1999  
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From the Editor
SF Insite: Contributing Editor Thomas Myer tells us all What Y2K Really Means.
Letters: tips on self-publishing, and questions on just how many Readers the SF Site has, really.
HindSite: we've summarized and listed the SF Site's past editorials for your convenience.
Features
The finalists for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the Best Short SF of the Year have been announced.
Nebula Winners: did a favourite of yours garner an award?
The nominees for the 1998 Sidewise Awards for Alternate History have been announced.
Tanya Huff Reading List: her newest book, The Quartered Sea was a treat. Maybe you should try one of her others.
Online Fiction: may be the way of the future. But is it any good?
Babylon 5: is still a fan favourite. Catch the latest info.
Marc Goldstein looks at computer role-playing games.
Comics & Animation: What's happening with comics these days?
Departments
Author & Fan Tribute Sites: we've built 26 pages of them (plus one for Mc).
Our Contents Page highlights reviews of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, The Lazarus Drop by Paul Moomaw, Ancients of Days by Paul J. McAuley and Choice of Evil by Andrew Vachss.
SF Site Interviews: In past issues, we've interviewed Neil Gaiman, Gregory Benford, Bruce Sterling and many others. If you missed any, here is an easy way to see which ones.
Conventions: we've updated our coverage to include listings broken down by date, by location and by category.
SF Site Chronological and Alphabetic List: wondering what appeared in previous SF Site issues?
Or perhaps you're just interested in our recent issues:
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Gardens of the Moon Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
reviewed by Neil Walsh
This is an astounding debut fantasy novel. The world is fully realized and the characters are people you want to spend time with. The world history is tremendously complex, spanning hundreds of thousands of years. The character histories and interactions are equally complex and interesting. Unsurprisingly, it's only the first of The Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. There are 10 books planned in the "sequence," but each is intended to be a stand-alone story.

The Phantom Menace The Phantom Menace written & directed by George Lucas
reviewed by Rick Norwood
Our Babylon 5.1 columnist gives us his take on the new Star Wars movie. In The Phantom Menace you will see wonders you have never seen before.

The Cowboy And The Vampire The Cowboy And The Vampire by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Go ahead. You're trying not to laugh at the title. Let it out! It's funny and so is the book. Get a few pages into the book and you'll be laughing with them, not at them. This is the story John Carpenter's Vampires tried to be.

Waiting Waiting by Frank M. Robinson
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
This is a near-future thriller based on all too plausible speculations in anthropology and evolution. It begins when a man is murdered as he prepares to publish an article about an autopsy performed on a body that didn't seem to be human...

Forthcoming Books Forthcoming Books
compiled by John O'Neill
Kristine Kathryn Rusch kicks off a new fantasy saga with The Black Queen, N. Lee Wood arrives on the scene with a new fantasy, and we look at upcoming books from Charles Grant, Arthur C. Clarke, Lynn Flewelling, Timothy Zahn, Jan Lars Jensen, Paul J. McAuley, James Blaylock, and many others.

A Good Old-Fashioned Future A Good Old-Fashioned Future by Bruce Sterling
reviewed by Ken Newquist
The title brings to mind stratospheric buildings, automated dog-runs, sky cars and robots, robots, robots. Then there is a Bruce Sterling future -- a post-cyberpunk dystopia where the Western powers are in decline or fighting to hold the line and technology has become the world's greatest liberator and curse.

The Oracle Lips The Oracle Lips by Storm Constantine
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Storm Constantine is a name that should be familiar to most fans of dark fantasy. If your wardrobe runs almost exclusively to black, and your make-up choice is lead white, and if you've ever dyed your hair a completely unconvincing shade of black, Constantine may well be a name that has influenced your lifestyle.

New Arrivals Mid-May Books
compiled by John O'Neill
Michael Stackpole delves into the secrets of the Jedi in I, Jedi, Bantam brings back classic Star Trek in James Blish's Spock Must Die!, and Bruce Sterling, Piers Anthony, Jack L. Chalker, William Barton, Rudy Rucker and many more land on the shelves with exciting new releases.

Asimov's SF, May 1999 Analog, May 1999
reviewed by A.L. Sirois
There's a reason Analog has been around so long: quality. Not necessarily overall quality, but a high enough level that we're willing to skim over some of the rough places in order to get to the good stuff.

Babylon 5.1: Televison Reviews Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
In his column, Rick has scoured the listings and found what is recommended viewing for June 1999. Check it out and see if you agree.

Faith In The Flesh Faith In The Flesh by Tim Lebbon and The Dreaming Pool by Gary Greenwood
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Two very different books. Two very different authors. One recommendation: read them both. Their horrific tales have something in common seldom seen in the horror genre -- "real" people. Not tortured artists, or inbred human creatures, but people you see and deal with everyday. Working folks who just happen to catch a bad break.

Aramaya Aramaya by Jane Routley
reviewed by Jeri Wright
Dion Holyhands, The Demonslayer of Gallia, travels to the glorious land of Aramaya with her friend Kitten in search of her missing niece Dally. Braving winter storms in an attempt to escape the heartbreak in her personal life, Dion vows to concentrate on finding Dally instead of dwelling on the recent past.

New Magazines New Magazines
compiled by John O'Neill
Looking for the best in new magazines? The FictionHome page has news, reviews and links to the finest short fiction on the market, from SF magazines to anthologies and collections.

The Wild Road, The Golden Cat The Wild Road and The Golden Cat by Gabriel King
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
If you're a cat lover or enjoy animal-based fantasy, read both books -- you'll find well developed and complex animal characters that aren't tainted with human motives and reasoning. However, understand that for this pleasure you will have to put up with a certain amount of mystical dross, that may enhance the mystery of cat-ness, but other times obscures it.

Asimov's SF, May 1999 Asimov's SF, May 1999
reviewed by Ken Newquist
Some speculative fiction promises a bright, shining, optimistic future. You won't find that kind of story in the May edition. Ranging from melancholy to all-out depressing, these tales are not for those seeking a pick-me-up. But they are quality, thought provoking stories.

Apocalypse Troll Apocalypse Troll by David Weber
reviewed by Peter D. Tillman
25th century humans have been at war with the alien Kanga for centuries. The Kanga are on the ropes; in desperation they send a battle group into Terra's past, to cut off the foe at the roots. The Terran Navy is soon in hot pursuit.

Series Review

Half Magic Half Magic by Edward Eager
reviewed by A.L. Sirois
There is a delightfully light-hearted manner in which Eager tells his adventures. There's some swordplay and derring-do, and some onstage violence, but it is very cartoonish and obviously not to be taken seriously. There is nothing here that will give nightmares to even the most tremulous child.

First Novels

Winterhold Winterhold by Stephen Almekinder
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
There are addictions to match every personality and every situation. Addictions multiply in a stagnant society... or, maybe addictions result in a stagnant society. On Winterhold, the race to dissolution is a contest between chemicals and rituals; alone or united, they are capable of dragging the civilization into ruin.

Non-Fiction

Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Droids Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Droids by Daniel Wallace
reviewed by Jonathan Fesmire
After reading Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Droids, Jonathan almost wished these droids were real. Not all of them, just some. The assassin droids can remain fictional.

Second Looks

The Town Cats and Other Tales The Town Cats and Other Tales by Lloyd Alexander
reviewed by A.L. Sirois
In this short volume, these fables introduce us to 8 cats that seem more human than their human companions. This is a fairy-tale world, in which talking animals are the norm, and the language is that of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.

The Tooth Fairy The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce
reviewed by David Soyka
The author furnishes a marvellous reminder of the inexplicable terrors that lurk within the turbulent physical and emotional transformations of adolescence. Those who remember it as some sort of Golden Age are conveniently forgetting the acne, rejection, and peer cruelty that characterizes this transitory awfulness of neither childhood nor adulthood.

Factoring Humanity Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer
reviewed by Rodger Turner
In a reprise review to coincide with the paperback release, Rodger finds this to be up to Sawyer's usual high standards. The author writes interesting characters, fast-paced plotting with science threaded elegantly into the straightforward prose. And he does it all with grace and style. In this novel he's even found a way to make the format of technology as important as the content.

Star Wars: I, Jedi Star Wars: I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
reviewed by Thomas F. Cunningham
In a reprise review to coincide with the paperback release, Stackpole has already proven his adeptness at Star Wars tales with the X-Wing series. This time he uses a little ILM magic to brush in a new student amongst Luke Skywalker's budding Jedi Knights, retelling part of the tale of the Jedi Academy. His hero is Corran Horn, Corellian fighter pilot -- independent, hard-headed and with a lust for adventure.

Heartfire Heartfire by Orson Scott Card
reviewed by Steven H Silver
In a reprise review to coincide with the paperback release, Steven feels that this long-awaited fifth book sets the Alvin Maker series back on the right track. An overriding theme to Heartfire is Card's examination of the degradation of people. By looking for their heartfires, Alvin's wife Peggy discovers the vastly different circumstances of the enslaved peoples she is struggling to free.

Heaven's Reach Heaven's Reach by David Brin
reviewed by Mark Shainblum
In a reprise review to coincide with the paperback release, Mark finds David Brin to be a writer of soaring imagination. In this third book in his second Uplift trilogy, however, he has spun such an elaborate tale, conceived so many characters, and cranked up the cosmic volume to such a level that the reader is just left spinning.

Gaming

Trinity Field Reports: Alien Races / Psi Laws Trinity Field Reports: Alien Races / Psi Laws by Bryant Durrell
a gaming module review by Don Bassingthwaite
Designed as field reports addressed to operatives of the Aeon Trinity, these are colourful, bite-sized morsels of information. Each is devoted to a narrow area of the Trinity setting, covering it with a fair degree of depth but leaving lots of room for individual storytellers to manoeuvre.

Trinity Trinity
reviewed by Henry Harding
Welcome to the year 2120 AD! Things are a little unfamiliar, a little strange, a little scary, as you might expect. Humanity's met several species of aliens; some friendly, most aggressive. Humans have started to colonize space. On the everyday scale you can now interface with your PC via an agent, have biotech claws implanted under your fingernails for protection even wear organically grown clothing.

New Arrivals May Games
compiled by John O'Neill
Over 30 new games and gaming novels pack our mid-May gaming round-up, including a new boxed set for Dungeons and Dragons, FASA's Third Edition Shadowrun rules, the latest in science fiction gaming -- including Battletech, Trinity and Alternity -- and much more.


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