SPSFC

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Our SPSFC 3 Semifinalists

The SPSFC Trophy After starting out with an initial allocation of 25-27 books and choosing our top six as quarterfinalists, each team in the SPSFC had the difficult task of picking just two books to advance to the next round. The voting was close, but two books were the consensus choice of Team ScienceFiction.news to be our semifinalists: Children of the Black by W. J. Long III Woe to the Victor by Nathan H. Green Here are comments made by our judges about Children of the Black: Richard: I was ... (read more)

SPSFC 3 Quarterfinalist: Cydonia Rising by Dave Walsh

After three months of reading and two months of revealing our quarterfinalists, Team ScienceFiction.news is ready to close the book on the first stage of the third Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. Our sixth and final quarterfinalist is Cydonia Rising by Dave Walsh. Science fiction is a broad genre and this contest of self-published authors takes entries across every subgenre. But like the Muppet Sam the Eagle, who titled his most bombastic patriotic number "A Salute to All Countries ... (read more)

SPSFC 3 Quarterfinalist: Drones by R.J. Haze

After some of our judges read the first 15-20 percent of our 25 books and others read each one in full, Team ScienceFiction.news chose our six quarterfinalists for the third Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. Four of those quarterfinalists have been announced on this blog in previous posts. The fifth can now be revealed as Drones by R. J. Haze. The author begins the novel by treating their protagonist like he was Hans Gruber at Nakatomi Plaza: The world rushes past in a blur. Glass and ... (read more)

SPSFC 3 Quarterfinalist: Children of the Black by W. J. Long III

Writers are often told to begin in the middle of the action. The fourth quarterfinalist chosen by Team ScienceFiction.news for the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition begins after one thousand years of action. Children of the Black by W. J. Long III takes place at the end of an interstellar war fought longer than any current combatants have been alive. A special ops team is sent on one last mission. He'd seen the broadcast. The truce was signed. The war was over, and all ships had been ... (read more)

SPSFC 3 Quarterfinalist: In the Slip by F. D. Lee

Part of the challenge of being a judge in the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition is to assess novels that aren't a good fit with your own personal taste. Some readers love time-travel stories. Others wish they could go back and undo the decision to read them. The third quarterfinalist selected by Team ScienceFiction.news in SPSFC 3 is the time-travel novel In the Slip by F. D. Lee, which was recommended even by judges who do not make time for the subgenre. One of those judges, David ... (read more)

SPSFC 3 Quarterfinalist: The Widow's Tithe

Twenty five books enter. Six books leave. The next quarterfinalist selected by Team ScienceFiction.news for the third Self-Published Science Fiction Competition is The Widow's Tithe by T.R. Peers. In a future even more rotten with social media influencers than the present, Sasha Michaels has 100 million followers and is rocketing towards the top ranks of the entire OmniVerse. She has money, fame and telegenic good looks -- some of which she didn't even have to buy on the operating table. She ... (read more)

SPSFC 3 Quarterfinalist: Woe to the Victor

The judges on Team ScienceFiction.news have spent three months diving into the 25 books in our allocation for the third Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, some reading the first 15-20 percent and others reading every book in full. After that process we've selected our six quarterfinalists. The first of the quarterfinalists, which are being announced in no particular order, is Woe to the Victor by Nathan H. Green. The military science fiction novel begins on Earth's last day, when the ... (read more)

My First 5 Votes in Stage One of SPSFC 3

We are currently in the first stage of the third Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC). Each team of judges is sampling all books in our team's allocation to decide which ones to read in full. For SPSFC 3, the ScienceFiction.news team was assigned 25 books. As one of the judges, I have been reading 15 percent of each book before making a Yes/No decision on whether to recommend it for a full read. My votes will be tallied along with the rest of the team's judges and the six highest ... (read more)

The 25 Novels We've Received for SPSFC 3

Team ScienceFiction.news has received its allocation of 25 books for the first round of the third Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC). The seven judges on the team, who you'll be learning more about this week, will be reading the first 10 to 20 percent of each book to make a Yes/No recommendation on whether to read further. Some judges are planning to read all 25 in full! The six books that get the most Yes votes will be our quarterfinalists. Each of these will be read in its ... (read more)

Those Left Behind: 'All of Us Go, or None of Us Go'

N.C. Scrimgeour's Those Left Behind did extremely well in the second Self-Published Science Fiction Contest (SPSFC), emerging as one of the seven finalists from a field of over two hundred novels. The book begins as a tale of humans desperate to flee their overpopulated, desiccated and dying planet New Pallas, sending a small crew of cybernetically enhanced humans called Exodans and a few humans with vital skills through an ancient and technologically enigmatic wormhole to a distant ... (read more)