The first round of the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS) is drawing to a close, and it’s time to present our semi-finalists. Over the last few months, our team has read and considered nineteen different books, and we’ve whittled them down to five that we want to forward to round two.
In this case, “we” refers to Team TBR, and you can find out more about us and the books we read in the first round here.
This week, we’ll share one of our semi-finalists each day, in no particular order, until all five have been revealed. Reviews are not required in this round, but each book needs to be read by at least two team members. Our semi finalists were all read by at least three team members.
The previously announced semi-finalists are:
- The Drowned Heir, by Jennifer R. Donohue
- Reap, Sow, by S.H. Cooper
Now, it’s time for…
Semi-Finalist: Wednesday
The Nome King & the Shroud, by Tim Pratt
Our comments:
Lilly
I absolutely devoured this story, finishing it in one day. It was a very easy read that kept me hooked the whole time.
Sue
I really love a space opera with an intergalactic ark ship piloted by a witty AI, and The Nome King and the Shroud delivers that in spades.
Nils
Easily accessible, well written, and enjoyable. The Nome King & The Shroud is a solid peace of space opera, if perhaps somewhat predictable.
Nils has not (yet) written a review.
Book Description
The Nome King and the Shroud is new space opera novella by Hugo Award winner Tim Pratt.
Mazha Sun is a “troublesolver,” a specialist in dealing with the unexpected, and when she’s awakened from cryosleep years ahead of schedule, she knows something is very wrong. The colony ship’s AI tells her it’s detected something a Dyson sphere, an immense stellar structure created by unknown aliens, seemingly dormant and abandoned.
Since the sphere is close (astronomically speaking) to their planned homeworld, Mazha decides they should take a closer look. But the sphere isn’t as dead as it it has an operative artificial intelligence called Shroud, who asks for help staving off a megastructure-destroying cataclysm. Mazha will just need to wake up a few of her colleagues first….
But can Shroud be trusted? And once they enter the interior of the sphere… will the crew and the sleeping colonists ever be allowed to leave?
