#SPFBO 6 – Cover love (1)
The 1st of June marked the start of the sixth Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (details here.) My Introductory post is here and my first batch of books is here. I’ve made a good starting on the reading and hope to post an update soon. In the meantime, this year I’m aiming to shine a little bit of focus on some of the books either through posting excerpts to act as teasers for potential readers or through posting some of the covers and highlighting the book that way (not just for my own books but other entries). The invitation is open to all authors from the competition – if you’d like to post an excerpt then give me a shout in the comments.
As part of the competition there is a cover contest. The details can be found here.
The winning cover this year was : The Race to the Blackened Nevers (The Woeful Wager, #1) by Douglas Bain (Goodreads Author) – cover by Damonza.
This really is a stunning cover – feast your eyes:
And the description on GRs:
The race is on! The gods careen toward the Blackened Nevers. Pray you don’t get in their way!
An army of criminals runs to reclaim its honor. An old knight wakes to find a child pointing to the finish line. A prison guard is cursed to return to the start. And the last two members of the Rowlach tribe run to ask their god why the race was more important than his creations. Meanwhile, deep inside their mountain, a brother and sister run to prevent the awakening of a leviathan. Will it rise to destroy creation, or is it just their god’s cynical attempt to increase his odds of winning?
‘The Woeful Wager’ is the first book in the new, dark fantasy series ‘The Race to the Blackened Nevers’. It won the Gold Medal in the 2019 SPR Book Awards, and was a finalist in the Fantasy (Adult Fiction) category of the 22nd Annual Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards, and the 2020 Feathered Quill Book Awards (Science Fiction/Fantasy).
Come join the race of the gods!
This is one of the three covers submitted by Kitty G. Her other two covers are also rather lovely:
Dames and Demons by G. Campbell
This is a real beauty – it gives me horror vibes. Cover by Carolina Fiandri.
Description:
Twenty years ago, a pandemic ripped through the world and forever changed society. Where Man once stood, now stand the Women and the Demons. They rule the city through magic and money. Men like Tom and Chris Redfield have nothing. The brothers live under the heel of society and fight over the scraps dropped by the upper classes. Or at least they used to.
Things change with the discovery of a Demonic book. The brothers might have a shot at a better life, but they’re not ready for the chaos the book unleashes. Suddenly, the Redfields are thrown into the tangled machinations of the spiteful Sororities and the fastidious lords of Hell. Forced to become players in an intricate game, the brothers will have to use their wits and all the magic they can afford if they hope to survive.
Cock your pistols, sharpen your swords, and fill your magic reserve… Not everyone’s going to make it out alive.
Æroreh (The Ealdspell Cycle #1) by Jesikah Sundin
This cover is very eye catching with the beautiful colours and ethereal feel. Cover by MoorBooks Designs.
Description:
She wants to choose her happily ever after.
He wants to remake his once upon a time.
Only magic can re-spin their tales.
Princess Æroreh Rosen was faerie blessed before her birth. To promote the New Dawn Era, the Queen coded her daughter with every feminine perfection.
Beauty. Gentleness. Obedience. Musicality. Kindness. Grace. Good cheer.
Hunger and lung sickness plague the Kingdom of Ealdspell. But Æroreh is plugged into The Dream, a program created by a sect of faeries to control the realms through illusions of beauty and contentment. All Æroreh has ever known is blissful servitude to a cursed system, and she believes her realm is prospering. Until a different faerie sect decides to wake her sleeping mind and set her true magic free.
Meanwhile, Félip Batten MacKinley holds a dangerous secret. One made more threatening by the frostbite scar across his cheek. He’s spit on, beaten, and demonized by a community that values a pretty face over all else. With no easy future in sight, he accepts that he’ll die a burden to his foster parents, his true history erased. But a tempting offer from the faerie’s Fate Maker leads Félip to cross paths with the hauntingly beautiful Æroreh—a young woman who represents all he loathes.
Yet only she has the power to awaken a new Dream.
Æroreh is a gritty spin on the romantic tale of Sleeping Beauty and blends faerie magic and pagan ritual with high technology.
So, which of these covers is your favourite and which book really appeals to you??
#SPFBO 2018 : Batch 2, Books 4-6
As mentioned in my post here as part of the SPFBO competition I’ll be randomly choosing six books per month for the next five months, which I will then aim to check out at least the first 30% of each book during that month. I’ll post information about the first three books at the start of the month and then about the remaining three during the mid way point with a conclusion around the end of the month about which books will be going forward or eliminated. The conclusion for my first month’s reading can be found here. Ultimately, the aim is to choose one book from the thirty I’ve been assigned – that chosen one will then be my finalist.
Books 4-6 in my second batch are:
1. The Lost Sentinel by Suzanne Rogerson
The magical island of Kalaya is dying, along with its Sentinel.
The Assembly controls Kalaya. Originally set up to govern, they now persecute those with magic and exile them to the Turrak Mountains.
Tei, a tailor’s daughter, has always hidden her magic but when her father’s old friend visits and warns them to flee to the mountains she must leave her old life behind.
On the journey, an attack leaves her father mortally wounded. He entrusts her into the care of the exiles and on his deathbed makes a shocking confession.
Struggling with self doubt, Tei joins the exiles search for the new Sentinel who is the only person capable of restoring the fading magic. But mysterious Masked Riders are hunting the Sentinel too, and time, as well as hope, is running out.
Against mounting odds it will take friendship, heartache and sacrifice for the exiles to succeed in their quest, but is Tei willing to risk everything to save the island magic?
Follow Tei’s journey through the magical land of Kalaya and the Astral Plane in The Lost Sentinel – Book 1 in the Silent Sea Chronicles
- Goodread’s author page
- Website: ttps://suzannerogersonfantasyauthor.com/
- Twitter: rogersonsm
NOTHING IS BLACK AND WHITE
Secretly trained, swordsmith Sage Blackwell steps up to run her family’s forge when her father falls ill. Sage desires to help the neglected Aermians but is bound by duty to provide for her own… Until, that is, she’s offered a chance to make a difference.
THE REBELLION
Sage knows the risks; imprisonment or death, and yet, she’s still willing to take them to protect her family. But when plans unravel, Sage finds herself facing the devils themselves, her sworn enemies, the princes of Aermia.
THE CROWN
Tehl Ramses is drowning; crops are being burned, villages pillaged, and citizens are disappearing, leading to a rising rebellion. As crown prince, and acting ruler, Tehl must find a way to crush the rebellion before civil war sweeps through his beloved kingdom. He’ll do whatever is necessary to save his people. Yet, his prisoner is not at all what he expected.
ONE STORY. TWO SIDES. ONE GOAL: SAVE AERMIA.
- Goodread’s author page
- Website: https://www.frostkay.net/
- Twitter: FrostKayAuthor
This is the first tale of my tribute to the great old one series, where I will honor writers and artists that cultivated my love for heroic fantasy, while I present my fantasy world Land of Oyr.
The character created will be used in more stories and play a further role (as well as their descendants) in the history of my world and the kingdom of Tarantis in particular.
- Goodread’s author page
The Path of Flames by Phil Tucker #SPFBO
19 April 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO 2016, Phil Tucker, The Path of Flames
My most recent book for the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off was Phil Tucker’s Path of Flames. To be honest, I expected to like this one before I started. The glowing review of the blogger who submitted this book to Stage 2 was so convincing that I actually went and bought book No.2 simply with the expectation that I would be in love and would want to continue on. Thankfully that very much proved to be the case. This was both compelling and fast paced. To be honest I was captivated by the characters and found myself driven to keep on reading even into the early hours of the morning making this a speedy read indeed.
The book gets off to a great start, literally bursting out of the gates with a dramatic battle sequence. From there we quickly build up a picture of the world and it’s inhabitants as the author weaves together a rich story with protagonists that I really cared for and great world building that really helps to set the scene.
I don’t want to really elaborate on the plot as I think that way lies the path of spoilers. It’s probably easier to expand on the story simply by discussing the world building and characters.
Obviously when you read quite a few fantasy novels it’s easy to start to make comparisons and this book is no exception. For me this had elements of Tolkien, Martin Feist and Sanderson thrown into the mix. Not that the story was the same just that there were elements that put me in mind of certain books – but in a way that made me smile and that brought out my inner youngster – the one who first feel in love with fantasy after reading Lord of the Rings. This is well done and has a definite 80s type feel, there is strong world building and the author sets the scene well.
The story is told through a number of POVs.
We start with Asho. Squire to Lord Kyferin he may be but it isn’t a position that brings him any joy. All his peers despise him and his Lord and master, having raised him from the life of a slave on a whim, would like nothing more than to see him fail. Asho is stubborn though and although he’s set up to fail he’s determined to succeed. Asho is from Bythian – which, in a world where the religion is based on caste, placed him at the very bottom of the ladder. His life should have been one of slavery and therefore his elevation in life is greatly begrudged by many.
Lady Iskra. *Slight spoiler ahead*. Finds out fairly early on in the story that her husband has died in battle thereby releasing her from a very unhappy marriage. To say Lord Kyferin was not overly popular with most people is something of an understatement although among his knights he seemed to be well liked. I liked Lady Iskra, or more to the point I felt terrible for her – or just terribly annoyed on her behalf. she lives in a world where women are chattels and although she is quite a steely character she finds herself being mistreated and betrayed in a way that leaves her virtually stranded, in a dangerous world, with few belongings and a scant few friends to aid her.
Kethe – daughter of Lord and Lady Kyferin. Longs to be a knight! She spends all her free time, training in secret and when the time finally comes to prove herself she enters and is given permission to take part by her mother, a tournament. I confess that I loved this section of the story. Up until this point I think Kethe came across a little spoiled – yes, she wanted to break the mould but if she didn’t have such a privileged upbringing she would hardly have had the opportunity to scarper off to the forest to practice swordsplay at every opportunity now would she – a fact that she seems blissfully unaware of. But, her participation in the tournament was so well done. She doesn’t just rush onto the field and kick everyone’s butt – which is the one thing I was scared of, in fact she finds herself unceremoniously knocked to the ground.
Audsley is the bookish character of the piece. He’s a magister and his one aim in life is to be well read. He carries along a bag of tools of his trade and is followed by his faithful and fiery firecat. He’s not the most courageous of the book, at the start anyway, but he pretty soon finds himself pulled into the adventure, probably against his own better advice, and soon becomes rather fundamental to the survival of the group.
Ser Tirón is the dark character of the piece. Well, he has good right to be so. For the last few years he has spent his time imprisoned for trying to kill Lord Kyferin’s wife and daughter. Of course he didn’t simply wake up one morning with that notion. Rather it was brought out of him as a need to avenge himself for the death of his own wife, at the hand of Kyferin – a murder that was carried out simply as a result of petty jealousy. Tiron is released from prison by Lady Iskra because she basically needs all the help she can muster. Whether she can trust him remains to be seen but he is an interesting character.
The final character who we follow is Tharok. Tharok is some kind of Orc (I think). His is an interesting story that sees him, after a long pursuit and a fight to survive, discover a sword and headband that seem to imbue him with strength and power of thought. From here we see Tharok as his plans and ambitions start to take shape. I must admit that I was puzzled about his involvement until much later in his story when he buys, and then frees a human slave – a woman with a connection to one of our other POV characters. It will be really interesting to see how the two stories come together.
I really did have fun with Path of Flames. Admittedly, it’s not particularly ground breaking but even so it is very entertaining and kept me quite riveted. Gates that are used to travel between different realms, battles, tournaments, dark magic, and all sorts of critters.
I certainly recommend Path of Flames without hesitation and I shall be moving onto book No.2 shortly.
My 8th book: Final Stage: #SPFBO 16
November 1st saw the start of the second stage of the SPFBO – the Self Published Fantasy Blog off organised by Mark Lawrence. All the details can be found here.
Today I’m highlighting the seventh book that I will be reading for the SPFBO. All the books have been drawn randomly. My books so far:
- Shadow Soul by Caitlyn Davis, review here.
- Paternus by Dyrk Ashton (review here).
- The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French.
- Larcourt K A Krantz ( Fire Born, Blood Blessed #1) My review is here.
- Ráth Bládhma (Fionn mac Cumhaill #1) by Brian O’Sullivan, review here.
- The Music Box Girl by K.A. Stewart. Review here.
- The Path of Flames by Phil Tucker. Review to follow
My next book (only two remaining now):
The Moonlight War by SKS Perry:
Three caravans have vanished traversing the Cowcheanne Way. The legendary Tahsis platoon, warriors thought by most to be invincible, are dispatched to investigate and are never heard from again. Rumours of native uprisings and bandit armies grow wilder and more widespread every day, while the more devout whisper about the return of the Horde, a mythic foe from ages past.
The truce between the warring Kael-tii and Ashai nations is put to the test when a new caravan is outfitted and they are forced to travel The Way together. As an ancient evil is unleashed upon them, a group of heroes, friend and foe alike, must band together for survival.
When the true nature of their mission slowly comes to light, the growing distrust between the Kael-tii and Ashai camps threatens to tear the caravan apart. Can they set aside their differences in time to combat the menace that imperils them all, or are they doomed to join the ranks of lost souls claimed by the cursed Cowcheanne Way?