HOOK -- A great introduction. You'd keep reading if you could. Hell, you might have already been so lost in the fictional dream that you were shocked when it suddenly stopped after 13 lines.

LINE -- Pretty good. A few lines grabbed you, and if you had some free time you'd continue. But unless it picked up soon, you're not sure if you'd finish it.

STINKER -- With so much good stuff out there you haven't read, you'd surely not waste your time reading this story. Perhaps your incredible virtue of self-control is keeping you from throwing the story across the room and dashing off an insulting letter to the editor of the magazine or anthology . . . or even to the author himself.