This is Queen’s Book Asylum’s main SPFBO 9 page, where you’ll find a short heads up about the contest, info about our process, the 30 books assigned to us, and how we divided them – including GR and Amazon links -, our progress in the semi-finals and finals, and updates throughout the competition.
The Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off is hosted by none other than Mark Lawrence, author of several highly successful Fantasy trilogies. 300 books compete, judged by 10 blogs, and at the end of 11 long, bloody months 1 winner will emerge. You can find every detail on Mark’s SPFBO page along with the process of all 10 blogs in Phase 1 and the SPFBO 9 Finals.
Like the other blogs, we got 30 books assigned as well. For SPFBO 9 we have 6 judges on our team. This year Team Queen’s Book Asylum will have 6 judges with varying degrees of participation when it comes to allocating our batch. Bjørn will keep the ghostie title, partly because he just likes it too much, and partly because, come on, we are an Asylum, we need at least one haunting presence in our halls who is also willing to play tag with our pet demon. We will aim to pick 3-5 semi-finalists before we eventually choose our finalist.
In the SPFBO 9 finals we will once again aim to have at least 3 reviews for each of the finalists.
Find out more about us and how we are going to do things in this Introduction post!
These are the 30 SPFBO 9 books we started with (clicking on them will take you to their respective Amazon pages):
In the Final round, we’ll read the finalists the other teams picked. The titles are in the same order as they were announced. To see how the overall scoreboard looks like, please visit Mark’s SPFBO 9 Finalists page, where you can see the process of all 10 blogs.
Our process will be pretty much the same as it was in the Semi-Final round – we’ll aim to have at least 3-4 scores/reviews for each book, everyone will be allowed to opt out of reading any of the books, but if we do, we have to read at least 25%. DNFs are allowed, if someone decides to quit the book before the 50% mark, they’ll have to score but can opt out of writing a review. A DNF after 50% mark means the person will have to both score and review the book. We are hoping that everyone who decides to read any given book will give it at least 50%, since we are talking about the top 10 books. Please note, that other teams might operate differently, this is only our own internal system.
Clicking on the covers in the slider will take you to their respective Amazon pages.
 | Title: Master of the Void Author: Wend Raven Series: standalone Pages: 585 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 8.5 Jen: 6 Liis: 8.5 Olivia: 5.5 Paul: 5 Timy: 5 | Average: 6.42 FINAL SCORE: 6.5 REVIEW |
 | Title: The Wickwire Watch Author: Jacquelyn Hagen Series: The Riverfall Chronicles #1 Pages: 440 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 5 Jen: 6 Liis: 5 Olivia: 5 Paul: 5 Timy: 6.5 | Average: 5.42 FINAL SCORE: 5 REVIEW |
 | Title: The Fall Is All There Is Author: C.M. Caplan Series: Four of Mercies #1 Pages: 413 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 6 Liis: 5.5 Olivia: 9.5 Paul: 7.5 Timy: X | Average: 7.13 FINAL SCORE: 7 REVIEW |
 | Title: Daughter of the Beast Author: E C Greaves Series: The Vyshivka Trilogy #1 Pages: 374 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 8 Liis: 7.5 Olivia: X Paul: 6 Timy: 6 | Average: 6.88 FINAL SCORE: 7 REVIEW |
 | Title: The Last Ranger Author: J. D. L. Rosell Series: Ranger of the Titan Wilds #1 Pages: 462 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 7.5 Liis: 5.5 Olivia: X Paul: 5.5 Timy: X | Average: 6.17 FINAL SCORE: 6 REVIEW |
 | Title: The Last Fang of God Author: Ryan Kirk Series: standalone Pages: 252 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 8.5 Liis: 7 Olivia: 7 Paul: 8 Timy: 8 | Average: 7.7 FINAL SCORE: 7.5 REVIEW |
 | Title: Murder at Spindle Manor Author: Morgan Stang Series: The Lamplight Murder Mysteries #1 Pages: 249 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 8 Liis: 6.5 Olivia: 8.5 Paul: 6 Timy: 7 | Average: 7.2 FINAL SCORE: 7 REVIEW |
 | Title: Cold West Author: Clayton Snyder Series: standalone Pages: 164 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 7 Liis: 9 Olivia: X Paul: 8.5 Timy: 5 | Average: 7.34 FINAL SCORE: 7.5 REVIEW |
 | Title: Hills of Heather & Bone Author: K.E. Andrews Series: standalone Pages: 412 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 8.5 Jen: 7.5 Liis: 9 Olivia: X Paul: 9 Timy: 6 | Average: 8.0 FINAL SCORE: 8 REVIEW |
 | Title: A Rival Most Vial: Potioneering For Love and Profit Author: R.K. Ashwick Series: Side Quest Row #1 Pages: 340 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: Jen: Liis: Olivia: Paul: Timy: | Average: 8.42 FINAL SCORE: 8.5 REVIEW |
In the SPFBO 9 Semi-Final round, we’ll read each others’ picks, score then and eventually choose our finalist. The titles are in the same order as we announced them. Clicking on the covers in the slider will take you to their respective Amazon pages.
 | Title: Scarlet & Sunder Author: Mike Rousseau Series: Vanguardians #1 Pages: 697 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 7 Jen: 8 Liis: 7 Olivia: 7 Paul: 6 Timy: X | Average: 7 FINAL SCORE: 7 REVIEW |
 | Title: A Dagger in the Winds Author: Brendan Noble Series: The Frostmarked Chronicles #1 Pages: 663 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 7.5 Jen: 6.5 Liis: 8 Olivia: 6 Paul: 7 Timy: 6 | Average: 6.8 FINAL SCORE: 7 REVIEW |
 | Title: Deceit Author: Sharon Rivest Series: Masks of Discord #1 Pages: 429 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 4 Jen: 7 Liis: 9 Olivia: 5 Paul: 5.5 Timy: 5.5 | Average: 6 FINAL SCORE: 6 REVIEW |
| Title: The Last Fang of God Author: Ryan Kirk Series: standalone Pages: 252 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 8.5 Liis: 7 Olivia: 7 Paul: 8 Timy: 8 | Average: 7.7 FINAL SCORE: 7.5 FINALIST REVIEW |
 | Title: Eleventh Cycle Author: Kian N. Ardalan Series: Mistland #1 Pages: 779 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: X Jen: 6 Liis: 5 Olivia: X Paul: 8 Timy: 4.5 | Average: 5.87 FINAL SCORE: 6 REVIEW |
 | Title: Fae Gods: Maze Author: Philinna Wood Series: standalone Pages: 300 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | Bjørn: 9 Jen: X Liis: 5 Olivia: 8 Paul: 8 Timy: 7.5 | Average: 7.5 FINAL SCORE: 7.5 REVIEW |
Above you can see all 30 of the books we’ll be spending the next few months with, and below you can follow our process through our elimination round of SPFBO 9 Phase 1. We’ll be doing regular updates as our posts go live and will have a new section once we have all the semi-finalists chosen.
Bjørn
 | Title: The Ring Breaker Author: Jean Gill Series: The Midwinter Dragon #1 Pages: 328 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
| Title: A Dagger in the Winds Author: Brendan Noble Series: The Frostmarked Chronicles #1 Pages: 663 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | SEMI-FINALIST |
 | Title: And the Wildness Author: Susan Maxwell Series: standalone Pages: 342 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Carved Amidst the Shadows Author: M.T. Fontaine Series: A Brands of Taelgir Novel #1 Pages: 504 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
Jen
 | Title: The Shattered Spire Author: Ted Cross Series: The Chronicles of Xax #1 Pages: 418 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
| Title: The Last Fang of God Author: Ryan Kirk Series: standalone Pages: 252 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | SEMI-FINALIST |
 | Title: The Stone Mermaid Author: Aisha Urooj Series: Fantasy Romance Series #1 Pages: 346 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Unwanted Author: Catherine M Walker Series: Emergence #1 Pages: 536 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Shadow of Fire Author: Kate Schumacher Series: The Fires of Aileryan #1 Pages: 370 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: The Return of Abaddon Author: Peter Mooren Series: The Scars of Hiraeth #1 Pages: 427 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
Liis
| Title: Deceit Author: Sharon Rivest Series: Masks of Discord #1 Pages: 429 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | SEMI-FINALIST |
 | Title: Gods of the Deep Author: Drew Montgomery Series: standalone Pages: 255 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Reign of Extinction Author: Frank Borrelli Series: Reight of Extinction #1 Pages: 525 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Path of the Warrior Author: Melissa Stone Series: Keverynn #1 Pages: 479 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Beneath the Lanterns Author: C. Litka Series: standalone Pages: 282 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Rise of the Empress Author: Bogdan Tăbușcă Series: standalone Pages: 468 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
Olivia
| Title: Scarlet & Sunder Author: Mike Rousseau Series: Vanguardians #1 Pages: 697 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | SEMI-FINALIST |
 | Title: Marked by Fate Author: Jamie Hunt Series: Marked #1 Pages: 311 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Rebel Unicorn Author: Brogan Thomas Series: Rebel of the Otherworld Pages: 400 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Wings of the Storm Author: Aaron Bunce and Christopher Guhl Series: The Dunes of Aelaron #1 Pages: 462 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
Paul
 | Title: The Gardens of Ash Author: Sarah Cline Series: Sagas of the Fallen Earth #1 Pages: 422 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
| Title: Eleventh Cycle Author: Kian N. Ardalan Series: Mistland #1 Pages: 779 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | SEMI-FINALIST |
| Title: Fae Gods: Maze Author: Philinna Wood Series: standalone Pages: 300 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | SEMI-FINALIST |
 | Title: The Untold Prophecy Author: R. R. Hunter Series: The Death of Power #1 Pages: 334 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Platinum Tinted Darkness Author: Timothy Wolff Series: The Legacy of Boulom #1 Pages: 368 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
Timy
 | Title: The Spider’s Friend Author: M.C. Burnell Series: standalone Pages: 270 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: In Sleep You Know Author: Christiane Knight Series: Stories of the Eleriannan #1 Pages: 266 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: The Contessa of Mostul Ûbar Author: L. James Rice Series: Sundering the Gods #1 Pages: 680 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Endless Seas: Never Meet Your Idols Author: John Champaign Series: standalone Pages: 284 Audiobook: No AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
 | Title: Beyond the Filigree Wall Author: Melissa Wright Series: Rivenwilde #1 Pages: 205 Audiobook: Yes AMAZON | GOODREADS | CUT |
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