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/graphica346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Amongst the various releases during May's Free Comic Book Day festivities, Boom! Studios premiered the initial installment of Elric: The Balance Lost, the first non-Michael Moorcock crafted Elric comic story in 35 years. Acclaimed writer Chris Roberson and artist Francesco Biagini usher Elric through his latest graphic epoch. The White Wolf initially leaped into the four color pages with Marvel's Conan the Barbarian #14-15 (1972). Rick Klaw takes a look at the history of Michael Moorcock's work in comics. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/bu346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Steampunk technology from Victorian England, along with fantasy tropes like zombies and vampires, come to 1880s Arizona at the time of the OK Corral gun fight in a light-hearted mash-up that cannot help remind one of the Wild Wild West television show of the 60s. But the author also throws in vampires, zombies and Indian magic, along with many of the most famous real historical characters of that era. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/dt346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Hanns Heinz Ewers (1872-1943) was a renowned German author of weird and decadent fiction, whose work nowadays is largely forgotten and/or scarcely available because of his personal involvement with the Nazi party. UK-based Side Real Press, which is endeavoring to translate and reprint most of Ewers' work, has produced an elegant volume of original short stories by contemporary writers, inspired to the fiction and the cultural milieu of the German author. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/im346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT The story is of an unnamed narrator, a fugitive from Venezuela after some unnamed crime, who comes to an island in what seems to be the Indian Ocean. As the narrator's informant, an Italian rugseller in Calcutta, puts it "Chinese pirates do not go there, and the white ship of the Rockefeller Institute never calls at the island, because it is known to be the focal point of a mysterious disease, a fatal disease that attacks the outside of the body and then works inward." http://www.sfsite.com/06b/bs346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Of all the work in this magazine, the fiction stands out most of all. First up is "Freedom Acres" by Andrew Magowan where Carolyn, a neighbour in Freedom Acres notices a new man moving in over the road from her, and, from the moment she sees him she has a deep sense of unease. She does not know why she feels this way, but she fears for herself, her husband and their child while he continues to move in. Up until now, the place has been quiet, and uneventful, but a dark cloud has come over Freedom Acres. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/sa346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Rick wanted to like Super 8 more than he did. It is not a bad movie, neither is it a great one. There is a character in the movie who says that movies are not just about action, they are about making the audience care about the characters. Rick got the feeling that J.J. Abrams was trying too hard. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/xm346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT In two comic books, both with a cover date of Sept 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created two new superhero teams, The Avengers and The X-Men. The Avengers was Marvel's answer to DC's Justice League of America, a team-up of their most famous solo characters. The X-Men was something else entirely, all new heroes attending a school for mutants. Jack Kirby based the story loosely on Wilmar Shiras's book Children of the Atom. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Two new genre tv shows premiere this month. The first, Teen Wolf, has already aired. It is roughly a half hour of typical teen high jinks with about eight minutes of werewolf spliced in. Falling Skies premieres June 19. Aliens conquer Earth. Humans fight back. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT New books from Kelley Armstrong, Stephen Deas, David Anthony Durham, Sara Douglass, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Charles Wilson, and many more are featured here. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/gf346.htm Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT This is a compilation of several stories from some of the best-known fantasy and SF writers around. The reader can look forward to two bonuses, as the first half contains Fred Saberhagen's novel, Mask of the Sun, and later seven original stories by contributors: David Webber, Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Maddox Roberts, Jane Lindskold, Daniel Abraham and Dean Wesley Smith. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/wm345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT The Wise Man's Fear continues the story told in The Name of the Wind with Kvothe recounting his life's story to Chronicler at the Wayside Inn. His recollections pick up right where they left off with Kvothe attending the University. His conflict with Ambrose continues in earnest and his exploits in and around Imre continue to build his legend. When circumstances at the University compel Kvothe to take a term off, he travels to the distant land of Vintas to work for one of the wealthiest men in the world. During his travels in Vintas, besides conquering the world, Kvothe manages to uncover more about the Chandrian and furthers his quest to locate them in order to seek vengeance for the death of his parents and his entire troupe of Edema Ruh. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/dw345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Not as well known in the science fiction field is Vance's output as a mystery writer -- eleven novels under his full official name of John Holbrook Vance, three as Ellery Queen, and several more under other pseudonyms. The Vance admirer who knows him for the mannered, intensely colored writing of his science fiction will assuredly be surprised by the deliberately matter-of-fact, almost flat, style of his mysteries. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/sa345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Oscar Wilde once wrote to Robert Ross that "romantic surroundings are the worst surroundings possible for a romantic writer. In Gower Street, Stevenson could have written a new Trois Mousquetaires. In Samoa, he wrote letters to The Times about Germans." Looking at the lives of some the titans of imaginative literature, there is some justice in the remark. Jules Verne, creator of so many spectacular (not to mention fantastic) voyages, would have the vapours at the mere thought of leaving Paris; and of course Proust, confined to the cork-lined room, was the supreme literary pioneer of the exploration of time as well as space. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ww345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's 1938, and America is at war. This is not the war in Europe that we are all familiar with, however. The United Slav Army, in a surprise attack on the American west coast, quickly gained a large foothold, encompassing most of California, and massacring the entire population of San Francisco in the process. The beleaguered American forces are barely hanging on against the overwhelming technology of the Slavs, but a new secret weapon just might turn the tide. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/me345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Miles Vorkosigan has made a lot of mistakes in his thirteen years of military service, but he's always been able to bounce back stronger than before. But at the start of Memory, Miles makes a series of errors in judgment that could cost him everything. After his brush with death in Mirror Dance, Miles's cryo-revival procedure has seemingly gone without a hitch -- except for the fact that he now has unexplained, unpredictable, and uncontrollable seizures. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/it345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT It is a bittersweet thing to come to an end of any good saga, and this is especially true for The Demon Wars Saga. It's the story of the land of Corona, where the Demon Dactyl, Bestesbulzibar, awakes -- wrecking havoc in the land. It took seven books to get through this adventure, but was it ever worth it! http://www.sfsite.com/06a/uq345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT The plot begins to thicken with the murder of Professor Galapogos, in his office at the Natural History Museum. Ulysses Quicksilver is soon on the scene, and determines that the killer has also stolen the professor's difference engine; the steam-punk equivalent to a personal computer. Throughout this work the author amuses with alternate tech, such as Ulysses Quicksilver's personal communicator; a brass and leather mobile phone, an Overground train network in Londinium Maximus, mechanical bobbies, and Beefeater-drones with clockwork craniums. We soon learn that Magna Britannia is the ultimate superpower, dominating a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, and Queen Victoria is almost 160 years old. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT So who has time to read comics these days (are comics really a young man's game, as opposed to something for harried middle-aged dads?) or even see Thor (which apparently is not bad) or contemplate DC's latest "universal reboot" with summer's upcoming Flashpoint/Justice League twofer, which gives the new/same heroes new origins (presumably), retooled identities, etc? Mark London Williams had these questions swirling around his head, when it occurred to him that even in a time of (seemingly) no reading, he had actually read some comics after all. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/sv345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Attention everyone. Attention: Superman has left the cornfield. After 10 years on the air and 217 episodes, Smallville is no more. Clark Kent has put on his tights and taken flight, finally donning the mantle of the Man of Steel and bringing the longest-running American Science Fiction series to a close, in a two-hour finale that can only be described as a glorious mess. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Derek decided to indulge himself by going to the movies for an entire day, something he hadn't done in a while -- something that used to occur regularly when he was in his teens and, on occasion, early twenties. But when most multiplexes screen anemic fare, to say nothing of advancing age, clawing his eyes out with rusty forks appeals more than the prospect of trekking from screen to screen at the local multiplex to view such cinematic atrocities. Fortunately, the Alamo Ritz in downtown Austin held a Day of the Apes: all five Planet of the Apes movies shown back-to-back, for, according to the Alamo Drafthouse's website, "over 8 armageddonlicious hours of blazing gorilla warfare." http://www.sfsite.com/06a/os345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT Better than Thor, not as good as Pirates of the Caribbean II and Pirates of the Caribbean III, not nearly as good as the first film in the series, this fourth Pirates movie has good acting, some clever dialogue, but a very weak plot. It's not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick345.htm Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT For most of his life, Rick claims there has only been one really good science fiction series on television: Star Trek. The last two decades brought half a dozen more, starting in 1993 with Babylon 5 and The X-Files. Now that Smallville has ended, the only new show he really looks forward to is Doctor Who. 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.