Fortnightly Writing Competition: Vampires and other Bloodsuckers (Results)

[Sinitrena]

And now that the monsters are all sated with comments, let's have a look at the votes.

But first, let me tell you how I love that you all gave your vampiric beings such original spins, from aliens (or something), to memory stealer, to cicadic life-circles, to taking over the host body - they all have a very unique element to them. Bravo!

Stupot receives 3 + 2 + 2 = 7 points and reaches a good 4. place. I love the idea and the setup, but the story feels rather incomplete all in all. Apparently, the ANNEX organization is not entirely evil, but who is Dinah and what happened to her? What went wrong last time with the accident? Too many questions unanswered. But the description of Victor's attack is great.

Mandle receives 3 + 2 + 3 = 8 points and our 3. place. A bit confusing as to who is who. Also, the action scenes are a tad confusing (justified, because the situation is confusing for the characters as well). Due to the viewpoint of the characters, this story offers little answers as to who is behind it all, it just throws four people in a rather strange position. I was reminded of episodes (in general, not a specific one) of The Outer Limits (1995 version, never saw the older one) from the whole feeling of this story. Good memories.

EjectedStar receives 3 + 3 + 5 = 11 points and the 2. place. The opening desriptions are great, how he wakes up and leaves his grave; very atmospheric. And then it turns to humourous in a very natural transition. Poor Winston. I wish we would have seen how he finally manages to get blood before you jump the story forward. While I likeed the ending, it also feels a bit disconnected from the rest. I wonder if it would work to turn the parts around, starting with his mundane life in our society and then we get to see how he got there? It might need a longer story, though, to fill in all the missing parts in-between. Still, great story.

Baron receives 4 + 4 + 6 = 14 points and our 1. place. Congratulations on your win. This was amazing. At first I was missing the plot a bit (though the descriptions were great) but when it kicked in - that's what I want to read! I especially love the title. Too often, titles are meaningless or just state the obvious, but here it clicks into context in the last couple of paragraphs when we find out what is going on. Radu is a great character, oozing casual evilness through the monitor to the reader. A well deserved win (and everyone agreed on that one).


Baron, your turn.

[Baron]

Wow!  A victory so crushing it broke the forums for three days....   

Thanks everyone for the votes.  I myself had mixed feelings about the piece, as for me the plot seemed to fade behind the copious technical details of how the world worked (however creatively dressed up), but I'm glad my careful readership could see past all that.     As I did not expect to win, I haven't given a shred of thought to our next topic, so you'll have to be a bit patient until I come up with something punchy.