2007 TheScian Scifi Story Contest Results!

Hooray! After days of anticipation, they are finally out!

First Prize - A Story in Blue by J Ramanand
Joint Second Prize - Call of the Running Tide by Anita Murthy
Joint Second Prize - The Going Got Tough by Dr Shantala

Congratulations to the winners!

A few words on the stories. Ramanand's story is a thoughtful take on the effects of religion on what is probably the most momentous event in human history: meeting a whole new lifeform. I enjoyed it greatly and it made me think.

Call of the Running Tide by Anitha Murthy is a gentle story about childcare in a world that relies increasingly on technology to solve social problems. It was a pleasant reading experience. Besides winning the second prize, this story has also won a sponsored prize from one of our fine science blogger: Sunil of balancing life. Sunil has kindly and aptly offered to send The Best American Science Writing 2007 to a story of my choice with 'engaging scientific content'. This story is my choice. Many thanks Sunil!

The Going Got Tough by Dr Shantala is a story that, I felt, is in somewhat the same spirit as Anitha Murthy's story. It is about someone who tries to live by his biological inheritance instead of following the ever-sophisticated use of technology to enhance oneself. An interesting take and enjoyable read.

At times, I was at odds with what the authors had expressed. For instance, in Ramanand's story, I think the ending is pessimistic and could have been otherwise. The other two stories seem to imply that technology has taken away some of our cherished human qualities. However, personally for me, these disagreements only make the stories more interesting and provide a more deeper and meaningful platform for conversations. If you have thoughts on the stories please email them to me [selvakumar at gmail.com , please mark subject as '2007 Scifi Contest - Comments'] and I will publish all the interesting emails alongside the stories.

All the three authors have been wonderfully accomodating to my unreasonable requests for revisions. My thanks to them all.

As promised earlier, I have now started looking at other good stories. There are some nifty ones that I'd love to publish. We'll get them out in the coming days. I'll contact the authors with comments in the next few weeks.

Well, I won't hold you back any longer. Enjoy.