Sep
8
The War Of The Words competition has closed, the hundreds of entries have been read, and finally, Tor UK and SciFiNow are happy to announce that the shortlist has been drawn up for who will go ahead to the final stages of the contest.
Although the original plan for War Of The Words was to have a shortlist of only five, the quality that we received from all corners of the world prompted us to expand that to ten, to accurately represent the best of the many stories we’ve had the pleasure of reading. What this competition has demonstrated to us, more than anything else, is that the spirit of science fiction and fantasy is still very much alive and kicking, and the literary scene for both genres still has incredible potential to offer. It wasn’t easy to narrow our choices down to just ten, but after weeks of deliberation, it’s ready.
The shortlist for the 2009 War Of The Words competition is, in no particular order:
1. The Sun Song – Andrew Tisbert
2. The Nemesis List – RJ Frith
3. Mech – Jim Keen
4. Children Of Yaltza – Kerrie Maxwell
5. Pale Queen’s Courtyard – Marcin Wrona
6. Evacuee – Paula Hadlum
7. Thorn – Steff Green
8. The Darkness Kept – Lamar Giles
9. The Barocles Codicil – Susan Sarapuk
10. Creations – William Mitchell
The shortlisted entrants have already been notified, and we at SciFiNow and Tor UK would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations for reaching it this far, against incredible odds. We’d also like to offer our thanks to those who entered but didn’t make the shortlist – it takes great courage to put your work to an audience, and the level of quality that we encountered while reading through the entries was astounding.
The final stage of the competition is now underway, and the winner of War Of The Words will be announced on 25 November 2009 both on www.scifinow.co.uk and in the pages of the magazine.
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Congrats to all of the finalists… too bad we can’t read their work and vote!
@ Robert – that’s the most disturbing thing I’ve heard. You’ve seen the winners of X-Factor, Big Brother etc? How rare is it that the best person actually wins? The voting masses rarely might the best choice. I’d rather leave it to a team of experts. Only because they have more of stake in it and have to justify their choices to each other if not everyone else :D
Argh! Another rejection. I’m green with envy.
Gav,
Oh, I wasn’t trying to devise a new system. Tor, etc. has to make a financial decision about what will sell the most, and there is no replacing that.
But a “Reader’s Choice” among the finalists would be cool, if anything to give a different perspective. And I expect the SciFiNow crowd is more informed and thoughtful than the reality TV show watchers. We’re part of the group they’re targeting sales at, aren’t we?
-Robert