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/neil262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. For the past 10 years, this has been the season when we solicit you, our faithful readers for your input on what you thought were the best books you've read in the past year. We'll grind your votes through our top-of-the-line super-secret vote-counting software, and post the results in February or early March. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/lh262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This book is written as the first-person retrospective memoir of Jon Cavala, a poet of moderate success who, within the space of the first few pages, is beheaded for the crime of rape. Straight away, we are into the territory of words not meaning exactly what we expect them to mean. Cavala lives on Pluse, which is one of many "Planets of The Book" -- planets colonised by dogmatic religious sects fleeing what they saw as the decadent liberal decline of Earth for new worlds where they could indulge in their beliefs without restriction or censure. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This time Neil take a look at a relatively recent work which may not yet have entered the annals of "classic" speculative fiction, although it did receive something of an instant cult following and, later, a moderately massive amount of hype. But even as it began to take the bookstores by storm, it didn't capture any major awards. So is it a classic? Or is it overlooked? And who really wrote the works of William Shakespeare? http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bb262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Zachary Nixon Johnson, the last freelance PI on Earth in the late 21st Century, is having a typical Tuesday. You know, attacked by killer plants, nearly killed by traffic while rescuing a heiress's dog, stalked by an ad agency, menaced by genetically-engineered ogres... the usual. And then things get weird. And dangerous. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/gc262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT The Golden Compass is one of the most beautiful and original fantasy films of all time. Sadly, the call for a boycott by the Catholic League of Decency caused the money men to order a short film, an hour and fifty-three minutes. Only about half the book made it to the screen, but everything there is opulent and intelligently crafted. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bw262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT There are two types of story. But it isn't as straightforward as the difference between realist and fantastic or between genre and mainstream. No, the two types of story are those that want you to be aware they are story, and those that don't. The difference between these two types is not in the telling, but in where the telling is intended to take us. Immersive stories mean to tell us something about the world by way of the characters, setting, plot we encounter in the story. Framed narratives mean to tell us something about Story, the imaginative construct by which we comprehend and negotiate the world. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bk262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT While most people associate Merlin with the legends of King Arthur, the author has been examining the magician's history and ties to Jason, Captain of the Argo, in the Merlin Codex trilogy, which culminates with The Broken Kings. Located now in Alba, the land that would be Britain, Merlin finds himself facing the conflict between King Urtha of the Cornovidi and his children, Kymon and Munda. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/es262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT We meet Detective Inspector Herbie Watkins, who has been called out to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman in central London. At the same time it becomes common knowledge that the end of the world is nigh -- six days nigh, in fact -- and not merely the world: the entire universe has been discovered to have played something of a cosmic trick upon us and is collapsing at breakneck speed back into a Big Crunch. Hearing the news, Watkins carries on with his job as a policeman, spending his last few days investigating the murder. He isn't insane neither is he so dull as to be unaware of the time limit upon his investigations. Watkins is not an unhappy man but... well, what else is there to do? http://www.sfsite.com/12b/na262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT It is now generally accepted as a truism that Theodore Sturgeon was the best short story writer to emerge from science fiction. Perhaps even, so a lot of his advocates would claim, one of the best short story writers in American literature. It's a big claim. But it is not always supported by the evidence. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/sm262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Even if you've never read a comic book or seen any of the Sam Raimi films, you know who Spider-Man is, the iconic super hero Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created in 1962. The author, however, has not only read Spider-Man comics and seen the films, he has dedicated a significant amount of time to the webslinger and the various products that have been tied in to the character over the last 45 years. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/cb262.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Chessie Bligh, a neglected 14 year-old American girl, is sent to a foreign boarding school accompanied by her only friend, a puppy named Wuggbert. Seeking to defy the social climbing aspirations of her uncaring, wealthy parents, Chessie switches places with Aelyn, a physically similar girl she happens to meet while changing aircraft in New York. Thus does Chessie find herself at Die Sterntaler. The school turns out to be an elf encampment at the rim of the Grand Canyon, hidden from human sight by magic. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/co261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT In a USA that is not our own, they have invented a device known as the Turing Gate, which allows people to pass between parallel worlds. But the powers that be in this USA were horrified to discover that other Americas were not as powerful as they were. There were Americas under fascist rule or communist rule or dissolved into anarchies, there is even one strangely familiar USA filled with peaceniks who have brought down President Nixon. Into these different Americas an analogue of the CIA begins to infiltrate agents, popularly known as Cowboy Angels, to start undermining these unwelcome states and work towards an America more like their own. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/sc261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Journalist Matt Johnson is beavering away one evening in his study, when a mysterious buzzing noise fills the room. Shortly thereafter an explosion destroys the building. When he wakes up in hospital it becomes clear that some time has passed, and his life has been radically altered. Upon arrival for treatment, he was suffering from severe and extensive burns, and was not expected to live. But Johnson's body has been repairing itself, rebuilding him from the inside out. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ev261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Tim Akers gets the magazine off to a strong start with "A Walking of Crows," a murder mystery set in a mechanical world: young Jeremy travels to the city to find out who would want to kill his scientist father and destroy his work -- and why -- but soon finds himself in over his head. There is some wonderfully vivid imagery, such as the extended description of the city of Veridon as well as more subtle touches, such as the use of organic metaphors where we might use mechanical ones. What's more, the mystery element of the story works well against the fictional background. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/px261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Before Pixar created their masterpieces like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles, they honed their craft on a series of short animated films. Between 1984 and 1989, the studio produced five shorts: "The Adventures of Andre & Wally B." (1984) -- technically this film was made when they were just a division of Lucas Films, "Luxo Jr." (1986) -- the source of Pixar's lamp logo, "Red's Dream" (1987), "Tin Toy" (1988) -- the first completely CG film to win an Oscar, and "Knick Knack" (1989). http://www.sfsite.com/12a/at261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Written before Hurricane Katrina, the book is quite slim. But what is striking about these stories is that they are about everyday life events, small epiphanies, sometimes vaguely magical, more often quite mundane. They're all set in and around New Orleans, and most of them are about the Stubbs family, which features heavily in her recent work. It is a book of small thresholds, about how life may change in very small, but irrevocable ways. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/md261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection of short stories, many of which follow Sir Seaton Begg, a detective in the vein of Sherlock Holmes or Sexton Blake, and an albino, Monsieur Zenith. The two men play a game of cat and mouse throughout the collection, sometimes in opposition to each other and at times on the same side. For all of Begg's detecting abilities, however, he is never quite sure of Zenith. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/nw261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT As stated in the introduction, the book tries to show "the full scope of what the literature of the fantastic can do" by assembling an impressive amount of brand new short stories (forty-one, to be precise) by both well known authors and newcomers. According to the editor, the reader is bound to fall in love at first sight with some stories and to hate other pieces because they are "uncomfortable, edgy, even outright offensive." Indeed. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ca261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT In the far future, war has broken out across the arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, as the Unified Authority fights against the secessionist Confederate Arms Treaty Organization and the fanatically religious Morgan Atkins Believers (or Mogats). Caught in the middle of this galaxy-wide conflict is former UA soldier and occasional war hero, Waylon Harris, the only Liberator-series clone known to still be alive. Waylon, fully aware of his clone status unlike the millions of other clones populating the UA armies, has, over the course of his adventures, become a rebel and a wild card. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/ka261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is another small 'zine, physically resembling for example Electric Velocipede: 8.5" by 14" paper folded and saddle-stitched, with cardboard covers. It features quite a few stories, but most of them quite short, and a large selection of poems. There is also an article about Doctor Who, and a parody horoscope column, and lots of art, including a comic strip. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT New arrivals at the SF Site office include the latest from Orson Scott Card, J.V. Jones, Piers Anthony, Charles Stross, as well as forthcoming books from Eric Brown, Chris Roberson, Elizabeth Moon, Gail Z. Martin, and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick261.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on the new season's TV series, particularly Heroes and Journeyman. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in December. 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.