“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 a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole. No cuts or semi-finalists will be announced until Team Bookend Elves has read all of our books!
REVIEW
Ani, or the Care and Feeding of Your Great Tree-Dwelling Venomous Tentacled Land-Devil by R. M. Olson is as quirky and fun as its title suggests. A prequel to Olson’s Singularity series, Ani risks being challenging to follow, but ultimately proves easy to sink into and enjoy. This (somewhat) cozy sci-fi about a flirtatious pair of scientists and their accidental adoption of a murderous octopoid space monster boasted 
some of the smoothest writing in my batch and I’d recommend it to readers hungry for will-they won’t-they romantic tension and an emphasis on banter and character over plot (just be prepared that, since this is a prequel to another series, most things aren’t wrapped up in this volume).
When scientist Aran Romeu and his non-binary best friend, Istvay, are granted rare permission to study a deadly species of cephalopod (called “land-devils”) in their natural environment, Aran jumps at the chance. Things soon go south, however, when Aran and Istvay’s gear is tampered with. Istvay is convinced that Aran’s scientific rival, Emeric, is responsible, though Aran somewhat naively refuses to believe this could be the case. The pair decide to continue the mission, despite the increased danger, yet there’s a further complication when they witness a baby land-devil tumble from its nest to be abandoned by its mother. Although Aran knows better (the species is genuinely dangerous and their spread across the galaxy has been a literal plague on other species), he secretly brings the land-devil with him rather than allowing it to die. From here, the plot promises to focus on the fallout from this decision, and Aran’s attempts to get permission to keep the land-devil.
Olson displays a confidence in their character work that helps Istvay, Aran, and Emeric leap off the page and there’s a real sense of an expansive world beyond what we glimpse in Ani, without the worldbuilding overtaking the narrative. If likeable protagonists are a must for you as a reader, it’s worth mentioning that Aran and Istvay are easy to like and root for.
One aspect of the novella that I especially enjoyed was its choice to focus on a scientist protagonist. The in-world biology and ecology was also interesting without overtaking the narrative.
Where I feel Ani stumbled a little was in its plot and structure. The premise itself is compelling and feels perfectly suited to a novella-length story (two scientists fight to be allowed to keep the illegal animal they rescued, all while dealing with the fallout from their rival’s sabotage), but at a certain percentage point in my reading I grew worried that there weren’t enough pages left to clue up the story’s major plotlines. The central storyline deflated and meandered rather than focusing, as novellas typically need to, on a tighter story. Mild spoilers to follow: For the first 40% or so, I had the impression Ani‘s focus would be on the conflict involving the land-devil, but ultimately the potentially juicy, tense parts of that storyline were resolved off-page as we shifted gears to focus instead on Emeric’s sabotage and the banter between Aran and Istvay (as well as a late-game plot development related to this conflict). That the sabotage plot is ultimately also left unresolved definitely made Ani, in retrospect, feel like much more of a prologue to the main series than a full story in its own right. I’ll be thrilled to follow the characters into the main series, but as a standalone, Ani was left wanting. A little more attention to the land-devil plot would easily have resolved this issue for me (I don’t require everything to be clued up in a book that’s part of a series, but the narrative that Ani uses as its foundation ultimately fell by the wayside in a way that surprised me).
All that said, I would recommend Ani. Although I haven’t read Singularity (yet!), this feels like an excellent point at which to jump on board. The character work, worldbuilding, and writing here are well-balanced, and Olson and their characters have strong voices throughout.
