Review of Challenging Destiny
Number 2, March 1998

This review is from Jim Lee's column The Skeptic Tank, from Scavenger's Newsletter (May 1998, No. 171). It appears here with the permission of the author.

Challenging Destiny #2. $4.50 or $18/4 USA, $6 or $24/4 Can, $7 or $28/4 foreign to Challenging Destiny, RR #6, St Marys, Ontario N4X 1C8 Canada. 88 pg, perfect-bound digest.

This is the first I've seen of this highly literate Canadian sf/f mag. Co-Editor Graham D. Wall's philosophical leanings were overly indulged in his well-meant but overlong editorial on argument and conflict resolution.

At the opposing end of the issue was James Schellenberg's overview of "Asimov at the Movies." His contrast of the Good Doctor's literary works and their film treatments, including a never-produced Harlan Ellison script for I, Robot, is particularly interesting.

Between the nonfiction, at the heart of the mag, are 6 stories. Schellenberg's "War" opens deceptively, with a seemingly mindless action/pulpish battle of biker thugs and rampaging dinosaurs. But it's all a VR red herring, for both this story and the mag itself.

Challenging Destiny proves to be a serious sf/f outlet, given to occasional (and mostly successful) experimentation in stories like Michael Mirolla's 2nd person short-short of mutant motherlove and the quiet, solemn tragedy of Stefano Donati's alternative universe story. Paul Benza's "Pieces" is an effective thriller of brain-altered gangs in a ravaged future landscape.

This well-produced little mag means business and is worth checking out.

Last modified: June 3, 1998

Copyright © 1998 by Jim Lee