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/best08b.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This year is the 10th anniversary of the SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Top 10 List. Come and see the results of the the votes you and your fellow SF Site readers submitted. Whether your own personal favourite is on our Readers' Choice Best of 2007, you're sure to find some great books here. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Smaragdine, all of the major newspapers and websites have posted their lists of the best books and stories published in the country over the past year. This it is time for writers not included on these lists host elaborate parties at which they are expected to pretend to cry and to seek comfort from their friends. Usually, though, it's all in aid of promoting their next project. Jeff takes time out to talk to Gregory Frost, author of Fitcher's Brides and his newly released Shadowbridge. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/wg266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is a short novella set in the Ender universe during the time that Ender was at the Battle School and before he became Ender the Xenocide. Although Ender appears and plays a pivotal role, the focus of the story is on Zeck Morgan, the Battle School's only pacifist. Zeck sees himself as a victim and a martyr, and here he tries to avenge his perceived persecution on the others students. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/rt266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Darth Bane - Path of Destruction, a young man named Dessel created the modern Sith legacy by wiping out all rivals and taking command of the Dark Side's destiny by invoking the Rule of Two. This tale picks up where the other left off with the rescue of a confused, frightened and angry young girl named Zannah from the war torn battlefield left from the clashing forces of the Jedi Army of Light and the Sith Brotherhood of Darkness. Bane sculpts her as his apprentice and prepares to bring his plan and ideals to pass. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times it's more convenient to use ears rather than eyes to experience the latest in science fiction and fantasy. Recent audiobook releases include works by Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Kim Harrison, Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven265.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2007 included Robert Anton Wilson, Charles L. Fontenay, Roger Elwood, Leigh Eddings, Kurt Vonnegut, Lloyd Alexander, Fred Saberhagen, Madeleine L'Engle and Robert Jordan. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ju266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Jumper: Griffin's Story is, to say the least, an odd bird. Another book like it may not exist. It is a tie-in to the David Liman-directed science fiction action film, Jumper, starring Hayden Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie itself is loosely based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Steven Gould, taking the core premise from the book and essentially re-inventing everything else. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pb266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Slowly recovering from a mysterious illness which nearly destroyed both mind and body five years ago, Brother Josan has resigned himself, however reluctantly, to a life of quiet solitude as a lighthouse keeper in a remote part of the kingdom of Ikeria, where he busies himself with quiet study and the reclamation of his skills. Why exactly he has been exiled, he doesn't know; in truth, only the merest handful understand why he's been cast aside by his brothers. A chance encounter following a major storm brings him into contact with Lady Ysobel Flordelis of the Seddon Federation, whose mission of trade hides a deeper, more sinister purpose: to rekindle a revolution in Ikeria. And that chance meeting is all it takes to upset Josan's life once again. And when an assassin comes for him, Josan displays a frightening ability to defend himself, followed by momentary blackouts, and a magical power he never knew he had. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/as266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT There is a reasonable case to be made for tracing the history of 20th century science fiction through its keynote magazines. Such a history takes us from Amazing to Astounding to F&SF, across the Atlantic to New Worlds, and then into the curious asteroid belt of the 70s original anthologies. By this reckoning, science fiction during the last quarter of the 20th century was defined by Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Since it was launched in 1977 it has generally had higher circulation figures than its rivals, it has produced more stories that have won or been shortlisted for awards, it has produced more stories that have featured in the various Year's Best anthologies. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/bn266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The present volume features a number of excellent tales. Outstanding examples are "What Nature Abhors" by Mark Morris, a superb, breathtaking tour de force of terror depicting a man who wakes up alone on a deserted train to be engulfed in a nightmarish adventure, and the splendid "The American Dead" by Jay Lake, a melancholy fable set in a marginal world of cruelty and poverty where a young boy nurses his personal version of the American Dream. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Again this year, Rick offers his movie predictions for what is worth seeing in 2008 (based entirely on the reputation of the writers) and reflects upon his predictions for 2007. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pi266.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT As the twentieth century gave way to the twenty-first century, Allen Steele wrote a series of essays for Absolute Magnitude and Artemis magazines. Initially set to be looks at science fiction and space exploration, the Absolute Magnitude columns, published under the title "Primary Ignition" gave way to more general topics, which led to the series in Artemis, which would remain focused on space exploration. These essays, along with a few others, have been collected in the book. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/qc265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT At the end of Sun of Suns, the first book in the Virga series, most of the major characters were either missing or presumed dead. Two, a young man who had been the hero of the story, and a woman who, while not an out-and-out villain, was definitely not a pleasant person, were left drifting off in the free-fall atmosphere that fills the artificial world of Virga. It would be understandable if book two were to continue the story of the young man's adventures. Instead, it follows the plight of the arrogant, paranoid, smart, and very dangerous Venera Fanning. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cw265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The authors, with a degree of apparent effortlessness that is astonishing, have pulled off not one but several very difficult things in this book. The first, and by no means the least, is the sometimes vexed collaboration issue. You I have read co-authored books in which you could have chopped out and parceled into neat little piles the bits that belonged to the various authors because the voices simply never gelled enough to produce perfect seamlessness. Here, it just doesn't even matter. It flows. The two authors work as one; it's not so much cooperation as a symbiosis. A job very well done. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ii265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection of thirteen short stories, drawn from across the author's career as a professional writer. It's a diverse introduction for readers who have heard of his alternate history works, but have baulked at committing to an entire series. Helpfully, there are two stories included which afford a taste of the author's best known works; an original Emberverse novella, and an Islands In the Sea of Time story. Anyone who has wondered if they'd like the style and substance of those series should try what's on offer here. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/wc265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The time is the near future, the place North America. The Internet is the Netstream, a kind of YouTube that has swallowed various communications media. Terrorist bombings are more frequent, there is a vicious street drug called Blur that turns addicts into monsters. The world, in short, has become a scary enough place before three alien space ships crash landed in the Midwest and over the border into Canada. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ds265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT It is the most destructive battle station ever to threaten the Star Wars Universe. The Death Star's name says it all. A weapon of unimaginable proportion that can destroy entire planets in an instant. How could anything stand against such a construct? But how did this monstrosity come to be? And what of those that helped build it? http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil262.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 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/columns/steven265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2007 included Robert Anton Wilson, Charles L. Fontenay, Roger Elwood, Leigh Eddings, Kurt Vonnegut, Lloyd Alexander, Fred Saberhagen, Madeleine L'Engle and Robert Jordan. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/fs265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT In Woody Allen's "The Kugelmass Episode," the titular character, an unhappily married college professor, conducts an affair with one of the classic adulteresses of literature -- Madame Bovary. He is able to do this quite literally thanks to the magician Persky the Great, whose contraption can project Kugelmass into the book. The overt joke is that after Kugelmass tires of Bovary, he asks to be thrust into Portnoy's Complaint, but instead is accidentally inserted in a remedial Spanish textbook, with unexpected consequences. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ww265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT When an author has published "roughly four million words," as Stephen Briggs notes (in the introduction to this volume) Terry Pratchett has done, you certainly have reason to hope that some of them will be quotable. When the author is the inestimable satirist Terry Pratchett, you know for certain that many of those words are worth repeating, which is what this nicely constructed compilation does. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ju265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is an SF magazine -- SF as in Science Fiction -- based in the UK. The magazine's appearance is modest: A-size sheets folded in half and saddle-stapled, black and white cover and no interior illustrations. But that's really not a drawback -- the presentation is very clean, the font nicely chosen and nicely sized. The focus is heavily on fiction -- there are five stories, plus one poem and one brief book review. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Some of the new and forthcoming titles we'll look at this time include the latest from Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Joe Abercrombie, Christopher Golden, Barth Anderson, Terry Goodkind, Greg Keyes, Kelley Armstrong, Sherri S. Tepper, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on where the strike by writers stands and what may happen before it ends. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in February. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/tw265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT Driven by the need to ransom her brother back from a vicious group of inhuman creatures known as salamanders, Melke steals a necklace whose value is greater than she could ever have imagined, for it's actually the key to breaking a deadly curse laid upon the sal Vere family. Caught between honor and desperation, Melke makes a deal with Bastion sal Vere and his sister, Liana: if they'll take care of her grievously wounded brother, she'll steal the necklace back from the salamanders, using her bizarre ability to become unseen. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/pd265.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2008 11:00:00 GMT The book opens slowly and somewhat confusingly, as the auhtor has to set three or four parallel story-trains into motion. Unlike the first two D.I. Chen books, you definitely shouldn't start here. Even readers who've read the first two book may be doing a bit of head-scratching (and toe-tapping) until she gets all her balls into the air. But then -- wow! 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.