It’s very rare for me to give less than a five, because I love stories. So it goes like this:

5- Yeah! Excellent, excellent, very good, well done, solid story. 2-4- all right, it’s a book, but I’m wrestling with something. 1- ….I don’t like you.

How long did comps prep take you?

So, so many. Top 5.

“I am where dead children go.” -Rin Chupeco, The Girl from the Well. “Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity.” -Brandon Sanderson, Elantris. “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.” -Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House. “This is long work, a finding spell for roots destined to twine.” - Amber McBride, Me(Moth). “Information requested: the Spiritual Origin test of Sacred Valley.” -Will Wight, Unsouled.

The opening line is not necessarily what gets my attention, but it is a jewel in the piece, and the wry cut, or the flashy one, stays with me.

It has to all boil down to a final fight between a small contender and an extraordinary opponent. It must be well-written, whether in prose or poetry. If I don’t get at least three memorable quotes, it’s not an epic. The fight has to shape the character to a good extent, and bonus points are given for the allowance of real life developments and influences. As much as I would love to handcuff Patrick Rothfuss to Brandon Sanderson to see if Brandon could get him to finish the series, I genuinely love the Name of the Wind, because as an epic, it’s one of my favorites.