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/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/05b/qu248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Set in a near future where the war against terror has come home to North American streets, a climate of fear pervades daily life, and the FBI are waging a stalled battle against home-grown malcontents, and the political system itself. Young FBI agents William Griffin, Fouad Al-Husam and classmate Jane Rowland are on the trail of a domestic threat; a genetically targeted plague, which if released could eliminate entire sectors of society. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Despite setting up a pattern wherein he takes a look at two books -- one an acknowledged classic, and one relatively obscure -- and consider whether the alleged classic is truly deserving of such an honourable designation, and whether the more obscure book warrants perhaps a little more attention, Neil is breaking his pattern. But The Prydain Chronicles is a series of five books plus a prequel, so really he is doing five (or six) in one -- er, two. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ca248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT There was a time, not so long ago, when British science fiction was in the doldrums. What lifted it out and established what has been called the "British renaissance" was a rediscovery through the works of such as Iain M. Banks and Colin Greenland of the excitement of traditional SF tropes and topics. Of late we have started to see that same reappraisal of core science fictional ideas in some of the younger American writers like John Scalzi and Elizabeth Bear. This novel is a perfect example of such a return. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Since the last time we looked, new arrivals at the SF Site include the latest from Kelley Armstrong, John C. Wright, Tony Ballantyne, Robert J. Sawyer, Diana Wynne Jones, as well as forthcoming works from Laurie J. Marks, Chris Roberson, Mary Jo Putney, Tom Piccirilli, and many more besides http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ds248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT When private investigator Jeremy Stake is hired to find the very special doll of Yuki Fukuda, daughter of the wealthy bioengineer John Fukuda, the whole thing seems to be little more than a practical joke. But soon, Stake is caught up in the rivalry between two major bioengineering companies, and the doll, itself an artificial organism, proves to be the key to a secret that should have been left buried. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/sm248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Opening as the previous films with a sensational Kyle Cooper-designed kaleidoscope sequence interspersed with scenes from the first two chapters, Spider-Man 3 picks up from the end of Spider-Man 2 with all the major players and unresolved plot lines returning. Peter Parker and Mary Jane explore the next level of their relationship. Harry Osborn seeks revenge for the death of his father, the Green Goblin. Spider-Man enjoys unprecedented levels of popularity as media star. Chaos quickly ensues. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ng248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT In the Night Garden is the first volume of a duology -- entitled The Orphan's Tales -- in the tradition of The Arabian Nights, composed of a complex pattern of intertwining fairy tales featuring kings, princes and princesses, beast maidens, witches and wizards, tavern keepers, saints, assassins, living stars and so on. The narrator is an outcast little girl, living in the garden of a sultan's palace, whose eyelids are magically tattooed with stories written in very fine characters. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/sp248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT In this sequel to Starship: Mutiny, former Republic Navy Captain Wilson Cole and his crew are forced into going on the run into the lawless Inner Frontier of the galaxy. The Navy is embroiled in a war with the Teroni Federation, and doesn't have the spare resources to chase after an ageing ship with a half-complement of crew. And Cole can't take the Theodore Roosevelt into Republic space to find the next batch of fuel or shipment of food. As the title implies, piracy is the obvious answer. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/wt248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT In previous volumes, Miranda Popescu, a Princess of Roumania was seen growing up a teenager in the contemporary USA, and then transported to another world, her home world -- it seems "our" world was only a construct of her aunt, a powerful sorcerer, to keep her safe. Ambiguously older, she returns to Roumania and joins the resistance movement, which opposes both the Germans who have invaded and installed a puppet government, and the leader of that government, the Baroness Nicola Ceausescu. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/bs248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT When a physics experiment with anomalous results drives an AI insane, the door is opened to the possibility that Titus Quinn may not be crazy after all. Quinn had disappeared with his family, in a spaceship, only to found later, his wife and daughter missing, and little memory of what had happened to him. Convinced he had been gone for years, tests showed he was the same age as when he left. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ml248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT In this sequel to Children of Chaos, the four children of the Doge of Celebre, who were taken hostage as small children by the brutal Bloodlord Stralg, have re-united as young adults and are trying to return to their home land of Florengia. It's vital they get back soon because the Werists, who successfully invaded Florengia fifteen years before, are losing their grip. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/bb248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT The village of Market Snailsby nestles amid the bogs, marshes, and rivers of Fenshire, at the edge of dark and ancient Marley Wood. Savage predators stalk the brooding precincts of the Wood. In the olden days, when men and women were bolder and more carefree, the courageous but eccentric Godfrey de Clinkers built a lodge deep at the forest's heart and held fabled hunting parties there. The descendants of those brave adventurers are more cautious, and in modern times the people of Fenshire avoid the Wood. But the march of progress may soon change that. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ar248.htm Wed, 16 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Sandy Blair, blocked novelist and refugee from the 60s shellshocked by the materialism of the 80s, receives a telephone message from Jared Patterson, Sandy's former editor at the Hedgehog. The Hog was once a counterculture music magazine, but has now sold out like everything else. Jared wants Sandy to come back and write an article for the magazine, about a murder. It's not just any murder, though. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/gr247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Manipulation of the Earth's magnetic field leads to the development of orbital flight without the need for rockets. It may not be physically possible, but it does create the impetus for an orbiting society composed mainly of independently wealthy mavericks determined to keep their wealth and status free from earth's increasingly belligerent nations. When those countries start to extend their power into space, the conditions for revolution are at hand. Klara Gyeroffy, one of the early inhabitants of the Uplands, has her life changed by the murder of her father. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/wn247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT As any Spider-Man fan can tell you, with great power comes great responsibility. As Harry Dresden, wizard, private investigator, and Warden of the White Council, can tell you, with great responsibility comes even greater headaches. And in Harry's case, the headaches tend to be magically explosive, often fatal, and always messy. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/pc247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Fifteen-year-old Nathan Ward, a human boy whose alien genetic heritage gives him the power to dream himself through the Gates between worlds, has already visited many realities in his quest for three ancient relics, part of a Great Spell crafted thousands of years ago to save a dying universe. The Cup and the Sword are safe in the keeping of Nathan's adopted uncle, the wizard Bartlemy; it remains only to find the final relic, the Crown. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/il247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Although a stand-alone novel, this is billed as a prequel, a book in the universe of Ash: The Secret History, set fifty years before. It's a stab at fleshing out and explaining the weird universe that Ash and her cohorts live in. But that's just part of it. For it takes a special character to be able to carry a storyline -- in first person -- for the duration of a novel this long and complex, but that's exactly what Ilario does. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick speculates on which TV shows will be renewed for the 2007-2008 season, what is on TV in May, what is coming in the months ahead and what titles we can expect as DVD original releases. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/nx247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Next is one of those all too common films where craftsmanship on the part of the actors and technicians is rendered pointless by a total lack of craftsmanship on the part of the writers. The gimmick is that Nic Cage can see two minutes into the future. If there were such a person, Rick'll tell you later on what his life would really be like, but that doesn't happen in the movie, because the writers never bother to think. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ss247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT In this episode, we reconnect with the centurion Lucius (or Latro, as he was known in the first two books, Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete), some years after he made it home from Greece after the Hellenes had fought off the last invasion by Persia. Lucius had served on the losing side, a mercenary in King Xerxes's army that was slaughtered by Spartan and Athenian hoplites at the Battle of Plataea. There he suffered a catastrophic head wound that left him with a great scar on his scalp and a brain that can only remember the last twelve hours. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/nk247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Vellum was a mess, a sprawling, swaggering, aggressive mess, but through the too-many stories there was still a thin, frail thread of Story leading you through. And it was a big enough book that it deserves to be about something more than the little metaphor of being a writer. Oh it has to be there -- Ink, Vellum, how could you hope to escape the metaphor of writing? -- but please, as part of a bigger, grander mix, not as the guiding principle of the book. Fortunately Hal Duncan is too brash and arrogant a writer to tie himself down so lightly. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT In this month's column from Smaragdine, Jeff learns about how Elizabeth Hand's books got published in translation and why she is so popular. He has read two of her new titles, Generation Loss and Illyria and provides us with a brief excerpt from Generation Loss. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/sm248.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Opening as the previous films with a sensational Kyle Cooper-designed kaleidoscope sequence interspersed with scenes from the first two chapters, Spider-Man 3 picks up from the end of Spider-Man 2 with all the major players and unresolved plot lines returning. Peter Parker and Mary Jane explore the next level of their relationship. Harry Osborn seeks revenge for the death of his father, the Green Goblin. Spider-Man enjoys unprecedented levels of popularity as media star. Chaos quickly ensues. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ev247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT This issue offers 13 pieces of short (occasionally very short) fiction and four poems. The stories range from vaguely weird realism (Marly Youmans's "The Geode") to straightforward science fiction ("The Duel" by Tobias Buckell). Most of the pieces are short character studies, utilising whatever technological or magical element appropriate to make their point. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/su247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT Prince Martris Drayke, second son of the king of Margolan, has always had an affinity for magic. Among other skills, he's able to see the ghosts of the dead. His talent has been cultivated by his grandmother, the famed sorceress and Summoner Bava K'aa; but Bava K'aa is years dead, and since her passing there has been no one to teach him. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/wl247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT A pilot and an archaeologist from the planet Novamerika, part of a widely scattered human diaspora, become stranded on the planet Giri when the natives destroy their shuttle accidently while landing. Escape is imperative, not just because of the risk of being exposed as aliens rather than foreign wizards, but because of the lethal diet -- the heavy metals content of the local flora and fauna provides a ticking time-bomb of poisonous pressure. Our heroes are captured by the natives, and become playing pieces in the political intrigue that drives the planet's society. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/l5247.htm Tue, 1 May 2007 11:00:00 GMT A long time ago in a decade far, far away, Star Trek ruled the world of television science fiction. After three seasons of superb television, the series was canceled to the outrage of millions of fans. Then the wait began. Years later, when the animated series first aired and suffering Star Trek withdrawal, we watched not because it was great television, but because we loved the characters. When the logs came out, fans were treated to what amounted to a new Star Trek. 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.