Number 20, May 2005

Cover illustration by Bruce Jensen

Honourable Mention

"Lonesome Cosmogonist" by Ian Creasey gained an honourable mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois.

Reviews

Rich Horton, in Locus (September 2005, Vol 55 No 3), says "I quite enjoyed Ian Creasey's 'Lonesome Cosmogonist', a moving story of a man and his failing marriage, illuminated by Googlewhacks (two word phrases that turn up single sites on Google searches) and by his job searching for alien signals as part of SETI."

Eric Joel Bresin, on Tangent, says "'Murder in the Shadows of Exile' by Steven Mohan, Jr. creates true 'speculative' fiction. The author tells a detective story investigating the murder of an imprisoned dictator. ... He is a talented author, and I think I would like almost anything he wrote." 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 twentieth issue of Challenging Destiny:

Lonesome Cosmogonist by Ian Creasey	Your girlfriend has left you so your apartment feels empty. Not wanting to sit in a bar or whine to your friends, you head to your office. But the search for extraterrestrial intelligence seems futile today -- there's no one out there, is there? Maybe the universe was designed that way, to restrict intelligent life to one species...
Granvort Goes to War by R. E. Mendel	Soon after the King of Thysland discovered Thaghtland was producing magic beans, he met with his arch-rival the Monarch of Thaghtland. Soon after that, the neighbours were at war. The King was more than a bit worried when he discovered his Knights were on their spring break and his flying horses were grounded for safety reasons...
Murder in the Shadow of Exile by Steven Mohan, Jr.	Inspector Kenneth Smythe-Barnes, Scotland Yard, arrived at St. Helena to solve a murder. He wasn't particularly sympathetic to the victim, since Prince Zayed had been a ruthless dictator. And now in order to help solve the murder, Smythe-Barnes had a sim of the Prince uploaded into his brain...
Many a Knot Unraveled By the Road by Fraser Sherman	Atropos had been reweaving destinies for almost two thousand years. Senator Rick Gordon -- who was having second thoughts -- would one day be president, thanks to Atropos. Although Atropos's time was coming to an end, she wanted to play one last game of chess with her old friend Raoul, who was once known as Jesus...
Reciprocating Wind by Uncle River	A woman doctor wasn't good enough for folks back in Pennsylvania, so you moved all the way out to Alma, New Mexico Territory. It's a long way from anywhere else, and more than a few went there to get away from their past. Including perhaps George Singleton, who had dreams of powering the mill and lighting the town by electricity...
Ridin' the de Novo Shinkansen by A. R. Morlan	In the old days you were a tattoo artist, but now you handled the medical requirements of the people in Nyx's sideshow -- as well as fixing up the occasional faded tat. Cutters, bod-mods, 'phalt boarders, freaks, geeks. The strangest were the parasoms, who were close to non-functioning when awake but did interesting things when they were asleep...
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Graphic Novels review by James Schellenberg	James reviews Watchmen by Alan Moore, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Bone by Jeff Smith, and The Great Women Superheroes by Trina Robbins.
Interview with J. FitzGerald McCurdy interview by Fiona Scannell & James Schellenberg	J. FitzGerald McCurdy's first books were young adult fantasies from Saratime Publishing. The trilogy consists of The Serpent's Egg, The Burning Crown, and The Twisted Blade. The Fire Demons, the first book in a new series, was published by HarperCollins in 2004. Joan has worked as a lawyer and a documentary film writer, and she was a consultant on the movie The Assignment.
15 Great SF & Fantasy TV Shows (Part 1 of 2) editorial by David M. Switzer	Dave tells you what he thinks of the five Star Trek series: the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. He also shares his opinions of three J. Michael Straczynski series: Babylon 5, Crusade, and Jeremiah.

Last modified: October 16, 2005

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