Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi
reviewed by Rich Horton
Paolo Bacigalupi is a new writer who has made a profound impression on the SF field with just a few stories.
He is generally a hard SF writer, and his central theme, by far, is the environment. While the
bulk of his stories are certainly set in depressing, environmentally
ruined futures, they are also packed with plausible and fascinating SFnal furniture -- he's truly a science fiction writer,
one who scratches the same itch John Campbell wanted his writers to scratch.
New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
Spring and summer releases have been flooding into our office over the past few weeks, including the latest from Greg Bear, Naomi Novik, Jim Butcher, Karl Schroeder, as well as from SF Site veterans Paul Kincaid, and Cindy Lynn Speer, plus some hefty collections from the likes of Robert Bloch, H.P. Lovecraft, Michael Swanwick, plus anthologies, magazines, and much, much more.
New Audiobooks
compiled by Susan Dunman
The Audies® honors the best audiobooks of the year. Listed here are science fiction, fantasy and horror titles which have been
nominated as finalists in various categories. As well, you can find a list of audiobooks for May.
Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls by Yuri Rasovsky
Performed by The Hollywood Theater of the Ear
an audio review podcast by Susan Dunman for AudioFile Magazine
Sweeney Todd is an original urban legend. His deeds have been told in stories, plays, musicals and movies since the 1800's. Now, it's audio's turn to reveal the barber who cuts his clients throats, then grinds them up to become the secret ingredient in Mrs. Lovett's meat pies.
Click on link to get the MP3 podcast file.
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Who said the short fiction market was in trouble? This volume contains
41 stories and poems, and lists a further 834 titles in the Honourable Mentions. That's not far short of 900 works culled
from the fantasy output of just one year, and presumably that's still some way short of the total published. A short fiction
marketplace that can sustain such an output in what was not a particularly special year can't be doing too badly.
Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic edited by Karen A. Romanko
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
In professional sports there are major leagues and minor leagues. The majors are where the best professionals play their games. The
minors are the home of players, some on their way up, some on their way down, and others who know they'll never play at a higher
level, but happy to be able to play at all. The world of publishing has a similar structure.
Aurealis #38/39
reviewed by Rich Horton
This long-running Australian magazine soldiers on with a thick double issue, this time edited by Stephen
Higgins and Stuart Mayne. It features an editorial by Mayne, a science article by Patricia O'Neill speculating on why SETI
hasn't discovered any alien races, interviews with Elizabeth Moon, Alan
Lee, and the entire Aurealis Team, a number of book reviews (including Bill Congreve's final column), and a generous fifteen stories.
Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories by Philip José Farmer
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
This is a compilation reprinted from the pages of
Farmerphile, a quarterly magazine dedicated to the author's works. So anyone expecting brand new stories may
be disappointed. Happily, this is the only disappointment here. The book is well presented, including a scattering of black
and white illustrations throughout, from various artists, many of which perfectly compliment their stories. The collection
itself comprises intentionally obscure examples of Farmer's work, including rare short stories, a novel beginning, non-fiction,
and a complete eco-novel.
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Nexus Graphica
a column by Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams
Comics were never just exclusively for the tights crowd, even if, for a few decades there, a glance at any American
newsstand would give you that impression. More and more, the film biz seems to be noticing, as other types of stories get picked for
translation to the big (or at least medium) screen. Thus, stories like Perdition and A History of
Violence, and now, from the company that produced the latter, another mob-themed pick-up, a four-issue story,
indie-published story, replete with its own "history of violence," called Pencilneck..
Mark London Williams has a chat with the writer of the series, Victor Carungi.
Iron Man
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Iron Man is a fun superhero film, certainly a lot more fun than the comic book upon which it is based, whose highpoints are
when the lead character became a drunk and when he turned fascist. The film is based, loosely, on the origin story
in Tales of Suspense #39, with the action moved from Vietnam to
Afghanistan and the story where the red and gold suit fights the old Iron Man suit, from Tales of Suspense #65.
Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Jerome Bixby wrote for Twilight Zone, an early version of Fantastic Voyage
and the original Star Trek. When Rick learned about Jerome Bixby's Man from Earth,
the faithful filming of his last script, he had some thoughts on it.
Fairyland by Paul McAuley
reviewed by Matthew Cheney
The speculative elements of science fiction tend to age badly, and each passing minute of the real world causes futures that once
attracted us with their visionary wonder to now offer only the amusement of yesterday's tomorrows. Near-future SF that attempts
plausible extrapolations is particularly vulnerable to senescence, and it is rare to encounter such a book that is more than ten
years old and still possesses the power to dazzle, because so often the writer has emphasized the speculation more than other,
more durable, qualities.
Four Novels of The Sandokan Series by Emilio Salgari
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
The first book in the series, serialized in the Italian newspaper La Nuova Arena in 1883-4, first published
in book form in 1900, and here translated for the first time into English, is so chock full of action that the best cultural
equivalent in North America might have been the better dime-novel adventures of the late 19th-early 20th
century. Or, perhaps think Douglas Fairbanks Sr.'s swashbuckling movies, or, if in a different genre, the Indiana Jones films.
H.P. Lovecraft In Britain by Stephen Jones
reviewed by Kit O'Connell
When writer and anthologist Stephen Jones was compiling
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft for British publisher Gollancz, he was given access to the
archives of their communications with Arkham House and Lovecraft's estate. Since Gollancz was the first to publish that
author in the United Kingdom this gave Jones a unique window onto a tiny but formative part of horror publishing history.
Supernatural Companion Season 1 and Season 2 by Nicholas Knight
reviewed by Sandy Auden
Supernatural is a happy coincidence of good story telling, powerful performances and exceptional crew combining
together to deliver scary episodes that are fun and intriguing all at the same time. Its success has finally been recognised
and the merchandising wagon has started rolling with the coverage of its first two seasons.
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