The SPFBO has officially started and I’ve now chosen my first batch of books to read.  They’re listed below in the order I’m going to check them out – five books a month for the next six months before choosing one book to submit for the final.

Without further ado here are my books:

The Saga of Dirt and Poncho by Clayton D Baker and Michael H Kuecker

Frank sucks. Or at least his life does, not that he’d know. When he meets Dirt and Poncho his life changes from sucks to really sucks. But hey, at least it’s interesting now. Now he gets to almost die on a daily basis and generally have no idea what it going on around him. His new friends make it a point to put him in harms way all while telling him how important he is. Murder doesn’t seem important to Frank but he ends up trapped by his own indecision and possibly idiocy in an insane plot to end the world, or save it. It’s pretty hard to tell.

Frank thinks it’s all B.S.

The Emperor’s Horn by Jordan R Murray

Do not ask to fight me. The power I wield is more ancient than your blooded line. I will crush your soul and devour your essence until you are nothing but an empty, discarded husk.

The first Emperor of the Imperium banned the use of magic a millennium ago, and yet now, something is stirring in Falden Province. An unspoken truth begins to emerge: magic still exists.

As dark forces seek out ancient and powerful sources of magic, a mysterious horn resurfaces that was thought to be only a legend. Herbert Tanasen and Teguin Dorst—two young men with remarkable magic of their own find themselves pawns in a dangerous game. Will Herbert and Teguin learn to harness their abilities before the horn falls into the wrong hands?

The Emperor’s Horn is a breathtaking adventure that will immerse you in an imaginative fantasy world.

Wishful Thinking by James Beach

At the moment I don’t seem to be able to find a cover or description for this one so we’ll just have to wait and see…

The Tralls of Nindarry by Gayle Torrens

Germaine thinks that he is heading off for a funfilled holiday with his grandparents at Ninderry in Queensland, Australia but when he arrives, he finds his grandfather seriously ill. As his parents are committed to flying to Canberra to try to save Fraser Island from the ravages of sand mining, it is left to him to help his grandmother find the unusual cure – the only thing that will save his grandfather’s life. The journey to find the cure sets Gemaine and his grandmother on a fantastic journey into a parallel world that is amazingly beautiful but, at the same time incredibly dangerous. Along the way, Germaine uncovers a long held family secret. Will this secret bring his family even closer to each other or will it shatter his family forever?

Sand and Storm by Patty Jensen

An ancient machine that produced icefire was destroyed twenty years ago, but the deadly magic is again on the increase. No one understands why or where it’s coming from.

King Isandor sends his Eagle Knights to investigate a concentration of icefire in the mountains at the border. It appears that the neighbouring country Arania wants revenge for a defeat in a war forty years ago, and is using icefire as weapon. The evil power source must be eradicated.

Lana is a student about to make a vitally important discovery about icefire, but the people in power, including her own father, are too busy talking about war to listen to her.