I voted for "The Mechanic" and "Firefly". They both used descriptions that really helped to paint the scene and put you there where the action was. I 'cared' about Mike, and I could picture him clearly in his pad. I could feel the tension in that prison camp room, and could see the cogs turning in his head as he tried to think of a way out of his predicament. However, I think that I was disappointed because the stories were pretty much the same stories as before - perhaps better edited and with improved styles, but no new material or whatnot.

I still think Thousand Dicks was funny, but because of that "no-new-materials" thing to further the story along, I did not feel it mustered enough points for second place (Mechanic was first place in my voting). "Intervention".... Again... A deep, "social-issues" oriented story. I don't like those kinds of stories, but that's not why I din't vote for it. I didn't vote for it because, again, there was nothing new in the story. The dialogue between the characters was passionate and intense, but I din't really feel the 'first-person-narrator' style worked out so well in this case. I've seen it used in other stories and it's not a bad device to use in story telling, but it didn't quite work for me, this time.

Perhaps I misunderstood; I thought that along with editorial improvements, there was suppose to be 'more story' told... I did not see that.