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/rick314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT The TV reviewer for Entertainment Weekly and Rick have very different tastes. He likes Caprica and gave a recent episode of Smallville an A. Not Rick. He's also not a big fan of horror movies, but he does have a soft spot in his head for the Universal monsters. The remake of The Wolf Man, now titled The Wolfman, gives him occasion to mention the Universal films. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT The first time Mark London Williams can recall that comics made "news" was when the collecting craze took off in the 70s, and items would pop up in the new about how much Action Comics #1 or Detective Comics #27 would go for at auction, with Mark's dad shaking his head sadly each time, swearing he'd once owned them, and trying to remember if it was when he was off in the Army that Mark's grandmother threw them out. But he was surprised when comics cropped up twice, outside of showbiz reports, in just the span of time since he last filed a Nexus Graphica column. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/gs314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT As this final volume of the Jump 225 Trilogy opens, all the good guys are at a low ebb. Natch has managed to escape from Brone's murder attempt but is disoriented and immediately finds himself imprisoned by business rivals, the Patel brothers. Quell is in an orbiting prison where the inmates literally have to fight for survival and escape is impossible. And Jara finds her fiefcorp breaking apart with no worthwhile products for the public. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ab314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Albedo One appears twice yearly from Ireland. The current issue includes an editorial, an interview with Greg Egan, conducted by David Conyers, and a book review section, by Conyers and Juliet McKenna. But the heart, of course, is the fiction, in this case seven stories. The leadoff story, "Safe," by Robert Reed, is particularly impressive. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/fj314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Fear in the Galactic Alliance is building. Fear of the Jedi. Head of State Daala is convinced that the strange rash of madness that seems to be infecting young Jedi Knights can only be cured by locking up those stricken. With Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker still in exile, Leia and Han Solo on the opposite side of the law, who can save the galaxy? http://www.sfsite.com/02b/wb314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT What happens when the not-as-useless-as-she-thought princess Siri is sent to the not-as-horrible-as-people-say country of Halladren to be wed to the not-as-evil-as-advertised god king? She must learn to find her own angle in a world where everything is a lie wrapped in a veil of propaganda if she is going to survive. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ha314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Back in 1999, Brian Herbert discovered some manuscripts written by his father, Frank Herbert, containing additional information on the Dune universe. Teaming up with Kevin J. Anderson, the two began a quest to add more stories to the "Duneverse" based on these manuscripts and their own talents in writing science fiction. The first series they wrote was Prelude to Dune and this title is the first book in that series. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/qw314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Climate change has left a ravaged but re-building Earth dominated by powerful aristocratic families who control, among other things, the large environmental projects upon which much of the populace labors Further out in the Solar System, the Outers control the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and are engaged in social and technological experimentation that feels threatening to the interests of Earth. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/db314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT In this conclusion to the Joe Pitt casebook series, it begins with Joe homeless and living in the sewers of New York. It ends with the majority of the vampire power structure wiped out and Joe riding off into the sunset with his lady love and a doomsday device to ensure that he is not bothered. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/of314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT In this the follow-up to The Deed of Paksenarrion, Duke Keri Phelan becomes King of Lyonya, working through the human and Elvin customs in a unique Kingdom to finally rule jointly with his Elvin Grandmother Flessinathlin. Captain Dorrin Verraki is drawn into her corrupt family's dark legacy, after the Verrakai attack on Keri's royal progress in Deed is considered treason by Tasia's Crown Prince Mikeli. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/td314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Evangeline Stone was on a job with her colleagues, and the next thing she knows is when she wakes up on a mortuary slab, in another body. Her colleagues are dead, her Handler is missing, and she is being held responsible. Evy Stone -- inhabiting the body of suicide victim Chalice Frost -- is immediately on the run, with just three days to find out what really happened. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ap314.htm Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT The story is told in the first person in present tense by Horn, a saxophone player in the house band at High Times, a nightclub/dance-hall/restaurant with a heart-shaped swimming pool in the basement. Horn, and many of the other employees of High Times live an apartment building who spend all of their free time either wandering back and forth between their apartments or at High Times. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/jc313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT In the twenty-second century, a resurgent America, having survived the end of the previous two centuries's oil-based civilization and the economic and environmental turmoil that accompanied it, now controls all of North America, with the exception of those pesky Dutch in occupied Labrador. It's a land where the inhabitants are proud to call themselves "Americans," but this is an America where wealthy aristocrats own vast estates worked on by indentured servants, where the President is in essence a military dictator, and where religious freedom means the right to worship at the Christian Dominion approved church of your choice. Out of this background comes Julian Comstock... http://www.sfsite.com/02a/rp313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT What would you do if someone, who had accurately predicted the dates of a series of natural disasters, told you the date of "the big one"? What if that person were a psychotic teenager who had murdered her mother and whose predictions came as a side effect of Electro-Convulsive Therapy? And what if you were psychically damaged yourself, confined to a wheelchair as a result of a road accident that killed your lover and your unborn baby? http://www.sfsite.com/02a/sh313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT This anthology uses Jonathan Lethem's infamous 1998 Village Voice article, "The Squandered Promise Of Science Fiction," as a starting point to discuss literary science fiction. In brief, it posits that 1973 was a potential turning point for science fiction and that if Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon had been awarded the Nebula that year, science fiction could subsequently have been "gently and lovingly dismantled, and the writers dispersed." Obviously, this didn't happen. The editors therefore take it as their mission to prove that the promise of science fiction was not, in fact, squandered. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT The weekend before Christmas while wandering Austin Books, Rick Klaw spied an old friend looking over Watchmen as though he'd never seen it before. Lee surprised Rick with his seeming unfamiliarity with the classic graphic novel. Like many of his friends, Lee's comic geek quotient far exceeds the norm. Turns out Lee was holiday shopping for a new friend unfamiliar but curious about comics. Rick decided to talk him out of Watchmen. This led him to consider what comics he would recommend to someone who is a novice when it comes to graphic novels. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil311.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Traditionally, the arrival of the new year is a time to look ahead, and make plans for the future. But it's also a time to look back and reflect on the year we've just completed. And at the SF Site, it's traditional to review the past year's worth of reading and to vote on what you considered to be the best of it. This is your chance to have your say. The same rules apply as in previous SF Site Readers' Choice Awards: if you read it, you liked it, and you want to vote for it, go nuts. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Anathem by Neal Stephenson which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/gg313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Mario is happy to report that the present anthology is definitely of superior quality and that the large majority of the thirteen stories assembled therein are accomplished examples of dark fantasy, apt to satisfy even the more demanding readers, either Sherlockian enthusiasts or horror fans or just fiction lovers seeking out entertaining and well written stories. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/bm313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Who is Billy Meier? While you may not know his name, if you've seen a UFO documentary then you have almost certainly seen his work before. Close your eyes for a moment and picture a flying saucer -- from a photo or film footage you've seen. It floats gently over a green, sparsely vegetated Alpine landscape, perhaps hovering in place or orbiting lazily around a tree. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ar313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT The ancient Egyptian gods have defeated all other pantheons, and now rule the Earth, which they have divided into warring factions. Lieutenant David Westwynter, of His Pharaonic Majesty's Second Paratroop Regiment is leading a covert operation into northern Africa, when his contingent are ambushed. Soon he finds himself in a very sticky situation, and looks certain to die. Fate, however, has other plans. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Discovering new authors is one of the pleasures of reading. This month, Mike Shevdon and Jeremy de Quidt talk about their debut novels. Mike Shevdon's Sixty-One Nails takes us on a haunting journey as a man's life is torn apart and rebuilt in unexpected ways; and Jeremy de Quidt's The Toymaker takes our children on a snowy and dangerous adventure. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Some of the highlights from this month's look at new arrivals to the SF Site offices include the latest from Charles de Lint, Orson Scott Card, Peter V. Brett, Jay Lake, Raymond E. Feist, Peter Straub, Connie Willis, plus much, much more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT The big news in February is the premiere of the sixth and final season of Lost. It was reported that President Obama moved his State of the Union Address so as not to conflict with that much awaited event, which takes place February second. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/er313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT In both The Book of Eli and The Road, a man walks the roads of a devastated future trying to preserve something precious, in one movie a Bible, in the other a child. The book, The Road, is a classic. The movie version makes many changes, all for the worse. The Book of Eli is more fun. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/as313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Subtitled "monochrom's Arse Elektronika Anthology," a name taken from a conference held in 2008 by self-styled "art-tech-philosophy collective" monchrom, and one can assume the vast majority of the material within it was generated or presented at said event (although the book is devoid of any explanation of its origins, as if inviting the reader to work it out for themselves). While a lot of the content is very much NSFW in subject matter, it's not particularly titillatory (unless you have a sexual fetish for academic language and/or science fictional speculation, perhaps, which isn't completely implausible). http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cs313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Tinseltown has been the birth of many fantasies and tales of the unusual. But many of the stories that created such tales are just as bizarre as the stories made. And what if you blended those stories with the cultural consciousness that is Hollywood? http://www.sfsite.com/02a/sb313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT Jessie Shimmer lives with her magical mentor/lover, Cooper Marron and their respective familiars. Lately they've both had nightmares, but Cooper doesn't seem too worried. Unfortunately, during an uncomplicated spell to bring a storm to save the local farming community, Cooper opens a portal to hell instead. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ff313.htm Mon, 1 Feb 2010 11:00:00 GMT For two minutes, every human being on Earth simultaneously falls unconscious. Those who survive awaken with a vision of their own future (in a shared human vision of a moment either six months or thirty years ahead, depending on whether you're watching TV or reading the book). Not only must those who remain bury their dead and heal their injured, they also have to deal with a profound metaphysical shock, one that raises complex issues of free will and temporal logic. 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.