This year, we decided to mix things up a bit and we are not waiting to finish up with the Elimination Round to start having Semi-Finalist Reveals as well. You can just never know what’s going to happen in this Asylum. It’s Arina’s turn to bring our fifth SPFBO 10 Semi-Finalist Reveal! She will share her thoughts on her remaining 3 titles, and tell you if she picked a semi-finalist!
A bit about our process ICYMI. Each of us cuts 2 of our titles in the Elimination Round. During the Semi-Finalist Reveal, we look at our remaining titles and at the end of the post we announce our semi-finalist. Fair warning: not all of us might pick a semi-finalist. Once we are all done, we’ll be reading each others’ picks and reviewing those titles individually. Finally, we reveal our finalist in October.
We’d like to thank each and every author who submitted their book to SPFBO this year. We know how hard it must be, but sadly, we can’t forward all of you to the finals. As a reminder, you can check out our SPFBO 10 page to see how we allocated our books and follow our progress.
I previously said goodbye to two titles: Secrets of the Sorcerers by Joan Marie Verba and Heir of Amber and Fire by Rachanee Lumayno (full Elimination Round post here). Now it’s time to bid my farewells to two more and reveal the book that has stuck with me enough for me to put it forward as a semi-finalist.
Echoes of Memory by M. Anthony Harris
If you can’t trust your memories, what can you trust?
This question gnaws at Aris Ravenscroft after foreign memories invade his mind and nearly get him killed during an assassination attempt on the Emperor, a hero beloved by all. A hero he’s sworn to protect.
Kestrel, a street-smart orphan, also finds his mind filled with memories that aren’t his. Memories that say that his world is nothing like it seems.
Now the duo must make sense of the alien memories while unraveling the mystery of the Emperor’s true colors while dodging attempts on their lives by the mysterious Inquisitors, crooked politicians, and a host of dangers in a world where the greatest villain is the biggest hero.
Read: 40%
Echoes of Memory begins with rebellion….a failed one. As the empire regains its might and squashes a mage rebellion, one of the rebels casts out his memories in an attempt to keep the spark of defiance alive. But he appears to have failed to find a vessel…
M. Anthony Harris‘ fantasy chonker started out strong, with a powerful scene that nicely sets up an initial mystery. Sadly, it quickly lost that thread by relying heavily on overexplaining and overexposition to relay its curious worldbuilding.
A similar pattern promptly explains every newly introduced concept: “Aris grabbed the nearest Metalvine stick. Metalvine was a plant that grew in the mountain…”; ” ‘Where’s Sephira?’ (…) ‘She said she was feeling ill…’ came Corrine’s reply. Sephira was Aris’ niece, the daughter of his disgraced brother(…)”.
My fascination with worldbuilding stems from how it is introduced to the reader. I like to experience the world through the characters’s eyes and actions and feel it through their experiences.
So, the textbook-like worldbuilding eventually grated on my engagement, interrupting the flow of the narrative with its overly explicit, quick-to-follow explanations. I found I wasn’t forming any bonds with either characters or world.
If this type of narrative is no bother to you, give this a shot. Echoes of Memory boasts a peculiar magic system, explores what happens when hope is lost (can it be recovered?), and features the blessed “distrusting man adopts feisty teen girl” trope. For that, it’s worth a read.
Dead as Dreams by Alexa Grave
Souls chained to the earth scream for release, and nightmares devour dreams.
Aysa, the Shepherd of Dreams, hides in the dream world from a past she yearns to forget. But when the scent of rotting flowers wafts through the Nexus, and multiplying nightmares nip at her heels, she realizes it’s her responsibility as the goddess Muska’s chosen to protect her realm. And then a dreamer notices her for the first time…
Lazarus hates the power the god Lokahn cursed him with – as a spirit seeker, he’s tasked to wander Bodhira, sending off lingering souls to the unknown. In one town, he stumbles across a mass grave and fails to free the spirits, as they’re bound to the earth by another spirit seeker’s magic. Determined to liberate the souls, he seeks help from an unlikely source. A woman from his dream, with blue eyes and feathers in her hair…
Aysa and Lazarus reluctantly make a pact to restore the balance between dreams and nightmares, as well as life and death.
Read: 60%
Dead as Dreams by Alexa Grave builds on an intriguing premise, blending necromancer and dreamwalker magic to craft a world where the boundaries between life, death, and dreams blur.
Aysa is a dreamwalker, or rather, the dreamwalker, The Shepherd of Dreams, a figure renowned by her people. But for all her freedom in the oneiric realm, she is a prisoner in the real world, an escapee previously enslaved by a man she once trusted and loved.
Dead as Dreams walks the realms of real and unreal constantly, by way of the POVs of two distinct characters: our Shepherd and Lazarus, a necromancer with a tortured past. Both find each other in dreams and progress to needing one another in real life, as the dreamworld and the real become threatened by powerful dark magic.
I really enjoyed this setting and characters. The entwinement of reality and dream, of strength and will, of power and helplessness, adds depth to them.
I didn’t much connect with Lazarus, on account of his persistent focus on the female body and its sexual possibilities (is there a woman this man doesn’t wanna fuck?) but I eventually found his character interesting at least. However, this connection was quickly depleted by the plot, which is repetitive and non-existent until about 50% into the story.
Its pacing and narrative focus seemed off. Progression felt stagnant half the time, which I suppose is an effort to akin your sensibilities to Aysa’s, but it just left me feeling adrift, wanting more.
Not finding a good balance between character and narrative, I eventually put this one down. But if you’re into cruel gods, the undead, death magic, strong female characters and are willing to overlook these flaws, pick this one up.
Bringer of the Scourge by M. Daniel McDowell
To save them all, the princess must first rescue herself.
Vierrelyne du Talorr, the last living daughter of the tyrant king, waits locked in a tower cell for the prophesied apocalypse only she can prevent. An army of three brittle allegiances, united under a rival prince, aims for the throne and lays siege to the castle in search of the princess and the fabled weaponry of the empire.
With the aid of her mentor in music and swords, and a desperate cultist sent to find her before the mercenaries do, Vierrelyne steals that formidable ancient weapon from her family crypt: a holy suit of armor and a diadem infused with the soul of a demon prince—the Bringer of the Scourge. With it, Vierrelyne discovers an unstoppable power, but the demon within is corrosive, hungry, and dangerously persuasive.
Vierrelyne is haunted by what it means to tame this power bequeathed to her, and by what means she might conquer it. When that rival prince finds her, it will take all the strength she can muster, for if the prophecy she dreads is true, the very weapons she wields might destroy everything—and everyone—she holds dear.
Read: 100%
Classic fantasy travel quest meets sweet berserker princess. I really enjoyed Bringer of the Scourge.
A twist on the “damsel in the tower” trope, it sets princess Vierrelyne on a journey of sorrow and self-discovery, when a siege attack releases her from the tower her father confined her to, deemed dangerous for the prophecy shrouding her fate in danger and blood. A prophecy that speaks of Vierrelyne’s potential and relates to her mother’s previous dealings with a demon-possessed relic.
As she flees the tower and travels with both an old friend and a new companion to stop demonic forces from overwhelming the land, Vierrelyne grows into this new world while proving her strength and capacity for both love and war. Torn between the two, she will either disprove or achieve her prophecized path.
The narrative style can sound a bit patchy at times, and some action scenes could use a bit more pacing. But I really enjoyed how distinct the characters were and that this was one unusual story that stood out, not only in my batch but in all my readings.
The characters are complex in that they are shown to step outside the usual expectations for characters in a story like this. Both soft and harsh, they have a pleasant duality.
Two of the main characters, including Vierrelyne herself, are also queer, which was a good surprise, seamlessly embedded in their stories.
I want to thank all the authors who put their books in my hands. Although I didn’t match well with many of yours, I’m still glad we got to spotlight you and hopefully put you on the radar of many other readers.
Now, onto choices, my semi-finalist for SPBO 10 is…
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Bringer of the Scourge by M. Daniel McDowell
Our congratulations to Bringer of the Scourge for becoming Queen’s Book Asylum’s fifth semi-finalist!
To keep up with our progress and the competition, please check out our SPFBO 10 page!
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