Writing Challenge Results

by the infamous, anonymous Fanzing judge

Origins Fiction Challenge

The final fiction contest has drawn to a close.

Join us now for one last judgment, as we reveal which story will become the last of the Fanzing contest winners.

We will begin with some remarks on each of the three entries, presented in alphabetical order.

Commentaries

The Girl Of Steel by "Dr. Thinker"

Using a Kryptonian time traveler from before that planet exploded was an original way of explaining another survivor.

The story is marred by having a very large number of grammatical errors, including using the wrong words, incorrect verb conjugation, an abundance of sentence fragments, punctuation mistakes, and so on. Also, the sentence construction was generally rather awkward. As a result, it was difficult to read.

In Search of Kal by Bob Meadows

The question of what Jor-El and Lara would have done if Krypton hadn't exploded but their son had already been sent into space is an interesting one, and Bob explores one possible answer well. There's some good characterization of the couple, and a neat fight between four Kryptonians and the Justice Society.

The portrayal of Jor-El seemed quite different from any version in the comics, and the Justice Society were portrayed as being uncharacteristically paranoid.

Who Was the First Star Rover? by Chaim Mattis Keller

Chaim does a nice job replicating the format of the original Star Rovers stories, and even follows the structure twice over. The three possible interpretations of the "exploders" club allowed for three different little mini-stories that are each amusing. If the reader is clever, he or she could actually figure out the true answers to either or both of the puzzles before the Star Rovers collectively manage to.

Because the story is of only moderate length and is really three different tales in one, plus a framing device, the individual flashbacks felt a bit underdeveloped.

Results

With only three submissions, you might think it would be easy to pick a winner. But both Bob and Chaim offered very strong entries, and picking between them wasn't easy. In the end, though, it had to be done.

Who Was the First Star Rover? by Chaim Mattis Keller

Congratulations to Chaim, and thanks to Bob and the doc for entering.