Challenge 101

It might help to read this Challenge before the stories in this issue, but either way is okay.

Questioning Authority

All our fiction contributions in this issue deal in some way with the topic of this Challenge. Two of them stage outright confrontations: Roberto Sanhueza’s Katts and Dawgs pits Phydo against what amounts to a theocracy in the city of Kannis. In euhal allen’s “The Bridge,” the confrontation could hardly be more stark: Katia — a “Bridge-lover” — learns that Neils is practically a Gestapo agent reincarnated.

In Michael J A Tyzuk’s “The Soul Hunter,” Tamara Tomson has had problems in trusting the authority of one of her partners, but the result is less a confrontation than a sub-plot that provides dramatic tension and allows for a reconciliation.

Which leaves Tala Bar’s Gaia, Cecilia Wennerström’s “Hexaflexagon 8191” and John Thiel’s “A Parable Containing a Parabola.” In what ways do all three show how authority is or might be questioned or challenged?