Contest April-May 2017 Short Story Contest Voting Thread

Wow, this is a close one.

Am slowly working on review-things...despite the "we hates you!" from that Ratty fellow.

 

Chances are good that we see at least a two way tie after the next voter...

 

Not sure i'll manage to bash the rest out tonight but here's the first four:


Story One: Heheh, I like the subtlety of this piece.

I fear the first paragraph lost me a bit due to it not being formatted as if it was an entry in a diary. After a second glance over I got it, but it felt a bit jarring for me.

However, this did little to hinder the rest of the entry. The pacing was largely well placed and kept me interested throughout, even with the shifts in point of view. The two main characters were also artfully written and were fun to follow.

But for me it was the clever ending gambit by the wizard that made it for me. It reminded me a lot of a Hellbrandt Grimm graphic story where he uses the effigy of an open and burning maw to attract the attention of Orcs to wipe out a camp of heretics the church of Sigmar wanted destroyed. In his ending words he comments that whilst it loses much in translation, for an Orc such an effigy simply put means “dinner.” Getting that vibe with this piece made me very happy.


Story Two: Hmm, good point.

Killing Seraphon is kinda like killing Necrons or ghosts. No blood, limbs for trophies, nor parts for necromancy. Somewhere out there there’s some necromancer sobbing about not being able to use lizardmen parts for his winged nightmare. I know I am. *Sob*

For a Khorne-thing, this must be very upsetting if everything you kill turns into sparkles and fairy dust, especially as there’s no Slaanesh around to punch in the face for it. So yeah, I feel for that daemon-thing.

Indeed, I really liked it as a character (although perhaps it’s more alien/daemonic mind could have been played up a bit more.)

The ending was good, but I felt like it could have been more. Not sure how though.


Story Three: Quite a classic theme but done well.

One thing I’ll say is that the author of this piece really seems to like bringing to life inanimate objects. It’s something I don’t see often, but when I do I often love it. This is one of those times as the simple use of the knife sets the stage so nicely, especially how it effectively begins and ends with it.

The fight scenes themselves were alright, I’ve read better and much worse. I really liked the name Mournfury though, at first I thought it was a silly name but the more I said it the cooler it sounded.

Whilst I think the lead up to the ending (with the Saurus’ reasonings) was a little weak, with the arguments for and against not feeling too overly compelling for me, I very much enjoyed the very end.


Story Four: *Played the theme from the MGS series whilst reading this*

Or maybe I had the Prisoner theme in my head-meat. I’m not sure.

In either case this was a thrilling piece with suspense, action, and lots of leg wounds (actually...was this a WHFRP or FFG variant being played as the amount of leg wounds seems to match that?)

The main lizzie was fun to read, especially at the start of the story which was beautifully written. I did however feel that the piece lost it a bit in terms of pacing and focus towards the latter end with the combat. I for one would like to see this author write a slow and reflective piece with little to no action, as I think they could probably outdo me at that.

 

I'm a bit stunned it was so well received. (Not trying to sound boastful) I frantically wrote the majority of my entry in the single night and had less than high hopes about it...especially when I read the other entries.

So wow. Many hissing thanks to all those who voted, those who entered, and Scalenex for running this compy.

 

I think you mean - massive congrats to Y'ttar for another fantastic and well-deserved win, he has yet again proved what a true and unquestionable lizard he is and we can't wait to participate in whatever wonderful theme he picks for us next!

Number of votes is a bit disappointing, although the even spread testifies to the amazing consistency of quality we're producing. I think we need to think of ways to convert those who post on other subforums to become more common participants in Fluff and Stories.

Onwards!

 

Well, on the plus side it's still far more entries and votes than the Skaven forum's competitions. That this forum actually has a successful competition that has kept running despite the drop in Warhammer and AoS forum goers is testament to the love and skill the fluff writers and mods on this forum have.