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/graphica356.htm Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT After the surprisingly entertaining first Austin Comic Con, Rick Klaw eagerly looked forward to this event. He arrived roughly 30 minutes before the con started to a line of some 400 people waiting to enter. The hall itself was smaller than last year which was actually a good thing. Not as much open space and easier to look around. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/mf356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT If you are one of those people obsessed with dragons, you'll not want to miss this series, unless of course you only like your dragons depicted as loyal, lovable, honorable and dutiful. If that is the case, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. However, if you like your dragons vicious, arrogant, telepathic and hell-bent on plucking your limbs off for an appetizer before moving on to your torso as the entree, you'll definitely want to check out this trilogy. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/jt356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT For those in the know, a new horror collection from Glen Hirshberg is cause for hopeful anticipation. And this one delivers with a striking and enjoyable mix of stories that showcases his uniquely personable brand of horror, in which external menaces are eclipsed by the inner demons that drive our deepest fears. The unifying theme for all the stories is death: thwarting it, defying it, accepting it, transcending it -- a black narrative thread that he weaves in some unusual ways. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/wm356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT In the present day, Christian is an architect whose father has died and phoned him to say that, due to a nuclear experiment gone awry, unreality is leaking from the world. Meanwhile, back during the confusion of the 2000 elections, his pregnant wife, a woman who feels empty both literally and figuratively (her chest holds an empty cabinet), begins spewing eggs from her mouth. Christian and his wife are then forced at gunpoint to exchange their clothes at neighborhood block party. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/va356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Gabrielle and Michael, two scientists, are investigating the Oak Island Treasure Pit, a haven for treasure-hunters, scientists and plunderers around. There is a lot spoken of what treasures may lay at the bottom of its vault, but so far no one has dared to plunge so far down due to the oxygen problems divers have found. Somewhere far from the original site, the two of them have found something else, another site that boasts of great treasures no one has ever seen before, but is it all hearsay, or the truth? http://www.sfsite.com/11b/up356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Multiple Hugo Award-winning author Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) changes his tone with the novella The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag. This audiobook seems much more like a Philip K. Dick story than a Heinlein story since it features none of the themes for which Heinlein is well-known, like space travel, alien contact or time travel. Instead, we get an extra helping of creepy with a surprise ending that truly demonstrates his ability to master a variety of styles. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/cy356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Miles finds himself on Kibou-daini, a planet with a highly unique political organization. The entire planet is controlled by competing cryonics corporations. Kibou-daini culture encourages people to be frozen prior to death, in hopes of a future in which their various illnesses and accidents and ravages of age can be cured. However, since the cryocorp then controls the votes of its patrons -- who are not, after all, technically dead -- cryo-preservation is much more common than cryo-revival. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/tt356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Santa Claus, one magical Christmas in the mid-1980s, brought Seamus a stash of Tintin books. "Comics" or "graphic novels" they aren't; they were and always will be "Tintin books." Bandes desinees, as the French call them, are a sort of hybrid form, don't seem to fit easily into either the American or Japanese comics/manga tradition, influential as they have been. Anyway, the haul of Tintiniana cemented his belief in Santa for a good few years, aided by a peculiar note (in writing completely unlike his parents) from the great man. Seamus also remembers it as shifting the focus of his attention from toys to books. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/db356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Let's give credit where credit is due. Others may be content to churn out endless series of medieval quests of good versus evil, vampires in love, zombies in suits, young wizards, elves and dragons, pirate stories, cyberpunk or faerie folklore. Justina Robson's ambition is to mash together an amalgamation of all these, while throwing in some thoughts about quantum mechanics and alternate universes, rock and roll, self-empowerment and probably a half dozen or so other things. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/yt356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT So many authors are known for a single work or even a single character that it practically becomes part of their names: "Mary-Shelley-author-of-Frankenstein," "Harriet-Beecher-Stowe-author-of-Uncle-Tom's-Cabin, Arthur-Conan-Doyle-creator-of-Sherlock-Holmes," "Bram-Stoker-author-of-Dracula." It's a rarity that this kind of lightning strikes the same author twice, but it happened to Robert Bloch. He became famous for his short story, "Yours Truly - Jack the Ripper," that appeared in Weird Tales in 1943. For a good many years he was known as "Robert-Bloch-author-of-'Yours-Truly-Jack-the-Ripper.'" But then one of his short novels was published by Simon & Shuster with little fanfare titled Psycho. And the author would be known for the rest of his days as "Robert-Bloch-author-of-Psycho." http://www.sfsite.com/11b/se356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT In a way, the story of this book is far more interesting than the story in the book. It was one of the last novels that Verne wrote before his death in 1905, and in 1904 he was writing to his publisher to say that he hoped to see the book in print before he died. It was not to be: the novel, indeed, was not quite finished at the time of his death as a couple of minor points in this text show. The novel went on to be one of the works published posthumously under the aegis of his son, Michel, but when Verne's manuscripts were made available in the 1980s it became obvious how extensively Michel had tampered with his father's work. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Books featured here include the latest from Naomi Novik, Jacqueline Carey, Paula Brandon, Kylie Chan, Elizabeth Moon, Christopher Paolini, Janny Wurts, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/dv356.htm Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Online projects have been improving rapidly over recent years and we're relentlessly advancing towards a new era of entertainment. More and more of us are reading online, playing online and discovering exciting new TV series online. Finding that decent TV content can be tough but Divine: The Series had the advantage that actor Misha Collins was involved and he shared the news about his latest acting project to his dedicated minions on Twitter. Word of the new horror/fantasy series quickly went viral. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica355.htm Fri, 4 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Stan Lee has a new how-to book out, How to Write Comics, which makes more sense, really, than his earlier How to Draw Comics, though given the way he moves through the material and presents his ideas, he could get away with being a non-artist, since he acts almost more like a compiler, or editor. But what struck Mark London Williams were the sections he had on "continuity." http://www.sfsite.com/11a/fm355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT The book is named for a nursery rhyme, but it's also the distance from Richmond to the farmhouse where two bodies in various states of mummification are found. The Virginia State Police are spread thin since it's a holiday weekend, so Samuel (Sailor) Doyle is tasked to head up the investigation. A recent transfer to homicide from vice, this is Doyle's first opportunity and he's terrified. But that's only a piece of Doyle's problems. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ng355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Iain Rowan is a very fine writer, one of those authors endowed with the ability to hook the reader in just a few sentences and keep him nailed until the very last word. The book assembles eleven tales, all fine examples of modern crime stories, gripping and perceptive, probing the dark secrets of the human soul, just like an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/be355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT The book itself is a must if you're a zombie-phile or looking to become one of the undead, provided you're lucky enough to retain most of your cognitive functions. It tells the story of a lab tech named J.D. who, having become infected with the PACE virus, embraces his zombiness and creates this literature to help others of his kind in the coming war between mankind and zombie. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/wf355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT For every budding writer there is a period in their lives when they think they will never manage to get published, that their name will simply never be seen on the cover of a bestseller. Back in 1983, there were plenty out there who had that viewpoint, but if science fiction and fantasy is what they are aiming for, then back in 1984, there was some good news, as a new contest had been organized especially for aspiring authors; The L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/se355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Living in a grimy Moscow apartment with her mother and younger sister, Galina has recently returned home from a stay in a mental institution. She is determined to say nothing that might send her back to the psychiatric ward, but her world verges on another breakdown when her very pregnant sister, Masha, goes to the bathroom and simply vanishes. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/bo355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT The book follows a group of immortal people through their lives. These are regular people in every respect except that they never age. They were not all born at the same time -- some were born earlier (as early as 5,000 years ago), and some arrived later, but there seems to be no pattern that explains their immortality. Their ancestors are not necessarily long-lived and their descendents do not inherit their immortality. They recover quickly from injury but they can be killed by accidents, disease and battle. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/bp355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Several years ago when the reviewer was doing a lot more book reviewing, he devised something called the Lupoff First Paragraph Test. The LFPT is very simple. If you don't know whether a given book is going to be worth reading, just sample the first paragraph. If that is good -- most notably, if it makes you want to keep on reading -- there's a chance that the whole book will be good. That's no guarantee. It could fall apart at any time. But it might -- it just might -- hold up. On the other hand, if the book starts badly, there is almost no chance that it will ever get better. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/tk355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT There are two significant science fictional inventions here, either of which would justify a book in its own right. One is a big dumb object: a technological curiosity that hangs in space like a monumental question mark. The penetration and exploration of this object provides the main science fictional drive of the story. But it is the second invention, a low key political scenario, that holds the book together and leaves you wanting more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT In the late 70s, Ridley Scott, hot off the success of Alien, and Harlan Ellison discussed the challenges inherent in making a film adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune, to which Scott was, at that time, attached. Ellison, as he recounts in Harlan Ellison's Watching, pointed out the insurmountable challenges, but Scott remained convinced of its feasibility, telling Ellison, "The time has come for a John Ford of science fiction movies." Derek has a look at some possible candidates. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT This time features the latest works from Ray Bradbury, Jasper Fforde, Greg Egan, Maureen F. McHugh, Richard Morgan, Mark Hodder, Kathy Reichs, Stephen Baxter, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT Falling Skies and Torchwood, while not deathless classics, held Rick's interest to the end. Terra Nova did not. It wasn't terrible, it just didn't hold his interest. He is still watching Sanctuary, but if it wants to keep him as a viewer, it needs to start making sense. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/at355.htm Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT When marketing manager Katherine "Kitty" Katt instinctively, against all odds, kills a superhuman monster with nothing more than a pen, she's almost immediately dragged into a world of bizarre adventure unlike any she ever imagined. She's spirited away by a group of Armani-clad hotties who work for an agency so secret, it's literally out of this world. 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.