http://www.sfsite.com/ The new issue of the SF Site is now online. Copyright 1996-2010 SF Site en-us http://www.sfsite.com/images/sfspot1.gif http://www.sfsite.com http://www.sfsite.com/08b/an206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Before embarking on the journey, we should note that this is not a new novel; rather, it is a one-volume edition of his 1992 novel The Course of the Heart and his 1997 novel Signs of Life. Read from cover-to-cover in a short amount of time, it feels less like a book than an assault, a wound, an onslaught of dream-killing mirrors, a battalion of bloodthirsty words, an epidemic of images that burrow into the readerly brain and claw their way through the murk of accumulated wistfulness and self-delusion until all that's left is the petrified carcass of desire. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/wf206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT A loner living by his own brand of cynical morality who nonetheless does the noble thing in the end, cast in a shadowy world where no one is who he seems. Or who she seems. Though the she is very good in bed, albeit an act shrouded in desperation, with no illusions of happily ever after. In the end, we're all doomed to our respective fates. The only real question is how well we manage to cope. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/rm206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT "There comes a point in any novel under construction when you reach a critical mass -- characters suddenly have enough weight to start acting by and speaking for themselves, and the scenarios you've created start to coalesce into something that has its own internal logic. In real terms what this means is that you find you suddenly just know what a character will do or say next, or -- even more of a high, this -- you write it, look at it and think My God, that's exactly right! That's the way it would be." http://www.sfsite.com/08b/jg206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT If you've not heard of Gregory Frost before, the epigraph from Andrei Sinayavsky gives an idea of what to expect: "Realism is a literary technique no longer adequate for the purpose of representing reality." Quite so. This idea is most effectively embodied here in "Collecting Dust," the story of a family being literally ground down by modern life. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/sm206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT The book that changed Trent's life (not to mention the world's) was Robert Sheckley's The Scherezade Machine -- what they later called a "sleeper." He hadn't heard about it before when he found it in the Barnes and Noble bargain bin. There were a few enthusiastic quotes on the back that were interesting... http://www.sfsite.com/08b/sa206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT The story opens with an investigation into a recently deceased young woman, the daughter of a rich man, who seems to have gone to Hell by mistake. Or so her mother says. But before long Singapore Three's police inspector Chen's investigation bumps into some political roadblocks. It seems highly place interests, in both worlds, are involved in something unsavory. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/co206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT It is a dark, brooding time-travel novel, full of graphic violence and characters willing to go to extremes for what they believe in. There is a war going on, a war fought through shifting time-lines and more-or-less probable versions of reality. The stakes are the future, and past of humanity. The problem is trying to figure out who, if anyone, is telling the truth. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/sp206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT One summer night the stars abruptly blink out. Three young people are lying on the grass behind the splendid house belonging to the parents of the twins, Jason and Diane Lawton. With them is Tyler Dupree, a year younger, son of the housekeeper to the Lawtons. They react, like the rest of the country, with a variety of emotions, and everyone wonders if the sun will come up. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/gs206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT A number of reviewers have stated that John Crowley is the sort of writer whose works you either immediately take to or are immediately put off by. A number of published and even highly marketable writers can tell a story, and then some, like Talbot Mundy, Algernon Blackwood, Ray Bradbury and John Crowley, are storytellers (or raconteurs) -- quite a different kettle of fish. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/vox206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Scott Danielson is looking at audio SF -- on tape, on CD, on whatever. This time out, he has been listening to titles from three of the best publishers of audiobooks: Audio Realms, Paperback Digital and Infinivox. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/saba206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT "We have a more sophisticated audience now and it has certainly made writing easier. By and large I regard all my novels, as I grow older, as one long conversation, mainly with myself. Okay, I understand that my writings appear diverse but that is only to accommodate my thinking." http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Having watched at least some of every US science fiction TV series that ever was, Rick offers his thoughts on what he considers to be good television series plus a few made for television movies. Not content with that, he lists non-SF TV shows and even some radio series. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/pt206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT In a border province of a far-flung Empire, the local noble families, consolidating land and titles through judicious marriages and betrothals, begin to amass an uncomfortable amount of power. Accordingly, the Empress sends her armies to take that power back. His castle under siege, Lord Gruethrist charges a nursemaid and a knight to bear the infant heir, Claye, to safety. But their desperate flight ends in tragedy, and baby Claye is left alone. He's found by a mother troll, grieving for her own dead child; in spite of the disapproval of her fellows, she adopts him as her own. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/bs206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT In The Black Stranger editor Steven Tompkins collects a number of Robert E. Howard's tales set in the United States, albeit some occurring in far remote times. In his informative introduction, he introduces the works selected and how they relate to Howard's development as a writer. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/as206.htm Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT After a brisk and literate introduction to the field of science fiction scholarship, the author provides a provocative chapter linking American history -- specifically the romantic notion of the frontier in the American West -- with science fiction and television. Now, why only cover the last two decades? http://www.sfsite.com/08a/jj205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT "The problem with publishing in the genre at the moment, and it is a problem, in the UK at least, is that as publishers we are not driving the market, we are unable to shape our destinies and those of our authors. Over the past few years we have found ourselves at the mercy of a book trade which has focused exclusively on high initial turnover and short-term profits (the genre has traditionally worked as a long lived backlist, word-of-mouth area: so that hits us hard); a book trade moreover, in which the power resides in the hands of a very few (who therefore have no time to read, and when they are reading it's rarely fantasy or SF). " http://www.sfsite.com/08a/rf205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT A decade has passed in Davy's world, and the world's only teleporter has settled into a comfortable routine: he and his wife, Millie, use his gifts to explore the world at will -- the only disruption to this idyllic life comes during Davy's occasional mission for the National Security Agency. It's during one of these missions that things go horribly wrong for Davy. Ambushed, drugged and his NSA contact murdered before his eyes, Davy finds himself held prisoner and tortured beyond human endurance. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/tm205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT In a way, it's a detective story, starring Ian Kennedy, an American private investigator now living in London, whose specialization is finding missing persons. Laura Lensky, another American on the verge of going back to the USA, hires him to trace her daughter Peri, disappeared two years before. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/nl205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Trent was quite ecstatic to hear that Kazuo Ishiguro had decided to try his hand at the genre. His early novels have fascinatingly complex views of character -- books that require rereading. Much is made of Ishiguro's use of memory. Some consider Ishiguro's common motif of playing with memory to result in unreliable narrators. Certainly, this consideration is always crucial when probing memory. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT The past couple of weeks have brought to the SF Site doorstep new works from Robin Hobb, Jude Fisher, Cory Doctorow, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, Larry Niven with Brenda Cooper, as well as copies of forthcoming works from Zoran Zivkovic, Terry Bisson, John Helfers, Dean Wesley Smith, Harry Turtledove, Mike Resnick. Plus a full slate of magazines, and plenty more besides. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/award-aurora01.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT When the Canadian SF and Fantasy Association was started up in 1980 there was only one award given. Since 1991, awards have been presented in 10 categories. The Aurora awards are closest to the style of the Hugo awards in the method by which they are selected. First, there is the nomination phase to select a short list. Then a voting phase to pick the winner from the short list using the Australian voting method. The Prix Aurora Awards were initially called the Casper Awards, then renamed the Auroras in 1991. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ha205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT As the story begins, the anti-life known as the Void has begun to make its move, sending enormous numbers of Lament Brood rampaging across the British countryside. This new invasion is the last thing the remaining population needs, coming as it does in the aftermath of the Fall, as depicted in The Devil In Green and the plague which was the subject of The Queen of Sinister. This time the enemy is all but unstoppable. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ti205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Tamshi is a sorceress of no small power, which she is using to bring a dark magic into the world. Or is she? Tamshi herself is confused about exactly what she is doing with the god Unneyer's worshippers. Something is seriously wrong, though she cannot explain precisely what, only that she is in danger and she wants to escape the iron grip of Gentriu, the high priest. But, escape to where? http://www.sfsite.com/08a/lt205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT The novel is a space opera where humans and a bat-like race, the S'sinn, are locked in a bitter interplanetary feud which risks degenerating into an all out war. Jarrikk, a male S'sinn who has seen his friends slaughtered by human colonists, and Kathryn, a young woman whose entire family were slaughtered by the S'sinn have both become empathic Translators. They must work together to defuse the situation, but a power- and revenge-hungry S'sinn leader emerges, and the multi-racial Commonwealth is at risk. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/sasn205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT "I'm someone who once offered to navigate on a car journey from London to Devon and got us halfway to Portsmouth. A person who for years thought north was whichever way I happened to be facing. I'm not kidding! A sense of direction, let alone geography, is not my strong point." http://www.sfsite.com/08a/re205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT It is a worthy blending of near-future high-tech, private-eye noir, and the police procedural. Along the way, we get a provocative look at a world being rapidly changed by a new technology -- personal teleportation booths. Here, the process occurs with a person being dematerialized in one place and reconstructed in another. The process is important because it amounts to copying a person. What if an extra copy is made? http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ep205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Human beings are living on New Earth, governed by The Committee. Erik and his parents, Harald and Freya, live in a small town called Osterfjord, working hard on a failing farm. But hard as farm life is, it's far better than being forced to reallocate, leave everyone they know -- and maybe be stuck in the coal mines. Erik's parents hint that things could even be worse than that, but they won't tell him why. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/sana205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT "In other fiction, a table is a table is a table. In SF, a table can be made of materials we can only imagine, it might follow you around the house like a dog. 'Hey, do you like my Parker Knoll dog-table? It doesn't have to recharge itself as it eats coffee stains and breadcrumbs. It also acts as a security system. I heard the other day about a guy who had his house broken into -- he found the burglar's fingers in his table's mouth!'" http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on what to watch on TV in August. He also has some ideas what has merit for all of the old television science fiction being released on DVD this year. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/sl205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Rick doesn't ask much from a Summer movie. He doesn't expect it to make sense. A few nice explosions are all he asks for and Stealth provides them, though Cliche might be a better title. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/is205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT There is some fun to be had from the car chases and explosions, if you can accept the idea that an evil corporation thinks that crashing a helicopter into a skyscraper is a good way to cover up its wrongdoing. Just a few of the explosions in this film would be enough to spark the biggest investigation since 9/11. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/cr205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT This appears, in many ways, to be a straight historical novel about Isabelle of France and her family, yet the author successfully manages to weave threads of mystery and fantasy into the work in a manner which intrigues the reader without asking the reader to suspend their disbelief too far. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/sc205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT Darien Yost wakes one evening, having passed out, with a ravenous appetite and no memory of what happened. Is his friend Ellen right that this is a hangover? Is it, as government agent Michael Olson suggests, the result of some contamination in the area? Or could it be something else entirely? Events suggest the last, when a mysterious and beautiful woman named Alyssa invades Darien's dreams and then turns up in reality -- and when Olson's men make an attempt on his life... http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ph205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT The Handbook offers readers a ubiquitously practical guide beginning with poetry basics (surprisingly hard to find in much contemporary analysis), advanced poetics (e.g., graphic, phonological, lexical, and syntactic patterns), and then the 'rough and ready' world of the professional writer who markets and sells his/her work. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/md205.htm Mon, 1 Aug 2005 11:00:00 GMT It all started when the writer had a kind of minor epiphany, realising that the number of people still living who have walked on another world is now down to single figures following the death of Pete Conrad, and that within his own lifetime there might well be no one alive who has done so. He therefore decides to try and track down the remaining nine Apollo moonwalkers, to ask them how such a singular experience has changed their lives and perspectives. http://www.sfsite.com/rssfeeds01.htm Sat, 1 Jan 2005 11:00:00 GMT After constructing our first RSS feed, it soon became apparent that the size of files could grow quickly. We decided to separate them into smaller ones, breaking them up by month. On this page you will find RSS feed files for all of our content beginning with January 2005.