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/audio276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times it's more convenient (and enjoyable) to hear the latest in science fiction and fantasy. Recent audiobook releases include works by Terry Brooks, L. Ron Hubbard, Peter F. Hamilton, Charles de Lint, Fritz Leiber and Kay Kenyon. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ad276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Mack Megaton isn't your average joe on the street. He's actually a reprogrammed robot built for destruction and world domination who, upon gaining free will, gave up his creator's megalomanical ways and has gone straight, earning his citizenship one day at a time as an honest taxi driver in Empire City, where weird science reigns supreme. He's not hero material, that's for sure. Heck, he barely understands people, and he can't even tie a bow tie. His therapist thinks he needs to work on his manual coordination, as well as getting out to interact with people more often. But hey, it's hard for a seven foot tall ex-doomsday machine to get comfortable with people, you know? http://www.sfsite.com/07b/tb276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT "I tell everybody that when I'm stuck and I'm looking for ideas or even when I just want ideas to come, the best thing is to either take a long dive where your mind is freed up and you can just let it go; or get in a situation where's there's water -- showers are great. I get lots of ideas in the shower. It's amazing. In there it's like a white-noise state and your mind just suddenly releases and you begin to follow all these possibilities in your head. It's real magic! Although sometimes nothing happens and you have to try again later." http://www.sfsite.com/07b/wl276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT One of the things that science fiction does is look at how it might be, if our dreams or nightmares came true. And one of the most persistent nightmares is the contemplation of loss, of all that we love, all that we know, all that makes us feel comfortable, being taken away from us. It is no surprise, therefore, that variations on the end of the world are as old as science fiction. Though the nature of the apocalypse, and our response to it, have changed depending largely on the cultural context from which the particular end of the world has emerged. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT In L.A. it has been the summer of books. No, not because everyone here in the Pueblo of Angels is suddenly cracking open copies of Ask the Dust or Day of the Locust to unearth their town's own literary history, but rather, because the two main gatherings of the book industry -- the Book Expo of America (or "BEA") and the American Library Association's annual gathering (or "ALA" for short) -- were held there. Our intrepid reporter, Mark London Williams, scouted out the graphic novel scene. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ou276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT This sixth installment of the Hollows series starts out with a bang. Rachel Morgan, our ne'er-do-well witch, has once again gotten in over her head. Thinking that all is well, Rachel discovers quickly that things have gotten way out of hand. Algaliarept, the demon that Rachel sent to demon jail, is somehow getting out and gunning for her. Not only is she not safe, but anyone close to her is in danger. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT At times, it's more convenient (and enjoyable) to hear the latest in science fiction and fantasy. Recent audiobook releases include works by Dave Duncan, Charlie Huston, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, S.M. Stirling, Mike Carey and Naomi Novik. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/md276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT In 1956, director John Huston released a film adaptation of Moby Dick. Moby Dick had been adapted twice before, in 1926 and 1930, both times starring John Barrymore and both very loose adaptations of the Herman Melville novel. Huston approached a young screenwriter with about ten scripts to his credit to adapt Melville's novel, ignoring the earlier Barrymore vehicles. The result was a film starring Gregory Peck with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ka276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT This issue features a wide selection of stories, many of them quite short, as well as some non-fiction: an interview with the writers of a Doctor Who book, a discussion of "female android sexuality in film" and a parody horoscope column. Add quite a few poems, and a comic strip, and some more art and photography, and you have a varied and interesting publication. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/dv276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT This is a big book. The author doesn't seem to be able to write any other kind, yet by the time you get to the end it feels like all of it 600+ pages have been devoted to accomplishing one major goal; that of setting the reader up for the really big story that is yet to come. And when you're talking galaxy-spanning space opera with a cast of characters every bit as large as its setting, there's nothing wrong with that. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ah276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT In his afterword, the author cautions against the natural human tendency to look for patterns in everything. And, indeed, anyone trying to fashion a single, coherent future history from the six stories in the book will be disappointed. Nevertheless, the tales do comprise an interesting set of snapshots of where we might be heading -- or (as Cory Doctorow's introduction reminds us) where we are now. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/tangent276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT The first half of 2008 has come and gone, and so with it the once-fresh memories of some of its earlier stories. Beginning with this installment -- as a mid-season memory enhancer -- we'll be taking a look at 2008's short fiction, beginning with January and working our way up to year's end. This time we'll take a look at the January through March issues of F&SF, as well as the Jan./Feb. Special Double Issue of Analog. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Some of the newest arrivals at the SF Site office include the latest books from Greg Egan, Andrzej Sapkowski, Justina Robson, Neal Asher, Harry Turtledove, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick blew the money he got teaching summer school on a new TV. He bought a Toshiba 52X55OU television and a Denon DVD 2500BTCi Blu-Ray player. He already has a good sound system and an all-region DVD player. He added HD cable with DVR. So, was it money well spent? http://www.sfsite.com/07b/we276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick loved WALL-E. But... First, the movie is beautiful and moving. The brilliant visuals are in stark contrast with the pedestrian animation of the new Star Wars movie, the previews of which were shown right before this Pixar film. In fact, all of the animated previews before WALL-E looked pretty lame by comparison, except Madagascar II. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/hb276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT In order to enjoy movies these days, it's best to turn off your brain, using the same quantity of drugs the writer/director uses to make the film. Sad to say, Rick's beatnik days are behind him, his IQ has risen into the triple digits, and it has become difficult for him to attain the state of consciousness necessary to really appreciate Hellboy II. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/mk276.htm Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Kestrel is a rarity: a woman aboard a pirate ship. Moreover, she's the quartermaster, answering only to her captain, a dashing fellow by the name of Artemus Binns, who's the closest thing she has ever had to a father figure. She works twice as hard as any man to command the proper measure of respect, but the effort's paid off, granting her power and authority, and the freedom she can only find at sea. For only surrounded by water, where magic is ineffective, is she safe. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ia275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Being the first born son of a Lord is a pretty good deal. You stand to one day inherit a title, land, and loyalty of the people who go along with it. Being the second son is not nearly as good a thing. The latter is the situation faced by a young Durand Col who has found a place as a knight in service to Lord Lamoric. Times are uncertain, and when Lamoric and other Lords are called by the King to journey to his court and renew their oaths of loyalty, they are forced on a harsh voyage which ends in betrayal. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/hs275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Space opera is all about scale, the biggest devices, the biggest bangs, the biggest distances. And no-one does size quite like Alastair Reynolds. Here, his (human) heroes are millions of years old and regularly circumnavigate the galaxy, they have the technology to safely enclose a sun that is about to go nova, and they are about to get involved in a conflict whose origins lie eons before and whose resolution will extend to another galaxy. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/sg275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT The saga of the vampire Saint-Germain, whose adventures across the centuries (he's supposedly 4,000 year old) started with the publication of the novel Hotel Transylvania in 1978, and has now reached its 19th and 20th installment, much to the delight of legions of faithful readers. The author, the prolific Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, keeps jumping across history without following a definite chronological order, moving her creature back and forth from ancient ages to more modern times, so much so that her books have the dual character of the historical novel and the vampiric tale. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ho275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Aliens invading the bodies of humans isn't a new plot device, but who ever stops to think about the body-snatcher's point of view? The Host gives us the chance to experience this unique switch in perspective: the book opens as the alien called Wanderer is inserted into the body of Melanie Stryder, a renegade human recently tracked down and captured by the Seekers. When an alien Soul is placed into a new human Host body, that's supposed to be that. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/tangent275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Dave has been annoyed in the past, but he is really irked by one particular story in The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Ellen Datlow. He was primed and ready for this all-new collection of both science fiction and fantasy stories, and hoped it would be another worthwhile addition to a number of others appearing in the past two years. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/fa275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Orna, a member of the elite Cadre, is bonded for life to the Clan Caracassa. Orna's people, the Eskarans, are at war with the Gurta; as the novel begins, she is in battle. Tricked by the Gurta, Orna's husband is killed, and she is captured and taken to the prison-fortress Farzala. At first despairing and aloof (which gains her the nickname of "the fade," a kind of apparition), she gradually forms relationships with a small group of her fellow-prisoners and formulates a daring plan to escape. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/os275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT In the not-so-near future, mankind has finally established a presence on the Moon, a scientific research station called Gettysburg. It's there, as a team of scientists perform a complicated experiment, that history is made, when a strange silver sphere of giant proportions appears unexpectedly, leaving destruction and chaos in its wake. Utterly ignoring the humans affected by its arrival, it sets up residence in one of the Moon's craters, before creating dozens of even stranger silver towers, which fly off to points around the Moon. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ob275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT The Cold War suddenly becomes very hot, due to a series of unfortunate events. One such being the liaison of a Slick Willie style President, taking orders from below his waist. This time, when the nuclear buttons are pushed, there's no teenage geek hero to save the world. In the space of a few minutes, it's whoops apocalypse and goodbye to all that we knew. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Reality plays by its own rules. This tenet, in the form of metafiction, litters the comic book landscape. While this type of self-referential literature was quite common in comics strips, the earliest story of this type that Rick Klaw uncovered, appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #22, dated March 26, 1943, some eight years after the publication of New Fun, the first comic book of original material. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Some of the most recently received new and forthcoming titles at the SF Site office include the latest from Greg Bear, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novik, Terry Brooks, Robert Scott & Jay Gordon, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Jacqueline Carey, Eric Brown, Kelley Armstrong, David Drake, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/re275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Told in alternating story lines, this is the tale of Sweeney, a father who has brought his comatose young son, Danny, to the Peck Clinic in hopes of a miracle. Sweeney seems to just exist in his space, as his life revolves around the care and cure of Danny. Working in the Peck's basement pharmacy, Sweeney frequently visits his son's bedside to read from Danny's favorite comic book series, "Limbo." Sweeney floats through his day in a haze of anger and lack of sleep. His forays out into the clinic proper and town are met with hostile and often confrontational results. He is a man lost. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ih275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT The Incredible Hulk is a moderately entertaining, by-the-numbers, semi-sequel to Ang Lee's Hulk, lacking the exciting directing but also the murky storytelling of the earlier flick. It is very loosely based on the Hulk stories in Tales to Astonish #90 and #91 (April and May 1967), "The Abomination" and "Whoever Harms the Hulk," by Stan Lee and Gil Kane. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick275.htm Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT Rick has been watching The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, now out on DVD. The quality of this series is uneven, depending largely on how much involvement George Lucas has with a particular episode. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in July. 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.