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/fm352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Steampunk is quite the sub-genre de jour of late, its popularity having grown to the point over the past number of years where it has even acquired its titular name. As its audience has grown so have the number of writers jumping on this proto-SF bandwagon in both the novel and short form. It thus becomes necessary for the author to distinguish himself from the crowd by coming up with some sort of fresh take, or variation, on what have already become steampunk tropes. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/cr352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Boss has arrived at the planet Wyr, in the city of Vaycehn, against her better judgement. Her job is to find and recover stealth technology -- technology that was once used by those who built the Dignity Vessels, but technology of which human beings are no longer master, and that is now just part of a mythical age. And this technology has, until now, only been found on derelict ships, not deep underground. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ut352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Paul is generally in favour of critical introductions to collections of stories. Except when it's a book he's reviewing. Then he tends to feel that he is being told how to read the book; especially if the critic picks up on an aspect of the work that he might otherwise have built his review around. Which is the case here. It's quite a good introduction by Steven Shaviro. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/sg352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT This book purports to collect all of the auhtor's work that has appeared since his last collection of short fiction, Scatterbrain, which appeared in 2003, and it does indeed do that. It also includes a number of short but usually quite interesting non-fiction works. What is perplexing is that fully a quarter of this massive volume consists of excepts from nine various novels. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ju352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Another solid issue for Jupiter. The thirty-second issue is subtitled Eurydome, as ever after a moon of Jupiter. This episode, besides the usual list of 5 stories, features 3 poems, 2 by veteran SF poet G.O. Clark, and one by Chris Oliver. Each is readable, a bit clever, thoughtful -- and, like almost every SF poem Rich has read, fairly negligible as to the holy fire of great poetry. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/jc352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT The final story arc begins. Tahiri Viel's sentence for the murder of Admiral Pelleon is revealed. The Jedi take action against Daala's growing imperialism. Luke and Ben visit the home world of the evil droch insects in the hopes of finding leads on the missing entity Abeloth and Vestara Khai must finally face her father and her belief in the Sith way of life. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/we352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT A small-time crook gets nabbed during a bank heist. Unfortunately for the crook, a man was killed during the robbery and a death sentence could be handed down. To save his own life, the thug cuts a deal and agrees to name the mastermind behind the bank job, but as the police are escorting him to the DA's office, he suddenly falls to the ground in convulsions and within minutes, is dead. A quick examination shows that the crook's eyes have turned a perfect and unblemished white, like cue-balls. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/wf352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT This novella, originally published in the anthology, Irresistible Forces, takes place a few months after the events of A Civil Campaign. It's the Winterfair season, and Miles Vorkosigan is only a few days away from his wedding to Ekaterin Vorsoisson. Vorkosigan House is in an uproar with the preparations, only exacerbated by the arrival of a contingent of Galactic guests, including Miles's former comrades from the Dendarii Free Mercenaries. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pa352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Pierce has been recruited by the Stasis, a seemingly omnipotent organization that has charged itself with the preservation and reseeding of mankind throughout Earth's extinction events, and collecting the knowledge of countless human civilizations in a vast library located literally at the end of the world. Stasis agents use timegates to carry out this work, traveling to any of the two and a half million human epochs to record the entirety of the human experience. But equally important as history to the Stasis is unhistory, and the timeline is riddled with palimpsests. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/hb352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Hellbent is the second volume of the Cheshire Red Reports series, "Cheshire Red" being the aka for protagonist Raylene Pendle, vampire thief-for-hire. In the previous Bloodshot, we're introduced to Raylene as a sardonic but basically good-hearted female criminal, even if undead and the blood-pumping organ presumably is out of warranty. She is hired to recover a set of magical bones that a schizophrenic witch intends to use to conjure forces of nature in an act of vengeance against her former NASA employer. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/br352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Although mainly a prolific, very brilliant novelist, Tim Powers occasionally tries his hand at the short story. This first new collection since 2005 assembles five stories and a novella, where he exhibits his extraordinary talent as a fantasist and his uncommon imaginative power. The title story is an enticing, offbeat tale featuring a jack-of-all-trades whose most peculiar talent is saving ghosts and lost souls. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Due to an influx of graphic novels at the Nexus Graphica Texas offices, Rick Klaw is opting out of his usual monthly missives in favor of an entire column devoted to reviews. Next month, he plans to return with a more traditional piece. Well, unless something similar happens... http://www.sfsite.com/books/new352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT New this time are the latest from Robert McCammon, Connie Willis, Tom McCarthy, Tim Pratt, some repackaged classics by Poul Anderson, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, and more! http://www.sfsite.com/09b/rp352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Scientists have noted that by the time the average student graduates from high school, they've spent as much time playing computer games as they have studying for their courses. In school you master your coursework and (hopefully) learn how to learn. So what are gamers becoming experts at? Maybe they're learning the skills needed to save the world. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/vv352.htm Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT While other books on this subject matter are made for fans of such series as Star Wars, Harry Potter and Twilight, this book is a refreshing change as it has essays based on the characters in the movies that are popular at the moment. This volume gives the reader a deeper understanding of what evil is when it is applied to villains in popular culture, and how it affects us in turn. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica351.htm Fri, 2 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT So here we have the rebooting of the DC universe, but Mark London Williams thinks we're going to tack against the grain of the comics press and not talk about that, or the new issue Justice League. Too much. He did not line up for the midnight madness events, though one wonders why, if the comics are available digitally, one would line up at all? Well, getting out has its own rewards, he supposes. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ag351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Guns? Check. Tanks? Check. Mad explosions? Check. Insane missions? Check. Ba lance battles powered by energy from divine pantheons? Er... check. Rampant horny squabbling gods? Check. Gods running rampant over a futuristic Egyptianesque Earth? Check. British soldiers in love with hot fiery women? Check, check and triple check, sah! This is like no book Andy has ever read. And he means that in a good way. It's a kind of weird cross between Terry Pratchett's Pyramids, Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers and that happy frisky comedy, The Mummy. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/aa351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT To begin with, these short fictions are funny. They are also experimental, wayward and surreal, any of which might make them seem far more serious and "worthy" than they actually are. They are not stories in the conventional sense. Some of them may offer a narrative, but if you try to follow them too closely you will find characters change, chronologies wander all over the place, and an obsessive interest in something mundane and irrelevant will suddenly intrude into the text. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/bf351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. So make it a good one!" Wise words from the enigmatic Doctor Emmett Lathrup Brown that drew to a conclusion the phenomenal Back to the Future trilogy. Since that moment when Doc and his family left Marty and Jennifer by the remains of the wrecked DeLorean and flew off into the unknown in the time traveling train, fans have wondered just what adventures (if any) existed in that unknown future. The deceptive "The End" that wrapped up the films seems to have closed things up... or did it? http://www.sfsite.com/09a/pa351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT The new Planet of the Apes movie is enjoyable, favoring appealing characters over heavy-handed satire. This film is a new beginning, and the setup for a new series. Whether it will take us all the way to the half-sunken Statue of Liberty remains to be seen. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ca351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT They killed Bucky! No, just kidding. I mean, of course they killed Bucky, but they always kill Bucky. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America in a simpler time, World War II, when comic book stories were complete in one issue, or even had several stories in one issue. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/fsf351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT The Bird Cage" by Kate Wilhelm opens with Grace Wooten who refuses to allow Edward Markham to use himself as a test subject in the study of Parkinson's disease. Grace believes the monkeys are enough for the time being, and her team are working round the clock trying to find the solutions to the mystery, but Markham isn't satisfied, and makes her use him, or he will cut the funding for her project. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/sm351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT This is the second novel featuring the daring escapades of Will Swyfte, England's greatest Spy of the Elizabethan Age. While the book can be read as a stand-alone, there is much to be gained from knowing what has gone before, as chronicled in The Sword of Albion. The year is 1593, plague is ravaging London, and no one feels safe, including Will Swyfte. When his friend, the playwright Christopher Marlowe, is killed in a pub brawl, Swyfte believes it is an assassination and vows to track down Kit's killer. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Fans and critics cite the 50s as the Golden Age of cinematic science fiction. Granted, the period saw so many groundbreaking movies that most cinema historians accept the period's classic status as a given -- mention of some of the decade's classic movies must include Forbidden Planet (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), This Island Earth (1955), Them! (1954), The Thing (From Another World) (1951), among others. Derek began wondering whether we should consider the 80s a second Golden Age, rather than, as some might term it, a Silver Age. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming titles from Terry Brooks, Joe R. Lansdale, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Cherie Priest, Adam Roberts, Brandon Sanderson, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Rick gives us a list of those SF TV shows that have caught his attention recently. They include Doctor Who, followed by Torchwood. He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in September. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ve351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Jakob Douglas fought alien enemies he didn't understand for years before being dishonorably discharged for his part in a mutiny. But now his former CO has called him back into service. A thrilling, action-packed sci-fi debut, the book that takes place 300 years in the future. The war with the aliens has lasted 60 years and an end is nowhere in sight. But now one of Them has turned up in Jakob's hometown of Dundee, and he's the closest hope of destroying it. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/zh351.htm Thu, 1 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT Zombies continue their relentless, foot dragging, moaning assault on popular culture. And the concept of the "mash-up" has allowed many to meld two completely unrelated genres to create something entirely new and sometimes amazing. This book falls into the written word category and takes the simple premise of retelling early US history, but revealing through hidden files that the early untamed Americas were rife with the undead. 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.