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/columns/neil238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 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! This year will bring the SF Site's 9th annual Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. But only with your help. As many of our long-time readers already know, every year about this time we solicit our readers for their input on what were the best books they read in the past year. We'll tally the results and post them in February or early March so that you can see how well your favourites fare -- and, with any luck, find some great recommendations too. The deadline for voting is February 9, 2007. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/ic238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT On a near-future Earth, humankind is reaping the harvest of its heedless exploitation of the natural world. Environmental disaster looms. One man, architect of a spiritual empire that has also endowed him with vast wealth and temporal power, believes he has the answer. Known to his flock as the Captain, this man is prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve his vision. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/tb238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT There are several volumes already extant that purport to be part of the Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg. There were problems with those earlier efforts, such as the fact that they tended to start in mid-career and ignored such pedantic issues as chronology. But their biggest problem was that none of them ever came close to completion, so Silverberg is starting again at the beginning. This, we are led to believe, is the definitive "Collected Stories." Except, of course, it isn't. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/fo238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain is either going to enchant you or frustrate you, and there's a good chance it will manage to do both. Its closest cinematic ancestor is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and despite Kubrick's masterpiece recently being named one of the best films of all time even that movie has left its own contingent of the disgruntled. Both films are about adventurers pushing past the limits of the known physical world and finding themselves having to draw on spiritual resources to complete the journeys -- the kind of thing that used to be indicated on maps with "Here there be tygers." Both movies use disjointed narratives and are heavy with symbolism. But whereas 2001 was enthralled with the approaching space age, Aronofsky's story is in touch with something more primitive. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Some of the New Arrivals here in the SF Site office include the latest from Gene Wolfe, M. John Harrison, Charles Stross, Laurell K. Hamilton, Dan Abnett, Brian Lumley, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., plus advance peeks at the latest from Glen Cook, Harry Turtledove, Hal Duncan, and much more besides. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/sb238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Appleton is a charming seaside town in rural Scotland, slowly dying a painful death as so many isolated, rural towns often do. Appleton, however, can point to the exact cause of its malaise -- 50 years before, the Apple Queen abdicated her title and role in the annual Apple Festival, fleeing to America and leaving her would-be suitor high and dry, befouling an ancient ritual that supposedly kept Appleton prosperous. Now, that wayward Apple Queen's granddaughter, Ashley Kaldis has returned to Appleton hoping to learn about her family history at the same time a mysterious stranger arrives in town. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bn238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Year after year the autumn brings in, besides falling leaves, a new volume of this reprint anthology, supposedly featuring the best horror stories published during the previous year. The value of "best of" anthologies -- where the selection of the material is entirely based on the editor's personal choice -- is moot. Let's just consider what the present volume can offer to the faithful horror fan as well as to the general reader who takes his dose of horror once or twice a year from the mass market. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/uf238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT The author's work inhabits territory that the fantasy genre could usefully exploit/explore in the years ahead. If the first stage in the development of modern fantasy was ambiguity (is the fantastic element in the story real or not?), and the second stage was stories in which the fantasy is acknowledged to be real; then the logical next step is to put the fantasy to work -- and this is what Ashley does in his stories. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/pa238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Depth, insight, clever characterization, fascinating answers to the alien abduction mythos, are all completely absent from this book. What is does have is an abundance of silly, light-hearted, typically British humour, detailing the abduction and subsequent adventures of Will Brown. Unlike the legions of unfortunate Americans whose abduction experience leads to all manner of unpleasantness, Will Brown finds himself an odd looking alien friend. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/sc238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT "I come from a big family in Texas, in which story telling was very valued. And I've always written, as far back as I can remember. But the career move came from being fired, in that 'here's some money, go away' way. I set myself the goal of living cheaply for a year, and getting published in that time frame. Of course, it wound up taking almost ten years." http://www.sfsite.com/12b/ts238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Eric Brown is an author who, for near enough two decades, has hovered around the top of the second division of British writers, without ever quite making the breakthrough into the first rank. He's a solid writer who has steadily earned good if not ecstatic reviews and who has attracted a sizeable body of adherents. Yet there has never been the groundswell of support, the word-of-mouth excitement, the great attention-grabbing work that would propel him to the next level. Reading this entertaining new collection one begins to understand why. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/dv238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Deja Vu is a smarter film than the previews would lead you to expect, with a strictly defined SF idea the consequences of which are played out according to the rules. A window in time is opened. It reaches four and a half days into the past. If a living thing tries to go through the window, its heart stops. An act of terrorism is committed in New Orleans. Detectives try to use the time window to solve the crime. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on the recently aired miniseries The Lost Room and the episode titled "Genesis" from the TV series Heroes. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/vi238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Ashlyme feels compelled to rescue Audsley King from the plague zone, returning her back to the High City where he feels she belongs. Indeed, his admiration for the artist is so great that he's even willing to share his studio with her, although she doesn't know it. In fact, she doesn't know that he has planned to abduct her, an absurdist plot hatched by a struggling astronomer, Buffo. But the tension is notched up a level when The Grand Cairo, a powerful yet nasty dwarf with a history of violence, commissions Ashlyme to paint his portrait and invites himself to be part of the rescue team. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/tf238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT This is not the most famous of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novels, that honor goes to Starship Troopers or possibly Citizen of the Galaxy. But it is a good example of just how Heinlein took the artistry that made him the most influential writer of science fiction in the twentieth century and stripped it down to meet the needs of its intended audience -- teenage boys. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/hs238.htm Sat, 16 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT This novel tells the story of three people from modern Colorado who fall through a mystic portal into another world. There they join forces with freedom fighters who are struggling to free their world from the grip of Evil. The present-day trio discover that both their modern skills and their newly discovered powers will be instrumental in freeing this other world. If this sounds familiar, it should. The juxtaposition of modern man and fantasy man has, of course, been done many times before. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ms237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT The nature of reality, and the consequences of living in a universe where reality seems to depend to some extent on our own perceptions and expectations is one of those topics that inspires writers to deep and serious discussions packed with insight into the human condition and its place in a hostile universe. Thank goodness, then, that Robert Sheckley came along to skewer all those pretentious and serious discussions with a series of novels that took serious subjects and mixed them all up into one hilarious concoction that left his readers certain that even if the nature of reality is not readily comprehensible, it sure is funny. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT In this month's column from Smaragdine, Jeff attends one of the November Awards ceremonies, provides both a video and digital interview on France and the Interstitial Movement with Sebastien Guilloit, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman and, in his spare time, gives us fiction reviews of books by Jay Lake and Matthew Hughes. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/am237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Glen Hirshberg's strengths as a writer are his skill in creating a tangible atmosphere of dread -- in part by alienizing the everyday, revealing the horror that lurks behind even the most familiar things -- and his ability to make his stories seem larger than they are. More than many writers, he succeeds in creating characters who you believe have lives and histories that extend beyond the boundaries of the particular incident he has chosen to relate. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/david237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT With Lost on break until February, it seems like a good time to take a step back and take stock of where the show is and where it may be going. And ABC is filling the space with the 13-episode series Day Break which attempts to combine the sense of mystery of its time-slot-mate with the compelling action of 24. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ww237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Using the format of an oral history, it tells the story of the most disastrous world-spanning war the world has ever known. From its beginnings in the remote village of New Dachang, China, the books's characters chronicle the spread of a strange disease that turns humans into zombies. The only way to stop one is to destroy its brain. The disease, and the threat to humanity, expands exponentially and no place on earth is safe. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/db237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Amidst the turmoil and ongoing war with the Old Republic and the Jedi, an angry, lone miner on the planet Apatros named Dessel finds his destiny. Son to an abusive father, trapped in never-ending debt to a faceless corporation, Des has become hard, mean and vicious to survive in the Outer Rim. Although he has always had precognitive senses, a violent turn of events with a Republic ensign puts him on the run. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ph237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT This book picks up where Chainfire left off. Kahlan Amnell is forgotten by all of humanity except Richard, her beloved husband. But others, randomly chosen, can also see and remember Kahlan. Richard has finally convinced Zed, Cara, Nicci, Ann and Nathan that the woman to whom he is intensely devoted actually exists. During a mission to find out what is happening with the world, Richard also begins the final battle as the prophesy foretold. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/fa237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Jo Walton's novels are all quite different from one another. If any observation can be made about her work, it is that she has a gift for taking a familiar storyline and crossing it with an unexpected trope to present something not just new, but that informs and thus transcends the elements she draws upon. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/sf237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Stranger than Fiction could be based on a Theodore Sturgeon story from Unknown or it could be based on a Charlie Kaufman screenplay, but actually it is an original script by Zach Helm, who prior to this film has written one TV movie Rick never heard of, acted in one TV episode Rick didn't see, and directed one film that won't be out until next year. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/fo237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT The Fountain is not fantasy or science fiction. It is the story of a doctor whose wife is dying, and who foolishly tries to save her life instead of enjoying their last days together. That's it. So, why is it being reviewed for a science fiction web site? Why, to save you seven dollars and fifty cents, of course. Rick is always thinking of you. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on the recent story lines of Heroes and Lost and how that of Witchblade applies. He also gives us a list of what to watch on TV in December. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ps237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Set 55 years from today, it's part medical thriller, part speculative fiction, and part apocalyptic prophecy. The plot concerns a new virus, agricultural ruin and invasive biotech, complicated by radically altered religious and political divisions. The latter occur between a buoyant Mexico and a US where the economy has all but collapsed. The reason for this fall has to do with the farming methods used by American producers, which have left their crops vulnerable. When blight strikes, American agriculture is dealt a near fatal blow, reducing the nation to almost third-world standards. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ml237.htm Fri, 1 Dec 2006 11:00:00 GMT Living on planets is a precarious business. You never know when some quirk of geology or a stray rock falling from the sky will put paid to your species; not forgetting evolutionary pressures pushing you who-knows-where, and sundry other ravages. So it's pretty much inevitable that a civilization wishing to survive in the long term must become space-faring. But what then? 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.