http://www.sfsite.com/ The new issue of the SF Site is now online. Copyright 1996-2007 SF Site en-us http://www.sfsite.com/images/sfspot1.gif http://www.sfsite.com/ http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ps271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Genevieve Kelley, an apprentice magician who retreated into a coma of sorts after she was raped, has been kept in the Blackwing Institute, a sanatorium for mentally disturbed magicians. Genevieve is a "reweaver" -- she can rearrange reality to match her dreams. But she has escaped, and she is more or less randomly reweaving reality in Felport, transporting people to a world of her dreams every so often. Marla needs to track her down and eliminate her threat to her city, hopefully without killing her. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/rs271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT 'This is early 90's and Scud is being thrown around all over the place because of the Gulf War. And I was like "You know that kind of sounds like a detergent." It was like something you would buy to clean your tub. I thought, you know, what would be real neat is to have an assassin that had this pop art detergent box-like look to it. I though what if there was a robot bought out of a vending machine, like a disposable razor or lighter.' http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT During the annual Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) business meeting, some discussions took place as to what kinds of works qualify professional science fiction/fantasy writers for membership. Rick Klaw has some thoughts on what was said, what they should do to update their definitions and what is happening in the rest of the world when it comes to graphic novels. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/gw271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Jig, the runty, nearsighted goblin hero of the previous adventures (Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero) is taken to war, even though no one, including Jig himself, thinks of him as much of a warrior... except that he's called Jig Dragonslayer because in a previous conflict between Jig and a dragon, it was the goblin who survived. And he did seem to outlive a host of other fierce enemies, from princes to pixies. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ju271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rich's favorite story of the five plus a poem here is the longest, a novelette called "O-Topper: The Musical", by Monte Davis. Much of what he likes is the weird presentation of what is a fairly familiar basic story: time travel tourism, in this case rich men battling Huns. But the organizer of the tours insists on art -- he's a cross-dressing clown and he dresses up his clients similarly. The tour itself has a shocking side -- the tourists' mantra is "You can't kill what's already dead," but of course they are killing these people. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/mc271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Originally published as a chapbook in 2000, it won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Award and the World Fantasy Award. The present volume is an expanded version, incorrectly defined "a novel." Truth be told, this book defies any label in terms of both literary form and genre definition. A cross between fiction and autobiography, more mainstream than horror, this collaborative work represents a fascinating puzzle, a unique example in the recent dark literature. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/wn271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Titus Quinn is back in the world of the Entire, the neighboring universe which exists contemporaneous with our own. This time, he has an unwelcome companion, Helice Maki, the ambitious scientist/corporate executive who has gained great influence and power. Quinn's mission is two-fold, prevent the Tariq, the strange, powerful beings who rule the Entire from destroying our universe in order to provide energy for their own, and to find his daughter Sydney, who is living with aliens known as the Inyx. Helice, nominally along to help him, has plans of her own. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/tu271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT In a age when people are never satiated with the day to day details of celebrity couples' lives, it shouldn't be surprising that a fairy tale can't simply end with "and they lived happily ever after," but draws the inevitable question -- was it really as happy as all that, or did Prince Charming have a mid-life crisis and run off with Rapunzel's teenage daughter? And what about the evil step-mother/queen/dwarf/black prince that survived -- surely they didn't retire to a convent/monastery. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/gd271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Horror fiction is still a relative rarity in the British mass market, so it's great to hear that Virgin Books are starting a monthly series of horror titles. It's also good to hear that the first few will be reissues of small press publications. Of course, we still want the books to be good -- but, with the first two at least, there's nothing to worry about in that regard. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ef271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Two stories are interwoven in this novel. In one, Tom Schwoerin, a "cliologist" from the near future, searches through history for traces of the lost German city of the title. The other takes place in Eifelheim itself, then known as Oberhochwald, where we follow Pastor Dietrich as he struggles to understand the town's strange alien visitors. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on Battlestar Galactica so far and how the length of a TV series has changed over the years. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in May. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/cg271.htm Thu, 1 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT The book is is a collection of twenty essays dealing with science fiction as a genre, ostensibly for the purpose of helping the reader write stories and get them published. Although the book does offer some useful advice, it also includes several oddities which detract from the book's overall usefulness. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on Dr. Who, and the Dr. Who spinoffs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. All three begin their run on American TV in April. He also has some notes on new shows by Ronald D. Moore and by Joss Whedon on Fox coming this Fall. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/sr270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT This anthology of original stories is an attempt to re-invent science fiction for the young readers of today. Its goal is to re-capture that sense of wonder and amazement that characterized the Golden Age and the books that so many of today's SF writers grew up on. In order to do so, the editor has assembled a cast of many of the biggest names in science fiction today. The stories they've written are not copies of the old space-faring adventures of the 30s and 40s, instead they reflect the concerns and dreams of young people today. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/na270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT This anthology reprints a score of works which were putative direct or indirect influences on the writings of C.S. Lewis, although the relevance of the material extends beyond merely the Chronicles of Narnia to such of Lewis' works as The Screwtape Letters and the Space Trilogy. Lewis was a voracious and lifelong reader, so lots of potential material exists for such an anthology, and the editor has distilled some of the best of these here. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/st270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT A slim booklet of only 90 pages, it assembles five pieces of fiction including the title story, a collaborative work by the two writers. It is the highlight of the book, providing an excellent mix of horror and fantasy where an old surgeon reminisces about his years as a medical student and the daring experiment attempting to bring back to life the corpse of a young woman. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Nexus Graphica is a column about graphic novels and comics that grew out of discussions between Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams. They will alternate columns. The nature and subject of each piece will vary from month to month, but it will always have something to do with graphic novels or comic books. For his first column, Mark is grappling with the idea of what comics are for. Are they just for fun? Or are comics -- when at their best -- simultaneously about individual lives (even spandex-encased ones) and everyone's lives, our lives, all at once? Social commentary, perhaps. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/gf270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Antoine Galland's Arabian Nights, there's a story called "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp." In the story, Aladdin orders his Djinn to build a palace for the Sultan. He specifies, however, that he wants there to be one flaw in the whole, one window-frame of gems that is incomplete, in order to allow the Sultan the honour of finishing it. The Djinn complies. Then, when the Sultan's being led through it, his eyes light on the incomplete window, and he's relieved to have found the flaw, the one tiny thing that can give his soul a break from the otherwise overwhelming awe. That's what reading this collection is like. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/ta270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Cryptopolis -- a writers' group based in Austin, Texas -- offers us an anthology of ten stories by its members, each introduced by another contributor. The book is elevated above the status of back-slapping exercise by actually being pretty good, yet at the same time, it's frustratingly not good enough to be much more than pretty good. It seems that three of the stories go the extra distance to become something quite special; the other seven are interesting, but stop a little short. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/pr270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT "I do remember that fairly early on someone pointed out that I used the word 'alloy' and 'counterpoint' in the same sentence. That person pointed out that some people wouldn't actually know what an alloy was. I made a conscious decision right then that my book was written for people who either knew what that word meant, or were willing to look it up." http://www.sfsite.com/04b/nw270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT At the center of the first book in The Kingkiller Chronicles stands Kvothe. At different times an orphan, a lutist, a student, a mage, and a dragon slayer, at the opening of his tale Kvothe is only Kote, a simple innkeeper who has renounced his adventurous ways and heroic persona. The author shows us, in a prologue that is about as perfectly polished as one page of prose can get, the layered silence that envelops him, "the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die." There are demons -- monsters equal parts spider, lobster, and Edward Scissorhands -- about and, unsurprisingly, it appears Kvothe's past is catching up with him. A scrivener tracks him down to take his life story. Kvothe demands three days -- one for each book. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/is270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT In the plus column, Inside Straight introduces three or four credible new characters, there's a smattering of informative continuity with the established Wild Cards canon, and new blood in the pool of writing talent. In the minus column, most older characters and their chronology appear to have been consigned to history, except for cheesy cameo roles. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/wa270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT This anthology collects 22 stories together, the majority from the 21st century, although some reach back to the mutually assured destruction of the 80s, and a couple even hail from the crazy 70s. Is this anthology a result of the new age of insecurity and Terror (with a capital "T") that we live in? It might be argued so, because nuclear armageddon seldom rears its ugly head here; instead the eponymous apocalypse is more likely to be biological, a post 9/11 war of attrition or even the Biblical Day of Judgment. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT The newest batch of books to arrive on our doorstep include the latest from Stephen Baxter, Steven Erikson, John Kessel, John Meaney, Keri Arthur, Joe Abercrombie, Greg Keyes, Adam Stemple, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., as well as new anthologies from William Schaffer of Subterranean Press, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio270.htm Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times, it's more convenient (and enjoyable) to hear the latest in science fiction and fantasty. Recent audiobook releases include works by Jim Butcher, Orson Scott Card, Philip Pullman and Lois McMaster Bujold. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Nexus Graphica is a column about graphic novels and comics that grew out of discussions between Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams. They will alternate columns. Like Rick Klaw's Geeks With Books, the nature and subject of each piece will vary from month to month, but it will always have something to do with graphic novels or comic books. For the first column, Rick describes how they met and how their friendship evolved. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/gn269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT The stories collected here, some of them written and published before Revelation Space, show us even more about the future the author has envisioned, and often give us details of characters lives and events that are alluded to in the novels. At the same time, they prove that his writing can be just as dark and intense at shorter lengths as it is in novels like Chasm City and Absolution Gap. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/vc269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT The bad news is that this book would be a tough place for new readers to begin, as it is the final installment of the chronicles of Vatta's War. Every major thread begins pretty much in medias res, pulling a long train of story investment along with it. The good news is that this is a smashing finish to an excellent series. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Neil has a secret: The Gormenghast Trilogy is the real reason he started this column in the first place. He had heard about the series for many, many years. So many authors have cited Mervyn Peake as a significant influence, that he knew he should really read him and find out what all the hype was about. But on the other hand, he had also heard disturbing reports from readers about how tedious and progressively unreadable the series ultimately becomes. He had heard rumours that Peake went insane while writing the series, and that the final book makes no sense at all. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/ws269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Ever since the publication of the equally celebrated and condemned Communion, the jury has been out on Whitley Strieber. To some he's a crafty chancer, cleverly weaving his fake Grey alien stories into a modern mythology, in tune with the American psyche. Others believe what he writes is at least prophetic fiction and perhaps thinly disguised fact. Wherever the truth may lie, this vein has been a rich source of inspiration and has enabled him to produce works that are entertaining and unsettling. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/ia269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Arguably the most paranoid novel ever published, Richard Matheson's powerful tale of isolation, I Am Legend, informed the works of Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Joe R. Lansdale, and pretty much everyone else who has written horror since the story's 1954 publication. The book spawned two previous movie adaptations. The first, L' Ultimo Uomo Della Terra (The Last Man on Earth, 1964), starred Vincent Price in a dull yet faithful Italian production. 1971's The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston, used only the bare outline of the original story. In December 2007, director Francis Lawrence returned Matheson's classic to film, the first to sport the book title, I Am Legend. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/la269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT This final book in the First Law trilogy pushes forward like an avalanche through to the bitter end of the various events taking place from the wars in Angland and with the Gurkish to the internal secret wars of the ruling Closed Council. Like the avalanche, it is powerful, mesmerizing and unstoppable. However, also like an avalanche, the only way things can end is in a crush at the base of the mountain with luck being more likely than skills or bravery to save you. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/mf269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Jeremiah Rosemont is a former academic, apparently an expert on the history of the Tarot, who has abandoned his former life and is wandering through Nicaragua when he gets a curious summons to Rome where he finds strange things happening. He becomes embroiled in a struggle over an ancient Tarot deck that might give great power to some very ancient beings. At the same time, a homeless man, called simply Boy King, who makes his living by dumpster diving and occasional Tarot readings in the streets of Minnesota, becomes aware that someone is after him. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/id269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT It isn't quite a play, it isn't quite a poem. It showcases a cast of artificially intelligent robots of different shapes and sizes, created by humans and placed aboard a spaceship, called The TransAtlantic Tortoise, sent out to find new, habitable worlds. The ship is also intelligent but, at the play's opening, it has mysteriously stopped communicating with the crew. We follow Gael-all-of-metal, the dog-shaped captain, as he reflects on and tests the boundaries of his programming, encourages mutiny aboard his ship and discovers love with another crewmate. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/rw269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT We have been in a "post-cyberpunk" period for longer than cyberpunk lasted. At least, we have if you take a strictly chronological understanding of the term. But "post-cyberpunk" has only really been bandied about for the last year or so, and the closest we have to a definition of the term is this particular anthology. Looking at this, one might say that "post-cyberpunk" bears pretty much the same relationship to "cyberpunk" that "postmodernism" bears to "modernism." http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on the return of Battlestar Galactica for one final season and what sort of year Smallville is having. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in April. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/sp269.htm Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT It's becoming a rare achievement for a genre TV series to even complete a debut season these days, so the fact that Supernatural is now well into its third season radiates a silent message that the show has style, depth and most importantly, great ratings. A number of factors contribute to its success like the obvious chemistry between the two lead actors, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles along with the quality of the writing as the brothers hack their way through a huge range of strange monsters, knee-deep in spooky adversaries, while trying to deal with their own family neuroses at the same time. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/rm268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT If America has an existentialist fantasist, her name is Robin Hobb. Her writing, unique in a genre overpopulated with adolescent sword-and-sorcery epics, avoids tired retreads of the quest format perfected over a century ago through the prose-poetry of Lord Dunsany and the mythopoeic majesty of E.R. Eddison. It earns mention in the small but elite company of writers whose methods -- ranging as wide as the multilayered complexity of Robert Jordan, the bracing realism of George R.R. Martin, and the philosophical literacy of Philip Pullman -- are producing a renaissance in the field. Rather than offering mindless escapism, Robin Hobb's works utilize fantasy conventions to explore weighty concepts such as identity and fellowship, rights and duties, and permanence and change. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/du268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT One of the forms from which science fiction and fantasy emerged was the medieval romance in which a chivalrous, heroic knight, often of super-human ability, abides by strict chivalric codes of conduct while on a quest in which he fights and defeats monsters and giants, thereby winning favour with a lady. There is often an allegorical aspect to the quest and the various opponents overcome, and a sense that the whole enterprise and its outcome are pre-ordained. Now put this description in purely science fictional terms... http://www.sfsite.com/03b/pp268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT In a world of relatively peaceful small kingdoms where magic is operated by mages and the usual feudal trappings exist, Lios, Crown Prince of Vesarja, invites the young princesses and princes of the world to a several day coming out party in his parent's castle. Rhis, princess of a small remote mountain kingdom, who has grown up stifled by protocol, is one of those who attends the festivities. When Iardith, a beautiful but vain and self-centered princess is kidnapped, Rhis leads a mounted rescue party of princess-friends. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/in268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT What's so bothersome about this book? Is it Jet, the novel's almost totally passive protagonist, whose one self-motivated act in the entire book is to run away from home? Maybe it is Otis, her robotic dog -- a character who could have been fascinating but instead exists solely to move the plot along by deducing things periodically (thus keeping Jet from ever figuring something out for herself)? Perhaps it is Jet's family and the showbiz caricatures that populate this novel, almost none ever rising to three-dimensionality? http://www.sfsite.com/lists/ps-author01.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT In the spring of 2004, PS Publishing launched a new magazine called Postscripts. Originally, the magazine was to be digest-sized featuring about 60,000 words of fiction, a guest editorial, book reviews, and the occasional non-fiction article in each issue. Fiction includes SF, fantasy, horror, and crime/suspense. The book is produced in two formats: numbered, limited edition in hard cover signed by all contributors and a perfect bound paper cover version. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sw268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Swiftly by Adam Roberts -- not to be confused with his similarly titled collection from Night Shade Books a few years ago -- is an enormously ambitious novel, a steampunk epic of considerable force and ingenuity. It is also a deeply bizarre book, whose protagonists, sometimes to the detriment of the plot, conduct a love affair based on disgust and the stimulating odor of excrement. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sg268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Are you sick and tired of vampires? Many are but there is one distinct exception, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Comte de Saint-Germain. Created more than thirty-five years ago with the novel Hotel Transylvania, Saint-Germain has been the main character in a long series of novels, the latest of which is Borne in Blood. In addition, the undead has been starring in a bunch of short stories and novelettes, now assembled here for the first time. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best08.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Come and see what we consider to be the best of what we read last year, on the SF Site's 11th annual Editors' Choice Top 10 List -- our official SF Site Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2007. Last issue we showed you how you voted on the Readers' Choice Top 10; you may be as surprised as we were to compare the two lists. There's so little overlap it almost seems like the SF Site readers and reviewers aren't reading many of the same books. But this just means that when you look at both lists you'll find even more recommendations for great books to read. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/tm268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Following the adventures of Time Agent Captain Jack Harkness and his outside-the-law, alien-investigating elite team, Torchwood has become a firm favourite in both the UK and the US. Now, Titan have launched the Torchwood magazine to take you behind the scenes and introduce you to all the who's and how's that make Torchwood tick. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Some of the spring releases to arrive on our doorstep recently include the latest from Greg Egan, Sarah Zettel, Peter F. Hamilton, Alan Campbell, Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Alma Alexander, Barth Anderson, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times, it's more convenient (and enjoyable) to hear the latest in science fiction and fantasty. Recent audiobook releases include works by S.M. Sterling, Frank Herbert, Casandra Claire, Piers Anthony, and R.A. Salvatore. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on believing everything he reads such as the start of the next season of Stargate: Atlantis, some of the points made in the book, The World Is Flat, whether climate change is a hoax and did Barak Obama attend a madrasa. He also found time to see to see 10,000 A.D. and to do a DVD review of Slings & Arrows. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/gs268.htm Sun, 16 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Until recently, Sirantha Jax was a superstar. Possessing a rare gene which allows a select few to jump ships through "grimspace," and thus vastly shorten interstellar travel time, she had it made, having made more jumps and discovered more planets than anyone else working for the Corp. But all jumpers burn out sooner or later, so she knew her time was finite. And then came the crash on Matins IV, an accident only which she survived. She was locked away, interrogated and tortured and left to rot. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best08.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Come and see what we consider to be the best of what we read last year, on the SF Site's 11th annual Editors' Choice Top 10 List -- our official SF Site Best SF and Fantasy Books of 2007. Last issue we showed you how you voted on the Readers' Choice Top 10; you may be as surprised as we were to compare the two lists. There's so little overlap it almost seems like the SF Site readers and reviewers aren't reading many of the same books. But this just means that when you look at both lists you'll find even more recommendations for great books to read. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/mr267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT The four Gospels account of the life of Jesus suffers from a "Rosemary Woods" gap -- a period of roughly eighteen years between the ages of 12 and 30 in which either Jesus did nothing worth noting or was entirely absent from Palestine. There is some Biblical evidence to suggest the latter view. John the Baptist failed to recognize his own cousin, implying that he hadn't seen Jesus for quite some time. Also, Matthew 17:24-27 recounts that Jesus had to pay a Roman enforced "strangers tax" levied upon aliens. Another speculation goes that his great uncle, Joseph of Aramathea, reputed as one of the first Christian missionaries to Britain and the founder of what became Glastonbury Abbey, might conceivably have taken the young Jesus up North for vacation. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/mh267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Roger Zelazny has always been admired and praised by other writers for his way with words. The near poetic prose of stories like "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" and "24 Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai", and the unique mix of mythology, religion, and technology in novels like Lord of Light were often imitated but seldom matched. And in his most popular works, the long-running Amber series, he found mass popularity to match his stylistic talent and ambition. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/nw267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT These days it seems that barely a week goes by without another anthology that has an agenda, that is meant to work as propaganda. We are being assailed with collections that are designed to convince us that something old has been revitalised (the new hard SF, the new space opera) or that something new has been discovered (the slipstream anthology, the interstitial anthology, the post-cyberpunk anthology). If we enjoy good stories in these books, it is secondary to being convinced that this totally fresh way of looking at the genre is valid, is going to take over literature. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT It's been a busy month for new books, including the latest from Iain M. Banks, Robin Hobb, Raymond E. Feist, Stephen Baxter, as well as new editions of Greg Egan, Michael Moorcock, Neal Stephenson, Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett, and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best08b.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT This year is the 10th anniversary of the SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Top 10 List. Come and see the results of the the votes you and your fellow SF Site readers submitted. Whether your own personal favourite is on our Readers' Choice Best of 2007, you're sure to find some great books here. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/lf267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Captain John "Black Jack" Geary is in for the fight of his life. He awoke from a century-long slumber in a survival pod to find himself rescued by a fleet that reveres him for his military record and heroic actions, a fleet that seems to have forgotten everything it once knew about intelligent tactics, smart battle maneuvers, and military strategy. And when the highest-ranking members of the fleet's command structure were killed, he was forced to assume command by virtue of technical seniority. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Many of us are drawn to stories about characters suffering from some form of memory loss. These tales can be a great deal of fun because they allow the reader to share in the character's self-discovery. This column looks at two books where memory loss is an integral feature of the story -- one is a recent award winner, and the other is more than a quarter century old and has recently been reprinted. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/dw267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Despite being compared by some to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, the Night Watch Trilogy involves realistic contemporary (post-communism modern, slightly decaying Russian) urban landscapes, strictly adult characters, with adult interests, motivations and issues, organized in highly hierachical multi-member fraternal organisations, battling on many fronts, and trying to intrigue their way to superiority over the other side. In this sense, they are much more reminiscent of the title characters in Katherine Kurtz's early Deryni titles. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/sd267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT In 1994 a small, independent comic from an even smaller independent label, Fireman Press, debuted. Set in the future, the story featured a world where robot assassins could be purchased through vending machines, assigned a target and would self-destruct upon completion of their mission. It was all the brainchild of creator Rob Schrab and he called it Scud: the Disposable Assassin. Weird, right? http://www.sfsite.com/03a/sc267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT The Spiderwick Chronicles is a charming children's movie, which adults can enjoy -- though probably not the same adults who enjoy, say, 30 Days of Night. It is aimed at a younger crowd than The Golden Compass, and requires a certain tolerance for "cute." Still, it is considerably better than the pervious fantasy film aimed at this age group, The Dark is Rising. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT The writer's strike is over. The networks are spacing out the shows they have to try to cover the gap due to the strike, so there is very little SF on TV. But what there is, Rick gives us a list of what to watch in March. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/gm267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT Gods of Manhattan was not at all what Nathan expected. As a former MTV producer and author of two BlokeLit novels, Nathan was anticipating this author's venture into Harry Potter territory would be loaded with modern cultural references, and techno clever-dickery. Instead, what he found was a quaintly old-fashioned work, brimming with quirky invention and subtle charm. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/fr267.htm Sat, 1 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT The novel begins normally enough -- Jacob Logan returns to his rural family home after his business collapses. He has been away for years, and lost his country ways; the townspeople, including the old family friend he left in charge of the house, react with hostility to his metropolitan behavior. As Jacob attempts to relax and find himself, he instead finds mysteries -- starting with the discovery that fireflies would literally rather die than come onto his property. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best08b.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This year is the 10th anniversary of the SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Top 10 List. Come and see the results of the the votes you and your fellow SF Site readers submitted. Whether your own personal favourite is on our Readers' Choice Best of 2007, you're sure to find some great books here. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Smaragdine, all of the major newspapers and websites have posted their lists of the best books and stories published in the country over the past year. This it is time for writers not included on these lists host elaborate parties at which they are expected to pretend to cry and to seek comfort from their friends. Usually, though, it's all in aid of promoting their next project. Jeff takes time out to talk to Gregory Frost, author of Fitcher's Brides and his newly released Shadowbridge. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/wg266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is a short novella set in the Ender universe during the time that Ender was at the Battle School and before he became Ender the Xenocide. Although Ender appears and plays a pivotal role, the focus of the story is on Zeck Morgan, the Battle School's only pacifist. Zeck sees himself as a victim and a martyr, and here he tries to avenge his perceived persecution on the others students. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/rt266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Darth Bane - Path of Destruction, a young man named Dessel created the modern Sith legacy by wiping out all rivals and taking command of the Dark Side's destiny by invoking the Rule of Two. This tale picks up where the other left off with the rescue of a confused, frightened and angry young girl named Zannah from the war torn battlefield left from the clashing forces of the Jedi Army of Light and the Sith Brotherhood of Darkness. Bane sculpts her as his apprentice and prepares to bring his plan and ideals to pass. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times it's more convenient to use ears rather than eyes to experience the latest in science fiction and fantasy. Recent audiobook releases include works by Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Kim Harrison, Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven265.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2007 included Robert Anton Wilson, Charles L. Fontenay, Roger Elwood, Leigh Eddings, Kurt Vonnegut, Lloyd Alexander, Fred Saberhagen, Madeleine L'Engle and Robert Jordan. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ju266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Jumper: Griffin's Story is, to say the least, an odd bird. Another book like it may not exist. It is a tie-in to the David Liman-directed science fiction action film, Jumper, starring Hayden Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie itself is loosely based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Steven Gould, taking the core premise from the book and essentially re-inventing everything else. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pb266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Slowly recovering from a mysterious illness which nearly destroyed both mind and body five years ago, Brother Josan has resigned himself, however reluctantly, to a life of quiet solitude as a lighthouse keeper in a remote part of the kingdom of Ikeria, where he busies himself with quiet study and the reclamation of his skills. Why exactly he has been exiled, he doesn't know; in truth, only the merest handful understand why he's been cast aside by his brothers. A chance encounter following a major storm brings him into contact with Lady Ysobel Flordelis of the Seddon Federation, whose mission of trade hides a deeper, more sinister purpose: to rekindle a revolution in Ikeria. And that chance meeting is all it takes to upset Josan's life once again. And when an assassin comes for him, Josan displays a frightening ability to defend himself, followed by momentary blackouts, and a magical power he never knew he had. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/as266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT There is a reasonable case to be made for tracing the history of 20th century science fiction through its keynote magazines. Such a history takes us from Amazing to Astounding to F&SF, across the Atlantic to New Worlds, and then into the curious asteroid belt of the 70s original anthologies. By this reckoning, science fiction during the last quarter of the 20th century was defined by Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Since it was launched in 1977 it has generally had higher circulation figures than its rivals, it has produced more stories that have won or been shortlisted for awards, it has produced more stories that have featured in the various Year's Best anthologies. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/bn266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The present volume features a number of excellent tales. Outstanding examples are "What Nature Abhors" by Mark Morris, a superb, breathtaking tour de force of terror depicting a man who wakes up alone on a deserted train to be engulfed in a nightmarish adventure, and the splendid "The American Dead" by Jay Lake, a melancholy fable set in a marginal world of cruelty and poverty where a young boy nurses his personal version of the American Dream. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Again this year, Rick offers his movie predictions for what is worth seeing in 2008 (based entirely on the reputation of the writers) and reflects upon his predictions for 2007. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pi266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT As the twentieth century gave way to the twenty-first century, Allen Steele wrote a series of essays for Absolute Magnitude and Artemis magazines. Initially set to be looks at science fiction and space exploration, the Absolute Magnitude columns, published under the title "Primary Ignition" gave way to more general topics, which led to the series in Artemis, which would remain focused on space exploration. These essays, along with a few others, have been collected in the book. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/qc265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT At the end of Sun of Suns, the first book in the Virga series, most of the major characters were either missing or presumed dead. Two, a young man who had been the hero of the story, and a woman who, while not an out-and-out villain, was definitely not a pleasant person, were left drifting off in the free-fall atmosphere that fills the artificial world of Virga. It would be understandable if book two were to continue the story of the young man's adventures. Instead, it follows the plight of the arrogant, paranoid, smart, and very dangerous Venera Fanning. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cw265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The authors, with a degree of apparent effortlessness that is astonishing, have pulled off not one but several very difficult things in this book. The first, and by no means the least, is the sometimes vexed collaboration issue. You I have read co-authored books in which you could have chopped out and parceled into neat little piles the bits that belonged to the various authors because the voices simply never gelled enough to produce perfect seamlessness. Here, it just doesn't even matter. It flows. The two authors work as one; it's not so much cooperation as a symbiosis. A job very well done. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ii265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection of thirteen short stories, drawn from across the author's career as a professional writer. It's a diverse introduction for readers who have heard of his alternate history works, but have baulked at committing to an entire series. Helpfully, there are two stories included which afford a taste of the author's best known works; an original Emberverse novella, and an Islands In the Sea of Time story. Anyone who has wondered if they'd like the style and substance of those series should try what's on offer here. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/wc265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The time is the near future, the place North America. The Internet is the Netstream, a kind of YouTube that has swallowed various communications media. Terrorist bombings are more frequent, there is a vicious street drug called Blur that turns addicts into monsters. The world, in short, has become a scary enough place before three alien space ships crash landed in the Midwest and over the border into Canada. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ds265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT It is the most destructive battle station ever to threaten the Star Wars Universe. The Death Star's name says it all. A weapon of unimaginable proportion that can destroy entire planets in an instant. How could anything stand against such a construct? But how did this monstrosity come to be? And what of those that helped build it? http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil262.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. For the past 10 years, this has been the season when we solicit you, our faithful readers for your input on what you thought were the best books you've read in the past year. We'll grind your votes through our top-of-the-line super-secret vote-counting software, and post the results in February or early March. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2007 included Robert Anton Wilson, Charles L. Fontenay, Roger Elwood, Leigh Eddings, Kurt Vonnegut, Lloyd Alexander, Fred Saberhagen, Madeleine L'Engle and Robert Jordan. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/fs265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Woody Allen's "The Kugelmass Episode," the titular character, an unhappily married college professor, conducts an affair with one of the classic adulteresses of literature -- Madame Bovary. He is able to do this quite literally thanks to the magician Persky the Great, whose contraption can project Kugelmass into the book. The overt joke is that after Kugelmass tires of Bovary, he asks to be thrust into Portnoy's Complaint, but instead is accidentally inserted in a remedial Spanish textbook, with unexpected consequences. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ww265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT When an author has published "roughly four million words," as Stephen Briggs notes (in the introduction to this volume) Terry Pratchett has done, you certainly have reason to hope that some of them will be quotable. When the author is the inestimable satirist Terry Pratchett, you know for certain that many of those words are worth repeating, which is what this nicely constructed compilation does. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ju265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is an SF magazine -- SF as in Science Fiction -- based in the UK. The magazine's appearance is modest: A-size sheets folded in half and saddle-stapled, black and white cover and no interior illustrations. But that's really not a drawback -- the presentation is very clean, the font nicely chosen and nicely sized. The focus is heavily on fiction -- there are five stories, plus one poem and one brief book review. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Some of the new and forthcoming titles we'll look at this time include the latest from Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Joe Abercrombie, Christopher Golden, Barth Anderson, Terry Goodkind, Greg Keyes, Kelley Armstrong, Sherri S. Tepper, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on where the strike by writers stands and what may happen before it ends. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in February. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/tw265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Driven by the need to ransom her brother back from a vicious group of inhuman creatures known as salamanders, Melke steals a necklace whose value is greater than she could ever have imagined, for it's actually the key to breaking a deadly curse laid upon the sal Vere family. Caught between honor and desperation, Melke makes a deal with Bastion sal Vere and his sister, Liana: if they'll take care of her grievously wounded brother, she'll steal the necklace back from the salamanders, using her bizarre ability to become unseen. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/pd265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The book opens slowly and somewhat confusingly, as the auhtor has to set three or four parallel story-trains into motion. Unlike the first two D.I. Chen books, you definitely shouldn't start here. Even readers who've read the first two book may be doing a bit of head-scratching (and toe-tapping) until she gets all her balls into the air. But then -- wow! http://www.sfsite.com/01b/sw264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT The work is a new, vibrant take on superhero fiction, aimed at savvy fans who want something that has all the buzz of the classics, but also a gritty real-world depth. It's like Wild Cards for a new generation, with its own distinctive blend of characters, dark comedy, and an updated enemy which everyone loves to hate. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/greg2007.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, time to dig through a year's worth of reading and try to decide which books belong on the list of personal favorites. All in all, Greg would say 2007 was a very good year, good enough so that the main problem was not in finding enough titles to make the list, but instead the problem was cutting titles that in many other years would have been automatic inclusions. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT With the Great Reckoning behind him, Neil decided to start 2008 fresh with something he has been meaning to read for about 20 years now, 1984 by George Orwell. And to balance this long-awaited classic, the other book is one he discovered in his stack, a copy of The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle. He figured, what the hell, let's follow the bear over that mountain. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/sb264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT All lovers of short SF and Fantasy have been missing a regular series of unthemed original anthologies, in the mode of Frederik Pohl's pioneering Star, Damon Knight's Orbit, Terry Carr's Universe, Robert Silverberg's New Dimensions, and most recently, Patrick Nielsen Hayden's all too short-lived Starlight. So it is delightful to see in 2007 the beginnings of no fewer than four such series: Jonathan Strahan's Eclipse, Lou Anders's Fast Forward, and two separate books from Solaris, edited by George Mann: The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, and The Solaris Book of New Fantasy. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/ei264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT After a near-epic journey halfway across the world to China and back, surviving adventures, treachery, and battles galore, Captain Will Laurence and his dragon companion Temeraire thought they could settle back into something resembling a normal life. Normal, that is, for life in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars. Unfortunately, they've returned to a nightmare: the dragons of England's Aerial Corps lay sick and dying from a mysterious disease. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/be264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Marla Mason is the sorcerer who runs the Rust Belt town of Felport. But her rival, Susan Wellstone, plans an intricate spell to overturn her, and Marla's only hope to foil her plans is to find a magical object called a Cornerstone. The only one of which she is aware is in San Francisco, guarded by her old friend Lao Tsung. So she and her sidekick, a not quite human young man called Rondeau, rush across the country -- only to learn that Lao Tsung has been killed, by a horde of South American poison frogs. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times it's more convenient to use ears rather than eyes to experience the latest in science fiction and fantasy. Recent audiobook releases include works by Kevin J. Anderson, Catherine Asaro, Kim Harrison, Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil262.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. For the past 10 years, this has been the season when we solicit you, our faithful readers for your input on what you thought were the best books you've read in the past year. We'll grind your votes through our top-of-the-line super-secret vote-counting software, and post the results in February or early March. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/mf264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT This first collection is either an introduction to or a rediscovery of a writer who has firmly established herself as a first-rate teller of tales ranging from humorous looks at life in medieval times to future military adventures, and even a side-trip or two into just what makes an artist create, and how that creative process fits into a society that doesn't always appreciate what's presented to it. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT With the dearth of SF on TV, Rick has some thoughts on Sunshine, a movie directed by Danny Boyle along with the first two episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and how it fits into the branches of the Terminator saga. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/dx264.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Eerie, yet melodic, the original score to Showtime's hit series Dexter is as complex as the character himself. The CD selection features a wide range of musical tracks from various versions of the main title theme to Michael C. Hall's character interludes. There are some nice local musical numbers, featuring the Mambo All-Stars and even an Andy Williams piece. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/hb263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT The Cuban Missile Crisis was, of course, a major event in the United States and Soviet Union in 1962, but it also affected other countries in the world. The book is a young adult time-travel/alternate history novel that looks at the crisis from the point of view of a fourteen year old girl in Liverpool. Laura Mann has newly arrived in Liverpool and must deal with the typical relocation issues, as well as an absentee father and parents going through a divorce when her world is really turned upside down. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil262.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. For the past 10 years, this has been the season when we solicit you, our faithful readers for your input on what you thought were the best books you've read in the past year. We'll grind your votes through our top-of-the-line super-secret vote-counting software, and post the results in February or early March. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/ns263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Many have always regarded space opera as science fiction's guilty pleasure. It's not the sort of stuff you'd recommend to a non-SF reading friend, because they'd just not get it. There's something almost juvenile in it, the sort of loud, garish, wide-screen pleasures that turned us on when we were younger and busy discovering the illicit thrills of SF. You certainly don't turn to space opera for literary respectability, for fine honed characters, for searching insights, for any sort of subtlety. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Some of the highlights from our latest new arrivals to the SF Site include new and forthcoming works from Richard Morgan, Gregory Frost, Anne & Todd McCaffrey, stories from Greg Egan, and a new Shannara story from Terry Brooks in graphic novel format. Also, several series are continuing or concluding, with new works from Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter, S.C. Butler, David Gemmell, Terry Goodkind, Shana Abe, William Nicholson, David Zindell, and Mike Resnick. All this, and much more... http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some news on new episodes of Smallville and Torchwood along with reviews of Battlestar Galactica: Razor and The Water Horse, Legend of the Deep. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/ta263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT In the depths of the Asteroid Belt, many years from now, the aftermath of a short but brutal war for the resources of the asteroids leaves a number of lingering repercussions. One family is torn apart by an unprovoked attack, while an entire space habitat is destroyed, its inhabitants slaughtered. The perpetrator, soon afterwards, undergoes traumatic changes and sets out on a new path, one of attempted redemption. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/bg263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Once you've opened the book you'll be mesmerized by the adventures of Jakabok Botch, a demon from the Ninth Circle of Hell. Botch lives next to one of the rubbish tips that his father patrols to keep the trouble-makers out, when he's not beating Botch or his mother to a bleeding pulp in a drunken frenzy. When Botch is hideously burned, it sets off a series of events that sees the young demon on a century-long journey, chasing across the face of our earth with a companion older than time. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/rl263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Is it so hard to print a number on a book cover? Honestly, it can't be. Children's series have had numbers on the volumes for decades, and probably long before that. You may remember there were 54 Nancy Drew novels in your school library, and you were able to read them in order because they were so easily sequenced. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/tg263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Howard is a fairly typical boy in a small village. One day, for what he thinks is a prank, he steals the eggs of a goose -- one of a flock of goose protected by the local "witch." The "witch," it turns out, is a real witch, and she responds by turning Howard into a goose. He won't become a boy again until he performs three good deeds. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/mr263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Seventy-two angels fell with Samael, the Son of Morning, cast out of Heaven for rebellion. Then another angel, who had the task of assigning power and function, grasped the enormity of its own ability. So the angel sundered another of its unkillable kind and fashioned the bones into instruments that contained its great gift of Form and Power. It scattered these instruments across the Earth, to safeguard them in case its plan failed, then attempted to ally with the Fallen One. But Samael rejected the angel. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/lc263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Zines have been around almost as long as there has been fandom in science fiction. The compulsion to print your own thoughts and throw them out into the world seems to be strong among SF fans. Occasionally a publication itself has risen out of the ranks, establishing itself with a level of quality that equals the pros and changing its perceived status from fanzine to full-fledged magazine. Such is the case with Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/ch263.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT Originally published in 1999, A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television covers the quintessential BBC television series from before its debut on November 23, 1963 through its final airing on December 6, 1989. In addition to examining the individual story lines that the seven incarnations of the Doctor and his companions lived through, the author provides a context for the television series. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. For the past 10 years, this has been the season when we solicit you, our faithful readers for your input on what you thought were the best books you've read in the past year. We'll grind your votes through our top-of-the-line super-secret vote-counting software, and post the results in February or early March. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/lh262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This book is written as the first-person retrospective memoir of Jon Cavala, a poet of moderate success who, within the space of the first few pages, is beheaded for the crime of rape. Straight away, we are into the territory of words not meaning exactly what we expect them to mean. Cavala lives on Pluse, which is one of many "Planets of The Book" -- planets colonised by dogmatic religious sects fleeing what they saw as the decadent liberal decline of Earth for new worlds where they could indulge in their beliefs without restriction or censure. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This time Neil take a look at a relatively recent work which may not yet have entered the annals of "classic" speculative fiction, although it did receive something of an instant cult following and, later, a moderately massive amount of hype. But even as it began to take the bookstores by storm, it didn't capture any major awards. So is it a classic? Or is it overlooked? And who really wrote the works of William Shakespeare? http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bb262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Zachary Nixon Johnson, the last freelance PI on Earth in the late 21st Century, is having a typical Tuesday. You know, attacked by killer plants, nearly killed by traffic while rescuing a heiress's dog, stalked by an ad agency, menaced by genetically-engineered ogres... the usual. And then things get weird. And dangerous. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/gc262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT The Golden Compass is one of the most beautiful and original fantasy films of all time. Sadly, the call for a boycott by the Catholic League of Decency caused the money men to order a short film, an hour and fifty-three minutes. Only about half the book made it to the screen, but everything there is opulent and intelligently crafted. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bw262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT There are two types of story. But it isn't as straightforward as the difference between realist and fantastic or between genre and mainstream. No, the two types of story are those that want you to be aware they are story, and those that don't. The difference between these two types is not in the telling, but in where the telling is intended to take us. Immersive stories mean to tell us something about the world by way of the characters, setting, plot we encounter in the story. Framed narratives mean to tell us something about Story, the imaginative construct by which we comprehend and negotiate the world. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bk262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT While most people associate Merlin with the legends of King Arthur, the author has been examining the magician's history and ties to Jason, Captain of the Argo, in the Merlin Codex trilogy, which culminates with The Broken Kings. Located now in Alba, the land that would be Britain, Merlin finds himself facing the conflict between King Urtha of the Cornovidi and his children, Kymon and Munda. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/es262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT We meet Detective Inspector Herbie Watkins, who has been called out to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman in central London. At the same time it becomes common knowledge that the end of the world is nigh -- six days nigh, in fact -- and not merely the world: the entire universe has been discovered to have played something of a cosmic trick upon us and is collapsing at breakneck speed back into a Big Crunch. Hearing the news, Watkins carries on with his job as a policeman, spending his last few days investigating the murder. He isn't insane neither is he so dull as to be unaware of the time limit upon his investigations. Watkins is not an unhappy man but... well, what else is there to do? http://www.sfsite.com/12b/na262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT It is now generally accepted as a truism that Theodore Sturgeon was the best short story writer to emerge from science fiction. Perhaps even, so a lot of his advocates would claim, one of the best short story writers in American literature. It's a big claim. But it is not always supported by the evidence. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/sm262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Even if you've never read a comic book or seen any of the Sam Raimi films, you know who Spider-Man is, the iconic super hero Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created in 1962. The author, however, has not only read Spider-Man comics and seen the films, he has dedicated a significant amount of time to the webslinger and the various products that have been tied in to the character over the last 45 years. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/cb262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Chessie Bligh, a neglected 14 year-old American girl, is sent to a foreign boarding school accompanied by her only friend, a puppy named Wuggbert. Seeking to defy the social climbing aspirations of her uncaring, wealthy parents, Chessie switches places with Aelyn, a physically similar girl she happens to meet while changing aircraft in New York. Thus does Chessie find herself at Die Sterntaler. The school turns out to be an elf encampment at the rim of the Grand Canyon, hidden from human sight by magic. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/co261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT In a USA that is not our own, they have invented a device known as the Turing Gate, which allows people to pass between parallel worlds. But the powers that be in this USA were horrified to discover that other Americas were not as powerful as they were. There were Americas under fascist rule or communist rule or dissolved into anarchies, there is even one strangely familiar USA filled with peaceniks who have brought down President Nixon. Into these different Americas an analogue of the CIA begins to infiltrate agents, popularly known as Cowboy Angels, to start undermining these unwelcome states and work towards an America more like their own. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/sc261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Journalist Matt Johnson is beavering away one evening in his study, when a mysterious buzzing noise fills the room. Shortly thereafter an explosion destroys the building. When he wakes up in hospital it becomes clear that some time has passed, and his life has been radically altered. Upon arrival for treatment, he was suffering from severe and extensive burns, and was not expected to live. But Johnson's body has been repairing itself, rebuilding him from the inside out. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ev261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Tim Akers gets the magazine off to a strong start with "A Walking of Crows," a murder mystery set in a mechanical world: young Jeremy travels to the city to find out who would want to kill his scientist father and destroy his work -- and why -- but soon finds himself in over his head. There is some wonderfully vivid imagery, such as the extended description of the city of Veridon as well as more subtle touches, such as the use of organic metaphors where we might use mechanical ones. What's more, the mystery element of the story works well against the fictional background. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/px261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Before Pixar created their masterpieces like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles, they honed their craft on a series of short animated films. Between 1984 and 1989, the studio produced five shorts: "The Adventures of Andre & Wally B." (1984) -- technically this film was made when they were just a division of Lucas Films, "Luxo Jr." (1986) -- the source of Pixar's lamp logo, "Red's Dream" (1987), "Tin Toy" (1988) -- the first completely CG film to win an Oscar, and "Knick Knack" (1989). http://www.sfsite.com/12a/at261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Written before Hurricane Katrina, the book is quite slim. But what is striking about these stories is that they are about everyday life events, small epiphanies, sometimes vaguely magical, more often quite mundane. They're all set in and around New Orleans, and most of them are about the Stubbs family, which features heavily in her recent work. It is a book of small thresholds, about how life may change in very small, but irrevocable ways. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/md261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection of short stories, many of which follow Sir Seaton Begg, a detective in the vein of Sherlock Holmes or Sexton Blake, and an albino, Monsieur Zenith. The two men play a game of cat and mouse throughout the collection, sometimes in opposition to each other and at times on the same side. For all of Begg's detecting abilities, however, he is never quite sure of Zenith. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/nw261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT As stated in the introduction, the book tries to show "the full scope of what the literature of the fantastic can do" by assembling an impressive amount of brand new short stories (forty-one, to be precise) by both well known authors and newcomers. According to the editor, the reader is bound to fall in love at first sight with some stories and to hate other pieces because they are "uncomfortable, edgy, even outright offensive." Indeed. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ca261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT In the far future, war has broken out across the arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, as the Unified Authority fights against the secessionist Confederate Arms Treaty Organization and the fanatically religious Morgan Atkins Believers (or Mogats). Caught in the middle of this galaxy-wide conflict is former UA soldier and occasional war hero, Waylon Harris, the only Liberator-series clone known to still be alive. Waylon, fully aware of his clone status unlike the millions of other clones populating the UA armies, has, over the course of his adventures, become a rebel and a wild card. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ka261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is another small 'zine, physically resembling for example Electric Velocipede: 8.5" by 14" paper folded and saddle-stitched, with cardboard covers. It features quite a few stories, but most of them quite short, and a large selection of poems. There is also an article about Doctor Who, and a parody horoscope column, and lots of art, including a comic strip. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT New arrivals at the SF Site office include the latest from Orson Scott Card, J.V. Jones, Piers Anthony, Charles Stross, as well as forthcoming books from Eric Brown, Chris Roberson, Elizabeth Moon, Gail Z. Martin, and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on the new season's TV series, particularly Heroes and Journeyman. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in December. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/fp260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT As the story opens, a talking raven arrives in a cemetery in the Bronx, New York to deliver a stolen baloney to a man who has been living in the cemetery for the past 19 years. Mr. Rebeck. Shortly he meets Mrs. Klapper who is here to visit the grave of her husband, Morris. The cast of major characters is filled out by a couple of ghosts, each of whom we meet on the occasion of his or her funeral. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Neil wonders whether anyone is reading his column. But he has decided to give it another try with Slan by A.E. Van Vogt, in which a young man who is more than human takes on pretty much the whole world as he quests for others (or even one other) like himself, and A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright, in which a dying man takes a time machine to the future in hope of finding a cure for himself and a way to go back to the past to cure his now dead former lover, and he leaves a manuscript behind which may or may not ever be read... by anyone. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/kl260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Naval lieutenant Kristine Longknife, Princess of Wardhaven, is in dire need of a vacation, after the way things have gone for her over the past few months. Thusly, she packs her bags and her entourage, and hies off to the planet of New Eden, where she hopes things will stay quiet for the time being, while she (reluctantly) fulfills various diplomatic and military obligations. The first assassination attempt suggests that things aren't going to be quiet. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/da260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Jonny Hooker is a 27 year-old musician who is accompanied, in a metaphysical sense, by an imaginary monkey boy called Mr Giggles. Nobody else can see or hear Mr Giggles, but that does not mean he isn't there. Soon after the story begins, Jonny is found dead in the pond of Gunnersbury Park. Minus his head, which appears to have exploded. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/cy260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT What's so unusual about this book then? For a start, although it takes place in one of high fantasy's traditional settings -- a mercantile city in desert lands -- the story is complete in a single volume of under 200 pages, which is pretty rare in itself these days. More than that, the structure is unusual: the first 40 pages comprise a prologue and thirteen "preludes" before the main story starts. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/rh260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT On a frontier world, like Coyote, banishment can be a death penalty. Two ruffians, Marie Montero and her lover, Lars Thompson find themselves exiled from their community after they can't make the transition from Rebellion to peacetime. Rather than a permanent exile, however, they are tasked with exploring the planet, still widely unknown, and reporting back via radio every couple of days. To increase their chance of survival, a savant, Manuel Castro, is sent along with them. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-fh-volume01.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT In 1988, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling collected together what they thought was the best short fantasy and horror from the previous year. They went through as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1987 that they could find and chose those stories which they decided best represented the fantasy and horror field. Jim Frenkel arranged for its publication by St. Martins's Press and it has been produced every year since then. In 2003, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant took over from Terri Windling as the fantasy editor. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/sl260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Henghis Hapthorn is approached by a wealthy socialite with what appears to be a straightforward case: her husband has vanished after buying a small spaceship. Establishing that the spouse was not involved in hanky-panky, Hapthorn investigates further, to discover that several others who had considered buying the vessel also disappeared. He takes on a guise as a buyer himself -- to be captured by a super-intelligent fungus that leeches personality, experience, and knowledge from its victims. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT New this month are the latest from Chris Wooding, Laurell K. Hamilton, Janny Wurts, Stephen Donaldson, and many others, plus some classic reprints from Gene Wolfe, Robert Holdstock, Frank Herbert, Michael Moorcock, and -- you guessed it -- yet still more. It's a busy time of year for publishers. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ra260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Set in Paris, the story revolves around Remy, a rat gourmet with a hyper-sensitive palate, who uses his enhanced sense and cooking skills to help Linguini, a young dishwasher who accidentally becomes a chef at the famous Parisian restaurant Gusteau's, founded by the eponymous late chef. Chef Gusteau's former assistant Skinner now manages the formerly five-star bistro and even uses the legendary chef's persona to sell a line of decidedly down-scale frozen dinners. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Nothing new on television so RIck has turned to film with thoughts on The Dark is Rising, Martian Child and Star Trek, The Menagerie. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/os260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Adam McCormick has run away from home. While hiding out at the home of his girlfriend he takes a novel off the shelf to read. It, too, tells the story of a runaway, but a whiny, preppy kid that Adam feels doesn't have it too bad. After all, nobody knows he has run away, and nobody's after him. His only companion is the ghost of Jamie Marks. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/hi260.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT It's not difficult to get hold of the short stories of Philip K. Dick, if you're of a mind to do so. However, doing so usually involves unearthing anthologies old and new in which his work has appeared, or going instead to the Complete Works -- four hefty volumes, which allegedly contain a fair amount of filler in between the killers. So it should come as no surprise that a publisher decided to package a selection of Dick's "greatest hits" into a single paperback volume -- especially considering the increasing number of films being made from his work. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/as259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Since 1977 the former Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (somewhere along the way they dropped the Isaac) has published something like 3,000 stories. With this many candidates to choose among, Sheila Williams's task in selecting the contents of a retrospective anthology was mainly one of coping with an embarrassment of riches. She came up with a book of seventeen stories, the great majority of which range from excellent to absolutely breathtaking. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ha259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Paul Fadhil Abbas Ali is a young writer. His family is Moslem but he sees himself as wholly British (he has an Irish wife), and his novel, The Pied Piper of Hamnet, is conceived as being a light comic fantasy somewhat in the very English tradition of P.G. Wodehouse. Suddenly the nature of the work is transformed. The authorities, in their rigid proto-fascism, are blind to the humour, to the fantasy, to the very fictionality of the work. In their blinkered way they see only a Moslem advocating the assassination of the prime minister. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/dh259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT The story begins when Jake is fourteen, and at first the reader might assume that he's writing of very recent events. Jake reminds the reader repeatedly that the idea of a preserve for dragons is a fairly tense controversy. Some, including in the government, insist that dragons are dangerous, expensive, and should be wiped out. Environmentalists, scientists, and dragon-lovers remind everyone that there are no records of them eating humans, even though they're a hundred feet long, fly, and breathe fire. But then a man is killed in the dragon preserve. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT At times it's more convenient to use ears rather than eyes to experience the latest in science fiction and fantasy, Recent audiobook releases include works by Orson Scott Card, Charles de Lint, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ray Bradbury, Terry Pratchett, Joe Hill, Neil Gaiman, Max Brooks, and Kevin J. Anderson. Forthcoming titles include works from Terry Brooks, George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, and Warren Ellis. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-fh-title01.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT In 1988, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling collected together what they thought was the best short fantasy and horror from the previous year. They went through as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1987 that they could find and chose those stories which they decided best represented the fantasy and horror field. Jim Frenkel arranged for its publication by St. Martins's Press and it has been produced every year since then. In 2003, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant took over from Terri Windling as the fantasy editor. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ec259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT The story splits into three strands, beginning with a trek across the urban wastelands of post-apocalyptic America, continuing adventures of Knight of the Word Logan Tom, and a ragtag young band of survivors named the Ghosts. Running parallel and equal to this is the tale of another Knight of the Word, Angel Perez, and her mission to help the Elves of Cintra. The final element of this mixed bag concerns the emergence of Hawk, a young man from the previous novel, as a major power and living key to the rebirth of civilisation. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT It is that time in the Smaragdine four-year cycle to commemorate their great military leader Saloment III so things are quiet. During this hiatus, Jeff takes some time to interview Peter Crowther of PS Publishing on what he has in store for us and how his publishing house has evolved. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/be259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT When Marla Mason, sorcerer overlord/guardian of the East Coast city of Felport, travels to San Francisco in search of a magical artifact, she expects it to be a quick trip. Get in, get what she needs, get out with a minimum of threats, intimidation, violence, and/or magical persuasion. She certainly doesn't expect to get involved in some major trouble involving San Francisco's local sorcerers and a mysterious threat picking them off one by one. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/hm259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT In science fiction, one of the most difficult feats to accomplish is a simultaneous appeal to both the romance of the intellect and the romance of the heart. Hard SF writers are all used to invoking a sense of wonder that thrills the imagination, it's what that particular game is all about. Fewer are able to at the same time involve the reader's emotions in a story that evokes the character's personal emotional attractions. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/sp259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Following on from Jules Verne's Off on a Comet, Hector Servadac, Jr. comes home from France to California to visit his father, with whom he has not been on good terms. Hector Jr. is an art historian. His father is a rich man, and his mother died some decades earlier. He finds that his father has holed up at his ranch in rural California. He is convinced that he is in contact with an intelligent space being, in the form of an asteroid of sorts that is going to collide with the Earth and send part of it on a journey around the Sun. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT This time we're looking at the latest from Terry Pratchett, Paul McAuley, Charlaine Harris, Alan Dean Foster, new YA fiction from George R.R. Martin, some of the annual short fiction anthologies you've been waiting for, plus other new and forthcoming works. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on what he's enjoying on theis year's TV season. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in November. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ba259.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT "My name is Michael, and I am a World of Warcraft addict. I started playing the game in early 2005, a few months after it was officially released to the public. My main characters include a level 70 restoration-specced night elf druid, and a level 70 holy/retribution-specced human paladin. I've played every class and every race, at least for a little while, and my (real life) wife plays the cutest, sweetest, most destructive gnome mage I've ever met." http://www.sfsite.com/10b/rs258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Locke Lamora and his friend Jean Tannen have apparently suffered a disastrous setback leading to the deaths of all their compatriots, and a serious injury for Locke. On the bright side, they did defeat an evil Karthain Bondsmage. Eventually they land in the city of Tal Verrar, and they hatch a plot to steal from the Sinspire, an exclusive gambling den. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/un258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT A second, unseen world exists in parallel with our own. Cities in our reality are mirrored in skewed fashion across the trans-dimensional barrier known as the Odd, sporting names such as Parisn't and Sans Fransico. These ab-cities are populated by all manner of strange beings, from tailors with pin-cushion heads to kung fu-fighting garbage cans to sentient schools of fish that navigate on land by donning deep-sea diving suits. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Usually Neil chooses two books to compare. This time out he's stretching his muscles and looking at two trilogies. One is Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials made up of The Golden Compass (aka Northern Lights in the original UK edition), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The other is Martha Wells' series, The Fall of Ile-Rien which .is composed of The Wizard Hunters, The Ship of Air and The Gate of Gods. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/wg258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT In 1972, Joan is 12, her family has just moved to California from Connecticut and the strains are showing. The first person she meets is Sarah, who prefers to be called Fox and who is still mourning the loss of her mother who walked out some years before. Sarah has mythologised this event as her mother transforming into a fox, hence her chosen name. Since the separation, Fox's father has become a successful science fiction writer, and he pretty well leaves Fox to get on with her life the way she wants. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-fh-author01.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT In 1988, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling collected together what they thought was the best short fantasy and horror from the previous year. They went through as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1987 that they could find and chose those stories which they decided best represented the fantasy and horror field. Jim Frenkel arranged for its publication by St. Martins's Press and it has been produced every year since then. In 2003, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant took over from Terri Windling as the fantasy editor. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/fc258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection of stories which deal with the oftentimes symbiotic relationships between heroes in fantasy fiction and their non-human compatriots. The anthology of nineteen stories run the gamut from the familiar companions, like dogs and cats, to the more exotic like salmon and griffins, to the downright strange of constellations and kites. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/ei258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Laurence and his dragon team are returning to England after a spot of hot fighting. They have been away a long time, and expect (and deserve) a hero's welcome, but instead they hardly are noticed. People are inexplicably tense, and the dragon fields seem empty and untended. The truth soon comes out, despite efforts to hide it for obvious military reasons: a devastating illness is killing off the dragons one by one. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/bw258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT This wonderful collection gives us many of the author's most recent stories, dating from 2001-2007. It includes 3 Hugo winners: "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" (short story, 2002, also a Nebula nominee), "Slow Life" (novelette, 2003), "Legions in Time" (novelette, 2004); 2 Hugo nominees, " 'Hello,' Said the Stick" (short story, 2003), "The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport" (short story, 2003); and one original story "The Skysailor's Tale." http://www.sfsite.com/books/new258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT New Arrivals at the SF Site include the latest from Stephen Baxter, Mary Gentle, David Farland, Whitley Streiber, and L.E. Modesitt, Jr., as well as forthcoming titles from Charlie Huston, Kevin J. Anderson, David & Stella Gemmell, Anne & Todd McCaffrey, Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter, plus much more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT From time to time, a science fiction classic is given the direct to video treatment. The results are usually pitiful. But the only good direct to video adaptation of a SF classic for Rick is the 1992 movie Grand Tour: Disaster in Time, written by David Twohy, based on the story "Vintage Season," by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/gr258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT To some horror fans, this early collection is a genre classic, and it certainly displays many of the admirable qualities and definitive traits we now associate with this most original of authors. Certainly no other writer comes to mind so capable of fusing revulsion and comedy together so effectively, often in the space of a single sentence, although The Nightrunners contains a good deal less amusement than many later Lansdale works. At the same time, the story radiates a nastiness that curiously seems to date it -- what may have been shocking for readers back in the early 80s has become, if not exactly the norm, certainly less taboo than it was back then. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/sw258.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT The author employs two main tools: an exotic vocabulary and exuberant imagery, and both require incredible discipline to work properly. A reader needs to be absolutely confident that the unfamiliar word which sends her searching the dictionary is precisely chosen to do a job that no other word would do. Similarly the reader must recognise that the strange images built upon layer after layer of adjectives actually make sense, they must describe something that works visually outside the words. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/pm257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Everyone living in Whitby has a secret. A small English coastal resort it may be, but it is also hides some strange and curious people. For starters, there's Mrs Claus, the maniacal owner of the Christmas Hotel -- a place where they're perpetually celebrating Christmas for the hordes of coach parties and local pensioners. Then there's Mr Danby, the owner of the spookily named Deadly Boutique, where beauty and youthful looks come at a high price. And don't forget Effie, the old lady at the Junk Shop with her dubious set of ancestors, and Effie's best friend Brenda, the Bed & Breakfast lady with some of the biggest secrets of all. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ds257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT What you get here is a whistle stop tour through the author's career, from fanboy to a best-selling author, who has been called the American Tolkien. Perhaps that is an unfair comparison. Tolkien was a crusty old codger, who kept rarefied company, and wrote his master-work as an academic exercise. Whereas Martin has always been in close touch with the needs of his audience, and the real world. Fortunately for that audience, he is also in close touch with umpteen imagined worlds. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/th257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Dark, twisted, and violent. No one familiar with Richard K. Morgan's previous novels will be surprised to see those adjectives applied to his latest work. What they might be surprised to find is that it is also emotionally captivating in a way that allows the story to rise above the violence, and make the reader sympathize with and care for at least one character that most of the other characters in the novel, and, in fact, almost everyone who lives in the world they inhabit, fear and loathe in a way that is instinctive, ingrained into their very nature. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some his thoughts on the new season's TV series, particulary Journeyman. He also gives us a list of what to watch on TV in October. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ac257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Acacia is an empire, and at first glance, a rather benign one. It's people are apparently wealthy and happy, its subjected countries peaceful. It doesn't take long, however, before that peaceful facade is stripped away. Many generations in its past, Acacia made a true devil's bargain. In order to protect themselves from a perceived threat on the other side of the world, and in return for a promise that they would not be attacked by the Lothan Aklun, Acacia agreed to the Quota. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-sf-volume01.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT In 1984, Gardner Dozois gathered together what he thought was the best short science fiction of the previous year. He scrutinized as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1983 that he could get his hands on and chose those which he felt best represented the science fiction field. Jim Frenkel published it as part of his Bluejay Books line (for three years) and it has been produced every year since then (by St. Martins's Press). http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet is a small press zine begun in 1996 by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. The original issue had a print run of only twenty-six copies. Over the next decade, the print run grew larger and larger and the 'zine's reputation grew as well, publishing the works of such major authors as Jay Lake, Devon Monk, Bruce McAllister, Benjamin Rosenblum, Carol Emshwiller, and others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT As September passes in Smaragdine, it is time for the Dance of Synchronicity which takes the form of a sabre dance and ensuing battle among the twenty best novelists deemed so by the Ministry of Culture. Following the post-dance revelry, Jeff took some time to interview Jacob Weisman, publisher of Tachyon Publications. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/hg257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT In Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction, Gary Westfahl presents the thesis that Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories, is a seminal figure in the genesis of science fiction. While, to many, this may seem like a declaration that the sky is blue or the grass is green, Westfahl points out that Gernsback's role in the formation of the genre has come under attack relatively recently. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ts257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT The book presents a series of essays analysing the changes to various comic book and movie super people, in response to the real world. Included are such intriguing diversities as the ultra patriotic, somewhat jingoistic presentation of the original Captain America, Wonder Woman as both a male fantasy and feminist icon, the importance of the Thing's Jewish roots, how Batman became the Man of Tomorrow, and the transcreation of Spiderman from Western to Eastern culture. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ne257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT The Necronomicon Tarot uses images and themes from H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythos. Lovecraft was a ground-breaking pulp horror writer from the 20s. No vampires or werewolves from him, no sir. Lovecraft's ultimate evil, Cthulhu, wasn't even technically evil, in the Manichean sense of "good" vs. "evil." http://www.sfsite.com/10a/sd257.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2007 11:00:00 GMT The problem with reading a collection by Harlan Ellison is the introductions. Pages of them, not just to the book, but to each individual story. These are remarkable creations, constructing a character who is aggressive, self-aggrandising, self-deprecating, vain. It doesn't take long to become tired of the way any stranger who doesn't immediately understand the Ellison ego in its every weird contortion is casually labelled a "feep." http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pk256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is a story about Jilly Coppercorn set in the early 70s, during her time at Butler University. Having just recently set her life on track after struggling through abuse, drug addiction, prostitution, and life on the streets, she gets a surprise visit from an old friend who offers her a very unusual choice: to stay where she is, or to move with her to paradise. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/sc256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT At a time when so-called literary writers are employing science fiction tropes, one of the granddads of cyberpunk seemingly becomes mainstream, setting his last two novels in the present tense of post-9/11 America. Not exactly a sequel, but rather a companion piece to the widely regarded Pattern Recognition, this novel explores moral behavior within an impersonal society of global corporate and government interests saturated by advanced technology and mass media. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pw256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT Gavir is a boy who was kidnapped from his home in the Marshes as a tiny baby, and taken to the City State called Etra to be a slave in the House Arcamand. The Father of the House of Arca is a relatively benign slaveowner, and Gavir, along with his sister Sallo, grows up fairly comfortably. Gavir does have a magical talent, apparently unique to people of the Marshes -- he occasionally "remembers" future events. But his sister urges him to conceal these visions. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/bm256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT Monsters represent a standard, time-honored theme in horror fiction. They haunt our dreams, lurk in dark corners, stalk us in dark alleys. It was high time, therefore, that one of the various Mammoth anthologies would be devoted to monsters and who more suitable than Stephen Jones to deal with the task? http://www.sfsite.com/books/new256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming works from Naomi Novki, Karl Schroeder, Robert Newcomb, Jennifer Fallon; some great new anthologies and collections; a wide variety of classics in new editions; plus a whole lot more -- that's what we've seen come to the SF Site office recently. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT Instead of reviewing a TV show this issue, Rick is reviewing a fantasy game, The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess. Rick has invested better than one hundred hours and he has found it to be challenging, thrilling, awe inspiring. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/hc256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT Set in North Carolina in 1992, this novel features everything that makes fantasy a potentially great genre: epic struggles between good and evil; a blend of realism and magic; an enchanted view of the various fantastical species that dwell in realms other than our own, and sometimes trespass here softly or in malicious, murderous force. It starts with widower Ben Tyson meeting an enchanting woman of great beauty and charm named Valeria who proposes marriage. Marriage and parenthood bring with them a certain transparency, which means that Ben becomes privy to Valeria's secret: she is a leading figure among the Faerie. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/sm256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT This short story collection is really two collections, one telling of the wizard Magdalene, the other chronicling the adventures of the thief Terazin. The two "books" are bound back-to-back in a single volume. The telling is bright and breezy (a world away from the stilted, formal prose of so much fantasy of that ilk), the tone generally light; as the author writes in the afterword, "there should always be room for a few laughs." http://www.sfsite.com/09b/iw256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT Physics, jazz, and a world gone bad. The author's latest novel is sub-titled "An Alternate-Universe Novel of A Different Present." It's a story of people caught up in war, and their growing feeling that the world they live in is not what it should and could be. But if changing history means losing the people you love, can you afford the price to be paid for setting things right? http://www.sfsite.com/09b/si256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT In the wake of Heroes and the re-emergence of The Bionic Woman, the author's timing is fortuitous. Pitched between familiarity and spandex-shifted reality, it is written in the first person, split between the perspectives of two characters. One, a female cyborg called Fatale, newly recruited to the newly reformed Champions, the world's greatest superteam, and the other, Doctor Impossible, who is the epitome of a science-based evil genius. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/hank256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT "A favorite book of mine was made into a movie recently. As is usually the case, the book is much better than the movie, but I liked the movie as well. The book, and the movie, are titled Stardust, and the book was written by Neil Gaiman. The movie has gotten mostly favorable notices by the reviewers that I've read, but, and here I want to make a complaint, every review I've seen has made the same mistake. The book by Neil Gaiman has universally been referred to as a graphic novel." http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT For years, Neil has been told to read these two books. Not by the same people, mind you. They're not that much alike, except that they're both about earthlings on far distant planets who get themselves into awkward situations. Brin's earthlings are dolphins, and the aliens are far more technologically advanced than we are. Russell's earthlings are Jesuit missionaries and the aliens are less technologically advanced. So which one is the classic, and is it over-hyped? And which one is the forgotten treasure? Or has Neil gone totally off his rails? http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-sf-title01.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT In 1984, Gardner Dozois gathered together what he thought was the best short science fiction of the previous year. He scrutinized as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1983 that he could get his hands on and chose those which he felt best represented the science fiction field. Jim Frenkel published it as part of his Bluejay Books line (for three years) and it has been produced every year since then (by St. Martins's Press). http://www.sfsite.com/09b/bf256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT This book collects a bunch of stories previously published in various magazines and anthologies between 1967 and 2004, displaying the many faces of a literary chameleon able to easily jump from a genre to the other. Predictably, the book includes such a variety of themes, styles and atmospheres to constitute an interesting showcase of the author's fictional work but also a tour de force for the average reader with well defined literary preferences. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/bn256.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT Although some authors, such as Lester del Rey, wanted the academics to "get out of my Ghetto," many other authors, and fans, have yearned for social respectability they have felt was long denied. They wanted a chance for science fiction to prove that it had put that "Buck Rogers" stuff behind it and graduated to a serious literature, not only of ideas, but of characterization, plot, and even relevance. While this book can't bestow any of those things on the genre, it does demonstrate that academics are taking it seriously. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ll255.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT T.J. is a fourteen-year-old whose family has had to sell their farm, and T.J.'s horse, and move to the city. The city is a foreign place to T.J. who maintains her sanity by texting with her friend Julie. Even that bond is threatened, however, when Elizabeth comes into T.J.'s life. Elizabeth is a Little, an eighteen-inch-tall girl whose family lives in the walls of the house T.J.'s family has bought. Just as T.J. feels her parents don't understand what she's going through, Elizabeth also feels separated from her parents, who don't realize she's grown up. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ut255.htm