SF Site News
compiled by Steven H Silver
Every day, items of interest to you arrive in our email. Our bi-monthly format doesn't lend itself to daily updates. However, this is a small inconvenience to our Contributing Editor Steven H Silver. He's begun a new column which will fill you in on recent news in science fiction. We'll be updating the page as he sends in new items.

Crimewave 6: Breaking Point edited by Andy Cox
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
In the genre of dark realism, there are few contenders; it is a magazine truly unlike any other. Just ask any of its legions of avid fans. Or, better yet, do the smart thing and pick up a copy to experience it for yourself. Or subscribe, even. This is the kind of magazine you don't want to miss any issues of, because there are good and even superb short stories in every one.

A Mouthful of Tongues: Her Totipotent Tropicanalia by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by William Thompson
This bold, hallucinatory catalogue of sexuality is a most singular work. Written with an orgiastic abandon worthy of R. Crumb, but with a beauty of language and imagination entirely the author's own, this work represents a possible apogee in literary erotica far excelling in verve and energy any similar work encountered thus far. It is a book that quite literally bathes in seminality. But this tale is far more than a fictional litany of sexual acts or prurient fantasy, a mere celebration of bacchanalia, though it is impossible to ignore this aspect. This is also a story of salvation, perhaps for some found in the most unexpected of places.

New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
Some of the new books received here at the SF Site include novels by Stephen Baxter, Adam Roberts, James Barclay, William Dietz, Jan Siegel, Orson Scott Card, collections from James Patrick Kelly, Kage Baker, classic reprints from Ray Bradbury, David Eddings, Robert Asprin, Kate Elliott, H.G. Wells, and many more.

A Caress of Twilight by Laurell K. Hamilton
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Merry Gentry is more than just an employee of a detective agency. She is also Princess Merideth NicEssus, heir to the Unseelie throne. She'll be able to claim the title of queen only if she is able to become pregnant... and stay alive long enough to give birth. She is surrounded by sidhe guards, all of whom are also prospective fathers. The one who gives her a child wins her hand, and a place of power.

Electric Velocipede, No. 1 and 2
reviewed by Rich Horton
The last few years have seen a proliferation of SF-oriented "'zines", simply produced on 8.5x11 or 8.5x14 sheets folded once and stapled, generally featuring a mix of fiction (often rather slipstreamish), poetry, and reviews. The gold standard is represented by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link's Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. The first two issues of this 'zine, edited by John Klima, fits the above description pretty well.

Geeks With Books
a column by Rick Klaw
Rick Klaw gives us a look at how things work from behind the counter of a book store. It is a dilemma for book sellers when a publisher releases another title in a series by someone other than the original author. On the one hand, it prompts a resurgence in interest for the original. On the other, such books can be a pale imitation of the beloved classic.

The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
There is a fine line between a plucky, young heroine and an obnoxious brat. Lizzy Enders is that rare combination of cynic, smartass, and compassionate emerging woman that readers can get strongly behind. Here is a true role model for anyone caught in a situation not of their own making; she is a survivor, surviving not at the expense of others, but through honesty, empathy, and her quick thinking. Though this story may be set in the 1870s, it is an object lesson to readers of any age or any gender.

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 2002
reviewed by David Soyka
Regular readers have been expecting to see M. Rickert's "Leda" for quite some time as editor Gordon van Gelder kept hinting about it as a cover story whose artwork got delayed. Well, it's finally here and, as they say, well worth the wait. For the first in a series of contemporary retellings of Greek myths, Rickert presents the rape of the title character by a swan from the multiple perspectives of the victim and her husband, as well as, in a darkly funny aside, a rape hotline operator who thinks she's getting a crank call.

John Gregory Betancourt

Roger Zelazny's The Dawn of Amber by John Gregory Betancourt
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
The novel chronicles the adventures of Oberon, whom we know from Zelazny's books to have been a much-married and very fecund King of Amber. The story begins with one Alma's own personal Literary Cardinal Sins -- the Dream Sequence. This is a fantasy -- more, it is a fantasy rooted in Zelazny, and Zelazny's imagination could be extremely strange.

Roger Zelazny's The Dawn of Amber by John Gregory Betancourt
a novel excerpt
    A heavy pounding on the door down-stairs roused me from sleep.
    "Obere!" came a distant shout.
    Damnable timing. I squinted into near darkness, frowned. The hour lay somewhere between midnight and dawn, and blades of moonlight slid between the window shutters, cutting an intricate pattern of light and darkness across the checkered quilt. Off in the night I heard plodding hooves and creaks from some passing merchant's wagon, and from farther off still the distant baying of packs of wild dogs as they scavenged the battlefields a mile to the north of Kingstown.

Black Projects, White Knights by Kage Baker
reviewed by Pat Caven
She is a storyteller. A consummate storyteller. This lady is the queen of tale telling with a twist. Great characters well conceived plots, thought provoking, funny and with a charming intelligent style anyone would enjoy. You get the point. Pat likes this author.

Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
reviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
When this collection came into his possession, Jayme regarded it with some suspicion. It didn't help that he'd heard from Le Guin fans that this was not a good place to enter the Earthsea series, as newcomers to her fantasy world would probably be lost without knowledge of the previous novels as reference. But he had read some of Le Guin's shorter works in the intervening years, and found them not half bad. So he was determined to give the book a thorough reading.

A Conversation With Robert J. Sawyer -- Part 1
An interview with Steven H Silver
On trilogies:
"I still think trilogies are usually bad artistically for SF -- although not as bad as never-ending series. The heart and soul of drama is closure. Aristotle knew that; all the great writers of the past knew that. A work that doesn't end is incomplete. Trilogies, of course, do end by definition with the third volume, but often the first and second are unsatisfactory reading experiences..."

A Scattering of Jades by Alexander C. Irvine
reviewed by Rich Horton
Firmly in Tim Powers territory, this is a fantasy cum secret history dealing with obscure gods and magic impinging on the life of an ordinary man. The man ends up injured; he must make a desperate journey, trusting implausible forces, to save a loved one. In this case, the gods are mostly Aztec gods, particularly Tlaloc, with a leavening of Lenni Lenape gods. And the "secret history" is of the United States, dealing with Aaron Burr's mad ambitions and their aftermath, and more directly with the most horrible blot on U.S. history: slavery.

Vox: SF For Your Ears
a column by Scott Danielson
Scott Danielson is looking at audio SF -- on tape, on CD, on whatever. This time out, he has been listening to on-line radio including Hour 25, I-SCI-FI and SciFiAudio. And for fiction, he has heard The Fifth Sorceress by Robert Newcomb.

T2: Infiltrator by S.M. Stirling
reviewed by Martin Lewis
For the last 6 years, Sarah and John Connor have been in hiding in Paraguay. Under assumed names, Sarah runs a trucking company whilst John is away at military academy. One day, their neighbour comes to collect a delivery and, to Sarah's horror, he is the spitting image of the T-800 unit. Though he claims to be an Austrian rancher called Dieter von Rossbach, Sarah cannot treat this as a coincidence and starts to investigate his background.

Dragonstar by Barbara Hambly
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
John and Jenny were both left hanging at the end of the last book of this series, Knight of the Demon Queen. John Aversin, Thane of the Winterlands is the only living man to have ever killed a dragon, and the only one ever to have befriended one. Jenny, his wife, is a mage whose powers where stripped from her during one of the previous books. We meet John again on the eve of his execution for trafficking with demon --- a charge he can hardly deny since he did make a deal with the Demon Queen to help free his wife and son.

Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
With the start of the new TV season, Rick offers his thoughts on what to watch in September. If that's not enough, you could always try some episodes of Dark Shadows now on DVD. Find out why.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2002 edited by Kim Stanley Robinson
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Over the last few years, competition among the various best of the year anthologies has grown particularly fierce. There's only so much space on bookstore shelves, and after Gardner Dozois' yearly anthology takes up its portion, room is at a premium. This annual anthology guarantees its own place on the shelves not only through its connection to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but also by providing a true alternative to the other year's best collections.

Out of Mind
a video review by Georges T. Dodds
Stating that film/TV adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's works have been uneven would be a tad of an understatement. Suffice it to say that few have captured the Lovecraftian atmosphere or rewarded us with more than a standard schlock-fest. Fewer still have made any attempt to focus on Lovecraft's early dream tales. Nonetheless, a lot of money has been thrown at Lovecraft films over the years. Now comes a small, Montreal-based film company, specializing in French language high-brow documentaries, and pulls it off.

Heresy by Anselm Audley
reviewed by Rob Kane
To get an idea of the setting for this novel, take Arrakis from Frank Herbert's Dune, and then invert it. It takes place on the planet of Aquasilva which is covered in a pan-planetary ocean thousands of miles deep. Clan-ruled cities lay behind high walls and aether shields in order to remain protected against the great storms that ravage sea and land, and the Great Houses plot and scheme to enrich themselves on trade. The world is a technological-medieval society. Under the sea large submarines, mantas, transport valuable cargo, while on land kings and emperors ruled in a monarchic society.

Knight Life by Peter David
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The author began his novel-writing career with this book, originally published in 1987, a humorous tale that turned Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court on its head by positing an Arthur transported forward into our time. It became something of a cult classic over the years, much in demand by his fans. Now it's been re-published in a beautiful hardcover edition, revised, updated and expanded (by 20,000 words) by the author.

Sword-Born by Jennifer Roberson
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Tiger and Del are sword-dancers that have both broken their vows. They are without a place to go, unwelcome both in the north, where Del came from, and in the south, where Tiger was born. One day a man seems to think that Tiger is from his own land of Skandi...and Del agrees that her lover and friend bears an amazing resemblance to the man. Tiger isn't so sure, but he agrees to get on a ship and sail to Skandi, and perhaps learn the truth of his heritage.

The Metal Monster by A. Merritt
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Fans of classic, pulp science fiction along the lines of E.E. "Doc" Smith are no doubt going to be swooning at the prospect of Hippocampus Press' new Lovecraft's Library series. The chance to read novels such as this one in their original form will be irresistible. Others may long for the savagely slashed version the author struggled to produce. Chances are, you're going to fall solidly on one or the other side of the debate.