Khan Book Reviews SPFBO Semi-Finalist Pick

SFF Insiders judging process is straightforward. Each of the six judges within SFF Insiders was allocated five books at random to read and review. From those five, one can be selected as a semi-finalist, which is then evaluated by the wider group.

I want to begin by congratulating all the indie authors who made it into the SPFBO XI lottery. It is an achievement worth celebrating. Putting your own work out there for strangers to judge and critique takes courage, and every single one of you deserves recognition for that alone.

I am Khanbookreviews, a book collector and reviewer who loves to read across all genres and styles, always chasing that feeling of being surprised by a story I have never experienced anything quite like before. When it comes to what I look for in a fantasy book, I want it all. Characters I can root for, a plot that keeps me turning pages, and a world that feels worth exploring. The best books find a way to balance all three, and that balance was very much at the front of my mind when reading this batch.

I was assigned five titles at random from SFF Insiders' team allotment. They varied in length and subgenre, which made for an interesting and varied reading experience. When reading my allocated books I gave each one a fair chance, reading a minimum of 150 pages before forming my judgement. Each judge determines their own approach, and that was mine.

Here are my thoughts on each of the books within my batch, listed in alphabetical order.

Daughters of Darkness by Samuel Chatman

Daughters of Darkness has a genuinely compelling premise. Eva Jackson became a Daywalker Vampire after her family was massacred one hot summer day in Georgia, and from that moment the very essence of her existence changed forever. For 400 years, through centuries of monumental change, she has been hunted by the Monarchs, a powerful faction determined to purify their ranks by wiping out her kind entirely. Now, in 2150, she has found something resembling peace in New Abyssinia, a fledgling nation with a fascinating identity of its own. But when the liege mayor's daughter goes missing, Eva is pulled back into conflict with the same sinister forces that destroyed her people, forces now aligned with the Six Devils of High Point and bent on dragging her new home into a devastating war with the American Empire.

The action scenes are where the book truly shines. Chatman writes them with energy and confidence, and they deliver the kind of propulsive momentum that keeps you turning pages. There is a real sense of stakes in these moments, and Eva feels like a protagonist who has genuinely earned her survival through four centuries of hardship and loss. The cast she assembles around her is equally imaginative. A Congolese spirit wolf, a Russian cyborg, and a former Haitian rebel genius make for a colourful and intriguing group of allies, and the potential for their dynamics to develop further is one of the more exciting aspects of the book.

The setting of New Abyssinia is another highlight. It is a unique and richly imagined world that blends Afrofuturist sensibilities with dark fantasy in a way that feels genuinely fresh. The broader political landscape, with the looming threat of the American Empire and the shadowy influence of the Six Devils of High Point, gives the story an epic scope that is hard not to find appealing.

Personally, I felt that diving straight into the story without much grounding left a lot of questions in the air, and the relationships between characters could have used more room to breathe. That said, this is very much a personal preference, and I would encourage anyone curious to judge it for themselves. It is also worth noting that this is the first book in a series, and my thoughts here are based solely on this opening instalment and are not a reflection of the series as a whole. There is every chance that future instalments will answer those lingering questions and pull everything together in a way that reframes what came before. The foundations are certainly there for something special.

If you enjoy dark fantasy with a bold and imaginative setting and action that delivers, Daughters of Darkness is well worth picking up.

Daughter of Stone by B.A. Pepper

Daughter of Stone follows Non, a young woman who fails her initiation ceremony and is left with nothing. No power, no friends, and the weight of being her family's greatest disappointment. But one night of drinking and heartbreak pulls her back into a world she thought she had left behind. Forced to reconnect with her estranged grandmother and enter a series of deadly trials to prove her worth as a vassal to the gods, Non begins to discover that her power is unlike anything seen before. There is a darkness inside her that threatens to consume everything, and the choice between following the path of light set out by her grandmother or surrendering to that darkness sits at the heart of the story. To complicate matters further, she finds herself drawn to a rival coven's dangerously charming and very off limits second in command.

The writing is confident and engaging from the start, and that is genuinely worth acknowledging. The premise is strong, the pacing is well handled, and the deadly trials give the story a real sense of urgency and momentum. Non herself is an interesting protagonist and the tension between light and darkness gives the narrative a compelling thematic thread to pull on.

I will be transparent here. I did not finish this one, and my reasons are purely personal preference rather than any fault with the craft. The story opens with Non as a young child partaking in her initiation ceremony and then jumps forward nine years with very little exploration of what happened in between. That gap left a lot of unanswered questions that I found difficult to move past, as so much of Non's character and circumstances in the present feel shaped by events we never get to see. On top of that, the frequent sexualisation of male characters and moments where the story leaned into sexual content pulled me out of the experience in a way I could not get past. Again, I want to be clear that both of these are personal preferences rather than reflections on the quality of the writing itself, which remains confident and engaging throughout. My thoughts are also based solely on the portion I read and are not a reflection of the book as a whole.

If you are a fantasy reader who enjoys romance as a prominent thread, does not mind sexual content woven into the story, and is comfortable with a narrative that trusts you to fill in the gaps, Daughter of Stone may well be right up your street. The bones of a really engaging fantasy are here, and the writing alone makes it worth giving a chance if the premise appeals to you.

Greencloak by Lyndsey Luther

Greencloak was a genuine pleasure to read. From the very first chapter, it drops you into a floating city buzzing with crime, corruption, and magical infrastructure and it never lets the energy drop.

Suken Anisaria is a young bounty hunter trying to make his name while paying off a dead uncle's debts. When a warrant goes up for a notorious thief-turned-murderer known only as Greencloak, he jumps at it. The case looks like a fast track up the career ladder. It is not. Greencloak is a master of disguise, infamously solitary, and as Suken eventually discovers, being framed. What follows is a tight, propulsive thriller: an assassin on Suken's tail, a shadowy organisation working to bury the truth, the city guard convinced he is complicit, and the only way out being an unlikely alliance with the very thief he was hunting.

The real strength of the book is its characters. The development each of them goes through feels earned and natural rather than forced, and the dynamics between them are genuinely compelling. The relationship that builds between Suken and Greencloak is the engine of the story, wary and layered in all the right ways. Luther understands that tension between characters is more interesting than tension between a character and a plot obstacle, and she leans into that throughout.

The plot itself kept me hooked from beginning to end. There is a real propulsive quality to it, where each twist and revelation feeds naturally into the next, making it very hard to put down. The pacing is consistently engaging from the start, with no extended setup asking for patience. The world-building is embedded naturally into the action rather than front-loaded, which is exactly how it should be done.

Honestly, I struggled to find meaningful weaknesses here. It is a solidly constructed book that delivers on its premise without overstaying its welcome.

Greencloak is sharp, fun, and confident. If you like your fantasy with thriller instincts, strong character work, and a plot that keeps you turning pages, this one is well worth your time.

The Call of the Wind by K.R. House

The Call of the Wind is built on a genuinely interesting foundation. Long ago, the gods blessed mankind with the power to call the elements, but at a terrible price. Without the protection of a ward rune, that power wilds its users, slowly twisting them into monsters shaped by the element they control. It is a compelling magic system with real stakes baked in from the start.

Sixteen year old Elias has never given much thought to wilding or runes. His half-brother Marc was granted a rune by the Holy Grove shortly after being blessed with lifecalling, so the darker side of elemental power has always felt like someone else's problem. That changes when Elias is blessed with windcalling, inherited from his foreign father, and discovers there are no runes for windcallers in his homeland of Eshira. Faced with the knowledge that unmarked callers tend to disappear, Marc risks everything to help his brother flee, betraying both his country and his goddess in the process. From there the story splits, following Elias as he searches for a rune to stop the wilding, and Marc as he is thrown into the brutal reality of war.

The dual thread structure has real potential and the central relationship between the two brothers gives the story an emotional core worth investing in. The world of Eshira and its elemental magic system are genuinely interesting, and there is a real sense that this book has only scratched the surface of what is to come. The depth and richness hinted at throughout suggests there is a much bigger and more expansive world waiting to be uncovered in future instalments.

The biggest challenge the book faces is its pacing. The first hundred pages are slow, focused almost entirely on establishing the characters and their world with very little forward momentum. It asks a lot of patience from the reader before things begin to click into place and the real shape of the story becomes clear. Once that happens, around the hundred page mark, the book becomes considerably more engaging and the dual narrative starts to find its rhythm.

Just as the story was getting to the crux of everything and the pieces were finally falling into place, it ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the reader to wait for the next book to find out what happens to the characters they have invested in. K.R. House has something really good here, but a different approach to the structure could have given this first book a more satisfying sense of resolution while still leaving plenty to explore. As it stands, readers may find themselves frustrated that the journey is cut short precisely at the moment it truly begins to deliver.

The bones of something genuinely special are here, and if you are willing to commit to the series and give the story time to find its footing, The Call of the Wind may well reward that patience in later instalments. Just go in knowing that this one is very much the beginning of a longer journey.

The Scale of Balance: A Vengeful Realm by Tim Facciola

The Scale of Balance: A Vengeful Realm is an ambitious epic fantasy with a premise that has real scope and intrigue. Zephyrus finds himself trapped between two impossible destinies, a letter naming him an emissary of peace and a prophecy marking him as either saviour or destroyer. With his memories shattered and his closest friend murdered before his eyes, he is thrown into the arena as a gladiator in the royal games, forced to fight for survival while navigating a deadly web of court intrigue, divine manipulation, and his own fractured past. Gods wage war using mortals as pawns, queens plot secret revolutions, and princes play with fire and call it honour. It is a world that wears its Game of Thrones influences proudly, and for the most part that comparison is well earned.

The political intrigue and court dynamics are where the book truly comes alive. The layers of scheming, plotting, and shifting allegiances give the story a real sense of momentum and unpredictability, and there is genuine craft in the way the various factions and power plays are constructed and set against one another. The world building is equally impressive in its scope, weaving together prophecy, mythology, divine intervention, and arena combat into something that feels genuinely epic in scale.

Where the book struggles, at least for me personally, is with its characters. Zephyrus is a difficult protagonist to fully invest in, and I think the decision to have him lose his memories is central to that difficulty. A character who does not know who he is or what he wants makes it hard for the reader to know what to root for. Rather than creating intrigue around his identity, it instead creates a sense of distance that is difficult to bridge. The supporting cast, while functional, felt similarly lacking in depth, serving the plot more than developing as fully realised individuals in their own right.

This opening instalment is very much focused on laying the groundwork for what is to come, and there is every chance that the character depth I felt was missing here develops significantly across the later instalments of this completed trilogy.

If you are a reader who prioritises plot, political intrigue, and world building over character driven storytelling, The Scale of Balance: A Vengeful Realm has plenty to offer. The foundations of something truly epic are here, and readers with a taste for grand scale fantasy will find much to enjoy.

My Semi-Finalist Pick

Before I reveal my pick, I want every author in my batch to know that not advancing in the competition is no reflection on the quality of their work and I hope my reviews help connect the right books to the right readers.

This batch kept me on my toes from start to finish. Five very different books, five very different reading experiences. There were worlds I wanted to explore further, characters I found myself genuinely invested in, and stories that reminded me exactly why I love being a reader. There were also moments where my personal preferences put me at odds with what a book was trying to do, and I have tried to be honest about that throughout.

Picking just one was not straightforward. I held myself to the standard that my chosen book would need to truly earn it, balancing character, plot, and world in the way I love most. When I think back to which book had me reaching for my Kindle every spare moment I had, the answer was clear from early on.

So, without further ado, my semi-finalist from this first batch is:

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Greencloak by Lyndsey Luther!

Congratulations to Lyndsey Luther. Greencloak will now advance to the next round within SFF Insiders to be read and evaluated by our other judges.