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/graphica338.htm Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Perhaps we're not going to discuss "love" exactly -- more like its absence, and what happens in the negative space created by its void, or its loss. But we are discussing "one big book" this time -- and a slight variant in the usual columnar construction. Besides, how often do we get to reference the exact title of a Patty Griffin song? One ably covered by Emmylou Harris? Mark London Williams picked up Jeff Lemire's collected Essex County, from Top Shelf Productions. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven337.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2010 included Kage Baker, Philip Klass (William Tenn), Patricia Wrightson, George H. Scithers, Frank Frazetta, Everett Bleiler, Neil Barron, E.C. Tubb and Donald H. Tuck. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/mb338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Jane's vacation with her boyfriend, Rick LaFleur, is interrupted by an announcement that the weres are coming out of the closet. Leo Pellessier, master vampire of New Orleans, has planned an event to parlay with African weres, but before the party, he sends Jane to deliver a "get out of town" message to a persona non grata. Expecting to confront a vampire, Jane faces off instead against a pack of werewolves thirsty for blood. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/sh338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT On her way to Luna, Dr. Rita Shankar goes to Tranquillity City and there she meets up with Colonel Ross, Johnny Yuen and Captain Narayan. She is the guest in an important meeting disguised as an innocent dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Shankar is on a mission, and they want her to acquire Helium 3, destroying the leftover supply for them to be able to sell the other at a premium, but getting it will be at high risk. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/tm338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was certainly not the first science fiction writer. Scholars quarrel endlessly over that puzzle, arguing passionately for Jules Verne (1828-1905), Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) or even dear old Lucian of Samosata (120-180). http://www.sfsite.com/02b/st338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT an audiobook review by Sarah Trowbridge In the kingdom of Mellinor, in the deepest dungeon below the castle Allaze, the master thief and gifted wizard Eli Monpress uses his talents to their best advantage to break out of prison and kidnap King Henrith right out of his own throne room. Eli is asking a king's ransom but this operation is just one part of an elaborate scheme that unfolds gradually over the course of the entire book. It turns out that Eli's goal is to force the bounty on his head higher and higher, aiming to become the thief who summons the price of one million gold standards. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/md338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's 1989, and while personal computers have been around for a few years, their full potential is still largely untapped. Only about one household in three owns a computer, and most that do own them don't really know what to do with them. But there are an elite few who understand instinctively that mastery of the computer means power. These few are almost always teenage boys, are highly intelligent, and are bored. It was fun at first, like a game, but when a couple of hackers gain access to New York Telephone's computer system, the stakes are suddenly much higher. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/hb338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT The author introduces yet another series with this first installment of a trilogy set in a relatively near-future Savannah, Georgia. In this interesting new world the direst predictions about global warming have come true. America's southern states have become near-tropical. Flooding ocean waters have buried coastal cities, forcing them to move onto stilts or to move inland. Much of Florida is underwater and the Everglades have swallowed the rest. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/vg338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Miles Vorkosigan -- crippled son of Barrayar's Prime Minister -- has just graduated from the Barrayaran Military Academy, and like every graduate is desperately hoping to be assigned to ship duty. But instead of being put aboard the Barrayaran fleet's newest interstellar cruiser, he's assigned instead to the post of meteorology officer at a remote arctic training base. But even in that far-flung outpost, Miles can't stay out of trouble for long. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/wa338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Born blind, Caitlin Decter receives a retinal implant that allows her to see. In the process, her doctor accidently gives her the ability to see webspace as well as the real world. With her online vision, Caitlin notices a presence in the background of the web and begins to explore. She soon finds that the presence is an accidentally created artificial intelligence which she dubs Webmind. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/im338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT This is the first of three parts of the final book in The Demon Wars Saga. This tale has been a great adventure in fantasy, with heroes which include wizards (of a sort), elves, dwarves, goblins, giants, a centaur that plays bagpipes, humans, and a dragon. The author includes everything one could ever want in a fantasy series and populates the Land of Corona with some great heroes and villains. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil335.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Happy New Year! Once again, it's time to voice your opinion about what your favourite reading was from the year that just ended. Long-time visitors to the SF Site are familiar with the process. If you're new, what this is about is that we want to hear what you thought was the very best of what you read from the past year. And since we know how hard it is to pick just one favourite, you can tell us what you would put on your personal top 10 favourites. We also understand that you may not yet have read all the books from 2010 that you meant to, so we're going to give you a chance to do that -- until March 4, 2011. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ct338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Kate is not at all what she seems to be. She could be an exile from a weird old place with its shuttered carnival attractions out on the Maine coast next to a great grey sea. And Kate has more problems than she knows what to do with, and they seem to multiply like gnats every time she turns around. But there is a gallery of allies she collects along the way. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/cb338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT The novel is set on the planet Kibou-daini. Miles Vorkosigan has come there ostensibly to attend on conference on cryogenic technology, but in reality to untangle some suspicious business dealings between the planet's companies and interests on Komarr. But things go a bit pear-shaped when Miles and others are kidnapped. Miles ends up escaping and meeting an 11-year-old boy, Jin, a runaway, who has settled in a sort of squat. But this place also hides a secret cryogenic facility http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ma338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT "All art aspires to the condition of music." Walter Pater's famous axiom is directly invoked in one of the stories in this anthology of speculative fiction linked by the theme of music, and is one of the first quotes that springs to mind when considering the artistic challenge of capturing music in words. Another well-known quote about music and writing is one by Frank Zappa. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/fj338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT The evil entity Abeloth has been defeated. The madness-plague affecting young Jedi Knights has vanished. The alliance between Luke Skywalker and the Lost Tribe of the Sith still holds, although tenuously. But animosity between Galactic Alliance Head Natasi Daala and the Jedi Order continues to grow. Assassination attempts are being made on key Alliance figures and slave revolt outbreaks have been reported from Outer Rim worlds. And is all as it truly seems with Abeloth's corpse? http://www.sfsite.com/books/new338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming books this month include the latest from James P. Blaylock, Steve Cash, Joe Abercrombie, Andy Remic, Elizabeth Bear, Claude Lalumiere, Raymond E. Feist, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Rick watched episodes of Being Human, Primeval and The Vampire Diaries but it was other series that held his interest. He also combed through his movie predictions for 2010 (based on how good the writers are) and it holds a few surprises. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ke338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT It is remarkable that of all the science fiction writers of the Twentieth Century, Philip K. Dick is one of two whose works have had the greatest durability, and whose images and attitudes have penetrated the very fabric of world culture most extensively. (The other is H.P. Lovecraft, who wasn't exactly a science fiction writer anyway -- but close enough for present purposes.) http://www.sfsite.com/02b/on338.htm Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT The citizens of this unspecified but presumably not too distant future live a life that is exactly the same as their counterparts in mid-twentieth century America. The differences would appear to be all for the better: there are no wars, there is no crime, there seems to be no poverty; most people, understandably, are happy. The State (always capitalized) seems to have come into being about a generation before and is clearly a work in progress. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/da337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT "I'd probably have to say some of the characters in the Gaunt's Ghosts or Inquisitor series I write for Black Library. The first has run to thirteen books so far, the second six, and you really begin to get to know characters when you've been writing them that long. It's like working with good friends." http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ee337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Many readers will be familiar with the British TV show Primeval, that deals with anomalies, holes in time, which allow creatures from the age of the dinosaurs, and occasionally things from the future, to cross into the present. The TV show has returned for another series, with lots of glitz. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil335.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Happy New Year! Once again, it's time to voice your opinion about what your favourite reading was from the year that just ended. Long-time visitors to the SF Site are familiar with the process. If you're new, what this is about is that we want to hear what you thought was the very best of what you read from the past year. And since we know how hard it is to pick just one favourite, you can tell us what you would put on your personal top 10 favourites. We also understand that you may not yet have read all the books from 2010 that you meant to, so we're going to give you a chance to do that -- until March 4, 2011. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ex337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT The world here revealed is a promising setting. Based on the briefish glimpse we see in this novella, the tech level is roughly Middle Ages, with, of course, magic. The kicker is that magic use has terrible consequences: it fosters the growth of a poisonous bramble. There was an "Old Empire" which seems to have mostly collapsed, and the rump of that Empire, apparently city-states, is under attack from the Paikans, who seem to be slavers. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/al337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT If Scheherezade, Sleeping Beauty, and a committee of Middle Eastern and possibly Russian supernatural creatures had got together to tell a tale, this tale would probably be the one they came up with. Evocative and atmospheric, with an underlay of alchemy and wild magic and Machiavellian politics, it's a slim volume which packs a world-building punch to it. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/im337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection of short stories, only loosely tied together in the frame story of a man covered with tattoos. Each tattoo moves, and each tells a story. That is one of the many images Ray Bradbury re-imagines over and over again. The illustrated man who serves as the frame story is likely not the same illustrated man who serves as protagonist in the last story in the collection. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/de337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT In a far-distant future, the human race is part of a civilization known as the ConSentiency, which covers many far-flung galaxies and multiple species of sentient beings. It is two of these races that make the ConSentiency possible: the Taprisiots, who can make it possible for any two minds within the ConSentiency to connect and communicate, and the Caleban, who can create jump-doors, providing instantaneous travel between any two points in the universe. But these conveniences have their downside, the most glaring of which is the ability to abduct a person, or persons, and remove them to any spot in the universe, completely against their will. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/tr337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Sad to say, but adventures in the Land of Corona are coming to a close. With the finishing of this final part of book 6, Gil realizes there's only one more book left and the story seems to be ready for a huge finale. The Transcendence trilogy focuses on the new leaders in the land of Behren and Honce-the-Bear. In particular, this book covers the land of Behren and how the Behrenese have conquered the To-Gai. But Ranger Brynn Dhariell has arrived on the scene to set the To-Gai people free. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2010 included Kage Baker, Philip Klass (William Tenn), Patricia Wrightson, George H. Scithers, Frank Frazetta, Everett Bleiler, Neil Barron, E.C. Tubb and Donald H. Tuck. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/he337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Joe Abercrombie is to fantasy literature what Quentin Tarantino is to action films. They are both decidedly twisted, prone to moments of extreme violence and write very real characters and acrid dialogue that doesn't pull any punches. High on any wish list is to see Quentin Tarantino direct an adaptation of The First Law Trilogy. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ta337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Berren is a pickpocket who lives with a gang near the docks of Deephaven, a city with an underbelly as seedy as its palaces are rich. After watching an execution, Berren attempts to steal the winnings from the thief-taker who brought in the victims but gets a purse with just a few coins for his trouble. But because he succeeded in getting the thief-taker's purse at all, Syannis offers him a chance to become his apprentice. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/jr337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT This is the story of Margarita Haralson and her husband, Alex, whose desire to have grandchildren causes them to create a future race of robots and found a new Garden of Eden. The Haralson's story is told almost as a confessional, with Margarita describing a visit she and her husband had to their rabbi to tell him about the strange events which happened to them. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/am337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT When Secret Service agent Ronan Dooley witnesses his own death, he's thrown into the heart of a murder mystery which could topple everything modern society is built around. For in 2056, there are two kinds of people: the haves and have-nots, the mortals and amortals, and Ronan's one of the latter. When he dies, as he's done eight times now, he's immediately brought back to life as a clone. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT This time we're looking at the newest works from Orson Scott Card, Adam Roberts, Robert McCammon, Peter S. Beagle, Jo Walton, Joe R. Lansdale, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT As promised last month, this is the second and final part of the looking back/looking forward articles. This time, two of the busiest men in genre -- PS Publishing's Pete Crowther and the ubiquitous Steve Jones -- share their recent releases in 2010 and their future plans for 2011. Hold onto your hats, there's going to be a lot going on... http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's January, a time when, traditionally, the pickings for quality movies tend to be slim. The studios have released what they consider to be their best work in time for Academy Award consideration, and so have made the beginning months of the New Year, often right through April, to release, to put it kindly, substandard product. For movie fans, this is a pretty bad time. What's a cineaste to do during this fallow, infertile period? Quite a bit, actually. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Being Human is a horror comedy series based on a British show of the same title about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who share an apartment. It debuted on SyFy in January to an audience in the two million viewer range. This would get a series cancelled on network television, but for SyFy it's huge. See when it and other SF series on TV will be broadcast in February. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica337.htm Tue, 1 Feb 2011 11:00:00 GMT Before Rick Klaw's discovery of the French artist Jacques Tardi, how did he enjoy comics? The three reprints from Fantagraphics all appeared on his previous two best of the year lists: You Are There and West Coast Blues in 2009 and It Was the War of the Trenches last year. If he'd read their most recent Tardi publication (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec Volume 1: Pterror Over Paris/The Eiffel Tower Demon) in time, it would have joined its brethren. Initially set in pre-WWI Paris, Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec relates the unusual escapades of the novelist title character as she uncovers plots involving a recently hatched pterodactyl, demonic cults, seedy underworld characters, and murder. 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.