Contest April-May 2016 Short Story Contest Voting Thread

I'm pretty sure it's from Australia.

 

@Bowser hmm it says USA on it and shows me in dollars but maybe that's a trick - if they are from Australia then it'll increase my chances of ordering one

 

Back on the rails I am looking forward to the last of the reviews from you and Y'Ttar, reviews are definitely my favourite part of these comps!

And yes, confirmed Australia.

 

Me too, well not my reviews I will have read my reviews by the time I come to post them but defiantly @Y'ttar Scaletail 's reviews - I looked into shipping for Europe it said something like 30$? that's more than the one I wanted to order...maybe I read it wrong

 

Thank ye, hopefully I can get the last five up soon. With this number of entries it's almost like reading a book of collected short stories.

 

I felt and feel the same as enjoyable as it is it's a lot to get through but we can both post our last five soon before the voting closes

 

Here are my final five reviews:

The Bounty:


Although this story is littered with amazing parts I can't shake the feeling that there is far too much going on; drunk dwarfs, a legendary stag, daemons, beastmen, a renegade saurus and a gun toting skink priest (Who by the way is one of my favourite characters from this competition). I honestly wish this author had focused a story solely on "Eli-Nez" as the lead.

Eli-Nez was a character imagined very well and portrayed in such a fashion that is to be envied, he uses technology as "spells" which is brilliantly conceived as anyone facing technological things might well assume some form of wizardry.


The writing of the story is well managed only to be let down by the subtle but cheesy humour running through the speech. I'm a fan of comedy in writing I just think it was a bit hit and miss. Having said that the humours parts that worked well worked extremely well - so perhaps it is down to personal taste.


The ending was definitely one of my favourite endings of the competition the twist of having it revealed that the story was a tale of figures on a board was mind blowing. Like inception but with warhammer.


This story had so many of my favourites I'm genuinely sad to say it didn't get one of my votes. If I could offer up Ixti grub to the author I would.


Trinity:


This story baffled me and to understand why we have to start at the end, he killed himself? and not Chosi? - This wouldn't prevent the standard bearer from taking the sword after his death surely? Unless he intended to frame him for his murder? He chargers Chosi and bashes his stick away only to commit suicide. Hmm i'm officially baffled.


The author clearly knows how to write effectively I can't fault them at all for their craftsmanship with the tale, the pace and length of the story worked really well. The whole issue raised with taking a dead man's blade was handled delicately - I only thought it might be missing a quip about the weapon not serving its previous owner well.


Although objects of power are common place in fantasy I kept waiting to hear the main character say those infamous words "My precious". The blade clearly had a grip on him catapulting him into the realms paranoia.


All the wrestling in the mud had a slightly erotic feel to it... not really this seems like a realistic and training ritual for them and helped me visualise the scene in which they inhabit.


I'd like to talk about anti- not anti- hero for now more anti-climax the story had a great build up to a somewhat unnecessary twist ending. Now we can talk about anti-hero. The lead perfectly filled the role right up until the last paragraph, He was a champion on the battlefield slowly abusing his power to train his recruits harder and harder. I strongly feel he should have carried down this path and perhaps even kill Chosi and not just kill him tell all the other recruits that this was the new order of things if they didn't meet his exacting standards.


If we ignore the ending of the story I could confidently rate this story a strong 8-9/10.

With a few alterations this story would have gained my vote no questions asked but I don't much like being confused. I hope the author can understand.


Serpent's Brew:


I'm going to keep this review a lot shorter than the story and a lot shorter than my other reviews sorry. This story was in my opinion by far and large the best written of the competition, I'm going to say right now I regret not voting for this story. I think perhaps it was the length that put me off but honestly I can't justify not voting for it. The author writes to a very high publishable standard and the content of the story lives up to the writing. The theme is tackled masterfully. There isn't much else to say really other than deepest apologies to the author I hope they can forgive me in time.


Chosen:


This story isn't written it's painted: "The new world was a vast emerald carpet stretched out before him, a thick layer of potent, visceral ecology." With every brush stroke we see more and more into the author's mind and deeper into the story as it unfolds before us.


The author really nails the social roles of the characters and their interaction with one another. I feel I am beginning to hate Mazdamundi as others do - his attitude towards a 4th gen upsets me the elitism of it all - I don't know enough about him to understand if this is in character or not.

It is a shame the author didn't chose to focus more on an original character but they focus on Mazdamundi so well it's compelling to read. From start to finish this had me captivated it was like reading a Lorebook full of wisdom.

This story got my final vote because of how it stayed on point throughout - from start to end it is filled with nuggets of brilliance all laced together upon the silver silky threads of subtlety. This story is almost as great as the Great Plan of the Old Ones...almost.


This story is my Chosen couldn't resist.


Paranoia:


The start to this story is extremely telling - we're in for a treat... there is a beautiful introduction of the Plan and how it came into being - each element fits perfectly into the next.

The speech in this story is extremely well thought out, though there isn't much of it there is just the right amount for me.


They really understand how to portray character and we get drawn into feeling for them. There is a tinge of humour that I liked in the story especially when referring to the Lizard/slug snack-thing.


I fell in love with the actions of our anti-hero skaven and at the ending we find that justice is best served salamander hot. I think on a purely writing style point of view the vision growing dark line did not need to be in brackets.


This story didn't quite get my vote but it was very enjoyable to read and one of the more light hearted shorter stories that I am fond of.I definitely want to hear more from this author whomever he/she is.


All 15 stories scored very highly in my books the competition was so tough when voting I wrote down little scores to help me justify my choices the point differences between the stories did not vary more than 1 or 2 points. This really was a tough batch to chose from it really only came down to personal preferences in the end I think. Massive congratulations to all for taking part.

 

*Applause*

Very nicely written Slaantaclause, not to mention all the other lovely reviews. Certainly one of the high points of these competitions (other than tucking into these delectable tales. )

*Cracks claws*

Alrighty, time for me get finishing off!

 

I'm looking forward to reading the last of yours too it certainly adds an extra layer to the competition

 

Oh, I really can't wait until we undercover authors get to take responsibility for our work. Or in my case, desperately try to seem like I knew what I was doing the whole way through mine. I really want to see the thought processes between them all!

..although you may get a tad disappointed with mine ...

 

Judging by the quality of entries I don't think we will be

 

Will there be a thread to post our authors comments on our own works or will each author have to create their own?

 

I will say that I agree with most of what the reviewers said about my piece, though i'd say they could have been more critical.

I for one will post up my piece with all the notes and deleted bits as a seperate topic.

 

I would think a brief comment from each author on this thread would be good - it would be adjacent to the critiques you are trying so hard to disprove.

 

I think author comments should be on the new thread: the authors are revealed. Shock, controversy, and discussion follows. The authors state their intent, and answers (with quotes) the reviewer's comments. The results thread is active with much heated natterings for much time to come. Possibly.

 

If anyone makes an incisive criticism about me, I might not want to clip it out and put it in my public scrapbook. That doesn't make it less valid.

I'm going to make some counterclaims, confessions and rebuttals here (it's easier to do quotes inside the same thread) but of course I will continue doing my own commentaries in my short story thread (which lags 6-9 months behind)