July 6, ’13 EMCSA Update

WITHIN: Graded primarily on heat and narrative
WITHOUT: Graded primarily on narrative
Possible spoilers below …

WITHIN
Partner Programming (mc mf md ft) (new)  by Tri3Ax
–2.5/5 (not great, had some redeeming qualities)–

That’s a fairly long synopsis, but the story is on the longer side … Anyway, while it didn’t feel forced, it felt like a bit too much backstory too soon. This wasn’t a continuation with familiar characters, so I wasn’t that interested so soon. Might’ve had something to do with the slow pacing of this, I dunno. Well written and everything, but like many workplace stories, it failed to grab me. But hey, The Office finally grabbed me, so there’s hope!
(ReReadability: low / follow: no)

Under the Milky Way (mc mf ff gr) (new)  by Mudak
–3/5 (decent, not perfect)–

Awesome song, by the way On a side note, I thought this was ridiculously long, until I saw how short the individual chaps were Anyway, the first chap is very much an excuse for the following events. While it is often seen as generic, cliche, boring, and even unnecessary, it works here, if only just. Though Contact is mentioned, I kept thinking of the half decent sci-fi psychohorror Event Horizon here, and nothing goes well in that movie! A bit of a genre piece, overall, while the author does a half decent story out of it, even if the alien contact described here felt like something rather overdone and convenient. Maybe a bit too much lead up, too, and while another stated this felt like a “sketch,” I thought this could be slimmed down a bit. I also didn’t like the obsessive use of geography to represent the characters over actual physical description. Anticlimactic in the end, partly because nothing completely crazy happened like in Event Horizon!
(ReReadability: low / Follow: no)

WITHOUT
Hypno Dude (mc mf md) (new)  by Hypnobubbles
~~3/5 (decent, not perfect)~~

As a side note, I’m working on a Blog Flash with this all dialogue style. Finding it awkward to do, but it is interesting.  This was a bit too silly, but readable. I have to say that I liked this story overall.
(ReReadability: Low / Follow: no)