her entire life but at the end of the day tough choices must be made if she wants to stay alive.  The two must now face a difficult journey, made perilous by the number of foes along the way and the ever ticking deadline nipping at their heels.

I enjoyed The Last Fang of God.  It manages to pack quite a story into a relatively small package.  The character work is really good and I enjoyed learning of Kalen’s backstory and meeting the people he knows along the way.

This very much has the feeling of a ‘going from A to B’ type story – fortunately this works for me and the author manages to inject enough new material along the way to keep the story compelling.

As I mentioned, Kalen has an intriguing past.  A feared warrior and master of the runes he was the champion of his God until he left quite suddenly.  His backstory is gradually revealed as the two travel together.  He meets old friends and also enemies (some that used to be friends) and his story falls into place.  I liked Kalen.  He is quiet and confident.  He fears for his daughter and is unsure how to make amends for having kept her in the dark.  To be fair I couldn’t blame Kalen for burying his past, he wanted a shot at normality and although he may not be naturally suited, or indeed love, the farming life, he also wanted his daughter to experience this way of life rather than the brutal and battle soaked one that was his own.

Sasha has the ability to become really quite annoying during parts of the story – but – at the same time I also felt her moodiness and general teenage eye-rolling-reluctant-to-listen-you’ve-ruined-my-life-attitude to be quite realistic in a lot of respects.  She doesn’t trust her dad.  She doesn’t want this new life or the responsibility being thrust upon her.  She constantly rails against it until Kalen begins to share some of his past and more than that come to the realisation that she needs to learn at least some basic skills if she’s going to survive.  And so begins a grudging, tentative at first, sort of respect/truce between the two where Kalen acknowledges that Sasha is a young adult and Sasha realises that her father has a lot of knowledge and experience that he is willing to share.

I really enjoyed this aspect of the story and thought it was really well done.  Yes, Sasha can be infuriating, yes Kalen should open up and help her learn, but these things just don’t happen overnight and I liked that the change between the two was a gradual process.

Now, on top of this we have a lot of rival tribes along the way which helps to maintain the tension.  Kalen is helped out by some unusual conspirators who help the two escape some tricky situations when the outlook looks dire and I loved the different tribes and the Gods they followed.

The writing is good and the pace is also consistently upbeat with plenty of new experiences to keep the story fresh.  I will say that I was surprised that this is a standalone and in fact my only real criticism is that I think this could have easily included more pages – although it is quite refreshing to be asking for more rather than feeling that the story is carrying too much bulk.

Overall this was a quick and punchy read set in a Viking style world with tricky and oftentimes cruel Gods, pretty cool magic and a winning father/daughter relationship.  I would like to read more from this author based on the strength of this novel.  It’s just a shame that he isn’t returning to this world as it has such a good foundation here.

I received a copy courtesy of the author, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 7.5 of 10 (rounded to 4 of 5 for Goodreads)