Contest January-February 2016 Short Story Contest Voting Thread

I am not remotely ready to allocate my third vote BUT I do want to play the author guess game again. Rather than hide my thoughts under spoilers, I am going to write a cryptic message to each of my guesses. You will know who you are (I hope), and after the reveal, I can go "I told you so" or "Ooh. I got that very wrong, didn't I?"

He comes from empty tunnels to reveal the emptiness of form.

When there is no time there will be bananas

He needs no halo to show his divine mastery of the crystal fragments

Afterwards he will pass through the grove of fangs.


I hope I can find the fingerprints of a few more of you - I will post accordingly.


Umm...

The Ancient One has placed his seal, bringing an Ixti grub to a knife fight.

 

I have returned children, what do you seek?

 

Wowzers, i'm only about halfway through the lot and it's already difficult to rank them above their fellows.

I'm going to have a hard time with this. Will see if I can come up with some kind of analysis down the line.

Truly fantastic work from the writers!

 

Nice new avatar.

You are officially freaking me out.

What's RL, Preciousss? Is it like potatoesss?

Oopsss. Figured what RL was for myselfss.

We hatess it, Preciousss!. We hatess it!

 

my interpretation of an old one
Xholankha is my name

 

Lost no more!

I think I've identified another author. Cryptic message:

The Legend of the Stymphalian Bird.

 

when does bob begin to read the sacred critisisms of the storys?

 

That was my favourite part of the last comp too! @spawning of Bob and @Scalenex critiques were incredible reads. Maybe @Y'ttar Scaletail will help them out with that, if my detective work is spot on, and it always is, this is the source of inspiration for the other two giving critiques.

 

I believe you're talking about that dastardly Mr Gnawtail, a fiend of dark intent and strange comedic tales. Alas, I Y'ttar am but a humble Kroot Elder lizard-thing and most certainly not that wicked rat in disguise... *shifty eyes*

That said, I am working on a critique, though I doubt it'll match up to Bob and Scalenex's own brilliant dissections. *Scurries back to warren* *Plods...er...back to shiny gold-thing temple?*

 

My mistake good sir! Please feel free to play in that sacred spawning pool over there!

 

i have cast my votes. i too await the dissection of the stories for analysis.

 

Dammit I was trying to figure out who wrote what but now I'm trying to figure out the arcane significance of these mad runes.

 

To try and understand the mind of Bob is to look into a realm of madness

 

Correct.

Each cryptic message should have some significance for the recipient. But some relate to discussions I had with the recipient years ago, or single words and phrases from other things they wrote.

The codes may be unbreakable, so don't sweat. I might explain later. Only if I got it right.


I am approaching the critiques with all the procrastination of a winter slann who is having a really big think. But I did manage to vote already. It ended up being a bit easier than I predicted (when I read how strong ALL of the entries were. Again.)

This time I decided to vote according to how a story made me feel, and pretty much try not to think too much about technical merit.

Spoiler: It's better if you vote before reading my top picks and rationales

My first auto include was The Loom at the Threshold. The descriptions and the dialogue were so good, I could almost smell the setting. In no special order, the feelings of pity, desperation, resignation, hope and doubt were just sweating out of this evocative piece. The use of contrasts between the characters to propel the mood was very slick. I come away praying that the Last of the First will be able to find their way home eventually.

The second easy choice was Blasphemy. The dialogue and description all felt utterly believable - I had no trouble putting myself in the picture, particularly considering the number of times I have needed correction with the jade rod. The twist was pretty heavy-handed, but hey, to tone down the slann would have been to risk losing the joke contained in the contrast. I am still smiling when I think about this clever and VERY well executed story.

My third vote went to A Day in the Life of a Tempel City. I do a lot of thinking about the cultural backgrounds in this universe and about where the inhabitants find meaning and motivation. This author (if I did correctly I.D. him / her / it) has had a lot of influence on how I view this world over the last year. Every comp, I have hoped that there would be another entry from him. I'm also pretty sure I can't write like this - putting meaning and purpose into the mundane. This kind of stuff gives me optimism about getting up and going to work on Monday morning to feed my spawnlings.

The two entries that were hardest to split away from the top three were Sunblood and the confusingly titled The Monument. Sunblood is one of several here that give dignity to the defeat of the World that Was and hope for the future of AoS - it was also a very well thought out package in the blend of arcane and technological language. The Monument reminds me of another story in the April May 2015 story comp. This is an anonymous comp, so I won't tell you that it was the winner, and that the author's name rhymes with FenBrake.

EDIT and apology - I got the title mixed up on one of my runners up under the spoiler tab. Apologies to the only two people in the mutineers who could have picked up my error.

 

yes if i manged to get inside bobs head it would be an....interesting experience
i've also got a theory that if you removed the eggshell of bob you would actually see the brain.
But wait theres more
aas yo caun seeeee thatt wen a SeNtAnCe i''s relly!?!"?! ba@dly Puntuate,,.,.. AND misspelttl YoU attract Th3 attention 0f Him and Y0u G3t A Really Thoroughly correct and punctuated talkKIng t00.

lets see if this creature will take the bait
*carefully places incorrect sentence over an elaborate and obnoxious trap*
now we wait

 

I nearly fell for this trap. It drives me a bit nutty to see that as well!

 

I've been religiously checking the contest announcement thread for an update to let me know when voting has begun... And apparently my zealotry blinded me to the existence of this thread. XD

I'll begin reading the entries today; I'm so psyched about this contest! So much hype!! XD

 

Shhh you'll scare off the Bob

 

Your kindergarten spelling trap has only caught you four likes.

Quite a success, really.

@Scalenex, errors happen, so don't feel too bad. And if it helps, I decided to give it a vote even when it ended with "covered in filth."

Temple City is the lizardmen equivalent of "Tom's Diner" - hypnotic and compelling.