The Winner’s Circle
My name is Zachary Roush, author of Realms. and I’m your ambassador for the Fantasy rounds of the Lunar Awards.
Our judge for this round was J. Kyle Turner. He has read your stories late into the night. He has deliberated. He has considered the stars and cast lots and read the leaves and has determined the winner and runner-up for this season.
Thank you to all our entrants! Subscribe to the Lunar Awards so you can enter another story next time the doors of fate open.
Without further ado… your winners!
Winner: Seasons of Ash by Copper Frog
I chose this story because it draws, as Lloyd Alexander put it, “directly from the fountainhead of mythology, and does it consciously and deliberately.” The autonomous construct that serves as our narrator sits comfortably in the realm of fantasy, but its gemcut mind also feels oddly futuristic. The world it describes could be a part of our ancient past or our distant future, and yet the themes it struggles with describe the world as it feels now. It yearns for the destruction of a civilization that would despoil its own beauty, but it also fears and laments that destruction.
This, to me, is the hallmark of high fantasy. By placing us in the mind of a magical being that sits on a shelf in a dragon’s hoard, while simultaneously presenting a world that feels suspiciously like our own, the author makes the argument that these themes are universal, timeless. This is the world we came from. There are dragon bones in our oceans.
It might also be where we’re headed.
Runner-up: Perfect Light by Clara
My first impression after reading this piece was that there is a vast and potent imagination at work here. The setting is unique and vividly detailed, with immediately accessible stakes and complex characters. The prose is rich enough to draw you in without slowing you down (an important factor, considering this was the longest entry by far). The scene breaks and pacing demonstrate impeccable narrative control, and I would happily trust this author to tell a story of virtually any length.
In fact, the main reason that I didn’t choose this story as the winner is because I suspect this is only part of the story. I’m judging these blind, so I have no way of knowing, but I wonder if this is actually the first arc of a novel, or a side chapter to explain the background of an important secondary character.
If I find out that this author has written a novel, I’m buying that novel, full stop. But for the purposes of a short story contest, I wanted to give deference to the entry that contained the entire story within its borders.
Final Words
Thank you also to the many wonderful writers who submitted. It’s always a joy to see so many submissions and so much care going into these fantastic worlds.
Looking forward to checking all these out!
Congratulations to the winner — way to go! And what a lineup of stories to read in the coming days!