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

This year I am teaming up again with the ladies from The Critiquing Chemist.

So, we recently announced our finalist. To check out all the Finalists simply follow this link.

Our finalist this year was Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson – if you haven’t read this book I highly recommend it. It’s a great deal of fun and whilst it has a slightly more modern feel than Jane Austen I can without reservation say that it felt positively Austen(ish).  I loved it.

However, today I’d like to cast the light on our Semi Finalists.  In fact this year I’ve decided to use the second stage of the competition to take a look at the semi finalists chosen by our fellow judges.  At the end of the day these are good books that could easily have been finalists and so I’d love to take a look -wouldn’t want to miss out after all.

This post is about the three Semi Finalists we chose and why you should give them a read.

In no particular order:

The World Breaker Requiem by Luke Tarzian

This is what my fantastic partners over at The Critiquing Chemist had to say

“The World Breaker Requiem. … a story that’s equal parts dark, mercurial, and deep… The characters are constantly evolving as more is revealed. The story continually shifts between different characters, such that it may not be entirely clear which character is being featured or how the passage ties in until later on. The setting is hauntingly beautiful with endless possibilities for worldbuilding. And with poignant prose, Tarzian masterfully examines topics of guilt, intentions versus consequences, and how far you’d go to right a wrong’

I would add to this by saying ‘I thought this was a powerful story of grief and loss and the lengths people will go to in search of redemption or the possibility to turn back time.  It strongly sits in the grimdark genre and yet it has an hypnotic style that makes you stop and backtrack at certain points in order to really capture the essence of what’s being said.’

This is a layered book set in a grim world yet the author has a style that almost belies the horror and struggles that the characters encounter.  An author with a unique, hypnotic style.

The Blood of Crows by Alex C Pierce

Here we have a fast paced and entertaining story which essentially turns into a race against time for the main POV who needs to solve a murder mystery before he finds himself framed for something he didn’t do.  Along the way there are heists and twists, gadgets and magic. This is a story that makes you form attachments to the characters and I found myself always keen to pick it up for the next instalment of mayhem.

On the face of it you could be forgiven for thinking that this doesn’t sound particularly groundbreaking, particularly if you read plenty of fantasy, however, the writing is great, the dialogue is witty, I liked the elemental magic and the pages practically turned themselves.  A pacy read with an ending that leaves so much more to look forward to – speaking of which – here’s what the CC had to say in that regard  ‘In many ways this novel feels like a prequel where the key players are established, but most of the reveals are kept waiting in the wings for the remainder of the series. The epilogue alone holds enough surprises to fuel a whole new line of questions, along with recasting several of the events throughout The Blood of Crows in a new light, while introducing a shadow party that adds a new layer of intrigue and danger.’

A nugget of a book.

Ever Alice by HJ Ramsay

Ahh, when is a retelling not a retelling?  Why, when it is a sequel of course.  A  return to the crazy that we know as Wonderland and a look at characters that we thought we knew, but when seen through the eyes of a teenager instead of a young girl, seem on reflection to be much more conniving.

Ever Alice certainly relies heavily on the original work and I enjoyed that aspect to the story.  We have many of the old characters along with some new introductions, although as I said above, these characters have lost some of their ‘silliness’ – now being observed by a more cynical teenager.  I loved the upside down, contradictory nature of everything – on the one hand (or should that be on the second foot?) there are descriptions of food, tea and cake, and in your head you have this delicious afternoon tea appearing in your brain until, what?  this doesn’t sound delicious at all.  And these contradictions are the same for everything which gives the full story a beautifully-twisted-upside down-nothing-is-as-it-should-be-or-what-you-initially-think-feel.

This also has an alternate history woven into the tale of the two Queens (Hearts and Spades) and I really enjoyed that aspect.  It felt like it put some meat on the bones of the story.

This is a story that gives you a different slice of Alice Pie.  Things have moved on and the author takes the opportunity to look at mental health issues and the treatments meted out by asylums.  Strangely enough, I’ve only just realised  how very appropriate the title of the book is.  Silly me.

Over the next few weeks I very much look forward to looking at Semi Finalists from the other judges so watch this space for some more ‘must read’ recommendations.  Wouldn’t want your Mount TBR to look achievable now would we.

Also,  I shall be selecting my Finalist reading order using a random number generator.  I wonder which book will be first?