If you read the first or second batch, the preamble is the same, so feel free to skip three paragraphs. My judging team for the fourth annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC4) has been hard at work reading the 32 books initially assigned to us. By the end of March, we need to pick just two from that 32-book allocation to put forward as semifinalists. But before we cut all the way from 32 to 2, we’re starting with an intermediate stage in which we select a handful of quarterfinalists to be read and evaluated by the entire team.

As volunteer judges with plenty of other responsibilities, we will not all be reading all 32 books in full. Instead, we split them up among the team, assigning each book to a minimum of two judges, with a third judge being assigned in instances where the first two disagree. Those books that come back with strong or majority recommendations will advance to be read by the full team. Those that do not will be eliminated from the competition.

This is the most aggressive series of cuts we will make in the entire competition, as we’re seeking to eliminate 80-85% of our allocation at this first stage in order to give ourselves a manageable group of quarterfinalists. And an elimination at this stage does not mean that a book is bad. Everyone on my team has their own idiosyncratic perspective, with their own preferences and their own pet peeves. I will provide a brief explanation based on the reports given from the judges in question, but remember that one person’s “no room to breathe, not enough character depth” may be another’s gripping thriller, and one person’s “weird structure, feels too much like fantasy” may be another’s daring masterpiece. We’ve put a lot of thought into these decisions, but we will advance books that someone else will hate, and we will cut books that someone else will love. It’s inevitable.

So let’s take a moment to say goodbye to our third round of eliminations. As always, if the blurbs grab you and our critiques don’t bother you, we heartily encourage you to try them yourselves.

GENEFIRE by James Flanagan

Status: CUT.

Consensus: Our readers were fascinated by the premise of using genetic modification to send messages through time, and they found this one a generally easy read. On the other hand, they often found the character interactions failed to flow well with the rest of the story and that one of the major plot threads unfolded too slowly.

KARA by Peter Beard

Status: CUT.

Consensus: This is a split decision, with both of our readers intrigued by the mysterious tattoo that spurred the lead’s adventure but also left with the feeling that the plot could use some strategic tightening. Ultimately, the disagreement came down to who was able to view the lead primarily as endearingly driven and who viewed her as absurdly reckless–both attitudes well supported by the text.

The Arachne Portal by Joan Marie Verba

Status: CUT.

Consensus: Both our readers found it easy to sink into the smooth storytelling style, but they struggled to maintain suspension of disbelief for both the inciting incident and the characterization of the eminent scientists in the cast.

Molten Flux by Jonathan Weiss

Status: CUT.

Consensus: Our readers were quickly drawn in with the post-apocalyptic prison break hook, the smooth prose style, and some excellent depth of characterization for the lead. But the book demands the reader pick up subtle clues in order to understand the main plot, and our readers were split on whether these elements were adequately hinted in the text. Additionally, there was a lot more magic than science, and even though the setting was reminiscent of post-apocalyptic sci-fi, it was unclear whether the explanations were scientific or magical–not a quality problem, but a relevant concern in a science fiction competition.

Dierock 88 by S.A. Ernster

Status: CUT.

Consensus: This was another split decision, with all of our readers finding it an easy-but-flawed read, with the disagreements primarily about whether the enjoyment outweighed the flaws. On the minus side, it could use another editing pass to smooth out some mistakes and inconsistencies in the prose, the prologue felt disconnected from the rest of the story, and there’s a plot event that resets the entirety of a secondary cast that had initially intrigued our readers. On the plus side, the corporate villains easily engage the reader’s emotions, and there’s an extremely strong “just one more chapter” element to the reading experience.

Above Dark Waters by Eric Kay

Status: CUT.

Consensus: Our readers agreed that this was a smooth read, with grounded worldbuilding and at least one intriguing plotline. But it had a pretty over-the-top villain and a lot of characters with a penchant for preaching about the misuse of technology that might’ve made sense in-story but nevertheless broke immersion for our readers.

Above the Sun by Dennis Black

Status: CUT.

Consensus: This is perhaps the most ambitious book in our allocation, with color and novel punctuation used to indicate differences in human and alien language. But our readers found the stylistic experiments more flashy than substantive, and a tendency to infodump about both science and character emotions made it difficult to immerse in the story.