General Housekeeping:
First and foremost, thank you to the authors again for sharing their literary worlds with The Critiquing Chemist and the Bookish Boffin!
Over the next few Fridays, the Critiquing Chemist will be posting their elimination posts for SPFBOX. This is our fifth year participating in SPFBO and our fourth year partnering with the lovely and wonderful Lynn’s Books. Every year, this stage of the contest gets harder and harder!
With these SPFBO eliminations, The Critiquing Chemist and her Bookish Boffin, along with Lynn’s Books, are working their way through Phase One. Elimination posts, such as this one, will serve as a general announcement regarding the titles to be cut with a short spoiler-free overview included for each novel. Eliminations and semifinalists will ONLY be announced in specific posts regarding those aforementioned topics and not in individual novel full reviews.
Without further ado, our third set of eliminations can be found in the next section. Please keep in mind that these titles are in no particular order or ranking, whether within this post or the rest of our Phase One cuts.
The Crippled King by A.Trae McMaken
SPFBO Status: Cut
Blurb:
The life of a dwarven prospector is one of shame, loneliness, and a constant battle for survival. Striking it rich is the only way for Naen to keep his bones from bleaching in the sun without heritage or memory. When riches finally fall into his hands, he encounters a group of indentured servants fleeing from a vengeful master. A dwarf-maid named Jade leads the refugees, but she has her own desires for her future and they don’t seem to include Naen. Yet in the face of the brutal wilderness, they need help to survive, and the experienced Naen could give it. When spring comes, should he leave them to their fate and return to the wilds alone, or should he stay with the outlaw dwarves and face the coming onslaught?
Mocked as the King of the Cripples, the epithet could become Naen’s true heritage as the ragged refugees prepare their mine to withstand the vengeance of dwarven kings.
General Thoughts:
Naen has lived isolated on the outskirts of society, where contact with others is minimal at best and survival is a daily worry. When he chances upon the find of a lifetime, at what lengths will he go to change his station and how will it haunt him after? The Crippled King might be the first story I’ve read where the main characters are all dwarves. McMaken built a complex social structure in The Cripple King that complicates Naen’s newfound dreams by providing the fuel for change. The haunting that relentlessly pursued Naen was the stuff of nightmares, causing me to have goosebumps every time Naen turns around. I did find myself drawn into the worldbuilding that McMaken developed around Naen and the mysterious haunting. That said, I enjoyed seeing Naen grow the most as his comfort zone was shattered in a group setting. While The Cripple King starts off strong with Naen’s discovery and frantic flight, the story soon becomes mired in politics and daily minutiae of organizing the survival of a large group, even when danger looms large with coming spring.
Jem, A Girl of London by Delaney Green
SPFBO Status: Cut
Blurb:
Winner of a 2015 North Street Book Prize. “I would have adored this book as a thirteen-year-old who was very interested in history and science, and I enjoyed it immensely as an adult….” ~ Ellen LaFleche, assistant judge, North Street Book Prize When Jenna Connolly is orphaned in eighteenth century London, she faces two problems: first, she must find a way to stay out of the workhouse and off the streets; second, she must find a way to shake the disturbing visions she’s been having ever since her father’s death. Jenna doesn’t want to hear what animals are thinking. She doesn’t want to know what diseases lurk inside complete strangers. Jenna solves her first problem by disguising herself as a boy and calling herself “Jem.” This lands her a home with a doctor and a job with an apothecary. She even gets to take lessons from the American scientist, Ben Franklin. But Jem’s visions get scarier and harder to control, especially when she learns that a stranger with a patch over his eye has hired spies to find her. Who does Patch work for? Why does he want Jem? Why can’t Jem shake her strange visions—and why did she start having them in the first place?
General Thoughts:
Poor, poor Jenna. After a heartbreaking tragedy uproots Jenna and her family from everything and everyone they know, a series of unfortunate events lies in store for them. Jenna’s powers were intriguing, though a slow burn as they’re only just starting to be investigated half way through. Every time Jenna and her family glimpse happiness or experience any luck, some new terrible situation lies in store. I found I couldn’t keep reading after an unimaginable horror leaves Jenna utterly alone in a vast and unfriendly city. I felt like this read was breaking me along with sweet Jenna.
Darkness of the Northern Sky by A.E. Engle
SPFBO Status: Cut
Blurb:
Commander Soltari is jaded by battle and returns home to his wife and daughter to lay down his sword for good. When nightmarish hordes suddenly strike his city and murder his family, he promises to find and destroy the sadistic sorceress behind the raid.
Blinded by his desire for revenge, he leads an army deep into a frozen wasteland to strike first and stop her next attack. But a supernatural event wipes out his force, leaving him and a handful of soldiers stranded in the barren lands. Driven to madness, Soltari swears to return to his homeland and fulfill the promise he made. Yet, now the sorceress holds his lands captive, preparing for her next deadly attack.
Can Soltari rise from the void of his inner abyss to return and save his homeland before the sorceress unleashes another wave of destruction?
For fans of classic sword and sorcery comes Darkness of the Northern Sky, a story of one soldier’s journey to reclaim his home, his land, and honor his family.
General Thoughts:
After a life on the front lines, Soltari is finally realizing his dream of retiring into the waiting arms of his family. That said, just as his long anticipated reward is officially happening, tragedy strikes in the most horrifying way, thrusting Soltari back into command. On a side note, destroyed families seemed to be a theme throughout my SPFBOX batch. This one though was especially heartbreaking. Fresh off his destroyed dreams and fueled by revenge, will Soltari’s reckless driven vengeance lead to new disasters, especially when an unknown wielder of strange, new powers is orchestrating large scale attacks?
The Critiquing Chemist 