“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.
MEET OUR ROUND 2 ALLOCATIONS!
The literary excellence of our Round 1 books wasn’t enough, and Team WIPs is back for more! For Round 2, each book will be read by a minimum of two judges and we aim to write two reviews per book. After consulting with the team, the goal is for all four of us to read all five books (I myself will abstain from rating one of our allocated books due to a minor conflict of interest, but I will provide a review).
We are all surrounded by darkness. And we are all drawn to the light.
The Orkney Islands north of Scotland are steeped in stories of selkies, seal folk who swim in cold ocean waters and shed their skins to sing and dance on land. One young girl named Isla uses legends of selkie brides to understand her parents’ troubled marriage and navigate her strained relationship with her mother. As Isla comes of age, she confronts the sacred points of transformation found between sea and land, nature and civilization, and past and present, uncovering the key to her identity.
Selkie Moon is a novella for all those who believe stories can illuminate the deepest and darkest waters of the human soul.
Jennifer Donahue The Drowned Heir
When her uncle dies at sea, a third child with no place in society undergoes a ceremony to house his spirit and take his role, diminishing the family’s loss. But her uncle’s spirit hasn’t settled the way it’s supposed to, and will not content itself with shore-bound business. Her uncle’s spirit insists, angrily, that it was not just a storm that killed him and wrecked his ship, not a rogue wave; it was an unthinkably large monster.
Then his lover comes knocking with news of an adult son who has set sail along the same shipping lane, and dead uncle and living niece must work together to save a son neither of them knew existed.
Karen Lucia A Second Life Worth Living
Bennet Smith has already died once. He has no interest in a repeat act.
Caught in the crossfire of an increasingly violent revolution, Ben’s first death doesn’t stick. His bones ache. His body still feels phantom pains. Wrongfully killed, he should return ready to fight alongside the revolutionaries striving for change. Instead, he wants no part of it.
Bennet Smith is no hero. He has never been a hero. He has never wanted to be a hero. All Ben has ever wanted is to keep his head down, fly under the radar, and pass completely unnoticed. Death didn’t change that.
Gregory Kontaxis The Knight of the Moon
John, the Long Arm, leads a life as a bounty hunter at the Three Heads. His name has spread far and wide across the north while plenty of gold weighs down his pockets. Just when everything seems to be going well for him, a group of soldiers order him to take on a new mission.
This time, his task is to track down a very dangerous man—a knight who rejected his oaths, turning his back on Gaeldeath and its ruler.
Will John choose the way of honour and devotion or will be succumb to his unquenchable thirst for wealth?
As part of “The Dance of Light” series, “The Knight of the Moon” is a novella which takes place seventeen years preceding the events of “The Return of the Knights.”
Yuval Kordov – Sisters of Mercy
Hannah-9 is a a child of Heaven and Hell, bred in the bowels of the Last City. Implanted into an ancient, nuclear-powered war machine—a God-engine—she stalks the wastes with Rachel-3, her sister-in-arms.
Their mandate is to wage war against the Adversary, to purify the Earth, and to endure—until the radiation consumes them.
This is her story.
A bold new novella from the creator of Dark Legacies.
