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.
Sound good? Then let’s begin with my first round of reviews:
A Ballad of Hate and Hope by Kaylea Prime
Hope has no beginning, and no end.
As a Lantíé with both antlers and wings, and a Storyteller able to recall stories from the past, Nensola has always felt like an anomaly. Dark shadows of her peryton ancestors prowl the peripheries of her soul, threatening to consume her if she loses control. When her mom is murdered by pirates to harvest the magic in her wings, Nensola struggles to lead with hope.
Sailing the West Indies in 1715, Kit is determined not to let his pirate stepfather die to claim a prize for the device he stole. He has always felt unanchored between Spanish and English cultures, harbouring hate for his parents’ deaths. When Kit falls through a maelstrom portal into the world of Arwé and meets Nensola, his anchor begins to lower.
While hope burgeons in Nensola and Kit’s hearts, hate festers on the borders. Just when Kit finally feels he belongs, he is cast adrift, faced with the prospect of returning to Earth. With her home and people threatened by a sinister force, and her trust in Kit uncertain, Nensola fears hate’s grip on her heart is stronger than the clinging droplet of hope.
But even a droplet can create ripples. And all it takes is a ripple to change the world.
A Ballad of Hate and Hope is a prequel novella taking place almost two hundred years before the events in A Spark From Embers – volume one in the fantasy series, Tears of Flame.
This is a prequel story based on the Tears of Flame fantasy series that I’m sadly not familiar with. It’s set within a magical alternate world accessible from ours via a magic portal. It’s told from the POV’s of Nensola, who lives within the magical side on a tropical island, and Kit, the son of a pirate who accidentally washes up on the island’s shores after being caught in a raging storm at sea. Nensola has the ability to collect and weave stories from bodies of water, such as the sea or rivers, but has been having trouble trying to inspire stories of hope for her people who are fighting a war against enemy creatures.
The two POV’s have a close friendship that blossoms into romantic feelings, however when Nensola learns of Kit’s pirate background, she turns her back on him, as her mother was killed by pirates. This then forces Kit to take drastic measures to prove his worth and loyalty, in turn forcing Nensola to reconcile the trauma of both past and present. Both characters are healing from the wounds of their childhood as they struggle with reconciling feelings of hate and hope.
As this is a prequel story, I did struggle to find my footing within it. I didn’t quite understand much of Nensola’s culture or powers to begin with, and I found her emotional journey to be quite repetitive. Kit’s opening chapter started off much stronger, but I also felt that we didn’t get to see much of his character development. I would have liked to witness his arrival into Nensola’s world and the developing relationship between the POV characters, but sadly this happened off page. The enemy that plagues Nensola’s people also aren’t properly explored or explain, they just sort of exist, and the battles with them at the end also felt rushed. I believe this story could have worked as a standalone if it had spent more time (and ironically for a novella, more pages) on exploring these characters and their relationship in further depth. Previous readers of the Tears of Flame series will probably find more they understand and enjoy in this one.
After the Syzygy by J.D. Sanderson
Will We Find Them?In 1977, humans placed the Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft with the hope it would be found by an alien civilization in the future.
In 2036, the alien equivalent arrived on Earth.
When the news leaks to the press, a global wave of fear, panic, and disinformation leaves people to wonder if the damage can ever be undone. In an attempt to quell unrest, several world governments begin an open exchange of ideas and information, hoping to understand the alien signal. As decades and centuries pass, humanity works together to answer one question.
This is my first sci-fi book of this year’s SFINCS and is a first contact story that stretches across various POVs throughout many generations. It begins when humanity receives contact from an alien race much like the Golden Record we sent into space on the Voyager spacecraft – a record of human diversity and culture. This alien version is a mixture of strange sounds and symbols that brings together humanity’s top scientists to try and figure out. Unfortunately, this secret is leaked into the world, and rather predictably, humans panic over the knowledge that we may not be alone in the world.
The story then moves through these different POVs as various characters attempt to decipher the alien’s meaning and develop technology along the way. The story has a Star Trek vibe to it, as unlocking the secrets of the aliens eventually brings humanity together, but I won’t say anymore on that for spoiler reasons. It’s a journey that spans hundreds of years, and each shift into the future has a nod to the past, and references the characters that came before them. I like how this allowed the story to develop across generations, but it also meant we didn’t get to spend much time with each POV.
I’m not sure if the author intended for this to be a cozy, low-stakes story, but that’s also the vibe I got from this. There isn’t much conflict here that gets in the way of the POV characters, but it does make for a wholesome story of humanity reaching into the stars to make contact. Those looking for a brighter, more optimistic take on humanity’s future will enjoy this one.
Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault
Innkeep, hunter, blacksmith, nurse—Horace has apprenticed for every clan in the domed city of Trenaze, and they’ve all rejected em. Too hare-brained. Too talkative. Too slow. Ever the optimist, e has joined Trenaze’s guards to be mentored. Horace has high hopes to earn eir place during eir trial at the Great Market. That is, until the glowing shards haunting the world break through the city’s protective dome, fused together in a single, monstrous amalgam of Fragments.
Armed with a sword, a shield, and far too little training, Horace doubts eir ability to defend the market-goers. But eir last stand is interrupted by a mysterious elven figure who can dissipate the Fragments with a single, strange sentence: your story is my story.
From the moment it is uttered, Horace knows the sentences holds true for em, too—and when the elf collapses in the middle of the market, e carries them to safety, to recover away from the panicked crowd and inevitable questions from eir fellow guards. It could cost em eir apprenticeship—eir last chance to find eir place in eir home city—but Horace cannot resist the pull of this mystery elf and the call of a new friend.
Aliyah has but one desire: to leave Trenaze’s safe boundaries and find the forest that haunts their dreams. After an afternoon of board games in their quiet, sharp-witted company, Horace is ready to follow, confronting Fragments and other dangers of the road to understand what happened that day, hear Aliyah’s laugh again and finally feel like e belongs.
One of my favourite fantasy tropes is a bunch of strangers coming together and forming a party for adventure, and Awakenings is the beginning of just that. Told from the POV of Horace, a lovable gentle giant, who is attempting to earn an apprenticeship after failing many within eir domed city. Horace has just one job – literally – to stand guard of the dome, but unfortunately things don’t go to plan as the dome is attacked by technological creatures known as Fragments, and subsequently protected by a mysterious elf with tree powers that collapses under Horace’s watch. Not wasting an opportunity to make a friend, Horace chooses to hide eir new elf pal from the questioning gaze of the city, which leads to making friends with the owner of a sentient wagon and the start of a quest to discover the mysterious nature of the elf’s past and the dangers of the Fragments.
To say more would be to spoil the fun. Awakenings is part fantasy adventure and also cozy fantasy, as the three friends bond over cooked dinners and board games. It’s not an action packed adventure, though there are moments of tense action, but there is a sense of wonder and adventure as these characters set out on their chosen quest.
Alas, Awakenings IS the beginning, and thus this story is a short introduction to Horace’s world and throws more questions at you than answers. It’s part of The Chronicles of Nerezia series of novellas, so it doesn’t work as a standalone, however I found myself charmed by the story and Horace’s personality that I’m keen to read more in the series and see how their quest will develop.
I also appreciated the diversity represented among the POV and side characters. This was the first book I’ve read with a character using e/em pronouns, and while I did find it initially jarring, I got used to them by the end.
Baby Bird by Travis M. Riddle
Someone is trying to get into Chloe’s house
They left something inside
What they left is waking up.A new home invasion/body horror novella in the world of The Narrows.
This is the first horror story on my list, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about horror as a genre as I haven’t read much of it, yet I’m willing to give anything a go! The blurb was quite vague, so I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I was also worried I’d need to read The Narrows to understand what was going on, but I’m pleased to say Baby Bird worked perfectly well as a standalone.
So this begins with Chloe relaxing in her new home. Already, I can relate to the anxiety she feels of being alone in a new home while worrying what all those creaks and noises mean. Is it the piping? The wind? A monster? Alas, in Chloe’s case, it’s something she would never have imagined.
There’s also nothing scarier than some crazed stranger trying to get inside your house, and that’s Chloe’s fears come true as a strange woman breaks into her house, demanding to find something that had been left behind. That ‘something’ isn’t a forgotten toaster, however, and a true horror presents itself. I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say I am quite a squeamish person, and there were a few scenes here that made me cringe and gag. If that was your intent, Mr Riddle, than bravo, and please stay away from me.
The story wasn’t as predictable as I first thought and was quite a page turner. I think fans of body horror will get a kick out of this bite-sized horror.
Bloodwitch by Timandra Whitecastle
They say blood is thicker than water. They’re wrong.
An ancient priesthood recruited Jan from the parlours of Babuk. They said it was because she had talent at waterwielding.
They’ll live to regret it.
Jan survived something she shouldn’t have. But she doesn’t remember it clearly. Now they pry into her mind, and she cannot stop them.
Yet.
Jan must learn how to control her own waterwielding gift, to defend herself from those who would reach within her and steal her very name and memories, and she must make a choice …
Who is she, really?
Acolyte
Watermage
Bloodwitch
Jan is a young noblewoman with the ability to manipulate water, but of course all her family want to do is marry her off to some rich suitor. To distract from this boring reality, she disguises herself and performs tricks for join at the local market. But when she attracts the attention of a strange man who has been hunting for a woman of her unique abilities, Jan finds herself recruited into a priesthood devoted to a water goddess with a promise that she could learn to truly master her waterwielding abilities.
But the priesthood isn’t all what it seems, and as Jan becomes frustrated with her strictly controlled training, she begins to question the true nature of the priesthood, their motivations, and what it means for students of their order – including Jan herself. There are many secrets to unlock, and Jan is stubborn in her pursuit of answers. I admired her ambition, and the lengths she was prepared to go to. The magic system held some interesting consequences, and while this story is technically a prequel, it stands on its on well enough with a fully realized and satisfying ending.
However, I feel as though this story could also benefit from more pages to allow it to fully flourish. The nature of a novella meant that we don’t spend much time with Jan studying with the priesthood, or develop a closer relationship with the side characters, which means certain plot points later don’t hit quite as hard. A lot happens in the later half of the story which also feels a bit rushed. This story was an excellent introduction to the author’s writing, though, and I’d like to see what she does with a full-sized novel.
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