Number 23, November 2006

Cover illustration by Cédric Trojani

Reviews

Danny Adams reviews this issue on Tangent. He says this (and more) about "Sunset Manor" by Monte Davis: "This story was the strongest in the collection for me based on its mix of sympathetic characters, lightheartedness played well against sad seriousness, and the personal conflicts Ebner is both facing now and remembers from decades past." You can read the entire review here.

Sam Tomaino reviews this issue on SFRevu. He says: "A truly unique magazine... So check this one out. It's well worth it!" 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.

Rich Horton includes Challenging Destiny in his year-end summary on SFF Net. You can read the entire review here.

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

Her Watcher by J. R. Campbell	On interstellar ships, new crew members always try to commit suicide at some point. Of course, it wasn't something you talked about. But then Collin was called into Lynette's office and offered a job: act as watcher for the new crew member coming aboard. He accepted. There were four simple rules...
The Vampire Who Doted On His Chicken by Ken Rand	A feller parted the batwing doors of the Lucky Nickel Saloon, letting in a bucketful of snow and a cold gust off Second Ave, Laramie, Wyoming Territory, U S of A, holding a chicken in his hand, and he looked bewildered. The feller, I mean, looked bewildered. The chicken looked dead...
Bread by Jennifer Bosworth	Harper's mother and father were the Master Bakers of Golden Valley, and she was finally learning some baking herself. Her mother told her, "If everyone knew our secrets they would take away our magic, and we wouldn't be Master Bakers; only regular folk, like anyone else." Harper promised never to tell the secrets to anyone...
The Message by Richard R. Harris	Charlie was in Sleep when he received a message -- there was a crossover. He checked his instruments and discovered it was an Apollo-class spacecraft, circa 1970. The ship was damaged, but its communication system seemed to be functional. Although they'd never contacted a Ghost before, this was a manned spacecraft and Charlie couldn't just leave them out here alone...
Service With a Smile by Craig Q. Rose	Whoever said you couldn't buy happiness has never been rich. Or hungry. Even after the Collapse, the rich get by. But working the cash register at the grocery store is tough -- you have to smile, and mean it, and there are rules about what you can say to the customers. One awkward comment and it's back to the camps...
Sunset Manor by Monte Davis	Ebner was 112 years old. Some days he did well to remember his wife's name: Kori. On a particularly good day, he remembered that he had a data block with his wife stored on it. Kori had contracted a terminal disease 80 years ago, but now there was a cure...
Suck of Clay, Whir of Wheel by Pat Esden	Meg had sold her cottage, moved to America, and bought a potworks. She had boasted that in five years she'd be selling twice what the Clews' Pottery did, where she worked back in England. But right now things weren't going so well. And then a man came along whom she had a hard time getting rid of...
plus
James Tiptree, Jr. and the Tiptree Awards review by James Schellenberg	James reviews the biography James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips, and the first two volumes of The James Tiptree Award Anthology edited by Karen Joy Fowler et al. James Tiptree, Jr. was a science fiction writer who wrote for a decade or so and then was revealed, surprising many at the time, to be a woman. The award named in her honour is given annually to a story or novel that explores and expands gender.
Interview with Edward Willett interview by James Schellenberg & David M. Switzer	Edward Willett has published four young-adult novels, and his adult SF novel Lost in Translation will be out in paperback from DAW in October. He's published many nonfiction books in the areas of science, computers, and literature, including Genetics Demystified and J.R.R. Tolkien: Master of Imaginary Worlds. Edward talks about science regularly on TV, the radio, and in newspapers, and he's also an actor and a singer.
There's Nothing More Important Than the Environment editorial by David M. Switzer	If we don't take care of the environment, we're not going to be around to do anything else. Dave shares some revelations from The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann, which describes how we've gotten ourselves into this mess and how we're going to get out of it. He also brings up points from other sources such as Good News For a Change by David Suzuki and Holly Dressel, Collapse by Jared Diamond, and Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth.

Last modified: December 6, 2006

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