To The Stars

Information

Status

Completed

Year

2022

Author

Zearth

• Chapter One: Twilight
  Jan 3, 2022

Reviews

Community Reviews(4)

• EmViRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Given the short length of this piece, I’m not going to go for the whole advanced review thing. At its core, To The Stars is a short story about dealing with grief. It manages to unpack the feeling of grief and of a life lived with someone, only for that someone to leave you, in a relatively short amount of space. The short story is a difficult form to master because you have to be judicious in your words and your description, everything has to matter, as my creative writing professor once told me. Unlike a novel, you do not get chapters upon chapters where you can build an emotional connection and attachment to the characters, so you have to really convey an experience that can resonate with the reader. To The Stars accomplishes this by centering its narrative on a universal experience, grief. The emotions hit right, the imagery is well suited, and the story accomplishes its goals rather admirably given how short it is. Admittedly, where the story falters, is it also feels like it was supposed to be the beginning of something larger that never materialized, and that thought is further reinforced by the “Chapter One” designation.
• TealiciousTeaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  A sad little flash fiction but heartfelt.
  A meditation on the visceral and fresh wounds caused by loss. Perhaps rather than meditation, a peek and a reminder of those agonising feelings. The mood is well presented and everything works to convey it as is good for a short story.
  Nicely done.
  It is also strange to have the title of chapter one on a completed short story but that is a nitpick.
• RznRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  For flash fiction this took a bit of time to establish the setting and build the mood, all of which had this unresolved aspect to it. Then it sort of hit home, the emotional element a bit of a surprise and that is why it was so effective. It has a good balancing act and outside the bounds of the contest it could be a bit longer to support it. This was good.
• MK bk-201Royal Road

  ★★★★ 4.0

  Interesting take on the description, i expect a more apocalyptic scenario, altough for the person that has to live with that, i guess is the same either way, the story its a little too short to really make a description long enough, so what happens when your sun goes out?