Review Redo: The First of Shadows

Recently the Self-Published Fantasy Month Team posted a list of some self-published fantasy recs for those who have not read much self-published fantasy and don’t know where to start with finding a good book to read. Our hope was to offer up a few suggestions each while admitting the list would leave out a bunch of great books and authors. I hate leaving out great stories so I decided to re-post the reviews of all the self-published fantasy books I’ve really enjoyed over the last few years. Over the coming days and weeks I’ll be re-posting them here in the lead up to Self-Published Fantasy Month. My hope is you might find one that catches your interest for September!

The First of Shadows Review

As you know I’ve become a big fan and advocate of self-published/indie fantasy. Mark Lawrence’s Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) has done tremendous work highlighting great self-published books the last five years. But there are many, many more great self-published fantasy works out there that haven’t made it into the SPFBO finals and deserve some recognition. Today I have the pleasure of discussing one of those great self-published books, The First of Shadows.

Self-Published Fantasy Month 2019 Recap

Self-Published Fantasy Month 2019 is over. While I admit I’m a little sad about that fact, I must also say I was pleased with how it went, mostly because unlike last year I was able to finish it. Here’s a quick recap of the month.

I want to thank everyone who participated in one way or another and if I’ve missed someone please let me know so I can update the post. What is included below are just those posts by bloggers who specifically tagged or wrote their pieces for Self-Published Fantasy Month.

Book Haul: Self-Pub Fantasy Month 2019 Edition

Earlier this week there was a sale going on for books related to the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (#SPFBO). A bunch of self-published/indie authors got together and put their books on sale for $0.99 each. Most of the books were part of SPFBO5 that is currently underway, but there were a few books and authors from SPFBO4 that I noticed.

Anyway, what’s important for this conversation is there were a bunch of self-published/indie books on sale. This of course meant I had to buy some. Because you know, there was a book sale going on. It’s what one does.

I bought five books. I’m pretty sure at least one of these will be read and reviewed for Self-Published Fantasy Month in September though I haven’t decided which one or whether there will be more than one.

Here’s what I picked up…