Review of Challenging Destiny
Number 4, October 1998

This review is by John Francis Haines, from New Hope International Review. It appears here with the permission of the editor, Gerald England.

Challenging Destiny #4

With a glossy cover it looks like a paperback book. Seven stories, one of which is the second instalment of a two-part tale.

HARD EFORRT by Timothy Carter opens the issue and seems strangely old-fashioned with its story of a world in which unemployment is a crime punishable by deportation to a third-World country. Cardboardy characters, lots of techno-speak.

TURNABOUT by Nicholas Pollotta and Phil Foglio is a short whimsical piece in which two characters who, fortunately for them, happen to have a classical education, meet up with the Sphinx. Not the lump of stonework in the desert, you understand, but the beastie from mythology that asks awkward questions and eats you if you get the answer wrong. Frothy and lightweight.

QUEEN OF THE SILVER CLOUDS by Bonnie Mercure is a piece of straight fantasy that didn't set my pulses racing.

WHEN THE FOG CAME by Carl Mills is written in dense poetic prose and is probably some kind of magic realism/slipstream. A very strange tale that defies categorisation, though I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed it.

THE WAY OF THE WORLD (part 2) by Erik Allen Elness is pure sword & sorcery, with oodles of with-one-bound-Jack-was-free type stuff, kings, kingmakers, plots, betrayals all set in a society with both electronics and magic (why do you need both?) and the obligatory sword fights. Longest story and I didn't feel bereft by missing part 1.

Most interesting items were an interview with Tanya Huff, whose work I do not know, but I always find interviews with writers of interest, so enjoyed it.

Best of all is a series of reviews by James Schellenberg of the DUNE series of books and the film. To show how good this is, I have to declare a disinterest. I tried to read the book (honest!) but gave up after about ten pages each time. I watched the film and fell asleep. These reviews are better than anything in print or on film regarding DUNE for my money.

I would have liked some poetry, some letters and some more reviews. You can't have everything.

Last modified: January 26, 2004

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