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/over252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Can there be such a thing as too many books? Lately Neil has been feeling he has too many unread books. But is that really too many books, or simply not enough time? Or is it just poor planning. Some of the books on his shelves have been waiting for years to be read and he claims to really want to read them next. How to prioritize? He's still working on that. Meanwhile, he has some thoughts on Watership Down by Richard Adams and Pirates of the Universe by Terry Bisson. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/gh252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Okay, so there's a call out for a great hero to come and do some vastly needed heroic deed-work. What have you got? A small, runty goblin who is nearsighted, haunted by a minor and totally forgotten god. A big, bone-headed goblin named Braf whose personality is limited. A fat, whiny goblin named Veka who is a reject even in the goblin world. A wizened, crabby, nasty old goblin named Grell who used to diaper goblin brats ...and assorted hobgoblins, ogres, dragons, snakes, and other monsters. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fsf252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT The cover story is "The Master Miller's Tale" by Ian R. MacLeod, which takes place in the "Aether" universe of his novels The Light Ages and The House of Storms. For the uninitiated, the story has no direct connection to the plots of either novel beyond the general setting, so no need to fear getting lost among unfamiliar references. It covers the themes of the novels in which conflict is rooted in the inevitable cultural upheavals -- for better or worse -- wrought by scientific advancement. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/eh252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Every few years, American editors seems to rediscover that there is science fiction beyond the borders of the United States. When this happens, collections appear spotlighting the work of Australian, or Canadian, or European science fiction authors. The latest rediscovery has now been made under the auspices of the SFWA and has resulted in this anthology of sixteen short stories by European authors representing thirteen linguistic traditions. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on the Dr. Who episode "Smith and Jones," the episode of Eureka titled "Phoenix Rising" and the episode of The 4400 "Try the Pie." http://www.sfsite.com/lists/ps-author01.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT In the spring of 2004, PS Publishing launched a new magazine called Postscripts. Originally, the magazine was to be digest-sized featuring about 60,000 words of fiction, a guest editorial, book reviews, and the occasional non-fiction article in each issue. Fiction includes SF, fantasy, horror, and crime/suspense. The book is produced in two formats: numbered, limited edition in hard cover signed by all contributors and a perfect bound paper cover version. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ec252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Unification into the System of Federated Nations has divided the world's population into a tiny number of haves, and a great unwashed sea of have-nots, policed by the System Security Force, and local cops. The resultant urban turmoil has left Old New York, a sprawl of grubby, trashed buildings and grubby, trashed people. One of these is Avery Cates, a security expert, sometime bodyguard, and assassin-for-hire. Avery knows his days are numbered -- unless something big happens to change things. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ds252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT The problems for Senior Special Agent Hannah Wolfson, and her partner, Jamie Mendez, begin when another Special Agent, Trip Wilcox is found dead in his small spaceship. Wilcox had been on a diplomatic mission, conveying a document from the alien Metrannan back to Earth. The document has been found, but the key to decoding the encryption is gone, and there is reason to suspect that Wilcox was murdered, but not before he found a way to hide the key. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/wl252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Water Logic, the third in the Elemental Logic series, follows the trials and efforts of a reluctant leader, Karis, and her eccentric and mis-matched self-made family as they try to bring peace to a land and people long stricken with war. She and her family of friends are all blessed (or cursed, as the view might be taken) with elemental magic -- air, water, earth, fire -- each of which has a different way of working and a different way of connecting with the world around them. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Some of our latest arrivals here at the SF Site office include new and forthcoming novels from the likes of William Gibson, Naomi Novik, Matthew Hughes, Tom Lloyd, and Scott Lynch, a novella from Forrest Aguirre, a first novel from Christopher Barzak, a new collection from Jay Lake, a new edition of classic Harlan Ellison stories, and a new translation of Poland's Andrzej Sapkowski. Summertime reading ought to be good this year. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/hp252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT The latest Harry Potter film is a solid, satisfying dark fantasy. Maybe it is a hair less good than the preceding film, but we have been lucky so far. None of the Harry Potter films have suffered from the kind of series-itus seen in most of this Summer's blockbusters. Even the critics are coming around, setting aside their distaste for anything popular and granting that the Harry Potter films might be entertaining. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/vi252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT One night while walking down a deserted highway in September, our protagonist sees a handsome boy who is wearing a 50s costume, or is it a costume? We soon discover that he is the ghost of an athlete who met his death years before, and the town has known about this ghost walking the highway since 1957. But for the first time, Josh, the ghost, leaves the highway and follows someone, and even speaks to him. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/sk252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Don't get put off by the idea of a Casper Milquetoast-type narrator who becomes addicted to skunk musk (the smell reminds him of the beer his alcoholic late mother favored) and finds love with a brilliant marine biologist who has bioengineered a solution for global warming and just happens to have a fetish of her own for the smell of fish. Odd, yes, but no more so than the oddity of most human attraction. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/hr252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT "We have such sights to show you." Chilling words from one of the most haunting, gruesome and enduring horror series ever filmed. Through the decades, there have been horror icons, from Bela Lugosi's Dracula up through Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger. But never have there been such grotesquely visceral yet strangely alluring creations as Clive Barker's Cenobites, their leader Pinhead and the denizens of the Hellraiser universe. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/bn252.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction is a language. Not just a vocabulary, all those funny words that can make newcomers to the genre run away screaming, but a grammar, a syntax, a set of perspectives and attitudes entailed by the words and structure of the fiction that is simply untranslatable to some readers. A dictionary, as lexicographers from Dr. Johnson down have discovered, doesn't just codify the language, it can help to understand its structure and history. A dictionary of science fiction, therefore, seems like a worthwhile and indeed timely enterprise. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ga251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Hayley Foss is an orphan living in London with her Grandparents. Her Grandma is a stickler for rules, and hardly ever even lets Hayley out of the house. When Hayley meets a curious pair of musicians she calls Flute and Fiddle on an excursion with the maid, her Grandma goes ape, and sends Hayley off to the family castle in Ireland. There she meets a grand assortment of cousins and aunts -- though oddly enough no uncles. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/dw251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT By the end of Dusk, the Mages Angel and S'Hivez had regained control of magic and brought a permanent twilight down upon the world of Noreela. Can they be defeated? And will the author end his sequence as well as he began it? No prizes for guessing the answer to the former question; you only have to look at this book's title. As for the latter... http://www.sfsite.com/books/new251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT The month of June brought a great many new and forthcoming titles to our doorstep. Some of the highlights include the latest from Dave Duncan, Scott Lynch, Juliet Marillier, Adam Roberts, Eric Brown, Richard K. Morgan, Bruce Boston, Tom Piccirilli, Michael A. Stackpole, as well as sneak previous of forthcoming works from Michael Swanwick, Terry Brooks, Robin McKinley, Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden, Allen Steele, and Ursula Le Guin. Plus plenty more besides! http://www.sfsite.com/07a/da251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT MacKayla Lane Mac tends bar, paints her nails, wears a lot of bright colours, and doesn't think too deeply. Until her sister is murdered while studying in Dublin, Ireland. Mac decides that the Irish police have not tried hard enough to find the killer. Crossing the Atlantic, she sets about the daunting task of uncovering the truth about her sibling's brutal demise. Almost immediately, she finds herself neck deep in a world where ancient and lethal magic is vying with other local parties to find a powerful, ancient tome. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/mz251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rich sees a lot of SF/Fantasy magazines, and it seems new ones are coming along all the time. Here are the first issues of three different -- indeed, very different -- magazines. He thought to do a bit of compare and contrast. To begin with, the look and feel of each publication is different. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/ps-title01.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT In the spring of 2004, PS Publishing launched a new magazine called Postscripts. Originally, the magazine was to be digest-sized featuring about 60,000 words of fiction, a guest editorial, book reviews, and the occasional non-fiction article in each issue. Fiction includes SF, fantasy, horror, and crime/suspense. The book is produced in two formats: numbered, limited edition in hard cover signed by all contributors and a perfect bound paper cover version. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/br251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Only one third of Brasyl, set in Sao Paulo in 2032, appears to be the straightforward extrapolative science fiction that River Of Gods was. There are two other narratives: one following Marcelina Hoffman, a producer of trash TV, living a thoroughly modern life in the Rio of 2006, and one following her seeming antithesis, Father Luis Quinn, an Irish Jesuit priest on a Heart Of Darkness-style voyage across an appalling Brazil of 1732. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/em251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Spanning the reigns of emperors Claudius, Hadrian, and Constantinople, the Prophecy ties the descendents of Agrippina, Nectovelin's niece, together through the ages, even when they have apparently lost all connection to each other. Each generation also has its own way of looking at the Prophecy, true to their own period of time, but not necessarily to the Prophecy itself. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some news about Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG1, Heroes and Dr. Who. He also gives us a list of what to watch on TV in July. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ld251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT The military gear of the near-future setting hasn't moved too far from the basics. Assault weapons cable into backpack processors which project range data onto helmet-mounted screens. Army-issue amphetamines have been replaced by fast-acting combat drugs like "samurai" that can make any soldier feel like Superman. The twist is the existence of Psicorps, a project born of New Age philosophy and more than a little Cold War paranoia. Psicorps' job is to identify and exploit potential psychic ability in Army recruits. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ct251.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2007 11:00:00 GMT The level of scholarship in this book is the first thing that impresses. The author seems to have read everything by, and about, the Inklings. Not just that, she's up on the latest thinking about the process of writing and collaboration -- not just from a literary view, but from a psychological and sociological perspective. The authorities upon which she draws range from Harold Bloom's hothouse-fervid The Anxiety of Influence to Karen Burke LeFevre's Invention as a Social Act. 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.