SPFBO 10 Elimination Round: Andy

We came to the end of the SPFBO 10 Elimination Round! In case of any confusion: this is not an official SPFBO thing. We here at QBA decided to section Phase 1 into Elimination Round (once known as The Reaping), Semi-Finalist Reveal, and Semi-Final Stage.

What does this mean? Each of us will cut 2 of our titles in the Elimination Round. We’ll add our mini-reviews, explaining our reasons. Once that’s done, we’ll start revealing our semi-finalists (fair warning: not all of us might pick one) and saying goodbye to the remaining titles. Pretty much the same way we did for SPFBO 9. In the second half of Phase 1 (also known as Semi-Final Round), the team will review each of the semi-finalists.

I’d like to thank each and every author who submitted their book to SPFBO this year. I know how hard it must be, but sadly, we can’t forward all of you to the finals. That said, it’s time to say goodbye to two of the books in Tru’s batch. As a reminder, you can check out our SPFBO 10 page to see how we allocated our books and follow our progress.

Previous Elimination Round posts: Tru, Timy, Liis, Arina, Jen

Elegy of a Fragmented Vineyard by Kaden Love

The beginning of a new fantasy epoch from debut author, Kaden Love.

Forced to appease the policies of a foreign fiefdom, Phenmir must do the harvest organs from infants.

Ten years ago, a new generation of children began to manifest abilities from the gods. Now, nearly half of the continent has chosen to graft these organs into adults, granting them their powers.

Phenmir will no longer participate, but can he repent his sin before all morality is lost?

Meanwhile, Aerhee will give all to preserve the process of harvesting, silencing those who oppose her people

Will this land of peace resort to the barbaric practice of war? In a battle of preservation and progression, there can only be one victor.

Read: 25%

I really had high hopes for this one. The general gist of the story is that 10 years ago babies started being born with an extra organ which granted them powers from the gods and soon after certain parts of the land started to harvest these infants and graft them onto adults instead.

It sounded just my kind of dark story but for some reason it just didn’t gel for me. The fact that it starts with a glossary which goes into so much (too much) detail probably set me on my path to getting thoroughly cheesed off with it. As example, it gives you each of the 6 fiefdoms that make up the continent and tells you their Banner, Salute (really, who needs to know that), Ideal (think of this as the motto you would find on a coat of arms), Values, Scripture and God.

And then the story starts and straight away I am off to the glossary to find out what that means – it really was hard work.

I pressed on to 30% read but really couldn’t go any further so DNF for me.

Primal Fury: Trial of the Berserker by Noël Traver

A hive-like race of brutal abominations. A single warrior who wants nothing more than to become a legendary berserker. Can Orsin survive the brutal, solo Trial, kill one of the greatest threats his people have ever known, and emerge as the favoured warrior of his god?

Orsin wants nothing more than to pass The Trial and become a berserker. But to do that he must travel into the wilderness, completely alone, and do battle with the abominations that live in the tundra—a strange, constantly mutating species known only as the Herd. But when Orsin makes his way into that icy desert not everything is as he has been told it would be.

The Herd beasts don’t all act as he expects. Something strange is going on. The ancient enemy of his people is changing, evolving in new and dangerous ways. They are growing more canny and more deadly. But why?

As Orsin delves deeper and deeper into enemy territory, he slowly begins to discover new facets to old dangers, challenges that will threaten not only his life but also his sanity and possibly, his very soul. Can he slaughter enough enemies to pass his Trial, make it back alive, and become the legendary warrior he knows he can be?

Trial of the Berserker is the first book in the Primal Fury epic fantasy series.

If you like brutal and bloody action, feats of great personal strength and fortitude, and high-stakes combat, then you’ll love this debut page-turner!

Read: 10%

Orsin is a warrior, Orsin wants to become a Berserker, and Orsin is also a giant bear (humanoid bear? man bear?)

To become a Berserker he must head out into the Tundra with his adopted brother (also a Man Bear obviously) and beat the absolute snot out of as many of The Herd (the enemy of the Man Bears) as possible. Unfortunately, there was a lot of wandering around in preparation and the characters of Orsin and Torben didn’t really come across as much more than meatheads, with locker room conversation.

The idea of the Herd did interest me though, a parasitic disease that is spreading through the local wildlife and is developing into possibly an even greater threat. This is what makes me feel I will be trying this book again at a later date but for me, for now, ‘kill, kill, kill, kill, kill’ just isn’t doing it, so another DNF.

To keep up with our process and the competition, please check out our SPFBO 10 page!

If you’d like to know more about the QBA team, then meet us in our introduction post!