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/09b/uh328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Shen Tai is the second son of the celebrated war leader General Shen Gao who won a key battle against their ancient foes near a remote mountain lake named Kaula Nor. Twenty years after the battle, Shen Tai's legendary father dies. Tai journeys to Kaula Nor to mourn the passing of his father, as tradition demands, but also takes on the impossible task of burying the bones of 40,000 dead soldiers that have remained there all those years. One spring morning, he receives news that a Tagurian princess has heard of his efforts and has gifted him 250 Sardian horses as a reward for his service and his honoring of the dead. The gift would be enough to overwhelm an emperor and instantly makes Tai a player at court, setting off a chain of events that will see the face of China's Tang dynasty changed forever. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ed328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT In a near-future Britain which is in many respects hardly distinguishable from the present state of that green and pleasant land, it is a country of privatised surveillance, economic angst, and fears of arbitrary terrorism -- like today, except more so. In a world where the United States has broken up into fissile fragments, and the fundamentalist President of the rump US destablises what seems to be a fragile world disorder, Britain has seen the return of legalised duelling. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/md328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Once upon a time, there was a scared, abused woman with a gift for mathematics, who won a spaceship in a card game, and saw it as her way free from a family who misused and underappreciated her. She eventually met a dashing young pilot, secretly one of the most powerful man on the planet, and they fell in love. Her wicked brother tried to stop her and steal her ship; she survived despite his efforts, and was reunited with her new love, to live happily ever after. Until now, we never knew what happened the next day. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ao328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT The latest issue is fairly representative of its usual range and quality, which place it as one of the better and more interesting semi-pro magazines in the field. As usual, there's a nice cover and overall fine presentation. There's a good interview, with James Gunn, and a varied series of book reviews. And, most important, there's fiction: six stories, some fantasy, some SF. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ho328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT The Holler is a slim volume of 20 very short stories drawn from author Marge Fulton's life in rural Hazard, Kentucky. Its subtitle, "tales of horror from Appalachia" is, perhaps, a bit of a misnomer. Very few of the stories in here would be described as horror in any conventional sense. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/iz328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT This issue of the UK's best science fiction magazine contains five imaginative and well-written short stories, along with the usual extensive non-fiction on both books and films. Also as usual, the magazine is beautifully and colorfully designed with splendid art and layout. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pa328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT It's one of THOSE books. You know of it long before you glimpse it -- the fabled break-out book, the advance worth millions, the film deal, the works, including a full paragraph's worth of a back-cover blurb by no less than Stephen King. And now here it is, with its eerie near-holographic cover, with its 700+ pages, its full-color promo materials tucked inside complete with the photo of the boyish-looking author and the background story of how the book got written (on jogging outings with his beloved daughter, while the two of them spun the tale of the Girl Who Saved The World). So, then. Alma read it. And she is mightily miffed. Really she is. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/sh328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Paksenarrion is a young woman who wants something more than to marry her father's neighbor and become a farmer's wife in her small rural village. Fleeing from an argument with her father, she runs to the next village, where a patrol from a Duke's company of mercenaries has been sent to do some recruiting. Paksenarrion -- or Paks, as she prefers to be called -- immediately signs up, preferring the life of a soldier to that of a wife. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/jt328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT If you're already familiar with Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy, this collection of four novellas will fill some gaps, disclose and develop previous unknown events in the personal history of some of the major characters. On the other hand, if you never read even one of the three novels, don't worry, because the novellas collected here work perfectly well even as stand-alone stories. And what great stories, considering the exceptional talent of Straub as a writer and a storyteller. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/sd328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT This book is a seamless mixture of high adventure, humor, mystery and science fiction. Alison Goodman does this with a deft hand and still gives us enough science upon which to base the story. As in all good science fiction, that meat of the story is found in the relationships between the characters. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/am328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT A quote on the front cover declares this book to be "a work of dark genius," and another on the back cover tells us, "If this isn't genius, it's the closet thing I've seen to it." High praise indeed, and comments that might have one almost salivating at the prospect of reading something so wonderful. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/mo328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT It is April 15, 1888 and a grave robber has just delivered a huge bundle to Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and his young assistant Will Henry. Dr. Warthrop is a Monstrumologist, a scientist who studies monsters. What the grave robber has delivered to his door has been thought to be a myth for centuries. Here now lay proof in all its horror and alarm. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT So there's still the usual buzz 'n' talk of comics movies -- what will Joss Whedon's take on The Avengers be like? Will Thor sort of fizzle at the box office, like the Hulk attempts, next summer? And is Riddler really in the next Chris Nolan Batman installment? But this summer was supposed to end with comics movies going in another direction, away from the sometimes interesting, yet increasingly "play it safe" caped fare being offered by the studios -- which, if anything, are always interested in releasing safe fare. That other direction was to be Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Mark London Williams wonders what happened. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT New arrivals to the SF Site office so far in September include a variety of new works and re-issued favourites, collections and comics, and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/eg328.htm Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT This book details the adventures of a colony of alien serial rapists who apparently represent the enlightened half of the galaxy. Since they can't manage to talk to the humans (although dolphins proved no problem) they decide that they must forcibly inject them with the magic nanotechnology that will protect them from the bad guys. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica327.htm Sat, 4 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT It started with an innocent quip from Rick Klaw's nephew Alex, aged 13. "Stan Lee created Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four." As the primary progenitor of his geek existence, which encompasses a passion for Godzilla, Monty Python, Dominion, Munchkin, RPGs, and video games, Rick chimed in. "Not exactly." And with that, class was in session. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Recently, on a panel Derek discussed with others which movies they would take if they were to be stranded on a deserted island. All suggested some amazing movies, and fortunately Derek was the only one who turned film snob by saying he wanted to bring along Stanley Kubrick's seminal science fiction motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey. Most of the other panelists groaned, which he understood, but would want to take it for the simple reason that it still moves him in a way that no other SF movie can. Later, he remembered a conversation that he had with Paul O. Miles about this cinematic gem. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Newest arrivals to the SF Site include the latest from Connie Willis, Kage Baker, Dave Duncan, Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan, Joe R. Lansdale, Terry Brooks, L.E. Modesitt Jr., Robert McCammon, Terry Pratchett, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT This month the 2010 Fall Season starts late, as the networks vie to see which one can offer the least content with the most advertising, and more and more people bypass the ads entirely using downloads and DVRs. It's impossible to guess what the future of television will be like, but fun to try. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/vi327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT After long months and great hardship, Captain John "Black Jack" Geary has accomplished the impossible: he's brought the Alliance fleet home. The fleet's suffered great losses in its desperate, prolonged escape from the heart of Syndic space, but under Geary's anachronistic leadership, they've rediscovered what it means to be warriors and victors. But just because they've come home doesn't mean the war is over. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/nd327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT In his Introduction, the editor acknowledges the fact that while the fascination with vampires is understandable, that's hardly the case with zombies. So the fact that he set out to assemble an anthology of zombie stories is a sign of the man's audacity. Truth be told, he has been seeking tales which would go beyond the usual, rather narrow limits of the classical cliches of zombie fiction. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ab327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Imagine a world like our own, except that instead of governments and corporations controlling our lives, there is a council of Angels who have divided up the world into their own little fiefdoms where they rule with an iron fist. These angels are very powerful winged humanoids but there is no explicit connection with the divine. This is probably for the best as these angels have the ability to transform humans into immortal servants who are vampires. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/gu327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT The good folks at GUD proclaim on their site to be unconstrained by genre or form -- bringing the world sci-fi for the literary crowd and literary stuff for the sci-fi crowd. The dichotomy between sci-fi and "literature" is of course a false one, but it does reflect perhaps a divergence of interests among groups of readers who ultimately value originality and literary quality. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/gc327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT God of Clocks is the third book in the Deepgate Codex trilogy. Its heros decide that their best plan is to split into two groups. The first, the sea god Cospinol and his anchor, head to Hell to fight its king. The second group, composed of the former assassin Rachel, and the two escapees from Hell, Mina and Hast, take their freed Arconite to see if they can rouse Heaven to clean up the mess Hell has made of the world. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/wz327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT In the tradition of National Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, William Goldman's The Princess Bride and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure comes a fantasy novel that equals them all. This book has all the elements of a good fantasy novel and all the fun of a roller-coaster-ride. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/na327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT The trilogy is a multi-layered sprawling tale that will keep even the most fickle of readers thoroughly engaged throughout. The primary storyline tells the story of Azoth/Kylar. He is a young orphaned street-criminal that has grown up in the seedy part of town known as the Warrens. In order to survive, Azoth becomes embroiled in the criminal underworld known as the Sa'kage. In order to escape the Warrens, he apprentices with legendary assassin Durzo Blint. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/cc327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Beszel and Ul Qoma are two cities that occupy the same geographical space. They are intricately interwoven, such that some areas are "total" -- all one city or the other -- but some are "crosshatched," so that one building might be in Beszel and its neighbor in Ul Qoma. The residents have been trained to "see" and "unsee" their surroundings. Tyador Borlu is an Inspector for Beszel's Extreme Crime Squad. His new case is the murder of a young woman who turns out to be an American graduate student in archaeology with an interest in the theory, generally regarded as crackpot, that there is a third, invisible, city occupying the same area as Beszel and Ul Qoma. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/sp327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT Big spaceships, alien civilizations, the mysteries of the cosmos, and a story that roams through the vastness of time and space. All of the elements of a big-scale, hard science fiction adventure story are present right from the start. When it comes to piling on a sense of wonder, Starplex is right on point. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/hf327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT It is an ambitious task to lay out the entire history of the fantastic, as fantasy is perhaps the oldest literary genre in the world, going back thousands of years with ancient myths of the gods of various pantheons. Such an examination could easily fill a number of 500-page volumes, and still not tell the entire story. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/bu327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America publish a quarterly magazine, the SFWA Bulletin, which contains a variety of articles on the business of writing, markets, news about the members, and so on. One feature of the Bulletin, which has run since the 90s, is a series of dialogues between Mike Resnick and Barry N. Malzberg on the business of writing. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ld327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT With her horrifically comic first novel The Loving Dead, Amelia Beamer taps into the cultural zeitgeist of the early 21st century. Much like the great zombie film progenitor, Night of the Living Dead, Beamer uses the undead to represent the fractured real world around her, albeit from a hyper-sexual millennialist bent. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/gr327.htm Wed, 1 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT In a land of seven kingdoms and seven thoroughly unpredictable kings, a Graceling is a child born with special powers. It may be in healing, science, spells, combat, etc. Gracelings cannot be recognized until about age three. At that time, their eyes will undergo a change resulting in eyes of two different colors. One eye may be blue and the other green such as Katsa's are. The color of the eyes does not indicate what skill the Graceling will show but it will begin to manifest itself shortly. 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.