Every Last Drop by Charlie Huston
reviewed by Tammy Moore
Joe Pitt is one of those men who could start a fight in an empty room. Not that he needs to, there's a whole
city full of vampires who have an axe to grind with him.
After the events of the last book, Joe has been exiled the South Bronx. He's doing his best to keep a
low profile and eke out enough of a living to keep him in blood, bullets and smokes. It's not easy. He's there
on sufferance -- despite the tolerance and interest of local boss Esperanza -- and he's down to his last three bullets.
Summer Morning, Summer Night by Ray Bradbury
reviewed by Mario Guslandi
Lazy summer days and nights are the common ground for a collection featuring some Ray Bradbury stories from the 50s and a
bunch of new short stories (the latter -- alas -- mostly little more than sketchy vignettes).
Summer is the season and Green Town, Illinois, apparently the constant location for stories which may not be equal to
Bradbury's masterpieces but which manage to subtly move and think about the secret meaning of human life with its glory
and its miseries.
The Burning Man by Mark Chadbourn
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
When he's on form, there is no one writing today that can do urban gritty magic as well as Mark Chadbourn, and
this book is very much on form, in terms of its action, exciting storytelling and sheer force. This
is the penultimate book of a nine book series, and something one could describe as a lightning rod for the author's barbed
dark fantasy. In addition to his favoured base of Celtic mythology, we also get samplings of Norse, Chinese and
Egyptian deities, some portrayed in refreshingly different ways to the norm.
Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi and Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Both novels are about teenage girls growing up to become young women
under the impetus of having to survive after a planet-wide disaster. However, each takes a radically different approach
to their subject. Both are entertaining reads, seemingly achieve the effect they intend, and neither suffers from
major faults in their respective genres, though neither are entirely original or groundbreaking either.
The Lost Fleet: Valiant by Jack Campbell
reviewed by Michael M Jones
Captain John "Black Jack" Geary never asked to be a hero. He never dreamed of becoming a legend. In fact, by all rights,
he should be long dead by now, one of the earliest casualties of the war between the Alliance and the Syndics. Instead,
thanks to a fluke of fate, he spent a century in suspended animation, only to be rescued and brought back into service,
just in time to assume command of the massive Alliance fleet, lost deep within Syndic territory.
Nexus Graphica
a column by Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams
A friend of Rick Klaw revealed his Obama presidency fears to Rick. While he stands firmly with the candidate, desiring
a change from the Republican rush to ruin of the previous eight years, he fears that the neo-Nazi racists of the extreme
far right, fermented by the assertions of neo-cons and their new poster child, Sarah Palin, will come to believe that
Barak Obama and his "terrorist" friends will destroy the so-called "real" America of the pro-life, gun-toting, evangelical Christians.
These worries over unlikely scenarios lies beyond his control, yet it paralyzes
and consumes him. Rick Klaw understand the instinct to freeze when confronted with the
overwhelming. He encounters a similar situation every day,
New Arrivals
compiled by Neil Walsh
New here at the SF Site are the latest from Piers Anthony, Tim Waggoner, Sergei Lukyanenko, Laurell K. Hamilton, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, David Farland, Cory Doctorow, and much more.
The Hounds of Ash and Other Tales of Fool Wolf by Greg Keyes
reviewed by Steven H Silver
The author returns to his world of The Waterborn with a collection of short stories which
focus on the barbarian character Fool Wolf, who is possessed, or at least shares a body,
with a rather blood-thirsty goddess, Chugaachik. The collection is written in a style reminiscent of the
Weird Tales stories of Clark Ashton Smith or Robert E. Howard with a healthy dose of Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock thrown in.
Jhegaala by Steven Brust
reviewed by John Enzinas
Jhegaala, the eleventh book about Vlad Taltos, is a flashback that takes place
between Dzur and Issola. It chronicles Vlad's journeys in the East as he
attempts to both distance himself from the Jhereg
who have a price on his head and to try and discover more about his family tree.
Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
Narrated by Scott Brick
an audio review podcast by Gil T. Wilson
In the world of science-fiction, one of the best series of books to come down the pike is
the Dune series created by Frank Herbert. After Frank Herbert's death, his son,
Brian Herbert, teamed up with sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson and pretty much wrapped up
the series by providing 6 prequel and 2 sequel books. So with all of that taken care
of, one has to ask, what more is there in the Dune Universe?
Click on the link to get the MP3 podcast
file. Or click on this link to
read the audiobook review of Paul of Dune.
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks by David Whitaker
Multicast performance starring Frazer Hines
an audio review podcast by Gil T. Wilson
The episode begins with the Doctor and Jamie trying to track down thieves who stole the TARDIS. After some
mysterious clues the Doctor and Jamie track down an antiques dealer whose antiques
are authentic but new. This leads the Doctor and Jamie to be captured by the dealer and the Daleks and
taken back in time to 1866.
Click on the link to get the MP3 podcast
file. Or click on this link to
read the audiobook review of Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks.
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Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
This seventh volume in the Malazan Book of the Fallen returns to the Empire of Lether and the characters
first introduced in Midnight Tides. In that volume, the Tiste Edur led a successful rebellion against the
Letherii and actually took over the Empire. Now, although the Tiste Edur Emperor Rhulad still sits on the throne,
the institutions of Lether have remained intact. And while the Tiste Edur hold a privileged place in society, the
Letheri secret police are terrorizing the populace, there are revolts along the border, and the Chancellor plots to
overthrow the Emperor. With all this going on, it's no big surprise that members of the Emperor's court are not paying
much attention when another momentous event takes place.
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
The novel opens with three new arrivals in present-day Seattle. All are young, disconnected, marginalized. They are
also running away from something, indeed they have spent their entire lives running away, though what it is that is
after them neither they nor we have any clear idea. All three carry with them a stone.
One of them, Ginny, is directed to a strange warehouse, where she finds accommodation and a
sort of job helping a strange old man, Bidewell, sort through an immense collection of old books in search of
anomalies. The second, Jack, earns a precarious living as a busker juggling live rats, shares an apartment with
someone we never meet and who seems to keep forgetting Jack's existence.
Marsbound by Joe Haldeman
reviewed by Michael M Jones
At first, Carmen Dula is thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to Mars with her family, where they'll be part of
opening up mankind's next great frontier. Once reality sets in -- that space travel is long, dull, cramped and
uncomfortable -- she's not quite as excited, even with the new friends she's making along the way, and not even the
attentions of the handsome pilot of the John Carter of Mars -- their home for the next six months -- can entirely cure
the feeling that she's giving up everything she knew for an experience bordering between boring and deadly.
News Spotlight -- Genre Books and Media
a column by Sandy Auden
Tom DeFalco gives us the inside line about
the Marvel Chronicle; Alison Goodman talks about oriental fantasy The Two Pearls
of Wisdom; Suzanne McLeod talks urban fantasy with The Sweet Scent of Blood; Graham Joyce
on demons and the Memoirs of a Master Forger; and Jay Amory tells us about flying in his
YA omnibus The Clouded World.
Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick has been enjoying Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Heroes. He has not
been enjoying Fringe or Smallville. A peek at Life on Mars has
raised some comparisons to the original UK version.
He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in November.
Moonheart by Charles de Lint
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Sara Kendall discovers some strange items in the storeroom of an Ottawa
antique store she runs with her uncle, Jamie Tamsin. The objects are interesting in themselves -- a detailed
painting depicting the meeting between a Native American shaman and a European bard, a bone disk with strange
engravings on it, and a gold ring encased in clay -- but even more extraordinary is the way that these
artifacts seem to tug on Sara's consciousness, pulling her into the forest primeval, into a world of magic,
mystery and danger.
Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
an audiobook review by Gil T. Wilson
Paul of Dune takes place essentially between the time of the original novel Dune and the second
book Dune Messiah. Paul Maud'Dib is in control of the planet Arrakis, Dune, and is the emperor of the
known universe. The former Padisha Emperor Shaddam Corrino, IV, has been exiled to the planet Salusas Secundus,
the training planet for his Sardaukar army which were defeated by Maud'Dib and have since joined the jihad of Maud'Dib.
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks by David Whitaker
an audiobook review by Gil T. Wilson
The episode begins with the Doctor and Jamie trying to track down thieves who stole the TARDIS. After some
mysterious clues the Doctor and Jamie track down an antiques dealer whose antiques
are authentic but new. This leads the Doctor and Jamie to be captured by the dealer and the Daleks and
taken back in time to 1866.
Ilario: the Lion's Eye by Mary Gentle
reviewed by David Soyka
The story is narrated by the newly freed, but shortly re-enslaved, Ilario. Ilario had been raised by foster parents
who gave him into slavery to serve as King Rodrigo's court freak; eventually his real mother who gave him
up, now wife to the king's chief counselor, Videric, acknowledges him. She also tries to kill him. Several times.
Dalek I Loved You: A Memoir by Nick Griffiths
reviewed by David Maddox
If you were too young, were too old or not in
any way, shape or form British, what was it like living through that crazy era of the 70s and the
effect Doctor Who was having on the population?
Writer Nick Griffiths doesn't try to answer that.
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