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/06b/ng298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT This new novella is a steampunk romp -- one doesn't think of the clanking machinery of steampunk as light but this story certainly is. The title refers to a certain establishment of a particular nature -- exactly what you would think. The kicker is that the ladies involved have another job -- spies. They use their rather privileged access to men of power to gather information, under the direction of their blind proprietress, Mrs. Corvey. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/hi298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT After the Second World War, the people of Japan had a national trauma to deal with the like of which none of the rest of us have ever had to experience. It wasn't the fact of defeat, or even the emphatic scale of it, that was at issue, it was the unprecedented nature and violence of the destruction wrought at Hiroshima and again at Nagasaki. One of the ways they found to deal with this trauma was to personalize the destruction in the monstrous character of Gojira or Godzilla. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/xe298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The story takes place one year after Necropath. Vaughan and his wife are happily married and expecting their first child. He is enjoying a life free of telepathy, even if it is also free of the surplus cash he used to earn. An old acquaintance contacts him with a proposal to join a telepathic detective agency. There is a bit of angst but, in the end, Vaughan does it for the future of his family. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ls298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The second Death Star has been destroyed. Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are dead. Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi Knights, stands victorious and the galaxy celebrates him as a hero. But a new, dark menace named Shadowspawn has reared its head. With his army of black suited StormTroopers, can this new enemy spell the end of the fledgling New Republic? Or is there a darker game being played behind the scenes? http://www.sfsite.com/06b/bi298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Michael Wilde is a man caught in the moment between hope and grief. His lover, Kristin, has been in a coma since an accident when they were climbing. Kristin too is trapped, in a body that doesn't work and a mind that won't wake, by her parent's desperate, delusional hope she'll someday, somehow recover. Neither of them able to go back to how it was before or move forwards to how it was going to be. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/bg298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT One of the strengths of Black Gate is how issues exhibit a character distinct from one another. Issue 12 contained many sequels in ongoing series, but some readers wondered if the magazine was beginning to close in to a favored few authors. No danger. This issue does contain a true sequel and two stories that take place in settings familiar from other stories, but which are not true sequels. The rest are all new stories, and many of these from new authors. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The first time Mark became truly aware that one could make art directly out of one's life -- unfiltered by fictionalization -- was during his college days, in that long-ago era when the hapless Carter years were giving way to the malignant Reagan ones. He had a Work-Study job in television production and one of his co-workers used the equipment, during off-hours, for various video projects such as sitting in a chair in his backyard recording monologues about life, intercutting narratives with objects like school film strips and interviews with former girlfriends. Mark London Williams is reading two graphic memoirs, Stitches, written and drawn by illustrator David Small and You'll Never Know by C. Tyler. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/cy298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT In the mid-21st Century, India is a land of tradition, mixed cultures and advanced technologies. The country has balkanized, splitting up in to twelve different countries. The stories in this collection are snapshots of the people and places that make up this new India, glimpses of a life where ancient philosophies mix with soap operas whose entire cast is made up artificial intelligences, and where a shortage of women and water is causing upheavals on every level of the society that makes up the political, social, and economic structure of India. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/pc298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT It has been ten days since the events of The Queen's Bastard; since Belinda Primrose was exposed to the Gallin court, escaped a Gallin prison and laid a trap to kill a Gallin queen. She is home now, back in Aulun, in her mother's kingdom. That is no surety of safety. Her father, the Queen's beloved Robert, is still missing, Belinda has been undone -- frayed if not entirely unravelled -- by her time as Beatrice Irvine and Sandalia's death has riled Echonia to war. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ff298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The introduction starts out strong citing what he sees as science fiction's four purposes: its predictive capability, its preventative possibility, its ability to inspire the future, and being "the literature of the open mind," which "acknowledges change and encourages thinking outside the box." And then presents fourteen tales which promise to do just that. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ca298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Set in 2060, after the world has collapsed, more or less, both ecologically and politically, there are three major players in this new world: the one remaining influential nation state, China; and a couple of extra-national organizations: the Dispensation, a fairly Capitalist grouping; and Acquis, a sort of techno-Socialist entity. The latter two groups are explicitly (in their minds) engaged in "saving the world," while China is being China. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/en298.htm Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The Star Wars Universe has spawned not only characters, but races, planets, ships, customs, religious beliefs and, well let's face it, an entire working universe. What better way to catalog it all than with this three-book hardcover boxed set designed to encompass all of George Lucas' incredible vision. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The Terra Incognita project has exercised Kevin J. Anderson's talents more than anything he's done before. Along with his usual role of book author, he's also turned his hand to writing a connecting narrative text for his CD booklet, lyric writing with his wife Rebecca Moesta and he's been involved with the musical evolution of the Terra Incognita progressive rock CD that ties into the main storyline of his latest trilogy. It could have been a daunting project but it was transformed into something hugely enjoyable by the enthusiastic approach of Anderson, Shawn Gordon (of ProgRock Records), and composer and producer Erik Norlander. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ro297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The author has successfully subverted the sexiness of the supernatural, by plugging into the profane and earthy viewpoint of zombie party girl, Amanda Feral. Once again, our flesh-eating socialite is up to her undead ears in trouble, but this time, she's hitting the road in search of a little adventure and some new scenery. Her motivations are multiple. 1) Go see her mother, currently dying in a hospice... and help speed up the process. 2) Keep one step ahead of the angry porn king-turned-vampire and his werewolf minions. 3) See a few sights, have a few laughs, devour a few K-Mart shoppers. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/nc297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Let's be honest upfront. Rich is not a fan of A.E. Van Vogt. He can intellectually appreciate the influence he had on SF. He can, at some level, perceive what his fans see in his best work. He hopes he may be forgiven if he suggests that encountering that work at one's personal Golden Age might help one ignore its faults. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/tw297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT A tough, black, female cop, Soledad O'Roark, is attached to MTacs, a special unit which hunts down super-powered individuals. Not just those gone rogue, but anyone who happens to have metanormal abilities. Because in this world, the US government has outlawed super-people, regardless of their actions or intentions. An Executive Order has been enacted following the wholesale destruction of San Francisco, by a super-villain called Bludlust, who was not stopped in the nick of time. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ti297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Alex d'Meiter lost her daughter in an alcoholic stupor on the beach when Cora Rose was five. Two years later, she has begun the long and slow process of recovery from both alcohol abuse and the loss of her child, but she realizes it will never go away: mothers never let go. Alex loses herself in her work as a nurse anesthetist until a strange experience with two patients in the hospital one night changes her life, thrusting her into a quest of spirituality, mystery, faith and the paranormal. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Recent audiobook releases received by SF Site include works by Alex Bledsoe, Brandon Sanderson, Dan Simmons and L.E. Modesitt, Jr. At times it's more convenient (and enjoyable) to hear the latest in science fiction and fantasy. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/se297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Eddie LaCrosse is a no-nonsense Private Investigator who, for the right amount of gold coin, will use his considerable skill at sword-wielding and sleuthing to find out what you need to know in any kingdom of the realm. With an office located over Angelina's Tavern in the backwater town of Neceda, Eddie waits for new business. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/is297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The year is 1942. Three months have passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and things are not going well for the Allies in the Pacific. Lieutenant Commander Matthew Reddy has recently assumed command of the destroyer USS Walker, a venerable relic of World War I. With Japanese vessels in hot pursuit, Matt Reddy steers his ship into a squall, hoping to throw the enemy off the trail. When they come out on the other side, the destroyermen soon realize that they have traveled much farther than they expected. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/os297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Are you prepared for a natural disaster? What about a natural disaster that wipes out the fundamental way of life for the entire United States of America? We all like to say that we have learned something from the disasters created by hurricane Katrina or even the attacks of 9/11. But those disasters had something in common in that we could turn on the television or radio and find out information about the situation. We also knew that eventually help would arrive on the scene. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/df297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Konowa Swift Dragon had good reason to kill the Calahrian Viceroy he was meant to protect. The man was a brute, a traitor and most likely even worse than that. He still ended up banished to the Elfkyna forest and the Iron Elves regiment he led was demanded. Alone among the unresponsive trees with only his bengar Jir for company Konowa thinks that things can't get much worse. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/uf297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT This novella is a story of aftermath. The event that kick-starts the story happened some days before the book opens, we never see it, we never know for sure if it really happened. All we know are the consequences that build inexorably upon it. And even these have clearly been waiting for an appropriate occasion. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ii297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT The story is your basic hard boiled detective story with some SF trappings. The main character is the detective, a tough broad who's being bullied into taking on job she's not interested in. The manipulating party pushes her too far in framing her for murder. She decides to fight back using everything at her disposal. She's assisted in this by her mafioso boyfriend, the cop who wants to jail her and her boyfriend and her AI secretary, who has gone rogue. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/el297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT There are science fiction stories that are in essence about the ideas of science fiction. That's a tradition that stretches from Jules Verne and on into the magazines of the Golden Age and survives in its most pure form in what we often refer to as hard SF. An alternative method is to instead use the concepts of SF, whether they be space travel, alien encounters, visions of a future world, etc., as the building blocks for setting up stories that aren't about technology or science as such. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Like many people, Rick Klaw's earliest memories of nonfiction comics start with Ripley's Believe It or Not. First appearing in 1918 as Champs and Chumps, Robert Ripley's one-panel strip about sports evolved by 1919 into the more general Ripley's. During his childhood in the seventies, most bookstores sold Ripley's paperback collections. The one on UFOs helped to foster his lifelong interest in science fiction and scared the bejeezus out of him. That, along with the numerous Bigfoot "documentaries" of the era, kept him awake many a night. Now that he is older, Rick explores the evolution on nonfiction comics without a flashlight. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ts297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT According to Rick, this is a stupid movie. Beginning with the previews giving away the "surprise," Rick goes on to detail why he thinks it is stupid in scene by scene. Rarely do five minutes go by without something stupid happening on screen. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers some advice for the summer. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/hl297.htm Mon, 1 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT Could we live on other planets? Is it possible? Human ingenuity has always thrived to grow and expand our boundaries. But which worlds could support us? And how? All this and more is answered in this remarkable well explained guidebook that gives you the do's and don'ts of living on Mars. 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.