Story by story. Here's the thing Liam had to say about mine:
"Night Train by Alma Alexander. Solid short and I really enjoyed the idea of the main character’s god consisting of all her hopes and dreams. Even though all of her aspirations had been washed out and her god was slowly fading, her progeny might come after her with the same hopes and dreams and succeed where she failed. 4 out of 5 stars."
I did the star math [grin]
1 six-out-of-five star rating - out of the ballpark
4 five-out-of-five stars - top notch
1 four-and-a-half-out-of-five (couldn't quite make up his mind up or down...)
4 four-out-of-five stars - solid
1 3.75-out-of-four star - almost solid [grin]
11 3.5-out-of fourstars - a notch under that (and a very popular rating)
3 three-out-of-five stars - a notch under *that*
1 2.5-out-of-five stars
1 two-out-of-five stars (one that didn't measure up...)
So - mine is solidly above the median, and a notch above the average (which works out to 3.67 stars)
That works for me.
(review is
here, if you want to read the rest.)
In
another story by story breakdown review, mine rates three stars - but doing the same math,I get
6 5-star ratings
5 4-star ratings
9 3-star ratings
4 2-star ratings
1 1-star rating
and one story which was left starless because the reviewer couldn't figure it out
Mine rates a 3 - so squarely in the median or the commonest rating but this reviewer was fairly strict in his criteria so that's fine with me. In terms of the average, if you call that unrated story a 0, the 3-star rating falls just to the low side of the strict average. COuld have done better there, I guess - but eh. Readers like different things.
On the whole, a solid placing amongst the stories in what the reviewers are all caling a VERY solid anthology.
I think I count it a win.