SPFBO 8

SPFBO 8 Phase 1

Welcome to SPFBO 8!

This is Queen’s Book Asylum’s main SPFBO 8 page, where you’ll find a short heads up about the contest, info about our process – for a longer explanation, please see our introduction post -, and about all the 30 books assigned to us and how we divided them – including GR and Amazon links – and updates throughout Phase 1 when we post something.

What is SPFBO?

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.

Our Books & Process

Team Queen’s Book Asylum is back again after a hiatus! We also got new members and a slightly different process than last time. Like the other blogs, we got 30 books assigned as well. We have 4 full-time judges and a ghostie who will haunt our halls and will help out with decision making and moral support as well as doing some reading. Each full-time judge got 7 books – 3 they picked for themselves and 4 randomly drawn – and our ghostie got the remaining 2. We will aim to pick 4-6 semi-finalists before we eventually choose our finalist.

Each judge – except our ghostie – will have two posts up during July – September first to eliminate 3 books with mini reviews, then for their remaining 2-3 cuts and announce their semi-finalist(s). From September through October we’ll post our joint reviews of all of the semi-finalists before we announce our finalist sometime toward the end of October.

Find out more about us and how we are going to do things in this Introduction post!

The Elimination

Below you can follow our process through SPFBO 8 Phase 1. We’ll be doing regular updates as our posts go live. Where available, the book titles are linked to their Goodreads pages, and the covers are linked to the books’ Amazon pages.

Color code:

  • Red: cut
  • Green: chosen as a semi-finalist
  • Purple: chosen as a finalist

Arina

Cover

Author

Title

Series

#

Pages

Audiobook

Michael E. Thies

Guardian of the Core

0.5

288

No

Robert H. Fleming

The War Gryphon Saga

1

420

No

K.A. Ashcomb

Glorious Mishaps

2

382

Yes

Brianna da Silva

Nerasia, Saga I

1

792

No

E. M. Howell

Wildflowers and Evertrees

1

473

No

Emma L. Adams

Relics of Power

1

398

No

Alec Hutson

The Sharded Few

1

656

No

Bjørn

Cover

Author

Title

Series

#

Pages

Audiobook

Lorain O'Neil

-

-

240

No

Pedro Gabriel

Chronicles of Dumah

?

321

No

Nick

Cover

Author

Title

Series

#

Pages

Audiobook

Heather G. Harris

The Other Realm


1

312

Yes

JC Kang

Legends of Tivara

-

464

Yes

Melissa Stone

Stars of Destiny

1

219

No

Valinora Troy

-

-

308

No

Aiden L. Turner

The Call of the Darkness Saga

1

483

No

Chris Fox

Shattered Gods

1

712

Yes

J.R. Matthews

Portal to Nova Roma

1

609

No

Paul

Cover

Author

Title

Series

#

Pages

Audiobook

Cal Black

Legends & Legacies


1

383

No

Reuben J Eckhart

An Alliance of Enemies

1

261

No

Katy Mullett

The Stone Guardians

1

270

No

Ben Stava

-

-

150

No

Coby Zucker

The Fishgut Guard

1

698

No

Casey Hollingshead

Battle Brothers

1

485

No

Sean Mauss

Roh Saga

1

412

No

Timy

Cover

Author

Title

Series

#

Pages

Audiobook

Andrea L. Staum

-

-


214

No

Reginald Lewis

-

-

415

No

Carissa Andrews

The Windhaven Witches

1

322

Yes

Olivia Atwater

-

-

250

No

MJ Carstarphen

Creatures of Dreams

1

326

No

Rick Waugh

The Eternal Muse

1

537

No

Olga Werby

The Ornis Experiment

1

354

No

The Semi-Finals

Below you see how we scored each of our semi-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

7.5

9.5

7.5

8

9

6

6

8

5.5

5

6

4

6

5.5

6

8

5

8.5

8.5

7

4

-

8

8

4

Updates

SPFBO 8 Finalist announcement – our winner is finally revealed with a little twist

Semi-Finalist Review: The Umbral Storm by Alec Hutson – our thoughts about the 5th and last semi-finalist

Semi-Finalist Review: Penny for Your Soul by K.A. Ashcomb – the team arrived to our fourth semi-finalist

Semi-Finalist Review: The Dragon Charmer’s Apprentice by JC Kang – the team looks at our third semi-finalist

Semi-Finalist Review: The Witch Hunter by Casey Hollingshead – the team reviews our second semi-finalist

Semi-Finalist Review: Small Miracles by Olivia Atwater – the team shares their thoughts about our first semi-finalist

Semi-Finalist Reveal: Paul – our fourth and last semi-finalist announcement and the last 3 cuts

Semi-Finalist Reveal: Arina – our third semi-finalist announcement and more cuts

Semi-Finalist Reveal: Nick – our second semi-finalist announcement and 3 cuts

Semi-Finalist Reveal: Timy – our first semi-finalist announcement and 3 cuts

Elimination Round: Arina – our last 3 to fall in the Elimination Round

Elimination Round: Paul – yet another 3 to fall

Elimination Round: Bjørn – 2 more to fall

Elimination Round: Nick – another 3 to fall

Elimination Round: Timy – our first 3 to fall

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