Welcome to my first round of reviews for SFINCS 2! I’m just one judge representing Team Swordsworn this year for the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship AKA SFINCS. Our team has been allocated twenty books, and I fully intend to read all of them before helping the team choose our semi-finalists.
You can learn more about SFINCS and our allocated books here.
So this year, my process is to read each book in alphabetical order and then review five books together for a total of four rounds. I’ll give each book a fair shake by reading then to 100% and sharing my honest thoughts. Bear in mind that this review does not represent the opinion or final rating of the team.
We’ve already covered the first batch of five books here. Now let’s move onto the second:
Callista’s Adventures: Tartarus and the Sword by Joharra Harper
With Callista and Joan fighting about religion, the couple must return to Athens for a mission from Hera, to find her sacred scepter and return it to her in one piece. But when Hercules has other plans, the two finds themselves in Tartarus with an evil enchanted sword out to destroy them and the world. Can they get past their troubles and come together to save the world and themselves? When both is willing to sacrifice themselves for the other, will they be able to survive this time? Or is this the time that will finally destroy them beyond repair?
Callista’s Adventures is a Greek-inspired mythology adventure that stretches from Athens to the underworld on Tartarus. It alternates between the POV’s of Callista, a vampire, and her girlfriend Joan who may well be THE Joan of Arc. They’re tasked by Hera herself to find her missing scepter, which leads to more danger than they were expecting. The two characters seem to have a lot of trauma from their background which they also have to deal with alongside potential deadly monsters.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite connect with this story, as it felt like I’d been placed into the middle of a serial, or that I’d picked up a sequel by mistake. There’s too much history between the characters and story that isn’t explained, or that assumes the reader should have prior knowledge. Looking at Goodreads, there are two other books that I assume are in the same series and that likely introduce the world and characters better. As such, I don’t think this story works as a standalone.
I also feel like the writing style comes across as quite juvenile. While there is danger, the plot points seem to be resolved rather quickly and easily, and the characters act overly dramatic. The author has some creative ideas, but I think more time spent fleshing out the characters, world, and story would lend to a stronger book overall.
Centaur and Sensibility by Quenby Olson
Miss Mary Clegg does not want to marry.
No, Miss Mary Clegg does not want to marry someone who lacks such important features as wit, intelligence, and a fine jawline. So what other option is there for her but to run away from home?
It’s a simple enough plan, to begin with. But a shortcut through a magic forest (well, she didn’t know it was magic at the time) and a chance meeting with an exasperating centaur provide a plethora of complications.
And what about love? Well, that might be the most challenging complication of all.
I’m not usually a fan of regency because I prefer my fantasy to have a bit more action, but Centaur and Sensibility was an absolute delight. It’s a short but sweet story, at less than fifty pages, and tells the story of Mary Clegg who does not want to be married and decides to run away to avoid the act. Unfortunately, she finds herself lost in the woods, until she bumps into a handsome gentleman who just happens to be a centaur. But that’s fine, as centaurs are quite normal in this world! The two form a polite partnership as they travel through the woods in search of a way out.
As you may expect with a regency story, the two form a romantic connection, and my only criticism of this story was how quickly that relationship forms. Perhaps the author could have made this story a bit longer to stretch it out, but ultimately, it hits those sweet notes, and I found the author’s writing style to be charming and humorous throughout, giving rise to one of my favourite quotes: “So if she could not find her way back, she would have to continue forward. Either that, or remain where she was and wait for fate or a wandering plot device to rescue her.”
If you do enjoy regency or cozy fantasy, then I recommend this bite-sized story!
Distant Thunder: An Exile War Novella by Bowen Greenwood
Once, telepaths almost wiped out humankind. Centuries later, a brotherhood called the Gentle Hand lives to keep it from happening again.
At 22, Langston Wheeler chomps at the bit to graduate and join their ranks. But when he finds a fellow student murdered in Servants’ Yard, his last few months in school take a mysterious turn, and the hunt for the killer borders on impossible.
Cleo Sable cuts short a meteoric career in the field to return to the Yard and teach others her craft. When Wheeler turns to her for help solving the murder, her comfortable post as a professor plunges into dangerous waters. Wheeler and Sable must catch the killer before a terrifying secret from the past brings the whole order down, and that may be the least of their worries. Every Gentle Hand lives under strict rules to control the gene for telepathy: who they serve, who they obey, and who they are allowed to love.
Bringing a murderer to justice draws Lang and Cleo inexorably together, but the system won’t be satisfied until they’re apart. A killer stalks Servants’ Yard, and an ancient evil stands ready to rise again. If they fail, any hope Lang and Cleo have for happiness could be lost, and Human Space plunged into the thunder of interstellar war.
Distant Thunder is a mix between a futuristic sci-fi story and a dystopia where children who have telepathic powers are recruited into an organization known as the Gentle Hand in order to keep their powers in check and teach them to be good, useful little citizens. The setting of the Yard is effectively a boarding school or college campus for different age groups where they study their powers and train to serve the greater society. Langston is an older student at the school on track to graduate with the best grades and best assignments waiting. That is, until his new teacher, Cleo, enters the picture.
Oh, and his friend gets murdered.
The story then switches between Langston’s growing feelings and relationship with Cleo – effectively a forbidden romance they must undertake in secret – and a murder mystery as Langston and Cleo work together to discover the strange circumstances of the murder. Without spoiling the story, the consequences of both eventually catch up to Langston and Cleo in an explosive climax (no pun intended) that is set up for the continuing series. While this story is a prequel, and it does end on a bit of a cliff-hanger, I do think it works well as an introduction to the world and series.
My biggest gripe with this novella was that both POV characters came across as too perfect, which the story was keen to remind me of almost every chapter. The relationship between Langston and his older teacher made me somewhat uncomfortable, even if Langston was a consenting adult. But despite finding Langston quite insufferable as a character, the worldbuilding intrigued me and had a lot of depth. It’s clear the author has spent some time developing this world!
Don’t Bloody the Black Flag by James Lloyd Dulin
The fight for peace is often a war.
To end nearly a century of war plaguing Ennea, a clan of nomads plans to bring leaders from the four nations together. They task a young water dancer named Isála to deliver a missive to a northern general, her estranged mother, and convince her to join the conclave. However, there are those who would do anything to defend their war from the threat of peace. After living a life sheltered from the violence, Isála will have to choose between her principles and shedding blood for the good of her people.
Don’t Bloody the Black Flag is a novella set in the world of the Malitu series. It takes place more than 200 years before the events of No Heart for a Thief.
This is a prequel to the Malitu series, and I’m always wary of prequels if I’m not familiar with the series, as they rarely work as a standalone for me. Initially, I did struggle to get into this story. There’s a lot of history and terms thrown at you right away, some of which you can decipher through context. Handily, there IS a glossary that I found very useful for immersing into this world, but I didn’t discover it until after I finished the book since it was at the end and I, of course just powered my way through.
That said, when I found my feet, I was immersed into a tale of Isála, a nomad from a clan who is on a peace-keeping mission to unite the clans and bring an end to years of war and bloodshed. She’d joined by two guards who are used to fighting for their survival, as Isála is more sheltered and believes she can get through this mission without unnecessary violence. Unfortunately, not everyone believes in this peace, and she’s forced to put her pacifist principles to the test.
Though mostly from Isála’s POV, the story occasionally swaps to different POV’s, including that of the antagonist, and while these are quite short and sudden in some ways, they added more depth to the overall story that I appreciated. Isála herself is a water dancer, and there are other characters demonstrating earth and fire bending too, which naturally gives rise to Avatar: The Last Air Bender comparisons.
As the story develops, there are some harrowing moments, and scenes that definitely hit me in the feels. Despite my slow start getting to grips with the story, it ended on a satisfying note and worked really well as a standalone, while giving me a taste of what to expect from further books in the series.
I also greatly enjoyed the authors prose and writing style, however at times I did struggle to follow the action or dialogue. Still, this was a very strong novella recommended for epic fantasy fans and those who enjoy Avatar-style elemental magic.
This review is getting quite long, but I also appreciated the author’s note at the end of the novella reflecting on writing POC characters as a white author. This was a respectful note, which also included recommendations for fantasy books written by POC authors. I’d love to see more white authors reflecting on the impact of their work in this way.
Eagles Fall by L. R. Schulz
Light has triumphed, the great war is won.
Yet shadows linger in the darkness, and in the hidden corners of men’s hearts.
Granted the ability to wield Zur’s Light, Gallion’s Eagles are a symbol of justice. People can look to the skies and know they are protected. But without a common enemy, resentment has begun to fester.
With civil war looming, Ward finds himself caught between warring factions. Unwilling to choose between love and duty, will Ward be able to stop things before they go too far? Or will his world come crashing down in a clash of tooth and talon?
Serving as a prequel to L. R. Schulz’s Bonds of Kin series, Eagles Fall serves as an introduction to Zapour. This standalone story portrays the events that lead to the structure of the world in A King’s Radiance, and can be read either before or after the main series, with some nice little easter eggs for returning readers.
Eagles Fall feels like your classic fantasy featuring not only dragon riders, but mystical eagle riders too! This is the tale of two factions who once worked together to defeat a great evil, but now that time has passed, and the factions are beginning to grow mistrust and clash. The first of these factions, which are our MC Ward belongs to, are the dragon-riders known as Gallion’s Eagle’s, who not only raise and ride on dragons, but they also have the ability to absorb sunlight, known as Shine, which they can feed to their dragons or use as a powerful weapon. The section eagle-riding faction are known as Mystics, and give me witchy vibes. They all have purple eyes and can manipulate and control the emotions of other people. That, and their immortality, makes them hard to trust.
Much of this story is around the politics of these two factions and the inevitable falling out between their people. Ward is a good guy who is dating a Mystic, and so feels caught in the middle between duty to his own faction and his relationship with the Mystics. Ward also strikes me as quite naïve, and it did get a little annoying when he kept constantly asking “How did things get this bad?” when everything is falling apart around him.
This story is again a prequel, and I’m not entirely sure that it works as a standalone. There are a lot of fantasy terms and history thrown around that is a little hard to follow, and being a politically-charged book, there were a lot of countries and characters to keep track of that I didn’t know of or care about. I think more page space to really develop the history and relationship between the factions would have made this a much stronger story. I did however appreciate the ending.
I think this one would be best read for readers of the Bonds of Kin series, but it does serve as an introduction setting up the world and magical powers found within.
