There is no hard evidence to conclude that any of the authors have turned this into a popularity contest, although I wouldn’t be surprised at all if any or all of them have, in one way or another, asked for votes. Let’s take the contest as it is – an open competition just like America’s Got Talent or American Idol, where the best (however that is defined) may or may not “win” (in quotations because as good reads, they are all winners).

In contrast, passages such as ‘How to erase from bitter memory a loving husband lost in a storm? Or a daughter, to grave illness, though much deadlier to that child her festering heartbreak for a lost father?’ seem throwaway and don’t quite cut it. It would have been better to just hint at a cause for the depression. It’s ingenious that the author made it seem to work on a sentence level, though. Meaning, it sounds fine until you look at how it fits in with the rest of the story–consistent worl, atmosphere, pacing, etc. I find many such passages in this piece. Like one commenter said, ‘on a sentence level’, it’s tightly-written. But structurally and story-wise, it’s all over the place.

I can’t see anything wrong with ‘Tarantella’. Its perfectly written (one could almost hear the tip-tapping of shoes, or feel those little spider legs). It’s atmospheric (one can almost smell the dirt floor, the sweat and the oil lamps). It lends itself to different interpretatations (madness or the supernatural?). Technically, this is heads above the other two.

But I find ‘Empire Builders’ more entertaining (it’s even funny) and relevant, thus, more memorable and affecting.