ALSIH2O
speaker- gives us a fantasy special ops unit.
i was less than completely happy with the treatment of the gnomes carved from salt,
while the language worked and i liked the "turn of phrase" i felt it wasn't exactly what i would have illustrated,
but that is more than countered by the hilarious handling of the giant turtle. the rbed man and the arch were handled well enuf, and i did enjoy the
image of the leonardo sketch as a necromancy document.
mirthcard- gives us a nearly uncatergorable tale (is that a word?)
from the introduction with the fiend who inveted wicker thru to our fiend being sentenced to being a gnome (playing to a judge?)
i found this story rollicking fun. the turtle is an interesting handle, and the pinochio buit got to me too. this story is far from anythign i expected from a ceramic d.m. contest, but i loved it anyway.
my vote has to go to mirthcard on this one
MALDUR-
Speaker:
A fantasy james bond. nice story! the mix between modern and fantasy is
getting more popular in the ceramic dm contest all the time.
mirthcard:
I just finish my coffe otherwise I would heve been cleaning my monitor. That
is one funny story!
Im a bit disturbed by the using gnomes as the ultimate punishment. But its
very funny!! Well done!
Im a bit stumped because of outside influences, so Ill do a more indepth
analysis of my judging tomorrow.
But the Mirthcard story cheered me up, thx!
My vote goes to Mirthcard
ARWINK-
Speaker
To begin with - Yoink! The Giant Turtle Shell as talking point for some stray
noble just showed up in a nobleman's courtyard in my campaign. Nice idea
Beyond that, Speakers piece is stylistically strong. The ephemeral nature of
the party Sam's attending comes through very strongly, as does his feeling of
being out of place in such surrounds. Even better, the overall plot of the
story wasn't immediately obvious. Speaker avoids many of the usual mistakes of
this kind of piece, which sets up the main character as far too "Secret Agent"
from the outset, and the pacing moves forward nicely. There are a few places
where the language could be fine-tuned, particularly in the dialogue between
Sam and his nemesis, but this is a minor quibble in light of the time limit and
pressures of the contest.
Mirthcard.
One thing I like about Mirthcard's entry is the overtone of the
Pratchett/Gaiman collaboration Good Omens, an old favorite of mine. The tale
is stylishly told, with a controlled voice that does the story credit, but in
the end it's its similarity to other tales in this style that is its greatest
drawback. It's a sub-genre I end up reading a lot of at work for some reason,
and although Mirthcard handles it better than most, it does suffer a little in
my eyes. The litany of evil/annoyance the Fiend has accomplished was amusing,
but at the same time was a tad.cheap. At times it seems as though he's taking
an easy shot at pop culture, picking on obvious targets (although I agree on
the evils of wicker). When it brings up something interesting, such as the
points where it incorporates the giant turtle, it truly shines and the ending
is nice (and, I admit, I have to agree once more with the evils of garden
gnomes as well).
Picking between these two stories is particularly tough, probably the hardest
of all I've come across so far. On the whole, Mirthcard's is the slightly more
controlled of the two - it shows a more sparing use of language that gives it a
slight edge over Speakers tale. On the other hand, Speakers piece holds more
surprises for me, it's prose showing a strong control of genre conventions and
a well-paced and well-detailed plot. I've swung backwards and forwards a dozen
times here - both pieces are very strong and their authors should be pleased
with their work. In the end though, I end up leaning towards Speakers piece
because it does the two things that I love in fantasy fiction - it kept me
entertained and gave me things to steal for my games.
winner is mirthcard in a split decision.