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/07b/bestofcdl.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT All of the finest stories of this popular pioneer of urban fantasy and creator of the mythical city of Newford have been chosen by the author -- and his fans -- and gathered in this collection. To celebrate, we decided to have a contest. You can win a copy of The Very Best of Charles de Lint, published by Tachyon Publications, which will be sent to you post-paid. All you need to do is to answer five questions. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica324.htm Sat, 17 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Long a mainstay of comic book publishing, licensed properties comprise a significant portion of the contemporary marketplace. Series and graphic novels based on diverse properties litter store shelves. Rick Klaw recently spoke with three writers who work on licensed properties. Paul Benjamin (Muppet King Arthur), Alan J. Porter (Cars), and Bill Williams (Spike: The Devil You Know) offer some frank, behind-the-scenes commentary on working with licensed properties. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fm324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Besides the obvious and delightful spy-geek-Chuthluian horror cocktail that Charles Stross shakes together in his Laundry series, there's a bit of Stargate to it, what with the openings of gates into otherwhere and heroic types stepping through them. It has been that way since the beginning, when our man from the Laundry, a geek turned applied demonologist and secret agent, stepped through a hole in space to rescue the damsel in distress. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ae324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT The uneasy alliance Luke Skywalker formed with the mysterious Lost Sith Tribe persists, albeit tenuously, as our heroes continue to track down the dark presence that is driving Jedi across the galaxy insane. But the evil entity that has now become known as Abeloth is ready for the confrontation, and Luke is finding it increasingly disturbing that he may recognize something about this monster. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fo324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Cory Doctorow's novel provides an interesting near future tale of a labor revolution that changes the world. And who are the players in this revolution? The surprising answer is: players of Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, also known as MMOMPGs, that resemble World of Warcraft. He assembles a worldwide cast of characters to participate in the world-changing events of his novel, from California to China, from India to Indonesia. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/wa324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT 15-year-old Caitlin Decter was born blind. In spite of that, she is a math genius who can surf the net. Caitlin gets her sight back because of a computer chip implanted behind her left eye. At first, all she can see is the web in the form of circles and lines of various colors. Later on, she can see normally due to some reprogramming of the implant. But when she switches off the implant and looks at the World Wide Web, she discovers a consciousness out there. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/dt324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Bringing together the theories of science and religion; two topics that have not always got on together, the author ponders on whether man was made as per Darwin's theory or by God. The novel reads like a history of evolution and the history of spirituality from other countries. Certain names like The Priestess and Seth are synonymous with Celtic and Egyptian myth also, and the story can be seen as a fantasy crossed with science fiction. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/pl324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT There is a saying that "revenge is a dish best served cold" and here that saying is taken to a whole new level. Set in Killington, Texas, a rural town where the residents fear God and love their high school football team -- the Killington Jackrabbits. The story begins with Killington high school's star quarterback, Cole Logan, being brutally attacked in an effort to prevent Cole from playing in the big playoff game against local rivals. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/bo324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT It is common knowledge that the President of the United States is in possession of highly classified information as part of his job. In Christopher Farnsworth's debut novel, one of the president's secrets is a vampire named Nathaniel Cade. Cade is charged with fighting evil and protecting the United States from all sorts of threats, foreign and domestic. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/bc324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT High on a hilltop in the city of Edinburgh in 1874, the kindly and eccentric Dr. Madeleine indulges her love for mending people. She serves as a midwife to prostitutes and other desperate women, and houses their babies until she can find adoptive homes for them. On the coldest day in the history of the world, a young woman shows up on Dr. Madeleine's doorstep, brokenhearted and on the brink of giving birth. But when Little Jack emerges, something is terribly wrong: Jack has been born with a frozen heart. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/mt324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT The Demon Wars Saga continues with Mortalis, the fourth book in the series, which bridges the two trilogies in the saga. In this edition of the series, Honce-the-bear, a country/state in the land of Corona, has just had their Abellican Church fall to the evil of the demon dactyl. The result is a ferocious war with giants, goblins and dwarves. During the reconstruction period the Church works to get their house back in order but the Rosy Plague has entered the land. This plague is untreatable, even by the magic gemstones of the church. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/cd324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Galaxy Audio takes L. Ron Hubbard's short stories that were published in various aviation, sports and pulp magazines in the mid-1900's and creates a series of "audio pulps." These audiobooks are about two hours in length and contain one or more short stories within a given genre. The production mixes subtle sound effects, original music and an extremely talented cast of voice talent to create a cinematic audio experience that provides the perfect audio escape from reality. This title includes "The Carnival of Death" and "The Death Flyer." http://www.sfsite.com/07b/db324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT In this sequel to Hater, recently infected Danny McCoyne continues the bloody kills to destroy the Unchanged while also looking for his five year-old daughter, Ellis. After escaping from a camp where Haters are destined for slaughter, Danny makes his way back to the city where his wife and daughter could be hiding/surviving. While Haters act as vicious as any zombie from any zombie movie or story, they can think and they don't eat their victims -- well, not always. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/bestofcdl.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT All of the finest stories of this popular pioneer of urban fantasy and creator of the mythical city of Newford have been chosen by the author -- and his fans -- and gathered in this collection. To celebrate, we decided to have a contest. You can win a copy of The Very Best of Charles de Lint, published by Tachyon Publications, which will be sent to you post-paid. All you need to do is to answer five questions. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/yb324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT A coven of Soviet science-fiction writers are summoned by Stalin to a dacha sometime in 1945 for an act of dark enchantment. The war against Germany is won and, as the atomic bomb is yet to be dropped, Stalin predicts a brief, victorious struggle against the decadent USA. The Soviet Union, however, needs an enemy to keep the engines of permanent global revolution stoked. Thus the Soviet writers are given a task by the dictator -- to create the narrative of an alien invasion that will serve as a global unifying myth. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/da324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Paxton Martin returns to his East Tennessee hometown, Switchcreek, after over a decade in Chicago. He has been working at various restaurants, but it's clear his life is going nowhere. He's in suspension because of the events that made Switchcreek famous when he was fourteen. A mysterious disease called Transcription Divergence Syndrome struck most of the residents of the town. Many died, and most of the rest were altered. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/wo324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Viking King Athun goes on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village, but not for the usual rape and pillage that such chaps traditionally enjoy. On this occasion, Athun is acting on a prophecy which told him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the Norse gods. The deal is, if the childless Athun takes the boy and raises him as his heir, the child will lead his people to glory. However, what the King discovers is not one, but two boys. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/cw324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT We begin the story, this second installment in the Ambrose books, with Morlock on the road exploring his new found pseudo-exile by the recently-crowned fledgling emperor. The novel unfolds like a series of vignettes or short stories rather than a straight-forward narration with each section of the novel written from a different character's perspective that Morlock meets along his journey. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT It's sex, stories and rock and roll for author Kevin J. Anderson, ProgRock Records boss Shawn Gordon and all round talented musician, composer and producer Henning Pauly as they talk about the making of the Terra Incognita: The Line In The Sand rock CD and its intimate connections with Anderson's new novel The Map Of All Things. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-sf-volume07.htm#27 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT In 1984, Gardner Dozois gathered together what he thought was the best short science fiction of the previous year. He scrutinized as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1983 that he could get his hands on and chose those which he felt best represented the science fiction field. Jim Frenkel published it as part of his Bluejay Books line (for three years) and it has been produced every year since then (by St. Martins's Press). Volume 27 has been added to the lists compiled by author, by title and by volume. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT It's a busy time for new books, and this time we're looking at the latest from Stephen Baxter, Holly Black, Dave Duncan, Ed Greenwood, Tom Lloyd, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Robert Silverberg, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT From time to time Rick wonders what people born after Star Wars think of old science fiction movies. A case can be made for consigning to the dustheap every SF film made before Stanley Kubrick's three blockbusters, Dr. Strangelove in 1964, 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968, and A Clockwork Orange in 1971. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fe324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT In an attempt to cure cancer and the common cold, scientists accidentally sparked something worse: a virus which turns its victims into mindless, ravening zombies. Twenty years later, the hungry dead are just a fact of life, one to be avoided when possible, dealt with when necessary. It's a world of paranoia and danger, constant blood tests and intense personal security, where human contact is minimalized. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/sl324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Jommy Cross has returned! Maybe you didn't realize he'd been missing. A.E. Van Vogt wrote one of the quintessential Golden Age novels in Slan, originally published in 1940. Jommy Cross is the son of the legendary Slan, Peter Cross -- a great man of science and technology. Slans are the next stage of human evolution: telepathy achieved through a pair of golden tendrils. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/gi324.htm Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT The idea of being born with some kind of magical gift is intriguing. However it is never fully explained why only the people in the Uplands have the gifts. People in the Lowlands have not the gifts and consider those in the Uplands to be witches. Gifts can range from the ability to kill with a word, call animals for the hunt with the mind, cure with a touch, sickness to death with a whisper, etc. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica323.htm Sat, 3 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Given the fact that many chain bookstores offer extensive graphic novel selections and the existence of countless collections including seemingly limited interest oddities such as Peter Porker the Spectacular Spider-Ham, American Comic Group's forgettable 1960s super heroes Nemesis and Magicman, and Fantagraphics' two volumes of the wonderfully subversive works of Fletcher Hanks, one might think everything of note ever published has been compiled into graphic novel format. Remarkably, many influential and popular works remain uncollected. Rick Klaw is here to correct that misperception. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/wt323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Blind from birth, 15-year-old Caitlin Dector, with the aid of a device, she can receive and decipher the same visual cues as everyone else. She can also see the data flow of the Internet and the so-called Webmind, a spontaneously emerging consciousness existing only on the Web. Even as Caitlin learns to see the world around her for the first time, the Webmind is learning alongside her. As more people learn of Webmind's existence, some accept it with trepidation and optimism, others with fear and worse. The Webmind can't stay a secret for long, and the time for it to choose its purpose for existing is approaching far too quickly. Is it here to help, or harm? http://www.sfsite.com/07a/bl323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Luke Skywalker and son Ben continue to follow the trail left by Jacen Solo to discover the former Jedi's reasons for becoming the despicable Darth Cadeus. In the Outer Rim of the Galaxy, they find themselves tracked by a mysterious Lost Tribe of Sith and the dark presence that is driving Jedi across the galaxy insane continues to manipulate and promote dissention and mistrust within the Galactic Alliance. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/nc323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT The book, an alternate history of Napoleonic France, is based on the concept of Robert Fulton providing a steam-powered ship to Napoleon. The focus of the novel is on Wolfe O'Sheridane, an Irishman who has fled his native land and is looking for vengeance against the British invaders. He hooks up with Fulton in an attempt to persuade the French to give Fulton's experiment a chance. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/cr323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT In the future there has been war and terrible poverty. There are, however, an elite few who have the credits to live well. They have nothing but the finest. America's cities are the refuge of the diseased. No credits, no cure. All of the cities are in various states of decay. Then there are the CorpCities, owned and operated by corporations. You work for the Corp, live in Corp housing, and eat Corp food. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/la323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Laura Matthews and her husband, Dan, have bought an ancient longhouse in the Welsh Hills, leaving their London lives behind. Although Dan returns to London for the work week, Laura immerses herself in the wild beauty of the landscape, hoping to do her best painting ever and just maybe the magical nature of the area will help her to conceive the baby she's always wanted. For, in this part of Wales, the veil between reality and legend remains thin. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/tt323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT "The Tramp" was originally published in three parts in Astounding Science Fiction. Appearing in the September, October and November issues during 1938, it is the only story in this audio release. The action begins when a small-town sheriff shoots an escaping vagrant, Doughface Jack, in the head. The local doctor works frantically to save Jack's life, relying on unconventional surgery which involves sewing the two halves of Jack's brain together and replacing the top of his skull with a silver bowl. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/hl323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Jack Vance is a familiar name to most SF/Fantasy readers. Now, as his writing career seems to have drawn to a close, he is getting a welcome new shot of recognition, driven by a memoir, a tribute antholology, and some interesting new collections of his work. This collection is different from the others in not really selecting a representative group of his stories, nor a themed set, nor the best. It is instead a choice of some of the more interesting works from his first decade or so of publishing. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/fi323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Fractured and weakened by civil war between House Hoegbotton & Sons and Frankwrithe & Lewden, Ambergris became an easy target for the mysterious gray caps, its mushroom-like underground denizens, who rose and conquered the city, subjugating it to martial law. Fungus now blights Ambergris like a cancer, the air thick with spores. Formerly human Partials patrol the streets, quasi-fungal enforcers who keep the populace in line while the gray caps build two mysterious towers. But rumors of a resistance persist. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/fh323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT When it comes to secret organizations dedicated to protecting the world from all threats, both internal and external, no group is as resourceful, widespread, or potentially insane as the Droods. And of that infamous family, none is as dangerous or misunderstood as Eddie Drood, who has saved the world more than a few times in his checkered career. After a stint as head of the family, he's back to being a nice, normal field agent like he prefers. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Had you asked Derek, ten or eight or even five years ago, who he would pick as the best, most consistent filmmaker directing movies of the fantastique (to use John Clute's term), the last person he would have cited was Christopher Nolan. Granted, when Batman Begins opened five years ago, Derek thought it showed a genuine feel for and a high comfort level with the tropes of the comic book movie -- surprising, especially when one considers that Nolan's three previous full-length cinematic efforts contained little to no science fictional or fantastic content. And yet... http://www.sfsite.com/columns/audio323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Recent audiobook releases received by SF Site include works by Lois McMaster Bujold, Ray Bradbury, Jim Butcher, Orson Scott Card and Cory Doctorow. At times it's more convenient (and enjoyable) to hear the latest in science fiction and fantasy. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT It has been a slow summer for SF on TV so Rick has been watching DVDs of series including Defying Gravity and Fraggle Rock. On TV, Warehouse 13 and Eureka return. He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in July. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/pe323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT The one place the humans wish to go is called Pennterra, and they view it as a last ditch attempt at colonizing a planet as well as making sure humanity lives on in one way or another by their own hands. Their only problem lays in the fact that Pennterra, a lone planet, is already inhabited by aliens thought to be hostile and dangerous. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/wk323.htm Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT Dan is one of the few. Not the brave but the few who don't like Wicked? How could this be so, you ask, when a successful Broadway musical has been based upon the book for which millions of copies have sold? The book is so well loved that 1,159 people have taken the time to write, sometimes ponderous, reviews of the book. He scanned these and could only find a handful of negative reviews. All he could offer in defense is a bumper sticker. 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.