ANGELA BOORD

The Nome King is a well-paced, engaging idea/plot-driven SF novella. The ending left me a little skeptical, but overall, it was one of my favorites of the books that I have read for the competition. It was nice to read about old-fashioned SF AI instead of being hit with real world AI news for a change.

The Weaver and the Wyrm has a retro-fantasy style that reminded me of 80's and 90's fantasy with a more modern pace. If you're looking for a quick, entertaining, action-packed fantasy focusing mainly on plot, I would definitely recommend this.

All in all, From These Dark Abodes turned out to be one of my favorites of the competition. Manusos infuses mythology and folklore into a modern Gothic with deeply personal and emotional stakes, and I liked it a lot.

Reap, Sow is a short, solid horror story with some nicely creepy imagery. But in the end, it left me feeling a little flat. I think this was because I never really felt like I was that emotionally invested in the MC and because I guessed the hidden frame for the story almost immediately.

When we got the list of finalists and figured out which ones our team still needed to read, Of All the Stars was the book that jumped out at me first. It hooked me with the elegant prose of its beginning and the mission it seemed to set for its protagonist. Ultimately, I felt like the novella didn't live up to its beginning, but I also think there's a lot of potential in its pages and may find an audience with vibe readers more than it did for me.

“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website. Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts as

“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website. Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts as

“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website. Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts as

“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”)a is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website. Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts a

“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”)a is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website. Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts a

I've been meaning to get this blog started for about two years now, ever since I had my website revamped. There always seemed to be something else to do--publishing Fool's Promise was a big one--and so my little corner of the internet has just been sitting here patiently, gathering dust. Judging for SFINCS ( The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship ) felt like a good excuse to dust the blog off and give it a reason for being. It's a bit strange for me to be on this