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.

My introduction post can be found here and also the Critiquing Chemist recently posted their first elimination post.  I posted my first ‘cuts’ last week.   My second elimination post can be found here.

This week I will be aiming to post a review a day (7 in total) followed by an announcement of my Semi-Finalists.

These reviews are in no particular order and have been randomly selected.

Today is my seventh and final review of the books that I read fully from my batch.  Following this final review I will post my semi-finalists tomorrow.  Dream of Death City (Red Kingdom #1) by PJ Nwosu is my final review.

This is an impressive dark fantasy/mystery with strong world building, relatable flawed and haunted characters and a plot that becomes more involved than I originally imagined.  Atmospheric, bleak, cold and full of originality.

The world here is really well thought out although I’m not totally sure even now that I have a handle on everything that’s going on (or even if I’m going to botch up describing it) but I think that’s normal (not me botching things up I hope), the series and the world will develop further with each instalment and there’s plenty of room for more growth and new concepts.

This is a book with a post apocalyptic feeling world and a dystopian-like system of control.  The world feels as though something shook it up beyond recognition.  There’s a very basic quality to the standard of life, the scarcity of everyday essentials, the lack of comfort, even of those considered to be in power.   Following the hundred year war the Red King took control and the Red Kingdom was firmly set in place.  The City of Pillars is the capital, known as such because of the towers that contain the different factions – Purge House relates to enforcement and is the most feared.  Investigation House – is much as you would expect, Polity House relates to anything political with each district being governed by a Viceroy, Gold House is politely known as the house of entertainment – the women must paint themselves in gold and wear masks so that their profession is instantly recognisable.  The city is in the grip of fear, controlled by religious zealots who enforce the most stringent laws with an iron rod.  Anyone who speaks out is investigated and most likely found guilty and burned.

In terms of the fantasy elements – I think this is low fantasy (I believe this is set in our world but in a far flung future where things have gone pear shaped)  I’m happy to be  corrected. Gods used to walk the earth, they caused mayhem and destruction and it’s told that a king of old killed and buried his daughters bones in black glass pyramids – their remains prevented the gods from leaving the sea – although they can still sometimes be seen, their dark outlines noticeable during the inverted moon and those at sea during such periods fear to be noticed. The King’s eleventh daughter, in her final moments, cursed the world and gifted women with the ability to use the Crooked Beat, which I would describe as the belief in witchcraft and the ability to cast curses, herb lore and midwifery.  Any woman suspected of using the Crooked Beat will be sentenced to a rather gruesome death.  Some of these aspects are only briefly touched on here, I would love to know more about the Death Gods for example, and the Bone Miners who harvest the bones and organs of Dead Gods – are these magical at all? Or used simply for material articles.

The book gets off to an explosive start with our two MCs winding up an investigation at one of the houses where they have been sent in undercover.  The result of the investigation, although considered a success, leads to the demotion of the  lead investigator, Lakein (aka Diem).  His actions were deemed inappropriate and he’s definitely out of favour, which is perhaps why his next assignment sees him parcelled off to the remotest and bleakest corner of the world.  He and is assistant are sent to investigate the disappearance of a Sun-mistress (Sun Caste are the nobles) from Death City, the largest metropolis amongst the Thousand Island frontiers.  This is a place that only pays lip service to the fanatical rules of the City of Pillars.  Here is a place of superstition.  The people may constantly quote the mantra ‘what’s dead is dead and all shall die’ in accordance with the Red Priests laws but it’s spoken more to ward off suspicion of insurrection than anything else.  The Crooked Beat is openly talked about and practiced and although, on first inspection crime seems to be non-existent, that’s less to do with reality and more as a result of a suppression of the facts.  This is a dangerous place, made more so by the underlying corruption and the extreme measures that certain people are prepared to take to not only thwart the investigation but also to keep hold of their little piece of power.

The main character is Dust Caste Thora (an assistant to Diem).  Dust Caste are basically slaves, their children will be slaves and their lives and prospects are grim. Thora is a great character, flawed, ambitious and also naive (more about that later).  Diem is Moon Cast, a free man who can make his own choices (although these are limited).  Diem is battle hardened and jaded.  He has become feared since the internal investigation took a look at his actions.  He’s another really good character.  He clearly respects Thora and values her opinion.  I wouldn’t exactly call the two Sherlock and Watson, this is a much more basic world and their detection methods often boil down to gut feeling, reading a character well and decent observational skills.  There are plenty of other characters, including another assistant but I won’t elaborate further here.

Primarily this is an investigation into the disappearance of a young woman but that eventually leads to something deeper with corruption at its root.  The writing is really good, the atmosphere practically oozes throughout, elements of history are interwoven well, I loved the descriptions and the way that colour seems to play such a fundamental part in the story, reds and golds contrasting with the grime and darkness.  On top of this the world has developed slightly different speech patterns  – although, let me be clear, these don’t add any sort of difficulty, they’re perfectly in accordance with the world and what I imagine to be it’s development and they give the book a next level of depth.  I often find that really modern dialogue pulls me out of the story unless it’s a contemporary setting.  The dialogue here is really good and feels natural and well established.

Besides the investigation this becomes almost a story of hope with both characters daring to imagine how their lives could change.  Death City’s more relaxed laws lead them to believe that things could be different, although they both recognise that this ‘hope’ is only a small flicker in the dark.  As the story develops Thora in particular becomes more reckless.  Her abilities, for the first time, lend her a voice and she almost becomes intoxicated with this new found status.  Ultimately, this leads to mistakes as her own naivety fails to recognise the lengths that some people will go to in order to keep control and people die in the fallout.

Dark nordic noir.  A missing person investigation with much more to uncover.  A bleak city with superstitious people and a couple of new characters that were great to get to know.

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

Here’s my first review for Of Thieves and Shadows (The Heart of Quinaria #1) by BSH Garcia.

Here’s my second review for Dark Innocence by PJ Alexander

Here’s my third review for The Bone Spear by Alexander Layne.

My fourth review is for The First and Last Demon by Hiyodori.

My fifth review is for The Heron Kings Rampant by Eric Lewis

My sixth review is for Twicetime by Carol Carman