"(UDPATE: I was wrong.) I’m calling it here, April 23, 2025: Mushroom Blues is the winner of SPFBOX. It’s not official but there is little chance that the remaining scoring will upset the current lead.

Let me be the first to congratulate the author.

What is SPFBOX, you ask? Get your head out of your ass.

Now on to SPFBO Championship League! 10 years, 10 winners, but only one can be crowned the true champion. Just please don’t let it be Sword of Kaigen, it should be disqualified on account of crimes against upright letters.

*

UPDATE April 29, 2025: We've got a corker! A possible upset! Suddenly By Blood, by Salt is tied with Mushroom Blues, with only 1 score remaining for each, both by the same blog team! Whichever they score higher will determine the winner! Or ... it could be a tie!

SECOND UPDATE, later on April 29, 2025: It's a tie! I don't see anything in the rules to address this. But By Blood, By Salt received 5 bloggers' highest score, while Mushroom only had 2. Will that count for anything?

FINAL UPDATE: I was wrong! Never let me declare a winner again. But I was also right! In the method of breaking the tie, at least. "

"One hour ago, this book was declared the winner of SPFBO X.

As of this moment, the book has 115 ratings on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. I am marking this to assess how much the needle moves as a result of winning the contest.

This title will also be helped by its inclusion in the SPFBO Champions' League, a contest between the 10 winners of SPFBO to date. This will start in 1 month and run to the end of December. It's another batch of free publicity for this and the other 9 books. "

Irem is 14% done with The Crimson Fire

"Meant to finish this one a couple of days ago, but was too tired to read!

This was a fun, very classic "chosen one plus magic school" type fantasy, though it very clearly turns a lot of it on its head. It isn't a magic school you REALLY want to be in or impress, they aren't necessarily doing "good" things, and the chosen one is chosen for something other than what you expect.

Annev is the protagonist. I did think he was 14 for large chunks of the story until it was clarified he's 17, so that's on me for not paying attention! He does spend a lot of time running from place to place (and backflipping) as well as pining after the the only real female character we meet after the prologue. He makes a lot of decisions, and I'd argue 90% of them are foolish ones! Despite this, he is very compelling, and the world he lives in is pretty spectacular from a magical/ancient/world-building perspective.

I ADORED the world-building of this. Right from the prologue through to the end, the world is shaped by the gods and their creations, and I honestly loved every page of it. At every new part in the book, we'd be treated to a new story or continuation of the history, which was fabulous. Of course, in so many of these stories where the gods make an impact, there is one god that is evil or turns against the others. This story is no different - Keos is the name of the fallen god, and apparently every person who has any sort of deformity or physical disability (I think only physical) has apparently been touched by this evil god, and must therefore be stoned to death.

This backwards way of thinking only seems to affect those in the hidden village of Chenbalu, where the Academy resides. They train boys to become avatars and ancients, who go into the world and find anything magical (which is also evil) to bring back to be hidden away in the aptly named Vault of Damnation. The women of this village go out and find orphaned babies (or simply steal some from unsuspecting parents) to bring back to the Academy. So it's a sort of contained negative spiral.

Annev, our main character, is hiding a physical disability - he has no left hand. Despite being taken into the forest shortly after his birth to be murdered, he is saved by an old priest, who brings him back into the village, hides his missing hand with a magical prosthetic, and helps him survive. Hence we have the typical "mentor" character.

But as with all the tropes of this book, this one too is subverted. I wish we were able to spend more time with Sodar, the priest/mentor/wizard, because he was one of the most interesting characters with an incredibly long and chequered history.

It feels like this book only barely scratches the surface of what the world has to offer. From other locales to visit, creatures (both evil and benign) to discover, as well as learning more about the different sorts of magic and histories of this world, it's an incredibly exciting series!

As other reviews have mentioned, the lack of women characters was noticeable, but I am sure is different in the sequels.

Very well-written and enjoyable (with something so utterly compelling about it), this was a fun read!"