Contest April-May 2021 Short Story Contest Voting Thread

I've been kind of busy, but it's never too late to critique a short story contest, if it's even three months ago.

And a lot of people are saying for the July-August 2021 contest that a vacation or some other activity is stopping them from doing reviews. It's never too late to do reviews, so here is some light thread necromancy.

This was a fine batch of stories which made me very proud of our community of writers and the enduring legacy we built together on L-O.

Also, I couldn't really bestow the Scalenex Cup for this one because nothing was gloomy enough for that.

A Fish Out of Water: This was one of my favorite pieces. When I proposed the contest theme, I was hoping at least one person would take the theme literally. The gold fish's point of view was very evocative and clever.

It was a little bit predictable once the gold fish started talking to an Old One, you knew it was coming back in some where. but that was fine. The piece had a lot of heart and was fun.

An Old Friend: We haven't had a piece about the transition from Lizardmen to Seraphon in quite a while and this was well crafted.

I like Nakai, and I know Kroxigor don't have to be lumbering oafs, but Nakai did not feel like a Kroxigor to me and some of the narration seemed a shade dry. It's a personal preference but I think Kroxigor driven stories need to be emotional and instinct driven as much as event and stakes driven.

The Fate of Haerhost: This was a very clever and new literal take on fish out of water. It raised more questions than answers.

A lot of short story contests have one or more entries that doesn't read so much as a short story but it reads like the introduction to a more epic tale. I like epic tales and I like introductions, but these type of short stories always feel incomplete and they rarely garner many votes.

The Raiders: An old school Warhammer hand like me, likes a retro reference to Tich Huichi's Raiders. In the official fluff, Tichi had a magical item that would sort of bypass communication barriers with the armies he worked for, but I like the idea that he has to work at communication himself better. And I like that the author focused on how hard it must be for Tichi to operate in so many strange lands.

Given that the young whippersnappers here might not familiar with Tichi Huichi's backstory a bit more exposition might have been needed. Also, Tichi has been leading his warriors for a long time, I would have liked a bit more old salt "here we go again" stuff unless this was his first foreign mission, in which case that should have been clearer.

Out of the Air: I didn't vote for this one, but I almost did. The idea of the Skink getting a palanquin not for magical power but for mobility was intriguing as were the literal flying fish, another literal take on the theme, but we got a metaphorical take on the theme as the protagonist had to learn new ways of solving his problems.

Incomplete: I got this piece early, and I immediately thought "This piece is going to win" I was right and there was a lot of stiff competition. A lot of our stories involve battles, but this one was about personal growth and I always like Saurus-centric stories. And it had a satisfying fluff-tastic ending.

Claw in Mouth: This might have been my favorite piece (or a three way tie between this, "Incomplete", and "A Fish Out of Water." When I proposed the contest theme I was really hoping for a warrior in an awkward social setting and I was glad to find this one which was very well executed. My made me think of My Fair Lady, but with scales and tails.

Muddied Legend: I'm always happy to see a Westhammer story and this had a lot of well fleshed characters.

I think had too many well fleshed out characters. It became hard to figure out who was talking to whom and why. here was so much dialog, there wasn't a whole lot of action.

Story Nine: One does not simply put Lizardmen into Middleearth! It was a clever idea and one of the most out there takes on the contest theme.

Once it clear we were in Middle Earth and not WHF or AoS the ending was predictable. The payoff was satisfying, but given that the ending was telegraphed in advance, there was a maybe a bit too much lead up to it and the piece could have used a hair cut.

 

Putting one's foot in one's mouth is a reference to saying something awkward, and Saurus have claws, not feet.

Edit: This was the April-May Contest. I don't know why I said "March". I fixed the thread title, this was a rough several weeks for me so I was distracted.

 

Even a "old" review is good and appreciated

 

Agree!

 

Like a lot of anime, One Punch Man Season 1 and 2 are taken from the web comic almost unchanged.

There a lot of character plots and many of them get resolved later but very few of them get resolved quickly...

 

That describes pretty much every webcomic that I know...

 

I didn't knew there was also a webcomic. I've got only the manga.