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Thread: Scriptorium Editorial for October 2015

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    Default Scriptorium Editorial for October 2015


    Greetings all and welcome to the Scriptorium's Editorial for October 2015! We have news about the results of the 2015 Summer Writing Competition, a shiny new medal you can get, the reviews for the competition reviews and a list of the latest articles added to the Scriptorium.


    Top News
    Writing Competition
    Summer 2015 Competition Winners

    Another writing competition came and went. We had good entries, great entries and really great entries and a fantastic theme - the most popular and well received one yet - thanks to the brainstorming of Lord William and Darth Roxas as well as the other members of the Scriptorium team.
    We apologize for the delay in getting this Editorial out and having to announce the winners in a less ceremonious fashion. Here are the results displayed as they should be

    Overall Winners
    1st: Thus Spoke the Shark Men by Copperknickers II
    2nd: The Return Iron Aquilifer
    2nd: Stary, Stary Night Merchant of Venice
    3rd: Theseus by Kip


    Librarian's Choice
    - Icarus, by Lortano




    Reputation Winners
    Medal winners get 40 rep, all non-winning participants get 35 rep


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    Other News
    News

    Open Positions

    We have 6 positions open in the Scriptorium. If you are interested you may apply via PM to the chief librarian, or to one of the content admins: Hader, m_1512 or Gen Chris. Alternatively you can contact me or one of the other librarians and I will put you in touch with the chief librarian and the admins.

    Service guarantees citizenship. Join now

    New Scriptorium Medal for Contributors

    We have recently implemented a new medal called the Scriptorium Contributor's Medal. The medal is awarded by Hex at the request of the chief librarian and to get it you need either to be an Utmost Contributor - have 5 articles added to the Scriptorium - or be a regular help to the Scriptorium staff. Examples of contributions that can get you the medal: repeated participation in the writing competition, repeated help in organizing it, regularly helping the scriptorium staff in finding articles.

    You can admire the new medal here (credits to Y2Day for making it):

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    Writing Competition Submission Reviews

    Reviews
    1st place, Thus Spoke the Shark Men, by Copperknickers II - review by Adrian

    Shark Men
    This entry has been called a masterpiece by some, and having read it I can see why. Everything from the descriptions to the setting and the feeling it emits is nigh excellent. But all in due order.

    The story is about two brother, exactly 1000 years from now, who are the first humans to enter a wormhole and wind up on what appears to be a water planet where they meet the alien equivalent to Richard Dawkins. While not particularly rich in dialogue or events the story relies very heavily on descriptions, and they are done masterfully, with everything from the size and shape of the aliens to the stars running on the ship's monitors fully immersing you into the story. This is further helped by the very original setting. The world conjured up by Copperknickers is so familiar and yet so different. London with its 10 million inhabitants is but a backwater village, the world religions are completely different, with Scottish Protestantism reaching the status of a minor obscure cult, trips to planets 50 light years away and frat hazing rituals on Europa (and probably Uranus ) re mundane but the society still appears identical to our own. And then there's the alien. Overall let's just say that the setting alone would make a great basis for a movie.

    The structure is well balanced, the story is separated into 3 acts, the first one sets the stage, the second one explores the planet of the shark men and then a short conclusion. The style is fairly easy to read and deeply captivating and the author narrowly avoids the bane of so many an entry, the wall-o-text.

    Still no entry is perfect and I wouldn't be able to sleep soundly if I didn't nitpick on something so here it goes. If there's one flaw I can attribute to this is that the religious discourse at the end does not really make much sense within the context of the story. But looking at it from a different angle this might be intentional on part of the author and the set-up for a sequel.

    Regardless I really liked the setting and style and really hope to see a continuation of this story - hopefully one where the xenos are purged as it is a sin not be born as human - and fully agree with the community in awarding Copperknickers the gold.




    2nd place, Stary, Stary Night, by Merchant of Venice - review by Adrian


    Stary Night

    And in second place we have two entries. First one to be reviewd is Stary, Stary Night by Merchant of Venice.

    I've got to say when we decided on the year's theme I expected a lot more stuff in the region of epic space battles, ancient Rome in space (somebody please do that) or "multi-laser, multi-laser, multi-laser" (only warhammer 40k fans will get this one). Instead we got something entirely different. Take Stary, Stary Night, as opposite to all the above as you can get while still sticking to the theme. The initial premise is rather simple and elegant. A midwest US house on the edge of corn rows (as seen in so many movies), and old man and his inner conflict between childhood curiosity (inherited by his daughter) and the bitter memories of adulthood. I won'd go into any more dertails about the story because it would be impossible not to spoil it, I'll just say that it's not fancy but it is effective and well constructed.

    The structure of the text also stands out, there are no walls of text, no overtly long paragraphs, not complicated action scenes which makes it both very easy and very enjoyable to read. I was quite pleasantly surprised at how the good Merchant was able to use particularly mundane visual elements (the night sky, the house from almost every Holywood movie, old man sitting on his porch) and use them to such and effect that you forget that you've seen all that before. Top marks for that.

    Overall, for me, Stary, Stary Knight was refreshing and fun read between sessions of C programming and binge reading the Lexicanum. I see Merchant of Venice' entry as one of the most obvious silver medal winners in quite a while and if not for Copperknickers' masterpiece this year's gold winner as well.

    PS: Listen to the song while reading it.





    2nd place, The Return by Iron Aquilifer - review by Adrian


    The return

    The second second place, - see what we did there? - is the Return by our resident ferrous standard bearer, Iron Aquilifer.

    The premise is nothing to write home about, an exiled king of a fantasy kingdom, by the name of Smarv, is returning home after 7 years at the head of a barbarian fleet captained by vaguely scandinavian-sounding characters. More or less standard fantasy ware. However beyond the almost vanilla premise hides a good story and an almost unique approach I wish more people would take. Instead of giving us the typical epic battles and acts of valour Iron Aquailifer decided to go off the beaten path and describe the least stratch of the journey, and he does so very masterfully.The tension, the malcontent grumbles of the soldiers, the varying degrees of loyalty of the crew, and the impatience of the king, are all very palpable and real. The allied fleet, characters which come in and out of the scene, the scenery changes from memories of valleys on barbarian continents to fortresses built in jagged rock in the middle of the ocean all help to create a sense of centralism to the plot - only the king and his kingdom matter at that moment, everything else is superfluous.

    This approach is further helped by the skilled use of visual imagery - the jagged rocks rising out of the ocean, the tiny cabin - and simple and quick writing style (which is a good choice for an entry of this length).

    My only criticism is that he sort of gives away the result of the fight even though he stops right before it commences which does not leave me wanting to read more about the current events, though it still makes me curious about the world itself. Still that is just one minor negative, from a nitpicky nitpicker such as myself, on what is otherwise a great entry and a fun read. Iron Aquilifer fully deserves the silver medal and a hearty recommendation from the Scriptorium team to boot.




    3rd place, Theseus by Kip - review by Adrian


    Theseus

    And last but not least we have the heavily futuristic Theseus, which despite what the title may lead you to believe is not about a barechested angry angry space Greek battling chthonic alien robbers and killing galactic minotaurs but rather it is an indirect meditation on the essence of being and purpose.

    The story itself is very simple (narrative efficiency appears to be a theme of this edition), a scientist in a lab sometime in the future somewhere on earth, or in space, tries to bring back the woman he loves. The entry describes the process of said woman being reconstructed. Short, simple and to the point Theseus provides no context, no unnecessary information and no detours, just a description of the process, shadowed by the drive of the scientist and the rather legitimate concerns raised against the process by his robot assistant. And yet despite this simplicity Theseus does manage to raise a few very big questions. How far would you go for love. Would you break the laws of nature and bring back the deceased? And if they come back would they be the same person or just a sock-puppet? What would Theseus do - probably kill something and sleep with its daughter.


    Personally I have very much enjoyed reading Theseus, as did you fine folk because not only you did give it more votes than any other entry in the initial phase but also decided it should get a bronze completing Kip's trio of Writing Competition Medals





    Librarian's Choice, Icarus, by Lortano - review by Lord William


    Icarus

    Greetings fellow readers It's been some time since my last article so I believe your in for a treat, so lets begin this review already. In this article we will be reviewing a narrative which has won the librarian's choice award in this years summer competition, which already speaks volumes. It is written by a TWCenter author by the name of Lortano, and the title of this glorious narrative is Icrus a space age themed narrative which deeply caught the eyes of the library staff.

    The narrative is written in the third person as the author describes the story of an emotionless probe send out into deep space by humanity in the hopes of finding possible life or to possibly sustain mankind. The probe was built with a human like thought process which included artificial intelligence and the ability to be curious, these abilities lead the probe to a path of reasoning which questions its very purpose and function. I found the story to be a great read with an interesting twist, it is spooky to think that this narrative may actually be the foreshadowing of our own future as mankind.

    I personally would rate this narrative a 4.5 out of 5, I hope everybody gets an opportunity to read Lortano's Icrus it is well worth a read and the recognition of the Scriptorium staff i nthe shape of the Librarian's Choice medal




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    Recent Articles
    Recent Articles
    Below is a list of all articles added to the Scriptorium catalogs since the time of our last editorial in September 2013.

    Recently Added Articles
    [U][COLOR=DarkRed]
    February 2015
    [Modding] Rome 2: Historical Events Modding

    March 2015
    [History] The Legacy of Julia Maesa and Her Daughters
    [History] The Life of Julia Domna

    April 2015

    [Modding] Rome 2: Modifying Music: Making the most of Wwise
    [History] Life of Livia Drusilla
    [History] Valeria Messalina

    May 2015
    [History] The Immortals of Achaemenid Persia
    [History] The Kardakes Infantry of Late Achaemenid Persia
    [History] Life of Octavia Minor
    [AAR] Takeda - A Shogun 2 AAR

    June 2015
    [History] A City like no other- The History of Athens up to the Peloponnesian War

    September 2015
    [History] A Look in the Politics of the Western Roman Empire (454-480)
    [History] Reign of Darius the Great



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    Closing Remarks
    End
    Thanks for reading the editorial this month. We hope to see your submissions in the future writing competitions as well.

    Also, we're always on the watch for new additions to our collections. If you have something you think is worthy of being saved here please PM any librarian.

    Valete!


    The Scriptorium Team

    Doctor Shuu - Writer & Librarian
    Lord William - Writer & Librarian
    Riverknight - Writer & Librarian
    Oda Nobunaga - Writer & Librarian
    Darth Roxas - Writer & Librarian
    Frosty SOTF - Writer & Librarian





    As you can see we have a fine array of news sources focusing on various aspects and individuals of the Total War Center. Check out our other publications and news sources!





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    Last edited by Sir Adrian; October 18, 2015 at 03:41 PM.
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