Coming in 5th, it's a fascinating and frightening look at the future of humanity as it grapples with peace after a thousand-year war. It's Children of the Black, Book 1 of the Silver Sights Saga, by W. J. Long III! Great stuff.
In 4th place, the beautiful and action-packed story of a centuries-old entity and a long-forgotten heist -- it's Gold Record, Memoirs of a Synth by Leigh Saunders! An amazing story well worth checking out.
Our 3rd place finalist is aptly titled -- yes, it's Three Grams of Elsewhere by Andy Giesler!
This wonderful story of empathy and sacrifice in a world torn apart by human factionalism deeply touched a lot of our judges - a very worthy 3rd place.
Without further ado, our amazing runner-up is the exciting, entertaining and confrontational story of virtual reality gone dark (like, really, really dark): it's Thrill Switch by Tim Hawken!
And that can only mean, of course, that our pick for the #SPSFC this year, the 2023-2024 #SPSFC3 champion, is Kenai, the mind-bending tale of alien discovery by @davedobson.
Huge applause and three cheers for all our contestants, we have a winner!
@spsfc@davedobson@bookstodon Yeah. That's a Twitter/X link. Not clicking on it. Ever. Got one that doesn't give data to a fascist asshole by any chance?
Edit: they have updated the link. Editable posts FTW!