The first round of SFINCS, the indie novella competition, is drawing to a close with the 20th of December. Additionally to the 10 novellas assigned to me (read my reviews here), I managed to read a couple more, so I thought I’d write out some thoughts about them, since I ended up liking many. As always, the following reviews are my own personal opinion as a judge and do not reflect the views of the team as a whole. Find out more about the competition here and my team, The WIPs, here!
The Pawns of Havoc by Dave Lawson is a grimdark but banter-filled adventure featuring a side-character from the author’s main series, The Envoys of Chaos. It’s a mostly self-contained little story that tells us about the beginnings of the mercenary Cork, as he sets off on a mission to attack a convoy at the orders of his mysterious mage ex-countrymen, the Winn. He does this to help his mother who has gotten sick after leaving the Winn’s realm, and to be successful, has to team up with a murderous criminal, Nessa, and an infuriating (but attractive) archer, Arabella. The story feels like an excellent lead-in for the world of the series, and I was especially interested in the Winn’s machinations and magic. The novella has funny and dark moments alike which mostly clash well, and the style makes it easy to breeze through it in an afternoon. Recommended to morally gray classic-feeling fantasy and wayward, thrown-together quest team lovers.
Glossolalia by E. Rathke is a unique fantasy proposal that mixes elements of mythology and historical fiction with an unusual narrating style. It is the story of the inhabitants (and their leader, Aukul) of a seaside village “at the edge of the world”, and how a strange visitor from a far land, Ineluki, walked into their lives and caused their doom. With its short chapters and somewhat unhinged happenings, I most enjoyed the different worldbuilding tidbits we got about the lives, traditions, and history of this arctic culture (which I think is inspired by the folklore of Greenland), the Mountain Girls, the destructive Uummanuq, and the mysteries and fables of Ineluki’s land. The plot itself is often like a fever dream and operates on myth-logic, and the characters feel like approximating symbols more than having full personalities which amplifies the fabula-feeling. It was definitely an intriguing experience and recommended to lovers of the weird.
The Mystery of the Pale King by Sam Flynn is a dark fantasy novella with a narration style following lovecraftian traditions, reaching an ending that can easily described as cosmic horror-adjacent. In the starvation-stricken land of Yorgos, the Church and the King sends a bishop and his entourage (among them, the narrator, the page Faron) on a visit to Hathur, a southern province under the rule of the hero that conquered it. Rumor says it, the Hero squandered his riches and now his main activity is presenting performances of a play called “The Mystery of the Pale King” in open defiance of the Church and its god. The journey to Hathur quickly becomes horror-ridden for Faron, and arriving in the Hero’s city, he has to untangle stories from reality, secrets and pretenses from terrible truth, and survive the evil affecting the minds of the city. I really enjoyed the narration and the slowly unfolding horror, the twists and turns in the mythology of the story, and also the many debates over faith, religion, and morality in the book. Lovers of these themes will find a worthy read in this one.
A Light for the Dead to Follow by Rebecca Crunden is a “burn it all down” epic fantasy with lovely allusions to J. R. R. Tolkien’s works about a young woman with necromantic powers who awakens a group of warriors from an enemy realm, and then is sucked into the power struggle between two equally flawed monarchies while learning to walk her own path and finding love in the meantime. In a lot of aspects, it is like a cozy fairy tale: the love story is very cute, and magic, friendship, and goodwill win over evil. But in the meantime, you have necromancy, betrayals, and murders as well! It’s a strange mix of cozy and grimdark where the stakes are really high (the future of two countries and thousands of people) and are solved with the perseverance, sober discussion, and powerful magic of a small group. Honestly, sometimes one just wants to read about things going right, the oppressed and misled rising up, and injustices being avenged and set true. All that and more, in this whimsical, occasionally dark little epic fantasy!
A Hunger with No Name by Lauren C. Teffeau is a contemplative post-apocalyptic eco-sci-fi about a group of pastoral desert-people, the Astravans, trying to keep their way of life and traditions alive in a world that’s becoming more and more hostile, while a nearby, more technologically advanced city, Miravat, tempts them with better living conditions and more safety and at the same time, threatens with losing their identity. The main character, Thurava, the daughter of the community’s herder, although a strong proponent for staying independent, ends up having to go to the Glass City of Miravat and has to figure out whether it is at all possible for her people to hold onto their identities, and if yes, how, and if no, what the solution can be. I loved the exploration of this culture clash, the many dangers and strangeness immigrants face in a new environment, and the devastating effects of assimilation, while Thurava even figures out (as it often is) what insidious secrets hide behind Miravat’s prosperity. The story is a smart, quiet thought-experiment of these things that actually do happen in our world already, and I especially loved how it doesn’t give a good or solid answer (“That is a difficult question to answer quickly” as the AI in the story keeps repeating) and even Thurava ends up being flawed, making flawed decisions at the end, just trying to do the best she can. This novella will stay with me for a long time.
And with that, these are my last reviews for my reads in SFINCS Round 1! Keep an eye out for the official list of the chosen novellas progressing into Round 2 by our group, The WIPS, and later, check out my post listing my personal favourites and honorable mentions (link to be added)!
Helyna L. Clove 
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