The best story in the issue is a substantial novelette by Steve Vance: "The Fighters". A 21st Century company sends time travellers back to the scenes of famous prizefights to record them for a sports-starved public. Then they come up with the idea of altering the past so that fighters such as Dempsey fight more often, to allow more and better product. In so doing, they inspire a young boy to eventually become a new competitor for Joe Louis -- but a mistake leads to him discovering their existence. I also liked Sarah Prineas's "The Savage Infant", set in an alternate early 18th Century, complete with magic, as an heir to Queen Anne comes to light late in her life, and her one-time midwife becomes caught up in some nasty political infighting. There is also a retelling and fleshing out of the ballad "The Twa Sisters" with "The Harp That Sang" by Jennifer Barlow; a story of an immortal named Inanna, who is, as the title has it, "Perhaps a Goddess" and who is obsessed with death, especially the deaths of her lovers; and finally a tale of a maimed sculptor looking for death: "Wings" by Sarah A. Hoyt. On the whole I found the fiction competent but not inspired.

There is also some historically oriented non-fiction: a review of the career of adventure novelist Harold Lamb, by Howard Andrew Jones; and a brief look at ancient Parthian batteries, by Sean McLachlan. I found both pieces interesting, and very appropriate to the magazine's subject matter. Add some reviews of both books and film, an interview with Piers Anthony, and some interesting art by historical figures (sketches by Galileo to illustrate Chiacchia's story, boxing lithographs from the early 20th Century by George Bellows to illustrate Vance's story), and we have a very intelligently and interestingly put together magazine. I find Paradox a promising product at this early stage in its life.