Best AAR: Jan - Jun 2003

[Lord Durham]

Here are the nominees for Best AAR for the August poll.


1) Broken Spears: Stories of Jaguar Knights of Tlaxcalla by Gaijin de Moscu

2) The Catholic King by Judas Maccabeus

3) Denmark - The Ambitions Fulfilled? by Norgesvenn

4) History Park: who wants to be Napoleon by Director

5) The Lives of Famous and Noble Castilians: A Chronicle of the Kingdom of Castile by Secret Master

 

[Alexandru H.]

As the first voter, I want to say that it was tough. I had to decide, ultimately, between Director and Secret Master, and I chose Secret Master. Why? Read it....I really liked his narrative flow and the feel of the period....quite a pleasure

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

A vote for History Park. While all nominees are good, that one is truly special in the WTF category.

 

[Director]

Thanks, Peter. Coming from a man whose emblem is a dancing purple extra-terrestrial, I'll take that as a compliment. I had a lot of fun with HistoryPark, and it was deliberately unconventional. And thank you for the vote and the plug!

I think HistoryPark:WWTBN is better written than 'As The Spirit Moves Me', but I am slightly biased... I am very proud of this one.

Just one request of the voters... read at least a little of each AAR before you vote.

This is a strong group of entries.

 

[Languish]

Tough, tough call... and I had to go for Gaijin de Moscu by a fraction.

Argh... really tough

 

[Valdemar]

Aargh I cannot do with only one wote here

Does this mean that SM's Castillians are considered aborted?

Anyway I've cast my vote

V

 

[unmerged(4271)]

There are so many factors here it is tough to decide.

I think Broken Spears was beautifully written, and really liked the choice of language, which is outstanding consider the authors' native tongue is not English.

I like the story and pacing of The Catholic King.

But I think ultimately, top to bottom, the craftsmanship of History Park is too remarkable not to vote for it.

I have confessed before that in the first few posts of the AAR I didn't know what exactly was going on and dropped out only to have try to catch up from behind later in the story. Why is this significant? Because what I missed was all of the extensive background that Director was establishing before launching into the story. The story arcs, the suspense and twists span several posts, and the level of detail far exceeds anything I've been willing to put into a story.

Also, and this is just a personal preference, but I think the multi-poster collaborative tends to take something away from the author's original work. Don't get me wrong, they are fun and I love them, but in terms of judging the story I think they weaken it a bit. But just my opinion.

 

[unmerged(10224)]

I wasn't a huge fan of History Park for some reason. My vote goes to Broken Spears, because of the strong narrative style.

 

[Judge]

Tough choice it seems, I have not read all AARs so I will have to check all of them out before I vote.

 

[unmerged(9046)]

Tough choice it seems

And next month we get the second half of the Best AARs and they are just as good!

 

[unmerged(11366)]

Castillians was the first AAR I ever read. It's still a masterwork of its rather peculiar (computer game fiction) genre.

 

[unmerged(11633)]

History Park for me- I think it's one of the best blends of Sci-fi and history I've seen. Ever-

 

[Gytis]

I like Gaijin's AAR most. An idea of alowing everyone who whants join as story and change it's shape as he pleases, and great scenes, wrote by Gaijin, makes Broken Spears special.

 

[unmerged(14338)]

Broken spears for me

 

[Lord Durham]

With all due respect to the entrants, I find the current placement of Secret Master's 'The Lives of Famous and Noble Castilians: A Chronicle of the Kingdom of Castile' to be a real headscratcher. It certainly can't be due to poor writing, bad character development or lousy plot lines.

Is it because it's too long for people to read and fully appreciate how masterful this work truly is?

Note to Stroph, perhaps we should introduce a 'Best Literary AAR' category for sometime in the future, as well as a 'Most Popular AAR' category as opposed to a 'Best of...' category.

 

[unmerged(9046)]

Note to Stroph, perhaps we should introduce a 'Best Literary AAR' category for sometime in the future, as well as a 'Most Popular AAR' category as opposed to a 'Best of...' category.

Probably not a bad idea. I read all five of these stories. They are all excellent tales. I don't often state in this thread which one I voted for, but I thought that Secret Lives to be something special.

Broken spears is extremely well written and flows almost like a poem. I don't know if all the background is true or imagination, but it reads like it had been handed down from generation to generation. Well done!

Catholic King is, in my opinion, the best work produced so far by Judas. He has written some great dialogue in this tale.

Denmark is one I have not read all the way through. I tend to read in huge chunks and this one stretched out over a long time while he wrote it. What I wrote was a fine piece of craftmanship!

History Park is one of my favorite tales in these boards. It was truely original and kept up the same quality page after page.

Secret Lives seemed to take some of the best elements of other tales and bind them into a way that has a depth and breadth that is amazing.

The characters SM built in there should be required reading for any English (replace with your language of choice) classes in every University.

What may be keeping people away is that the best chapters of it are not in the beginning or at the end (in my humble opinion). I thought the chapters on Isabelle and the next generation (Juan?) to be incredible.

I am not telling anybody who to vote for, but do give the tale a solid read. It is worth it and shows what a well written AAR could do!

 

[Lord Durham]

Poll is closed. Congrats to all who participated.

LD