just want to say Thank You to all the authors who entered the contest and for sharing your work with the world. It takes courage to put your work out there. Congratulations to all of you.
Fantastic job making this video! Funny enough while watching the video out of the books you mentioned your winner actually peaked my interest the most. I have already have some people in mind that Im going to recommend it to.
I appreciate what you're saying about judging a book based on what it's trying to do, or by who it's aimed at, rather than simply by whether it worked for you. I agree with that sentiment and I wished more reviewers kept that in mind - it's much more useful to say something like, "this was a romantasy, which I don't like, but it was a well-written romantasy" than simply "not for me".
This was a cool video. Some of my favorite reads came from SPFBO and you sold the hell out of that Tanna book. Definitely something I would like to read.
Thank you so much for your efforts for SPFBOX, Brian! I appreciate you very much, and I can't wait to read your semifinalist along with the other four semifinalists for our group. Our chat in late October about them all is going to be a blast!
I really liked the way you explained the pros and cons for each one. Also yes! Middle Grade hasn't been prevalent on booktube for a while so glad to see a MG book take a spotlight here.
Thank you for your hard work. I felt sorry for the author who wrote too many trigger warnings. Another judge might penalize them for not including them and I think damned if you do, damned if you don't applies. You are one of the most articulate subjudges. And my jaw dropped when you annonced your winner. Well done!
I love how engaged you are with the indie space and what you do for each author with your feedback. What a cool pick! The cover art is honestly so cool and unique to me.
Brian I seriously don't know why you have these hang-ups about not being a good reviewer... WHERE did you get that thought from?! I think you are exceptionally gifted at conveying your thoughts on a story in an honest and entertaining way, and helping viewers figure out if the story will be the right fit for their reading tastes. Loved hearing your thoughts on all of these and very excited to see how you pick is going to fare in the rest of the competition. Cheers!
Thanks, Esmay. Maybe I flunked some book reviews as a kid, I don't remember ;) I, too, am really interested in seeing what Philip winds up doing and plan to read whatever book he puts through, if not the one I did.
Love and resonate with everything on todays one for the road! Its not easy but man is it powerful. What's the best way to stay up to date on everything happening with spfbo? I'd love to stay updated on it all!
I think both Mark Lawrence and Zack Argyle might have a tracker on their website. Not sure if Zack still does it or not this year. I haven't paid a ton of attention outside our team. SFF Insiders on Discord seems to be covering it, so Boe Kelley might know.
Wow, I was not expecting your choice! Excellent pacing describing each book in a clear and succint way. I’ve heard a lot of conversation in the past about the importance of trigger warnings, but I’ve never come across an author listing them upfront. I don’t think I’d care for that either. By the way, I’ve yet to read a book where I’ve enjoyed the fourth wall breaking. Nice thoughts on bravery!
Great video Brian!! The Tenacious Tale of Tana the Tendersword sounds wonderful. I plan on reading it this Fall. I really appreciate your positivity and words of encouragement for people. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day!
Wow what a fun result! I haven’t done a middle grade book in forever, so this one might be cool to check out and to see if I can pass it on to my nieces and nephews
I thnk that's pretty fair criteria. Agree on The Blood Stones! Fantastic book, can't wait for the rest of the series. Everyone should be familiar with Highlander! The TV series was awesome! I may have to check out the books now as I didn't realize there were any! Everything out there right now appear to be romance lol, so I'll dig into that later. The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword sounds like something my kids might enjoy. Can't wait to see how it fairs!
@@BrianBell7 It's on their Amazon wishlist, so it'll likely be bought for Christmas by someone. Their book lists are often split up between us and the grandparents for the various gift giving events throughout the year.
I think you should do more reviews, Brian! You did fantastic and were very fair on "judging". I'll be watching to see if Philip picks your semi-finalist 🤣 Trigger warnings are a big topic (and I have certainly seen ones that are excessive, and it sounds like I would agree on this one) but I think a lot of the discourse around triggers has assumptions based in that are probably around how colloquially the term trigger has become used. But the idea behind a trigger warning is to prevent actual distress, so someone in this case wouldn't just get to something they didnt like and stop reading and move on with their day. An example would be someone who has PTSD from assault, reading an assault of a similiar nature may actually trigger that experience and result in a lot more distress from reading a book than someone would want. But I do like the idea of putting them at the back (with a note at the front) or some other way because I agree a lot of people don't need them, and they can influence a read in a negative way!
Thanks, Kyle! Maybe I will do more reviews as the channel evolves. I also like the "back of book" warning section if an author feels like including one.
Great video Brian! To get more books into the competition I wonder if the decision makers could expand the delegation model further. For example imagine if you were assigned 12 books instead of 6 and then you find 6 people to read 2 books and put forth their favorite for you to read
I think trigger warnings should be at the back or as a qr code to an online list to be easily found by the people who use them. I personally find them spoiler-filled and ruin my experience so i'd rather not have them or at least have them harder to stumble across before diving into a read.
@@BrianBell7 I'm not a fan of seeing trigger warnings on Grimdark books. I understand some people might genuinely need them (I really get it. Life can be really tough at times.), but it’s like expecting a traumatized soldier to pick up a war novel and not know what they’re in for. "You don’t go to see Metallica and ask the ****ers to turn the music down." - Quentin Tarantino As for other genres, I understand that certain topics can catch people off guard, especially if they’ve experienced trauma and aren’t expecting those themes to surface. In those cases, having some warnings in the back of the book is understandable.
Agreed. A QR code at the beginning, or the list on a back page for individuals that want to check them would be great. I personally avoid them at all costs because I don't want things spoiled.
Third person present is not a tense I would ever choose to write in. Trigger warnings are gross. They seem to be more of an advertisement than anything else. Breaking the fourth wall, in "my truth" (modern way to say an opinion) is sometimes ok in a Satire. "In a satire" is stressed there, and not in much else, but yes, that was a lot of fourth wall breaks. If that novel was a romantasy, it should have been called, "The Hot Hands of Immortality" (shakes powder packet) Instead of a chronicler following me about, I'd rather have a fiddler playing theme music. I am proud of this middle grade author for being respectful of its child readers, instead of picking ticks and lice out of their head and eating them. (That was a groomer joke)😂 Thank you for summarizing these books. I am positive Dr. Chase knows that your pick of the finalist from these six is thoughtful and unbiased. Just the fact that the book you picked was a wholesome middle grade book would make me biased to choose it. We need more of that in the world. Love you Brian, Satire!
just want to say Thank You to all the authors who entered the contest and for sharing your work with the world. It takes courage to put your work out there. Congratulations to all of you.
Oh my gosh!!!! Thank you so much, Brian!!!! I can't believe our little tale was your favorite book!
Fantastic job making this video! Funny enough while watching the video out of the books you mentioned your winner actually peaked my interest the most. I have already have some people in mind that Im going to recommend it to.
Thanks, Tom! I found it a lot of fun!
I appreciate what you're saying about judging a book based on what it's trying to do, or by who it's aimed at, rather than simply by whether it worked for you. I agree with that sentiment and I wished more reviewers kept that in mind - it's much more useful to say something like, "this was a romantasy, which I don't like, but it was a well-written romantasy" than simply "not for me".
Thanks, Joe. I appreciate you recognizing that aspect.
AMEN to that!
Also, thanks for the shoutout!
I couldn't agree with this comment more, Joe!
This was a cool video. Some of my favorite reads came from SPFBO and you sold the hell out of that Tanna book. Definitely something I would like to read.
Thanks, Michael! I think I'll review books more often on the channel.
Thank you so much for your efforts for SPFBOX, Brian! I appreciate you very much, and I can't wait to read your semifinalist along with the other four semifinalists for our group. Our chat in late October about them all is going to be a blast!
Thank you so much for thinking of me when selecting your team!
Your team choices for this year were fabulous, Philip!
@@ToriTalks2 I’m very lucky to have them on board! Cheers, Tori!
I really liked the way you explained the pros and cons for each one.
Also yes! Middle Grade hasn't been prevalent on booktube for a while so glad to see a MG book take a spotlight here.
Oh thank you!
Thank you for your hard work. I felt sorry for the author who wrote too many trigger warnings. Another judge might penalize them for not including them and I think damned if you do, damned if you don't applies. You are one of the most articulate subjudges.
And my jaw dropped when you annonced your winner. Well done!
thank you so much for the kind compliment. I really appreciate it :)
Great work and a very surprising pick brother!
thanks brother!
No spoilers, I'm ordering your semi-finalist now Brian! ! Can't wait to read it!
Awesome, Sara Beth! I think you'll find much to love!
Many thanks for your help with SPFBOX, Brian!
My pleasure, Mark. Thank you for creating such a wonderful opportunity for authors to share their books with the world!
I love how engaged you are with the indie space and what you do for each author with your feedback.
What a cool pick! The cover art is honestly so cool and unique to me.
Thanks, Chance! It was a lot of fun to participate!
Brian I seriously don't know why you have these hang-ups about not being a good reviewer... WHERE did you get that thought from?! I think you are exceptionally gifted at conveying your thoughts on a story in an honest and entertaining way, and helping viewers figure out if the story will be the right fit for their reading tastes.
Loved hearing your thoughts on all of these and very excited to see how you pick is going to fare in the rest of the competition. Cheers!
Thanks, Esmay. Maybe I flunked some book reviews as a kid, I don't remember ;) I, too, am really interested in seeing what Philip winds up doing and plan to read whatever book he puts through, if not the one I did.
@@BrianBell7 Regardless of what Philip ends up doing, I am definitely going to give this little gem a shot!
Love and resonate with everything on todays one for the road! Its not easy but man is it powerful.
What's the best way to stay up to date on everything happening with spfbo? I'd love to stay updated on it all!
I think both Mark Lawrence and Zack Argyle might have a tracker on their website. Not sure if Zack still does it or not this year. I haven't paid a ton of attention outside our team. SFF Insiders on Discord seems to be covering it, so Boe Kelley might know.
@@BrianBell7 ah ok cool, thanks! I'll check those out
Thanks so much for reviewing my book man! Congratulations Bill for becoming semifinalist
I'll be reading your next book for sure, Antano! Keep it up!
@BrianBell7 that's awesome man! I'm honoured. The trilogy will be out by the end of this year!
Thanks for reading the Torn Veil, Brian! And congrats to all! Especially Tanna the Tendersword!
I'll be continuing on in your series, Timothy!
Wow, I was not expecting your choice! Excellent pacing describing each book in a clear and succint way. I’ve heard a lot of conversation in the past about the importance of trigger warnings, but I’ve never come across an author listing them upfront. I don’t think I’d care for that either. By the way, I’ve yet to read a book where I’ve enjoyed the fourth wall breaking. Nice thoughts on bravery!
I truly had a wide variety of books to select from. They were each so different from each other! Thank you for the compliments!!
Great video Brian!! The Tenacious Tale of Tana the Tendersword sounds wonderful. I plan on reading it this Fall. I really appreciate your positivity and words of encouragement for people. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day!
Thank you. I hope to usually be helpful in some way!
Well done Brian!!
Thank you!!
I'm really glad you enjoyed it :)
Thanks for your review and showing so much consideration and respect for the authors
It's my pleasure
That is so awesome 👍! I can't wait to check these books out 😄🎉
Thank you! It's a bit outside my normal booktube type of video, so I hope I did them justice.
Amazing reviews, Brian! I'm so glad you were judging this year, Philip's team is a fabulous addition to the competition!
Thanks, Tori! I'm really such a noob when it comes to actually reviewing books. I appreciate this comment greatly! And YOU!
You convinced me... just bought The Tenacious Tale... and now it's wallowing in the ocean of my TBR :D
It's such a fast read. I hope you like it! So many people have picked it up from this video, I hope I'm not steering people wrong!
@@BrianBell7 it’s ok. If you did, we’ll blame Rick Thunder 😅
@@gryftkin that's usually my go-to in times of crisis.
Wow what a fun result! I haven’t done a middle grade book in forever, so this one might be cool to check out and to see if I can pass it on to my nieces and nephews
I think it's up your alley, oh great and powerful Kahn!
I thnk that's pretty fair criteria.
Agree on The Blood Stones! Fantastic book, can't wait for the rest of the series.
Everyone should be familiar with Highlander! The TV series was awesome! I may have to check out the books now as I didn't realize there were any! Everything out there right now appear to be romance lol, so I'll dig into that later.
The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword sounds like something my kids might enjoy. Can't wait to see how it fairs!
Cool, Chris! Let me know if you wind up getting it for them. And yes, There Can Be Only One.
@@BrianBell7 It's on their Amazon wishlist, so it'll likely be bought for Christmas by someone. Their book lists are often split up between us and the grandparents for the various gift giving events throughout the year.
Really enjoyed this video Brian, liking your book reviews alot 🥳
Thanks! I'm still (after 10 months) sorting out what I want the channel to be :)
You are a busy, busy man. Kudos on this!
Thanks, Theo! I had a lot of fun and tried to give everyone the fairest shake I could. I read every word of each of these books.
I think you should do more reviews, Brian! You did fantastic and were very fair on "judging". I'll be watching to see if Philip picks your semi-finalist 🤣
Trigger warnings are a big topic (and I have certainly seen ones that are excessive, and it sounds like I would agree on this one) but I think a lot of the discourse around triggers has assumptions based in that are probably around how colloquially the term trigger has become used. But the idea behind a trigger warning is to prevent actual distress, so someone in this case wouldn't just get to something they didnt like and stop reading and move on with their day. An example would be someone who has PTSD from assault, reading an assault of a similiar nature may actually trigger that experience and result in a lot more distress from reading a book than someone would want. But I do like the idea of putting them at the back (with a note at the front) or some other way because I agree a lot of people don't need them, and they can influence a read in a negative way!
Thanks, Kyle! Maybe I will do more reviews as the channel evolves. I also like the "back of book" warning section if an author feels like including one.
Thanks for explaining the importance of trigger warnings from this PTSD sufferer.
Great video Brian! To get more books into the competition I wonder if the decision makers could expand the delegation model further. For example imagine if you were assigned 12 books instead of 6 and then you find 6 people to read 2 books and put forth their favorite for you to read
Maybe! I'm glad I'm not in charge :)
I think trigger warnings should be at the back or as a qr code to an online list to be easily found by the people who use them. I personally find them spoiler-filled and ruin my experience so i'd rather not have them or at least have them harder to stumble across before diving into a read.
I agree. Let those who want to get the warnings, get them. Otherwise, let's just get into the story.
@@BrianBell7 I'm not a fan of seeing trigger warnings on Grimdark books. I understand some people might genuinely need them (I really get it. Life can be really tough at times.), but it’s like expecting a traumatized soldier to pick up a war novel and not know what they’re in for.
"You don’t go to see Metallica and ask the ****ers to turn the music down." - Quentin Tarantino
As for other genres, I understand that certain topics can catch people off guard, especially if they’ve experienced trauma and aren’t expecting those themes to surface. In those cases, having some warnings in the back of the book is understandable.
Agreed. A QR code at the beginning, or the list on a back page for individuals that want to check them would be great.
I personally avoid them at all costs because I don't want things spoiled.
Third person present is not a tense I would ever choose to write in.
Trigger warnings are gross. They seem to be more of an advertisement than anything else.
Breaking the fourth wall, in "my truth" (modern way to say an opinion) is sometimes ok in a Satire. "In a satire" is stressed there, and not in much else, but yes, that was a lot of fourth wall breaks. If that novel was a romantasy, it should have been called, "The Hot Hands of Immortality" (shakes powder packet)
Instead of a chronicler following me about, I'd rather have a fiddler playing theme music. I am proud of this middle grade author for being respectful of its child readers, instead of picking ticks and lice out of their head and eating them. (That was a groomer joke)😂
Thank you for summarizing these books. I am positive Dr. Chase knows that your pick of the finalist from these six is thoughtful and unbiased.
Just the fact that the book you picked was a wholesome middle grade book would make me biased to choose it. We need more of that in the world.
Love you Brian,
Satire!
Thanks, John. I hope you check it out!