Challenging Destiny Challenging Destiny
New Fantasy & Science Fiction

Number 18, July 2004

[magazine cover]

Cover illustration by Britt Martin

Honourable Mentions

Jay Lake's "Benedice Te" and L. Blunt Jackson's "Early Adopters" gained honourable mentions in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Second Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois.

Reviews

Sherwood Smith, on Tangent Online, says "G.C. McRae's 'The Miller and the Old Hag' is probably my favorite story in a bunch of good stories. I am a sucker for folk tale formats that incorporate social and emotional truths that transcend historical and contemporary time." You can read the entire review here.

Rod MacDonald reviews this issue on the SF Crowsnest web site. You can read the entire review here.


Here are some sneak previews of the stories you'll find in the eighteenth issue of Challenging Destiny:

Benedice Te by Jay Lake
illustrated by Chris Jouan

Algernon narrowly escaped being killed by a runaway steam ram. Then Her Imperial Majesty's Consul-General asked him to go to San Antonio de Bexar, capital of the Texian Republic, to retrieve a stolen Crown Privy Report. While on this strange mission, Algernon hoped he could find out who had tried to kill him...

The Miller and the Old Hag by G. C. McRae
illustrated by Marge Simon

The miller's sons never helped him with the work in the mill. His sons wanted to be a musician, a painter, and an architect. But they didn't have enough to eat, and soon they would have no choice. He was on his way to sell his ox in order to buy a bigger millstone, which his sons would have to turn themselves...

Dead Man With a Stick by Greg Beatty
illustrated by Craig Jennion

Miche was the sixth of seven men chosen, men who were now dead and whose names were taken from them to be used by the newborn. He would be known only as //////, and in six moons he would leave to try to find and defeat the sorcerer. And all he would take with him was a stick...

illustration for Dead Man With a Stick by Craig Jennion

The Man Who Mistook Himself For a Superhero by Karl El-Koura
illustrated by John Hancock

He had awakened in the alley behind the Chinese restaurant. He couldn't remember who he was, but he saw his green-and-yellow costume and his muscular physique in a mirror. And when he was shot by a ruffian and there was no blood, what other conclusion could he draw? He was a superhero!

Early Adopters by L. Blunt Jackson
illustrated by Jason Walton

James was a software developer who really didn't like it when his boss fired him in front of a co-worker he was attracted to. He was rehired, as always. But when his boss decided to get a Neural Interface Circuitry Extension, James saw an opportunity for a high-tech practical joke...

illustration for Early Adopters by Jason Walton

plus

Frankenstein review by James Schellenberg

James says that Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is amazing and deserves its fame. He reviews the original novel as well as Frankenstein Unbound by Brian Aldiss and In Search of Frankenstein by Radu Florescu. He also reviews the movies Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Young Frankenstein, Frankenstein Unbound, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Interview with Karin Lowachee interview by James Schellenberg & David M. Switzer

Karin Lowachee's Warchild won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest. Her second novel Burndive was just published in October. She was born in South America, grew up in Ontario, and lived for 9 months in the tundra community of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

How Do You Make Important Decisions? editorial by David M. Switzer

Future Problem Solving is a program that engages elementary and high school students in creative problem solving. They work in teams to come up with all the problems in a given situation; figure out what the underlying problem is; brainstorm solutions to the underlying problem; create and use objective criteria to evaluate the solutions; and develop a plan based on the best solution.


Last modified: January 6, 2005

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