Yup, Sunday marked the start of preliminary-round voting for the latest minific contest: The Best Medicine. If you're interested in reading a few but 101 minifics (!) seems too daunting, take heart: this is the preliminary round, which means you only need to read and vote for 14 stories in a set. At less than or equal to 750 words a pop, that doesn't sound so intimidating, does it?
And let me tell you, there are some real gems in there. You can read my comments on the stories I've read so far here, but even if you don't bother with anything else, you owe it to yourself to check out A Crown for the Princess Twilight Sparkle, which contains both poetic excellence and a heck of a punch, and 4th District Court, Canterlot, 11:35 a.m., which is absolutely hilarious. And that's just from the set I read!
And, of course, there's a story from me in there. Good luck finding it; 101 stories gives it a lot of room to hide. Anyway, if you decide to read a few stories, and then further decide you'd like to offer some reviews, the thread to do so in is here; have fun with it!
I've cast my first of three voting slates, and both of these stories were in it. As soon as I saw "A Crown for the Princess Twilight Sparkle," I knew you'd love it, because it's right in the sweet spot of material you always gush over. I rated it toward the middle of my set; while I appreciate the skill that went into crafting the language itself, I found that it didn't have much to say as a story, and what story it did tell was one I'd seen countless times before with nothing new to add to the heap.
ReplyDelete"4th District Court, Canterlot, 11:35 a.m." was more of a hit with me. I liked the way the format played out (though I suspect that will be divisive, and the right-hand columns started to give it more of a feel of stage directions than a story), and the beginning was funny. At about the halfway mark, I started to sour on it, as it seemed to be borrowing too heavily from Flim & Flam's season-4 song to count for much originality, but then it salvaged itself with an amusing wrap-up. My favorite off that slate was "Mondays." Two more slates still to vote!
I fucking love 4th District Court. It's phenomenally perfect.
DeleteMy favorite out of the two blocks I voted on was "To Calm the Savage Breast", which is another poem. I think it worked a little better than "Crown" is all.
What is the story in "A Crown for the Princess Twilight Sparkle"?
DeleteThat she's outlived all her friends and she's in a crisis about it, and it's ambiguous as to how far in the future this is. So... something that wouldn't stand out from the crowd of such things if not for the format, imo.
DeleteI'm looking all over, but I can't find out what the prompt actually was. I think it has something to do with medicine?
ReplyDeleteYup; the prompt was "The Best Medicine."
DeletePlenty of Pinkie Pie stories, obviously, but thankfully enough people came up with something other than "laughter" to keep things fresh!
I did my reading, I did my voting, and now I'm trying to skim through all of them. Sheesh! Some really good ones this time.
ReplyDelete