SPSFC3 - Thoughts on Judging & A Few Highlights

Judging the SPSFC3 has been an interesting experience for me. Previously, I had only participated in contests like SPFBO and SFINCs as an entrant - throwing my books in there and hoping to get at least a little visibility for my books out of my participation in these competitions. Hoping that the books would end up with a judge that liked them and would give them a good review and get the word out a little bit. This year, I had the opportunity to see the other side of the process as a judge for the science fiction competition SPSFC in it's third run. I was part of Team Peripheral Prospectors, which was a team composed of 6 judges. You can check out our team hub, where links to all our reviews and other SPSFC3 posts can be found, but I also thought I would look back at my year of being a judge and post a few thoughts here. 

SPSFC3 - The Process and some of the Books 

While I mostly read and write fantasy, I do love to read some science fiction from time to time and so I joined the group hoping to find some hidden sci-fi gems and help shed some light on them. I already knew that there would be a lot of good books entered in the competition and while the finalists and winner get most of the good publicity, I hoped to be able to give a tiny bit more visibility to some of the other books as well. Our team had a large group of books assigned to us, but we each sampled a few of them to decide which ones we would choose to move on in the competition. Check out my post about the books I sampled for this first phase. There were quite a few good books here that are worth a look. 

Due to time constraints, we didn't end up reading all of these books to completion, just sampling the first 20% or so to see which ones we wanted to move forward. There are couple from that list that I still hope to go back and read to completion once I have time, including Lume and Tailspin. Even the book that did go through to the next round, Replacement, didn't end up winning, but I really loved it and think it deserved to! 

Once our team finished sampling the books, we chose six quarterfinalists that we thought were well-written and could be strong contenders in the competition. Each of these quarterfinalists got full read-throughs and reviews by at least 3 team members before we decided which two we would move forward as our semi-finalists. The nature of the competition, the fact that only one can win in the end, forces us as judges to make a choice and at the end of the day, books that are great, enjoyable, and well-written don't get to move forward! One of my favourite reads of 2023, Pallas Lost, was one such book. It was one of the quarterfinalists, but didn't end up getting a high enough score from all the judges that read it and didn't end up moving forward! 

The semi-finals round brought even more great books from other teams. Here, I discovered Apocalypse Parenting, a wonderful cozy-ish LitRPG that you should definitely check out and Any Minor World, a really cool Noir book that introduced me to that whole sub-genre! That's another thing I loved about judging this competition, it forced a little outside my usual preferred sub-genres and introduced me to some great books I never otherwise would have tried. 

Judging Fatigue 

There are people who read a lot more books in a year than what I ended up reading for this competition, but by the time we got to the finals round I had a case of judging fatigue or a reading slump or whatever you want to call it. I just couldn't get through any of the finalists even though they were clearly well-written books! I ended up not making much of a contribution here, which is why I'm so glad that I was part of a bigger team where other members could give the books the chance that they deserved. 

One thing's for sure: I now have a much greater appreciation for the hard work that the judges of these competitions put in. (And I don't know how some of the solo judges or smaller judging teams on the SPFBO do it!) 

Being Part of a Team 

One of the best things I found through my judging experience was the team work and team dynamic. I really enjoyed discussing the books with the rest of the team and seeing other team members thoughts on the books. It was such a great experience. Check out our team introductions to meet the other team members and check out their blogs! 

Reading Tastes & Competitions 

There are a lot of books I ended up avoiding in this competition because they were too dark for me personally. Thankfully, our team process allowed me to do that, knowing that they would be given a chance by another judge on the team who would enjoy them more than I ever could and would give them a better chance. And at the end of the day, looking at the books that went through to the finals... a lot of the finalists were darker books while more fun books like Apocalypse Parenting, for example, didn't make it. 

In my opinion, this shows that readers should give the books that didn't make it to the finals a chance. Your tastes may differ from the general consensus reached by the judges and you might end up liking semi-finalists, quarter-finalists or even books that didn't get through the first round much more than you'd enjoy the finalists. Use these competitions as more of a way to find books. Check out the lists of entrants and sample them. Give a new sub-genre a try every once in a while. You might find something that surprises you! 

Closing Thoughts 

Overall, I enjoyed being part of the judging team for SPSFC3. I found lots of excellent books that I personally enjoyed, discovered new sub-genres I've never tried, and hopefully I helped shed some light on some lesser known books. I know I don't have energy to do it again this coming year, but maybe some time in the future I'll try it again! For now, I'll be keeping an eye on the next round to see if any books catch my eye!