The Internet delivers Bewildering Stories to your screen rapidly and conveniently. However, a rediscovered verse of Omar Khayyam’s suggests that hardcopy may make for more comfortable reading.
Julian Lawler’s Prophet of Dreams started with apprehension and political intrigue. Now the Dead Queen, as the people have named her, faces a future fraught with peril. However, she can take some comfort in the prospect of aid from powerful allies in chapter 2.
Michael J A Tyzuk stages space battles in the grand tradition of science fiction and brings “Ordered to Retrieve” to a rip-roaring conclusion. Wait... this just in... Our heroes face even more than we bargained for!
Deep Bora returns with another story set in his alternate-universe Solar System. It starts with a meeting with extraterrestrials. What is their purpose in offering a technologically advanced belt to the astronaut scientist? Will we find out in the mysterious atmosphere of “Pluto’s Second Moon”?
Cleveland W. Gibson sends “a classic tale of horror and drama that begins in the deep swamps of India and ends in the clear blue skies over glorious England.” This is indeed a story for our times. Where is St. George, now that he’s really needed in “The Trophy Room”?
Charles Richard Laing returns with what may be our shortest “flash fiction” on record. Are squabbling parents an annoyance? Pity the poor son in “The Last Argument.”
Norman A. Rubin brings us an article on the history of goldsmithing. It complements his “Secret of the Golden Tiara,” which appeared in issue 55. But there’s more than mere gold here: an account of Middle Eastern customs’ effects on art in “The Treasures of Ala-a-Din.”
Issue 80 revisits the classics: Toby Wallis begins a serial that stands a story from popular mythology on its head. The Invincible Spud sends his greetings with a comic take-off on Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. Meanwhile, Thomas R.’s profiles 3 and 4 of semi-immortals are now on the schedule. The review of Jack McDevitt’s Infinity Beach in this issue replaces the review of Michael Kandel’s Strange Invasion, which is now planned for issue 80.
Readers’ reactions are always welcome. Please write!
Copyright © 2004 by Bewildering Stories
