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/09b/ew232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Kit Nouveau has more than his fair share of buried traumas: an abusive father, service in Iraq as a sniper during which he killed a child, the death of a friend just as Nouveau was stealing his girlfriend. The fact that the girlfriend was the daughter of Britain's most powerful and fearsome crime family just adds another complication to the mix. As the novel opens, he has somehow found his way to Japan where he runs a disreputable biker bar; is married to a famous potter; and is bedding, in a desultory manner, the wife of a Japanese crime lord. Then, on the same day that a street urchin saves him from an apparent assassination attempt, his bar is blown up and his wife killed. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/dj232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Meet thirty-year-old Charlie Asher, mild-mannered owner of a thrift shop in colorful San Francisco. Charlie's small business pays the bills, and he loves his wife Rachel and the brand new baby girl they've just welcomed into the family. As an average "Beta Male" just trying to get by comfortably in a city known for the unusual, Charlie wouldn't normally stand out from the crowd -- nor would he want to. But fate has something more planned for Charlie, despite his best efforts to avoid it. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/bi232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT For lonejack mage/professional thief Wren Valere, and her partner Sergei, there's no such thing as a normal day. Even when Wren's not hot on the trail of missing artifacts, precious jewels, rare paintings, or unusual treasures, she's dealing with all manner of strange people. Heck, on a mostly-normal day, a demon very much resembling a four-foot tall polar bear wanders into her apartment and ransacks the refrigerator! http://www.sfsite.com/09b/sy232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Professor Dunning who, in addition to being an Ancient History don, is a hack writer of supernatural thrillers. Dunning's tale to his students is interrupted by the appearance of a Russian emigre who arrives in something of a panic and promptly jumps out the window. His death is then investigated by Detective Inspector Lionheart. Wouldn't you know it, there is more to the death than meets the eye. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/gf232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Aerospace engineer Adrian Mast finds designs for a spaceship in the back of a remaindered book on UFOs -- designs that, to Adrian's trained eye, appear workable. Could the plans be of extra-terrestrial origin? Adrian is determined to find out and persuades the sprightly bookseller Frances Farmstead to help him track down the author of the mysterious book. Naturally enough, they manage to do so, and the plans are genuine. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/on232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The book includes satirical inventions that are, at turns, amusing and subtly terrifying, but these are floating around holes big enough to swallow a politician's ego. The premise is that the author is writing his personal take on the history of the last few years in America, from the jaundiced perspective of 2008. This alternate future history includes a great many uncomfortably close parallels to real world events, and what may happen in the "Land of the Free," if liberty is crushed by anti-terror legislation. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ki232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Lila Black was brutally tortured; what was left of the young woman, primarily the head and torso, has been surgically merged into a nuclear-powered and AI-augmented mechanical body. Moreover, she's outfitted with an array of weaponry and associated gizmos that would make James Bond's "Q" gadgeteer supply master positively green with envy. And at 21, Lila is also in her sexual prime, which adds to the already considerable psychological dilemma of being half-human, half-machine. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT All of the episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series are available on DVD. Rick offers a guide to the full series. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/cg232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT In a future world where the cure for cancer had the unfortunate side-effect of increasing the speed of ageing rapidly, children must become adults within a few years after birth. Genetically engineered viruses that transfer knowledge are used to cut childhood as short as possible. But Milena Shibush turns out to be immune. Learning things the hard way, she's also not bound by the social conformity spread by the omnipresent viruses. When Milena meets the outsider master-singer Rolfa, she falls in love with the strange, genetically engineered creature. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/lt232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The 20s was nearing the end of the popularity and plausibility of lost-race novels. This book has most of the tropes (not to say cliches) of lost race novels, a strong good looking male hero, a birthmark announcing him as prophesied leader/saviour of an ancient race, his relationship with a beautiful princess/queen, his defeat of an evil priest, ditto for the nasty usurper king, and lots of battles. However, unlike many such tales, the hero, Colvin Barr, brings along a love-lorn Spanish-English half-breed who serves as mooching sidekick and comic relief, though he can be handy in a fight too. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ph232.htm Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT When reviewing reference works, one can rarely hope to compete with the author in terms of knowledge of the field, so saying that there are no obvious omissions or errors isn't saying much. One must judge the work on its ease of use, readability, the quality of its indexes and bibliographies, how clearly the scope is defined and the completeness of the survey of said scope, along with the probity of the author's commentary and inclusion of other expert's views -- on these fronts, this book delivers the goods. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/sk231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Janice Shriek, sister to Duncan, has left a manuscript of a "belated afterword" to her brother's famous Guide, "The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris by Duncan Shriek." She wrote this afterword shortly after the Guide was published and Duncan disappeared under mysterious circumstances. However, Duncan has returned and discovered the manuscript of his sister's commentary on his work, only now she, Janice, has disappeared. Duncan, true to character, cannot resist inserting his own comments throughout his sister's commentary. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/fc231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Meet Rachel Mariana Morgan, witch and bounty hunter. She has a spectacular talent for getting into the sort of trouble most supernatural beings can only dream about. As part of the independent runner firm, Vampiric Charms, she's staked out something of a name for herself among the supernaturals (Inderlanders) in a world where vampires, werewolves, witches and pixies have come out of hiding and live out in the open. Of course, in Rachel's case, it's not always a -- good -- name. There are lots of people who want her dead and/or out of the way. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/em231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The title story is about a man with synesthaesia. He becomes an accomplished piano player and composer, even as he perceives the notes he plays or composes as sights or smells or tastes. Somehow coffee ice cream causes a special hallucination: a young woman. As he grows older, he finds that pure coffee allows real contact with this woman, and he learns that she, too, is an artist and a synesthaesiac. The story climaxes as he tries to complete a major musical composition. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on the end of Stargate SG-1 and the way that the SciFi Channel handles sensitive topics. He also gives us a list of what to watch on TV in Spetember. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/st231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The story centres around Boxer Santaros, a world famous actor who is found alone in the Nevada desert, without any ID and unable to remember who he is or how he got there. By chance, Santaros is rescued by professional gambler Fortunio Balducci, who recognises the star and sees an opportunity. Balducci knows Krysta Now, a porn starlet with ambitions way above her apparent station, and the contacts to get the trio visas for crossing the border into California. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/sp231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Hawaiian surfer boy Sean Jones witnesses a Triad mob killing by gangster Eddie Kim. FBI agent Neville Flynn is sent to escort the kid to Los Angeles to testify. Kim manages to smuggle thousands of snakes onto their flight. The snakes get loose. Carnage ensues. It's good, bloody fun. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/si231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT While this book was a pleasant if not overly engrossing read, it would be hard to place it into either science fiction or fantasy, or even imaginative fiction. This is sometimes a difficult distinction for books by "mainstream" writers who use elements of SF or fantasy to place their story in a slightly alternate reality. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/le231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The Yuuzhan Vong war is over, the vile race of ruthless conquerors driven away and the defeated New Republic has been reformed into the united Galactic Alliance. Jedi are plentiful, while politicians argue and make decisions for the masses. One would think Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia could take a moment to relax and catch their breath. No chance. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ta231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT If you're a fan of classic horror anthology movies like Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow, then you should check out new movie Trapped Ashes. It features seven strangers, locked inside an infamous House of Horror during a Hollywood movie studio tour, who are forced to tell their most terrifying personal stories to get out alive. But nothing is ever what it seems... http://www.sfsite.com/09a/me231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The thesis here is essentially that of Woody Guthrie's revisionist folkie socialist take on the Gospels -- that Jesus was some sort of ahead-of-his-time Marxist revolutionary threat to the ruling class that resorted to crucifixion to retain the status quo. In this version, Jesus is an Hispanic named Jose Francisco Kennedy. Yeah, that's right, JFK... http://www.sfsite.com/09a/mt231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT "It's often been said that the golden age of science fiction is 12, referring to the age at which many readers first discovered it. SF came into my life in junior high school, in the 8th grade, when I found two books. One was an anthology that contained Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination," and the other was Andre Norton's story about a woman who could summon magic and a spacer who was transformed." http://www.sfsite.com/books/new231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT Our latest look at available and forthcoming titles includes new works from Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Sara Douglass, Roger Levy, Ursula K. Le Guin, Steven Brust, Robert Rankin, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/br231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT One wonders about "Year's Best" anthologies. Not only because, in many instances, you could disagree on the editor's choices, but because, no matter how competent, honest and thorough the editor is, to examine all the published stories, scanning every magazine, book and web site, is a superhuman task. So "the year's best" is just the best (hopefully) of what the editor has actually read. And the rest? Good question. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/sd231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT One thing is clear. Everybody connected with this movie has done a lot of drugs. The dialogue perfectly captures the narrow line between irony and stupidity, between mock violence and real violence, between paranoia and real noia. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/bl231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT This is the first book of The First Law trilogy. As with many trilogies, the first book is used to introduce us to its variation of the typical fantasy cast. We have the Savage Barbarian with the dark past, the Nobleman with no sense of altruism, the Beautiful Feisty Commoner, the Inept Apprentice, the Cynical Intellectual and, as always, the Mysterious Magus to drive the plot forward. However, the author takes these conventions and filters them through the lens of Noir. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ll231.htm Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:00:00 GMT The story begins with a deal between a Thieftaker and a false priest for the life of a small orphan boy named Locke Lamora. The Thieftaker is going to either sell him or kill him. The priest, Father Chains, takes him but threatens the boy's life unless he tells his story honestly: why did the Thieftaker need to be rid of him? 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.