Welcome to SPFBO 8!
This is Queen’s Book Asylum’s main page for the SPFBO 8 Finals, where you’ll find a short heads up about the contest, info about our process, and about all the 10 books that made it – including GR and Amazon links – and updates throughout the finals when we post something.
The SPFBO 8 Finals begins at November 1st, 2022 and ends on April 30th, 2023.
The Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off is hosted by none other than Mark Lawrence, author of The Broken Empire, The Red Queen’s War, The Book of Ancestor, the Impossible Times, and the Book of the Ice 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 in the SPFBO 8 Finals.
Queen’s Book Asylum’s team will remain the same as was in Phase 1 – why change what’s perfect, huh? Since there are 5 of us, and 10 books to read, it’s likely not all of us will read all of the finalists due to personal interest, time restrictions, unforeseen life events, etc. However, our main goal is to have at least 3 reviews written for each of the books in the SPFBO 8 Finals.
We also have a DNF (did not finish) policy in place: since we don’t all have the same tastes (thank fuck), it might happen that we don’t particularly like a book and hence decide to not read further, which is completely normal. If a judge reads up to 50% before deciding on a DNF, they’ll be asked to score and review the book. If they don’t reach the 50% mark or thereabouts, they may decide not to leave a score and review. Although this is a competition and we know how important feedback is, we also don’t want to force anyone to read a book against their wishes.
As so far, we will aim to share our honest views and opinions on any given book without the intent of hurting or being mean.
Below you see how we scored each of the SPFBO 8 finalists (they are listed in the same order as announced). The book titles are linked to their Goodreads pages, and the covers are linked to the books’ Amazon pages.
Cover | Title | Arina | Bjørn | Nick | Paul | Timy | Final Score |
 | 4 | 4 | 6.5 | 6 | 5 | ||
 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 7.5 | 8 | 9 | ||
 | 5 | X | 6 | 6 | X | ||
 | X | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7.5 | ||
 | X | 8.5 | 8 | 9 | 8 | ||
 | 8 | 5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | 7 | ||
 | X | X | 8 | 7.5 | 6 | ||
 | 6 | X | 7.5 | 7 | X | ||
 | 5 | X | 5 | 6 | X | ||
 | X | 9 | 9 | X | 8.5 |
Finalist Review: Fire of the Forebears by L.A. Buckle – Nick and Paul share their thoughts on Bookborn’s finalist
Finalist Review: A Song for the Void by Andrew C. Piazza – Nick, Paul and I share our thoughts on the Fantasy Faction team’s finalist.
Finalist Review: Tethered Spirits by T.A. Hernandez – Arina, Bjorn, Nick, Paul and I share our thoughts on Becky’s finalist
Finalist Review: A Touch of Light by Thiago Abdalla – Arina, Nick, and Paul share their thoughts on Booknest’s finalist
Finalist Review: Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olsen – Bjorn, Nick, Paul and I share our thoughts on Lynn’s Books and The Critiquing Chemists team’s finalist
Finalist Review: The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies – Bjorn, Nick, Paul and I share our thoughts on the Before We Go Blog team’s finalist
Finalist Review: Mysterious Ways by Abbie Evans – Arina, Nick, and Paul share their thoughts on the Fantasy Inn’s finalist
Finalist Review: Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis – Bjorn, Nick, Paul and I share our thoughts on Team Weatherdrfiter’s finalist
SPFBO 8 Finalist announcement – our winner is finally revealed with a little twist
Finalist Review: The Umbral Storm by Alec Hutson – our thoughts about one of our semi-finalists which was our SSN and Fantasy Book Critic decided to advance it to the finals
Finalist Review: Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater – the team shares their thoughts about our finalist
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