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/02b/jt218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT The James Tiptree Award is probably the most idiosyncratic award in science fiction. While all other awards aim at recognising some version of the 'best' in the genre, the Tiptree Award goes to fiction 'that explores and expands our notion of gender.' While other awards announce a short list and then draw their winner from it, the Tiptree Award chooses a winner and then publishes a short list. While other awards separate out novel, novella, novelette and short story (if they consider the shorter forms at all), the Tiptree Award has recognised, without fear or favour, novels, short stories and collections. And no other award finances itself by bake sales, cook books and auctions -- or would even dream of doing so. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/greg2005.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Getting ready to make his best of the year list, Greg takes all the books he has read in the last year that qualify and pile them on top of one of his bookcases. It gives him a good look at them, and also is a good way to get an overall impression of what kind of year it was for readers of science fiction, fantasy, and all the related fictions that appear in the space of a year. This time, two observations were readily apparent. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/sh218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT "There came a night so terrible that no one ever dared to name it. There came a night so terrible that I could not. There came a night so terrible that no one could explain it. There came the most terrible of nights. No, that's not right, either. There came the most terrible of nights that could not be forgotten, or forgiven, or even named. That's closer, but sometimes I choose not to revise. Let it be raw and awkward splayed across the page, as it was in life." http://www.sfsite.com/02b/jv218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT "I remember going to bed in a kind of peaceful state. Everything around me seemed to be slow and comprehensible in an odd way. I began to dream. I can't remember the dream, but I remember waking from the dream with an image of the city of Ambergris in my head. And the image was wedded to the character of a troubled missionary staring up at a third story window and falling in love with a woman he saw there. I don't think I was really awake yet." http://www.sfsite.com/02b/nu218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Irving, our narrator, has no head for science, so he can't understand how the Moon could be inside a mechanic's shed when it's clearly still in the sky; or why a previously deteriorating car seat cover is now improving by the day; or what's making planes and trains arrive on time all of a sudden. Luckily, his friend Wilson Wu is (amongst many other things) a mathematical genius, and he knows what's going on. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/nw218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Writers have strange minds. You may feel alone in this, but after reading this book, you can be assured that not only are you in good company, but also your creative mind isn't as strange as some. Thirteen speculative fiction writers contributed to this anthology of stories that will make you pause in your seat, deep in thought, having just glimpsed something stranger than most would imagine. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/schrodinger218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Michael is reading short fiction and young adult titles and he has some thoughts. This time, he looks at Eldest by Christopher Paolini, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and Tales From The Brothers Grimm And The Sisters Weird by Vivian Vande Velde. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pi218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT A crew of commercial "space divers" recovers water-rich ice comets that are "pushed back" to the inner worlds for mining. On one of their trips, Janus, a moon of Saturn, is moving out of orbit and behaving like an alien spacecraft. Their company mining ship Rockhopper is the only vessel close enough to intercept for an intelligence mission. Trouble is, the company owner isn't telling all it knows about Rockhopper's ability to return home. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/dt218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT She continues to turn out stories that are fresh, daring, clever, unexpected, all the things we love about really great science fiction. Over the past decades, she has won plaudits from most of the top writers in the genre, and from most of the serious press outside the genre. So how come there is still a sense of an undiscovered treasure about her? How come she isn't automatically recognised far and wide for what she is, quite simply one of the best writers at work in the genre today? http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his movie predictions for what is worth seeing in 2006, reflects upon his predictions for 2005 and gives us a couple of corrections. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pd218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT This trilogy takes us to the desert world of Austar IV. Once a penal colony, the planet's economy is now based around its native dragons, whom the human settlers breed to battle each other in Pits. There is a two-tier social structure of masters and "bonders," the latter wearing bags which they must fill with money before they can buy freedom and become masters themselves. We meet Jakkin Stewart, a young bonder at the nursery of Master Sarkkhan (all descendants of Austar's original convict population have a double-K in their names), who plans to steal a dragon and train it himself. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/cs218.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Originally part of a huge volume of collected stories published in 1989, the present book includes some ageless classics as 'Duel' and ' Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' -- too widely known to require any further comment -- as well as a number of less famous stories so fresh and entertaining that they give the impression of having been written only yesterday. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/schrodinger217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Michael is reading short fiction and young adult titles and he has some thoughts. This time, he looks at Jennifer Scales and the Ancient Furnace by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi, Lady with an Alien by Mike Resnick and River Rats by Caroline Stevermer. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/gs217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT A sequel to White Apples, the author depicts karma as sort of like going to school. As you begin to grasp more about yourself, you "graduate" to higher levels of consciousness. Though without ever really getting the big picture. Indeed, the novel's title refers to a code phrase sent back from the dead that supposedly explains everything to those who can recognize it. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT New arrivals at the SF Site office include new and forthcoming works from Harry Turtledove, Robert Newcomb, Charles de Lint, William Browning Spencer, Bruce Sterling, and a collection from Gardner Dozois. And, of course, much more besides. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/pr217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT It's a fabulous conceit -- an alternative world where Romania (sorry, Roumania!) is a world power. If nothing else, it's ripe new territory -- it is probably doubtful if the average reader, even one who has heard of the place, could accurately point to it on a map other than helplessly waving their hand over the general region of Eastern Europe. This makes it perfect as a fantasy setting, since a good writer could do anything they damn well pleased with it, and still come out on top. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ei217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT "I'm Otto of Schlepsig. Ah, you've heard the name, I see. Yes, I'm that Otto of Schlepsig. Some other people claim to be, but I'm the real one, by the Two Prophets. I'm the one who was King of Shqiperi. I ruled the Land of the Eagle for five whole days. No, I wasn't born blueblooded. By my hope of heaven, I wasn't. As a matter of fact, I was born in a barn. Truly. Literally. It was either that or make a mess of my parents' traveling caravan, and my mother--a trouper among troupers--would never have done such a thing." http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cgtl217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Christopher Golden, author of The Myth Hunters, and Tim Lebbon, author of Dusk, have a few pints too many and chat about their upcoming Bantam Spectra releases... http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil214.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT You've waited patiently for a whole year, but at last your favourite season has rolled around again. Yes, that's right, it's time to finish reading those new books that have been stacking up on your bookshelves, your floor or bedside table, because very soon you'll need to determine which ones you feel are the best of the best. Or at least, you will if you want to have a say in the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Awards! The deadline for voting is February 11, 2006. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/eb217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Here we have the second anthology from Elastic Press, following on from 2004's The Alsiso Project. Like its predecessor, the book is based around a single broad theme; as its title suggests, all the stories in the volume are connected to numbers in some way. The resulting tales are highly varied. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/gp217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Science is a method, and technology a means, and their combined application produces advanced tools for the betterment of humanity. But advances in civilized living come at a cost -- pollution, global warming, disturbed ecological systems. The hope is that science, a self-correcting discipline, will find a way to correct the abuses and imbalances we have imposed on our environment, and with the emergence of high-level biotechnology there's a glimmer of hope that we may soon have the means to fix our self-inflicted problems. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/dw217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT "It's definitely a time-honored component of the storyteller's toolbox, to be sure. As for how much of it has any bearing or basis on what secrets a government or military might harbor? Certainly there are technologies that are in the research and development or early prototype stage about which the public knows nothing. I seriously doubt there's anything really outlandish lying about." http://www.sfsite.com/columns/matt217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT From the title, a chimera is "an imaginary monster made up of incongruous parts." And indeed that description fittingly characterizes what follows in Italian artist Lorenzo Mattotti's Chimera, a kind of black and white narrative phantasmagoria. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT What's on TV in February? Rick offers a list of what to watch. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/np217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT Emma Thompson is a rare bird -- two great talents, actress and writer. And how she writes! She won an Oscar for her script for Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility and the IMDB credits her as unsung script doctor for the recent Pride and Prejudice. She wrote and stars in this first fantasy film of 2006. The script has its good points and its bad points. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cr217.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2006 11:00:00 GMT The story begins on two threads. One concerns Wendell Floyd, an American in Paris in 1959. But his Paris is rather altered: its technology lags our own 1959 just a bit, apparently because World War II never happened. Floyd is a sometime jazz musician who mainly works as a private detective, and he is drawn into investigating the mysterious death of an American woman. Meanwhile, three centuries in the future, Verity Auger, an expert on Paris in the 21st Century, is maneuvered into accepting a strange assignment: wormhole travel back to Paris in 1959. It seems an agent has just been murdered, and Verity must try to recover some valuable information she had gathered. 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.