I have issues, so after finishing reading my allocation, I rummaged around in the books allocated to the rest of my judging team, much like a raccoon in a dumpster: uninvited but relaxed, delighted by my own personal search for treasure.
As these aren’t my assigned books, many of my assessments may not count for much (or anything!), but they could serve as tiebreakers if the original judges disagree with each other, or could sub in for a primary score if someone is unable to finish reading their allocation.
In this initial phase of judging, each of us is asked to categorize a book as a “Strong Yes,” “Soft Yes,” “Soft No” or “Strong No.” We’re asked to read at least 20% of the book, more if we’re giving it a strong positive recommendation.
I’m going to criticize all of these books. If you wrote one of them, and criticism is harmful to your creative process, you might just want to read my “yes” or “no” and not the details. I’m not sharing any of my insights to be cruel, but because honest criticism helps authors grow… and ALL of these authors had something good in what they wrote. I’m sharing criticisms in hopes that they will use them to nurture their skills and keep improving their writing.
A Swift and Sudden Exit * Arachne Portal * What Swims on Uncharted World 550 * Molten Flux * Dierock 88 * Fieres
A Swift and Sudden Exit – Soft No
First off, the good: I did really like the main character and her relationships with her friends and co-workers. They felt like real people with real relationships.
Why didn’t I recommend it move forward? There were grammar issues throughout, particularly comma splices, and the central romantic relationship of the book felt slightly wooden to me – far less believable than the friendship between the MC and her bestie. On top of that, the sudden lurid detail when the romantic relationship turned sensual was a little jarring to me from a book that wasn’t billed primarily as a romance book.
I still enjoyed the plot and characters enough to keep reading, and was on the fence about recommending it or not, but I was disappointed by the resolution of the time travel plot. Time travel is a difficult thing to do well, and ultimately A Swift and Sudden Exit fell short for me.
Arachne Portal – Soft No
This is a book I rather enjoyed at first. The writing was initially pretty good, and while some aspects of the plot seemed unrealistically convenient, I didn’t mind it too much with the lighthearted tone of the book.
Unfortunately, my suspension of disbelief continued to fracture as the book went on. The cast was supposedly made up of world-class scientists from a variety of disciplines, but none of them seemed familiar with the scientific method or proper experimental procedure. That broke my immersion completely.
What Swims on Uncharted World 550 – Soft No
The writing in this book was okay. A little choppy, but I read it through all the way to the end. Despite that, I had to vote against it. This book was a suspense/mystery title, and the characters didn’t act believably, uniformly prioritizing factionalism over their own lives. I’m okay with one or two people acting nonsensically – stress does weird things to people – but everyone banding together to be identically illogical was hard to swallow.
I was hoping the eventual reveals would make sense of earlier nonsensical behavior, but – for the majority of people – it didn’t. Worse, the “mystery” reveal was accompanied by a reveal about the main character that was very poorly foreshadowed and made her behavior through the course of the novel make less sense.
I think there’s the bones of a good story here, but the “mystery” elements need to be re-worked to more fully explain the nonsensical behavior, and probably the reveal about the protagonist should be entirely re-thought. Perhaps let her be who she seemed to be and find another way to resolve the core mystery.
Molten Flux – Soft No
Despite a creative setting, this one didn’t seem to belong in a science fiction competition. Everything was explained as magical phenomena.
In addition, it was in need of better editing. Comma splices were particularly prevalent.
Dierock 88 – Soft Yes
There’s a lot to criticize here. The editing is sloppy, with some words occasionally being omitted entirely. The plot meanders a bit, and the opening sequence where the main character does a Dumb Teenager Thing doesn’t seem to have any continuing relevance to the plot. I think it would have been much better if this could sequence had been re-worked so that the protagonist did a different dumb teenager thing that also served the purpose of preparing the reader better for the existence of alien technology that becomes relevant later in the story.
Despite that, I enjoyed myself. The initial cast of characters is instantly intriguing and likeable, and their relationships felt real and believable. The cast of characters that replaces them later in the story are far less charming and consistent, but interesting in their own ways.
The plot bogs down somewhat as the book goes on. There are many players, each of whom have different, often opaque, goals. These players often do things that don’t make sense, and their reasoning is only occasionally explained later on.
I was a bit on the fence with this one, but the reading experience was enjoyable enough that I’m still tentatively recommending it move forward.
Fieres – Soft Yes
I was not surprised when another judge read this book and gave it a soft no. It starts slow. At nearly 20% in, I’d seen only the barest hints of a plot. The beginning of the book is mostly devoted to character vignettes for the cast. In addition, it rides the edge of “science fantasy,” with lots of things happening that are called “science” but could easily be called “magic.”
Still, I really liked all the interesting alien races, cultures, and life-cycles. The aliens felt alien, not like humans with masks on. Between that and the spaceships, it was sci-fi enough for me.
The pacing of this book probably needs adjusting, with more detail in some areas and less in others, and I don’t think the prologue did the book any favors. By the time I understood how it was relevant to anything at all, I’d mostly forgotten it. The main character has really excellent character growth throughout the story, but she starts as an emotionless near-automaton. That’s a difficult first offering to make to your reader!
I also found things too easy or tidy at times, and enjoyed the times when the author was brave enough to let things be messy. Those moments made the story feel more real.
This is another title where I was on the fence, but am tentatively giving it a soft yes.
What’s next?
My group will soon be announcing a handful of quarter-finalists. From there, we’ll choose two semi-finalists to move forward.