Interzone #279 (January-February 2019)
By TTA Press
()
About this ebook
The January–February 2019 issue contains new cutting edge science fiction and fantasy by Sean McMullen, Alison Wilgus, Tim Chawaga, G.V. Anderson, William Squirrel, and David Cleden. The 2019 cover artist is Richard Wagner, and interior colour illustrations are by Richard Wagner and Martin Hanford. Features: Ansible Link by David Langford (news and obits); Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe (film reviews); Book Zone (book reviews); Andy Hedgecock's Future Interrupted (comment); Aliya Whiteley's Climbing Stories (comment); guest editorial by Sean McMullen.
Interzone's 2019 cover artist is Richard Wagner
Fiction:
The Backstitched Heart of Katharine Wright by Alison Wilgus
illustrated by Richard Wagner
The Fukinaga Special Chip Job by Tim Chawaga
illustrated by Richard Wagner
This Buddhafield is Not Your Buddhafield by William Squirrell
For the Wicked, Only Weeds Will Grow by G.V. Anderson
illustrated by Richard Wagner
Seven Stops Along the Graffiti Road by David Cleden
illustrated by Martin Hanford
Terminalia by Sean McMullen
illustrated by Richard Wagner
Features:
Guest Editorial: Escaping Into Visions
Sean McMullen
Future Interrupted: Do it All Over Again
Andy Hedgecock
Climbing Stories: Chaotic Goodness
Aliya Whiteley
Ansible Link
David Langford
Reviews:
Book Zone
Books reviewed include Puma by Anthony Burgess, Near Future by Suzannah Evans, Europe at Dawn by Dave Hutchinson, Our Child of the Stars by Stephen Cox, Starfield edited by Duncan Lunan, The Sky Woman by J.D. Moyer, The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken
Mutant Popcorn
Nick Lowe
Films reviewed include Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Ralph Breaks the Internet, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Grinch, Mortal Engines, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Overlord, Sorry to Bother You, Aquaman
TTA Press
TTA Press is the publisher of the magazines Interzone (science fiction/fantasy) and Black Static (horror/dark fantasy), the Crimewave anthology series, TTA Novellas, plus the occasional story collection and novel.
Read more from Tta Press
Crimewave 11: Ghosts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Interzone #279 (January-February 2019)
Titles in the series (61)
Interzone 248 (Sep-Oct 2013) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 234 May: Jun 2011 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 232 Jan: Feb 2011 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 230 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Interzone #246 May: June 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #259 Jul: Aug 2015 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 237 Nov: Dec 2011 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #251 Mar: Apr 2014 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 231 Nov.: Dec. 2010 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Interzone 239 Mar: Apr 2012 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 249 Nov: Dec 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 233 Mar: Apr 2011 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 240 May: Jun 2012 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 241 Jul: Aug 2012 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #262 (Jan-Feb 2016) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 238 Jan: Feb 2012 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 244 Jan: Feb 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 236 Sept: Oct 2011 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 242 Sept: Oct 2012 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #247 Jul: Aug 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 243 Nov: Dec 2012 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #252 May: Jun 2014 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #260 Sep-Oct 2015 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #254 Sept: Oct 2014 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #245 Mar: Apr 2013 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #250 Jan: Feb 2014 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #269 (March-April 2017) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #270 (May-June 2017) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #261 (Nov-Dec 2015) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #253 Jul: Aug 2014 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 152: Clarkesworld Magazine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScience Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Genre and Rating Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to Hell: A Working Guide for the Beginning Writer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFuture Science Fiction Digest, Issue 13: Future Science Fiction Digest, #13 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amra, Vol 2, No 25: June, 1963 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMajor Science Fiction Anthologies: A Brief History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLightspeed Magazine, Issue 155 (April 2023): Lightspeed Magazine, #155 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Galaxy’s Edge Magazine: Issue 35, November 2018: Galaxy's Edge, #35 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Green World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClarkesworld Magazine Issue 85: Clarkesworld Magazine, #85 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diving Pairs Vol. 6: Searching for the Fleet & Thieves: The Diving Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiving Pairs Vol. 4: The Runabout & The Falls: The Diving Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiving Pairs Vol. 5: The Spires of Denon, The Renegat & Escaping Amnthra: The Diving Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories from Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine: Pulphouse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #290/291 Double Issue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 30: The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGalaxy’s Edge Magazine: Issue 28, September 2017: Galaxy's Edge, #28 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGalaxy’s Edge Magazine: Issue 54, January 2022: Galaxy's Edge, #54 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The King in Yellow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 145 (June 2022): Lightspeed Magazine, #145 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #285 (January-February 2020) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #274 (March-April 2018) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Phone Box: A Darkly Magical Story Cycle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science Fiction Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMetal Gear Solid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone 236 Sept: Oct 2011 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #265 (July-August 2016) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInterzone #253 Jul: Aug 2014 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Fantasy For You
The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tress of the Emerald Sea: Secret Projects, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Phantom Tollbooth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neverwhere: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wizard's First Rule Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Empire: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mistborn: Secret History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daughter of the Forest: Book One of the Sevenwaters Trilogy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Sun Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray (The Original 1890 Uncensored Edition + The Expanded and Revised 1891 Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Desert: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piranesi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of the Dragon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Assassin and the Underworld: A Throne of Glass Novella Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Galatea: A Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Interzone #279 (January-February 2019)
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Interzone #279 (January-February 2019) - TTA Press
ISSUE #279
JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2019
Publisher
TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, UK
w: ttapress.com
e: interzone@ttapress.com
f: TTAPress
t: @TTApress
shop: shop.ttapress.com
Books and films for review are always welcome and should be sent to the above address
Editor
Andy Cox
andy@ttapress.com
Story Proofreader
Peter Tennant
whitenoise@ttapress.com
Events
Roy Gray
roy@ttapress.com
© 2019 Interzone & contributors
Submissions
Unsolicited submissions of short stories are always very welcome via our online system (tta.submittable.com/submit) but please be sure to follow the contributors’ guidelines.
logo cmyk.tifSMASHWORDS REQUESTS THAT WE ADD THE FOLLOWING:
LICENSE NOTE: THIS EMAGAZINE IS LICENSED FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE/ENJOYMENT ONLY. IT MAY NOT BE RE-SOLD OR GIVEN AWAY TO OTHER PEOPLE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THIS MAGAZINE WITH OTHERS PLEASE PURCHASE AN ADDITIONAL COPY FOR EACH RECIPIENT. IF YOU POSSESS THIS MAGAZINE AND DID NOT PURCHASE IT, OR IT WAS NOT PURCHASED FOR YOUR USE ONLY, THEN PLEASE GO TO SMASHWORDS.COM AND OBTAIN YOUR OWN COPY. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE HARD WORK OF THE CONTRIBUTORS AND EDITORS.
INTERZONE 279 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2019
TTA PRESS
COPYRIGHT TTA PRESS AND CONTRIBUTORS 2019
PUBLISHED BY TTA PRESS AT SMASHWORDS
CONTENTS
COVER
Cover 1 (2019) contents.tifOUR 2019 COVER ARTIST IS RICHARD WAGNER
rdwagner@centurylink.net (email)
INTERFACE
EDITORIAL: ESCAPING INTO VISIONS
SEAN McMULLEN
prisoner-contents.tifFUTURE INTERRUPTED
ANDY HEDGECOCK
originalsin2-contents.tifCLIMBING STORIES
ALIYA WHITELEY
Stan-Lee.tifANSIBLE LINK
DAVID LANGFORD
FICTION
backstitched heart (1a).tifTHE BACKSTITCHED HEART OF KATHARINE WRIGHT
ALISON WILGUS
novelette illustrated by Richard Wagner
rdwagner@centurylink.net (email)
fukinga chip job (alt 1).tifTHE FUKINAGA SPECIAL CHIP JOB
TIM CHAWAGA
story illustrated by Richard Wagner
buddhafield2.tifTHIS BUDDHAFIELD IS NOT YOUR BUDDHAFIELD
WILLIAM SQUIRRELL
for the wicked 3 (dps).tifFOR THE WICKED, ONLY WEEDS WILL GROW
G.V. ANDERSON
story illustrated by Richard Wagner
sevensteps.tifSEVEN STOPS ALONG THE GRAFFITI ROAD
DAVID CLEDEN
novelette illustrated by Martin Hanford
www.deviantart.com/martinhanford1974
terminalia (1a).tifTERMINALIA
SEAN McMULLEN
novelette illustrated by Richard Wagner
REVIEWS
sky-woman.tifBOOK ZONE
books
spiderverse-contents.tifMUTANT POPCORN
NICK LOWE
films
EDITORIAL
SEAN McMULLEN
ESCAPING INTO VISIONS
I keep being asked if the real world has caught up with science fiction. Generally it happens at parties, when people who do not read much science fiction are introduced to me. I first heard the question in the early 1980s, when we were no longer going to Mars, nuclear war was becoming unlikely, and one’s future seemed to involve nothing more exciting than a career in merchant banking. Then William Gibson’s Neuromancer came along, with visions of a totally wired, online lifestyle. People liked that. Science fiction was again ahead of the real world, and by the time the World Wide Web arrived we already knew exactly what to do with it.
Something similar happened just over eight hundred years earlier. Until the Twelfth Century secular literature was dominated by the chanson de geste, which consisted mainly of psychopathic upper class oafs calling insults at each other and fighting. Women appeared in roughly two pages in a hundred. Then the 1160s saw the roman courtoise invented. Women featured in about two thirds of the pages, and when the warriors fought, it was generally for the honour of their lady…or someone else’s lady. Discrete adultery was a very popular theme.
Europe’s aristocratic rulers liked the chivalric fantasies of Marie de France and Chrétien de Troyes so much that they quickly adopted the lifestyles described therein. Men began to wash regularly, clean their teeth and write love songs because suddenly there was more to courtship than knocking another guy off his horse with a twelve foot lance and hoping one’s lady noticed. Having become visible, women put their hands up for things like political power and property rights. Upwardly mobile merchants even read chivalric fantasies to learn how to live like aristocrats.
If speculative fiction can change lifestyles, it can also advise us how not to change them. In The Time Machine H.G. Wells warned of the danger of actually achieving utopia and reminded us that we are kept keen on the grindstone of pain. George Orwell’s 1984 made us highly suspicious of government surveillance, but although Aldous Huxley warned us about genetically modifying ourselves in Brave New World, I’m not convinced that we heeded his warning.
Now to answer that annoying question: has the real world caught up with science fiction? Not yet, but it’s closing in. Recently a colleague showed me his house on a satellite photo…and discovered his wife’s SUV and his friend’s sports car parked outside when both were meant to be at their respective offices. Divorce by satellite? How very Gibsonesque. Back in 1984 it was science fiction, but not any more.
Literature certainly can steer our lifestyles with visions of what we may aspire to, or want to avoid. Worried about climate change? You should be, but could it force us to adopt desirable lifestyles and values that are radically different to those we have now? A novel describing such a vision is needed. Urgently. It’s dangerous to travel into the future without a preview.
FUTURE INTERRUPTED
ANDY HEDGECOCK
prisoner.tifDO IT ALL OVER AGAIN
In 1938 the philosopher and cultural critic Theodor W. Adorno wrote a long and influential essay about music, focusing on the tension between popularity and provocation. He argued that familiar and popular work provides short-term gratification, but music that dashed expectations and demands serious analysis enhances the lives of artists and audiences.
Adorno saw repetition as a key determinant of popularity: The familiarity of a piece is a surrogate for the quality ascribed to it. To like it is almost the same thing as to recognise it.
I guess that accounts for the enduring popularity of Coldplay, Oasis and Status Quo.
Cinema is another art form which cashes in on echoes of the familiar. There have been more than two hundred films featuring Dracula and three hundred plus involving Sherlock Holmes. A small number of the Holmes scripts rework the original template to interesting effect (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, 1970; The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, 1976) but most plunder a cobwebbed library of plot devices, clichéd dialogue and visual tropes.
There are magnificent remakes (The Thing, 1982; The Fly, 1986; 12 Monkeys, 1995) but there are many more that make you wonder why anyone bothered. Don’t even mention the buttock-clenchingly awful 2006 version of The Wicker Man.
Some sequels deepen their audience’s understanding of themes, worlds and characters (Blade Runner 2049, 2017; The Empire Strikes Back, 1980). Others simply exhibit follow-on fatigue (Alien 3, 1992; X-Men Apocalypse, 2016).
The incentive to reboot, rework and extend popular stories lies in the characteristics we require of a coherent narrative. Georges Polti identified thirty-six dramatic situations, Kurt Vonnegut proposed eight basic story arcs and Christopher Booker outlined seven basic plots (all involving Jungian archetypes).
It’s assault course celluloid the money makers would avoid…
Great storytellers can tackle a limited range of themes through a restricted set of forms but still create a fresh and unsettling experience. Which brings me to the director and cinematographer Nicolas Roeg (1928–2018).
Roeg’s films concerned the sex-death nexus, strangers in strange lands, predestination, premonition, ritual, violence and the fluidity of identity. His signature techniques were cryptic dialogue; enigmatic symbols; emotionally detached performances; juxtaposed and recurring scenes; hallucinogenic imagery; and fragmented editing, with flashback and flashforward. An apparently restricted palette with which to reveal a narrow set of obsessions. And yet Roeg and his collaborators shaped these elements into seven magnificent movies, each of which astonished its audience and elicited a unique emotional response.
They are: Performance (1970), Walkabout (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980), Eureka (1983) and Insignificance (1985).
Don’t Look Now is Roeg’s masterpiece – the Sistine Chapel of horror movies. A symphony of speculation about perception, reality, love and loss, it encapsulates the whole of Roeg’s oeuvre but has a distinctive ‘feel’ and elicits a unique set of emotions. No one has a neutral reaction to a child in a red coat after watching this film.
Living in the Past
Roeg’s films highlighted the difference between originality and novelty. It’s a distinction that’s all too often lost on writers who rework well established stories, characters, plots and settings. Consider the case of The Prisoner. I’m (just) old enough to remember the furore surrounding the original Patrick McGoohan series, a rare show of surreal imagery, satire, black humour, technological speculation, political inquiry and psychodrama. McGoohan and his co-writers mixed 1984 with Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders to create an enclosed science fictional society, ‘the village’, based on totalitarian consumerism. Astonishing, complex and funny, The Prisoner took risks in terms of coherence and ‘polish’ – there is some appalling acting – but has influenced writers and production designers for fifty years.
In the 2009 remake, a miniseries written by Bill Gallagher and directed by Nick Hurran, the acting was impeccable and careful homage was paid to McGoohan’s seminal series. The same themes – identify, social control, the balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility – were addressed, and the episode titles even quoted from the 1960s originals. There were new characters, issues were dealt with unflinching directness and the production values were second to none. But it didn’t work. It was as if the production team were hamstrung by the inevitable comparisons to the original. The wit was gone, so was the fun.
The fun is restored in the ‘audio revival’ of The Prisoner, produced by Big Finish and currently being broadcast by BBC Radio 4 Extra (December 2018). But there are a different set of irritations. Mark Elstob is an excellent Number 6, with McGoohan’s knack for flipping from melodrama to comedy, but giving a more nuanced performance: there’s a sense of menace to Elstob’s voice work that makes him a more convincing retired spy. There is an interesting framing story and a narrative unity across the episodes, some of which draw on the original scripts, some of which are entirely new. There are enjoyable metafictional games, involving twenty-first century technologies and the 1967 setting, and new layers of mystery. It’s witty, exciting and compelling radio – but there’s a problem. Some aspects of the narrative require familiarity with the original, particularly sequences in which dialogue is minimised and the story related through sound design. If you haven’t seen McGoohan’s celebrated opening sequence, part of the opening episode is baffling. For me, a well-performed, lively and interesting script has been undermined by nostalgia for a much-loved TV classic.
Radio On
While we’re contemplating the idea of originality in relation to radio drama, I’d like to draw attention to a couple of undercelebrated writers who merit the attention of Interzone readers.
Sebastian Baczkiewicz’s writing for radio includes a reworking of the Arthurian legends, an adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Casper Logue Affair, a black comedy written for a contemporary story cycle based on the Arabian Nights. But there are two pieces of work that confirm his reputation as a gifted and original storyteller.
Altaban the Magnificent (1999) is set in Berlin at the end of World War Two and concerns an encounter between two members of the allied forces, a young British scientist and a battle-hardened American GI, and an illusionist who claims to be able to cheat death. The dialogue is full of brooding menace, the characters are rounded and believable and the focus flips effortlessly between the possibilities of magic and the grim realities of occupied Berlin.
Baczkiewicz’s best known work is Pilgrim (2008–) a story cycle concerning William Palmer, an immortal man who has been forced to walk between the human world and the realm of magic since 1185. Radio 4 has broadcast eight series (most of which are available on CD or by download) of this series which splices myth and reality. The series explores the continuing relevance and resonance of British myths through stories of considerable complexity and emotional depth.
Anita Sullivan’s plays for radio include retellings of five stories from The Second Pan Book of Horror Stories and an adaptation of Steve Erickson’s Shadowbahn. But, once again, her most impressive work is original writing for radio. Mandrake, which mixes magic and the mundane, and concerns a woman who claims to be over 120 years old, is about the limits of rationalism. The Hedge is an allegory about a pair of retired political activists who encounter something fantastical beyond the impossibly high and deep hedge that encloses their lives. And, best of all, there’s Rock of Eye, in which a trio of traditional tailors are commissioned to produce a bespoke three-piece suit for a rising politician. It’s a story of the value of craft and (literally) diabolical corporate power. I can’t think of anything I’ve seen in the cinema or on TV in the last decade that captures the dangerous collision of consumerism and politics half as effectively.
CLIMBING STORIES
ALIYA WHITELEY
originalsin2.tifCHAOTIC GOODNESS
I’ve been putting in a lot of hours on my Xbox playing Divinity: Original Sin II, which allows me to explore an enormous landscape as a sarcastic lizard warrior who practises a bit of necromancy on the side. Video role-playing games have long fascinated me and I think the appeal springs from the same place as my early love of Fighting Fantasy books and Dungeons and Dragons. It’s the act of making a story through controlled choice presented as a narrative that suggests far more freedom than it actually bestows.
Each adventure progresses through a series of decisions in a realm of finite possibilities, often presented as three or four options in dialogue or action. Admittedly, this is different to being a passenger only – most stories give the reader no choice whatsoever except in terms of how they interpret the adventure itself – but what it’s really offering is the sense of traversing a well-designed maze. I want to make the right choices to emerge intact. Fight the goblins or sneak past the dragon? Save your arrows or risk the dungeon? The goal is to build strength, constitution, intelligence, charisma, to the point where there is nothing left in that world to stand against me. That which doesn’t kill me always makes me stronger, in video RPG land.
What has intrigued me about Divinity II in particular is that moment of culmination. My usual experience has been that the biggest battle is left until last, and that’s no different here. But following that moment there was a complex moral issue presented with the requisite three options to choose from, and the correct path was by no means clear. What kind of ending did I want? To save the world, or destroy it? I chose an option which I thought was the morally correct thing to do, and was informed that although my reasoning may have been laudable, in fact I’d ended up with the same old set of problems that I had been fighting against in the beginning. And yet I still feel quite good about my actions. As far as my lizard warrior persona was