Contest July-August 2024 Short Story Voting Contest (voting through September 7th)

trust me, in some of the previous contests we've had a good amount of it.

 

...and in a matter of a few hours, it went from 0 votes to 2nd place

 

I am a little late to the party here. I have wrote my reviews WITHOUT reading the other reviews. If I clash with or agree with the other reviews, it is purely by coincidence.

Story One, "Jungle's Message": We have a lot of stories about doomed human expeditions in these L-O seasonal contests but this was better than most. It had good pacing, good descriptions, and succinct word choices. It was a nice take on a survivor's tale we don't usually see.

Story Two, "He Said he Would Come": Usually "Despair" stories involve the enemies of the Lizardmen/Seraphon it's nice to see both sides. My interpretation is that the Slann willingly sacrificed them or maybe mistimed things. Maybe this was intended as a prelude style short story hinting at a larger story to come, but since we are talking about "Hope and Despair" this had a feeling of ending to it. I really liked the general word choices, especially “assumptions are the spawning pool of all failures" though there were a couple minor typos here and there. I may have to read it again. I'm not sure if the ambiguity is a strength or a weakness.

Story Three, "A Promise of Hope": This one is probably my favorite of the five in terms of duality equally holding hope and despair in the same measure. I certainly identified with and rooted for the protagonist immediately. I wasn't sure what she was carrying until the very end, I just knew it was important to her. I'm not 100% sure on whether the bag being a "mystery box" was good idea or a bad idea, but either way the story was quite good.

Story Four, Under the Night's Embrace: This was emotionally evocative and well-written and I liked the unorthodox letter writing style of storytelling. The flower blooming was a great way to end this piece.

That said, I fear this might have been in the Uncanny Valley. Lizardmen are challenging to write as Point of View characters because ideally one should balance the "human" and "bestial" aspects of Lizardmen and this was very human. It could have used a little more reptilian view point. Also, canonically, Lizardmen asexually reproduce from spawning pools. This is hardly the first short story to break the canon there (breaking canon is done good if done carefully) but I didn't feel the implied romance was as well explained as it could have been.

Story Five, "If You Don't Laugh, You Cry": This story invoked memories of Spawning of Bob in me and that is very high praise indeed. Usually in his pieces, the tomfoolery and slapstick defeats the enemies of the Lizardmen not the Lizardmen themselves but it was an enjoyable and unorthodox piece nonetheless.

 

Most L-O writers here take the opposite route where they hate their own work.

 

Those 3 votes in a day for "if you don’t laugh..." were really unexpected, but yeah.
Let's just wait for the official announcement by @Scalenex

 

The winner is Story Three By Killer Angel

Story One, "Jungle's Message" by @J.Logan

Story Two, "He Said He Would Come" by @Imrahil

Story Three, "A Promise of Hope" by @Killer Angel THE WINNER

Story Four, "Under the Night's Embrace" by @Llinyn Tathrenlir

Story Five, "If You Don't Laugh, You Cry" by @thedarkfourth

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is J.Logan's first contest entry and Llinyn Tathrenlir's second entry. Thedarkfourth, Killer Angel, Imrahil have umpteen entries. Good mix of old and new.

 

I was curious to learn to which author i gave my vote.

 

Thanks to all of you!

@Scalenex is right, it's very good to have some new blood willing to try the contest.