Review of Challenging Destiny
Number 21, December 2005

This review is by Rich Horton, from Locus (February 2006, Issue 541, Vol. 56 No. 2).

The December issue of the electronically distributed Canadian magazine Challenging Destiny has a strong novelette from Jay Lake. "To Live Forever" is set a few hundred years after the aliens on a planet humans tried to colonize chased out the bulk of the humans, while making some of the rest effectively immortal. But the tech level is low (the aliens can't tolerate iron) and all human children are taken by the aliens, most never to return. A small group of humans are trying to resist the aliens, and to restore at least sufficient technology to reach the stars again. It's grim and honest, with morally ambiguous characters convincingly realized.

Last modified: February 16, 2006

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