It’s been no secret that BEFORE WE GO had a wonderful batch of books this year! The team would like to extend our deepest gratitude for all the authors that trusted their books to us; we know it takes courage, hope, and a thick skin to throw yourself at the mercy of a contest like SPFBO.
The sad reality of this contest is that we have to select 1 book out of 30. But before we get there, I wanted to take a moment to highlight our 8 semi-finalists in the hopes that we could get each book more readers. They deserve it!
They say love conquers all… but can the conquered ever love the conqueror?
Twenty-five years ago, there was life. Twenty-five years ago, there was peace when the descendants of the dryads and naiads kept all life in balance. Until one fateful night when the Oderbergs invaded, executed the royal house of Domonov and took Domovnia for their own, ruling with an iron fist and an edict of fear.
Roslyn Pleveli, like most of the orphans of that night, wants revenge and an end to the persecution of her kind. Yet, even if the Domovnian’s use of magic was permitted, she wouldn’t be much help, able to command only a few lowly weeds. But everything changes when she saves the life of an injured young man in the forest not knowing it was the prince of the Oderbergs himself. Ordered to see to the rest of his treatment, Roslyn is snatched from her home and all that she loves by his soldiers.
Now, in the Oderberg stronghold, she has the chance to change things. With the royal family within her grasp all she has to do to free her people is kill them… but can she do it, or will something more powerful than revenge heal the wounds of the past?
The Seven Lands of Velspar put their faith in the Intercessors, a psychic priesthood responsible for the purification of the spirit. Where passion flares, they soothe its intent. Those who cannot be soothed, are cast out, their spirits destroyed by fire.
The Intercessors are mystics of the highest order, but Velspar’s ruling Skalens believe their power has grown too great.
Surviving the Intercessor’s murder plot against her family, Sybilla Ladain rises to power. The Skalens come together under the banner of her grief, bringing the practice of Intercession to its brutal, bloody end.
Yet victory brings Sybilla no peace. In time, she will have to face the people of Velspar, forced to live in a psychically alienated world, and a band of rebels led by an escaped Intercessor set on her annihilation.
Sam Adams, sixteen-year-old wizard, has zero interest in saving the world—but staying out of the line of fire isn’t an option for wizards.
When a new designer drug hits the streets, giving ordinary humans magical powers and leaving a trail of bodies in its wake, it threatens to turn his city of Williamsport’s long-simmering conflict between the haves and the have-nots into a full-scale war.
The only one with the skills to protect the city, Sam finds himself thrust into a conspiracy far darker and more dangerous than he ever imagined, with tentacles stretching into the criminal underworld and the wealthy elite—and into the spirit world. Fighting for his life, surrounded by enemies, Sam has to dig deeper than ever before to keep Williamsport from going up in flames.
Teleo is a retired soldier descended from Mages, who were cast out of power generations ago. After years of war and sorrow, he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life on his farm and work his stonemason’s craft.
His wife and daughter had been murdered during a war raid several years earlier and his young son stolen by the enemy side. He spent years unsuccessfully searching for his son and returned home broken-hearted. At the local castle, he comes upon a war orphan stolen by his side from the enemy and rescues him from abuse, adopting him as his foster son.
Teleo is working as a mason at the castle when he finds himself in the middle of a coup. This launches a journey to protect his new family, uncover the secrets of the ancient ways, and reclaim the magic of the Mages.
"Heliotrope," by Palmer Pickering, is a Sword & Sorcery title by the award-winning author of the science-fantasy sensation, "Moon Deeds."
A cast of lovable characters:
Teleo – A gritty warrior who would do anything for you, unless you cross those he loves, then you will meet his blade.
Dinsmora – A reclusive herbalist who weaves shadows.
The fosterling – Orphan who forms a family and softens the toughest of hearts.
The animals – Characters in their own right who carry burdens and bring glory.
Aurora’s greatest entrepreneur has been murdered, and only the truth will save Alchemist Ortez from the gallows.
Facing a heated courtroom of strangers, he must now recall the events that brought him here as a fellow alchemist probes his memory. Such is the job of alchemists: administering elixirs in order to see into the minds of men. Their dreams. Their nightmares. Their secrets.
But while everyone believes him guilty, Alchemist Ortez knows what they do not.
He was hired by the victim for a job unlike any they could imagine. Nor would they ever guess what other mysteries lie buried beneath the mountain metropolis of Aurora, a cave-enclosed city where countless gas lamps illuminate the endless night.
Trial of the Alchemist is a gaslamp mystery rife with twists, adventure, and romance.
Alphonse Hollyhock is blessed with wealth, class, and more beauty than brains. Though he hasn't got a lick of wit or magic to his name, he's perfectly content living life as an airheaded bachelor with his valet—the clever, unflappable Jacobi—by his side to ensure everything runs smoothly. All he lacks, according to his mother, is a wife.
Despite Alphonse's protests, he's to marry Aaliyah Kaddour: a bright, headstrong young woman who would probably be charming company if she didn't threaten everything about Alphonse's way of life. Marrying means giving up his fashionable flat, his fast car, and, worst of all, it means losing Jacobi.
Perhaps most distressingly, this talk of marriage is bringing all sorts of confusing feelings to the forefront. Because rather than falling for the beautiful girl being pushed into his arms, Alphonse seems to be falling for his valet. Except a man can't fall in love with another man. Can he?
Meanwhile, Aaliyah has plans of her own. She's as devious as she is pretty, but if Alphonse wants to get through this marriage business in one piece, he'll have to trust her. Her and Jacobi, and, most dangerously, his own feelings.
The Bachelor's Valet is a novel in the Flos Magicae series, a collection of queer romances set in an alternate 1920s universe with magic. All the stories are standalones and can be read in any order.
In the Dominion of Aleznuaweite, anyone can rise to the greatest heights—if they are willing to pay the price.
Failure is a luxury Rahelu can’t afford. Her family sold everything, left their ancestral home, and became destitute foreigners for the sake of her resonance skills. Now she can manipulate emotional echoes to discern truth from lies, conjure the past, and even foretell the future.
But an act of petty revenge by her rival destroys her chance at joining one of the great Houses. Desperate to prove her family’s sacrifices were not in vain, Rahelu calls upon the most dangerous magic of all—altering fortune.
A slight twist of fate is enough to restore her way forward…with deadly consequences she never bargained for. The Houses make a pawn of her in their bitter struggle for control of the Dominion. A shadowy cult grows ever closer to completing an ancient ritual.
And Rahelu discovers that fulfilling her oath to her family might come at the cost of her mother’s life.
Bastard. Killer. Husband. Father. His wife cold in the ground, and two young boys to feed, Wil Cutter turns to what he knows: Violence. But a bounty is never just a bounty, and blood is never spilled in drops. Forced to ever more violent acts, he’ll have to ask himself: Is Hell too far to ride?
Our Thoughts
As our team caught up with all of our semi-finalists, it became clear that two books rose to our favourites. Cold West by Clayton Snyder and Petition by Delilah Waan Feedback rolled in on how memorable, but how vastly different, each book is.
Luke Winch summed it up beautifully:
Hoookay. I have mulled this over in my head and here it is. Both authors display an awesome skill at writing, both books have a unique voice that makes it stand shoulders above the rest. In that respect, i can’t split them.
So for me, I have to go with how the book made me feel. Cold West was raw, visceral and had a bubbling rage beneath the service that frankly scared the hell out of me.
Petition had a wonderfully realised world which I fell in love with and a principal character, Rahelu who is still in my head months later.
Cold West IS unforgettable and lingers like a bittersweet taste and Petition is such a brilliant world with relatable relationships.
Because of where I am in my life right now, my reading taste and my need for inspiration and hope I have to vote for Petition.
Whatever the outcome both books deserve this position.
Shaggy Shepherd agreed:
“Petition is probably the most similar to the fantasy books I tend to enjoy. An intriguing world and magic system, a storyline that kept me interested, and characters that I enjoyed reading about. While I enjoyed quite a bit of other books I tried in the first round of SPFBO, Petition clearly came out on top for me.
As an immigrant family on both sides and watching Elementals way too many times with my daughter over the last few weeks, the dedication really stood out to me. It put me in a great mood to start the book. I did find the prologue a bit confusingly written though and the interludes later on as well.
I liked that the life situation and main goal of the MC was made clear quickly within a few pages. It was easy to orient myself around that and understand how to approach everything else coming at her throughout the story. Other circumstances were introduced relatively organically but her initial goal still always built the foundation of her actions.
I did have a bit of a hard time keeping the house names straight and learning the different branches of the magic system was a bit of a struggle as well. Though I did find that to be extremely interesting with its basis on emotions and characters having to work around the challenges that come along with being able influence emotions as well as having to mask theirs from others.
The writing style felt really smooth with a good amount of detail and world building, I loved the path the story took, and I appreciated the mystery that was introduced as well. I had a really good time with this book and wish it the best of luck in the future. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!”
Cold West, however, is not without its rabid fans. Rebecca Hill read it twice. John Mauro was ready to go to war for it. (There wasn’t any war, though, we all voted very diplomatically. I’m too Canadian to fight with my friends!)
The Boss, Beth Tabler, summed Cold West up beautifully:
Cold West is in essence an amalgamation of the heat and fury of unadulterated rage and coldness of absolution told by a master word smith. I will not be forgetting this book for a long time, it has lodged itself inside of my ribs constantly reminding of the story of a man who has nothing to lose…
Whitney Reinhart wrote beautifully about Cold West’s power:
If Chuck Palahnuik and Joe Abercrombie had a hate-child, Clayton Snyder would be that child. Cold West, while short, comes out flinging revenge and spite by the fistful. After all, “You couldn’t just burn a man’s life down and expect to walk away.” Snyder’s writing is unapologetically, but not gratuitously, violent with powerful but subtle magics which are imperative to the narrative.
Like I said, it came down to a vote in the end. I personally decided not to vote, given my considerable conflict of interest with Clayton Snyder, but our winner became clear as the votes tallied. So, without further ado, cue the long suspense-building scroll!
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Congratulations, Clayton Snyder, your book Cold West has been selected as Before We Go’s SPFBO9 Finalist.
The average score for Cold West was 8.77, rounding up to a 9 for the SPFBO leaderboard.