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New York Nights by Eric Brown
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
This novel is set in a gritty, near-future Manhattan. Terrorism and nuclear mishaps have rendered
much of the Eastern Seaboard unfit to live in, making New York City a mecca for the indigent and the lost. At
the same time, it's still a centre of money and power, and as much a party town as it ever was. In this edgy,
overcrowded, vibrant environment, Hal Halliday and his partner Barney Kluger run a detective agency that
specializes in missing persons.
Naming of Parts by Tim Lebbon, The Man On The Ceiling by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem and Dead Cat Bounce by Gerard Houarner
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Naming of Parts is a tale that strikes at the heart in a way no other
zombie stories can ever approach. The Man On The Ceiling is for those
who have never experienced the heart-stopping panic of night terrors.
Dead Cat Bounce is the kind of book you lend to friends, just to see
if you can appall them.
Heart of Gold by Sharon Shinn
reviewed by Victoria Strauss
The author's world is divided by skin colour (there are 3 races, one blue, one gold, one albino)
and by gender. In the indigos' busy, high-tech capital, the races work side by side but live in apartheid-like separation, and racial
tension is never far from the surface. But their recent campaign of territorial expansion has
given rise to a wave of gulden terrorism, and indigo fear and hatred of the gold-skinned people is once more rising to fever pitch.
Babylon 5.1
TV reviews by Rick Norwood
Rick offers us tips on what's worth watching on television during October --
the brand-new Dark Angel, the 7th season opener of Star Trek: Voyager,
The X-Files rerun of "Requiem" by Chris Carter and whether to
watch Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.
Worlds Vast and Various by Gregory Benford
reviewed by Marc Goldstein
Consisting of 12 of his previously published short stories, this volume is an up-and-down collection vis-a-vis tone and quality:
some stories burst with evocative scientific speculation, while others coast along on breezy charm. Most do touch
on Benford's pet themes: confrontation with the unknown, depictions of work-life, and the breakdown of conceptual barriers.
Neil Gaiman Last Angel Tour Interview
On works that inspired him:
"Depends which age. When I was seven, it was the Narnia books. When I was nine, it was Michael Moorcock. It was fantasy and
science fiction that always struck some kind of deep chord with me. It wasn't that I didn't read everything, I was the kind
of kid who did read everything. But it always seemed to me that fantasy is a very, very useful tool. It is a very useful
mirror -- very useful way of seeing the world. You can say things in fantasy that are difficult to say in any fiction that's
meant to resemble the real world."
Forthcoming Books
compiled by Neil Walsh
Here's a sampling of some of the F&SF books that are headed our way in the coming months...
The Collapsium by Wil McCarthy
reviewed by Peter D. Tillman
Our hero, wealthy super-scientist Bruno de Towaji, is experimenting with collapsium, a dangerous, metastable
material made of proton-size black holes, when he receives a Royal Summons: the new near-solar collapsiter
ring is unstable, and will fall into the sun (and eat it) unless something is done...
New Magazines
compiled by John O'Neill
The SF Site's FictionHome page brings you the latest news and
reviews of genre magazines and other short fiction. We look at brand new issues of
Talebones, Interzone, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many more.
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Bios by Robert Charles Wilson
reviewed by Nick Gevers
The author contrives an eggshell future, fragile, fussy, anally retentive, an ideal candidate
for ruthless shattering. After the plagues of the 21st century and their attendant socio-economic chaos,
Earth has descended into a sort of bureaucratic feudalism, by which great amorphous Machiavellian Trusts
lord it over the peasant multitudes. The administrative mandarins operate a repressive and secretive regime.
Some, though, have escaped this noose, inhabiting commodious colonies in the far ranges of the Sun's Kuiper Belt.
The human race, thus petrified and divided, is vulnerable when it ventures into the interstellar unknown.
SF Masterworks
compiled by Rodger Turner
SF Masterworks, classic SF titles that deserve to be in print,
are published by Millennium, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group in the
UK. Here is a list of SF Site reviews done to date (with cover/title links
to the reviews) along with synopses of those titles yet to be reviewed.
A Conversation With Patricia Anthony
An interview with Jayme Lynn Blaschke
On morality, heroes and villains:
"I really don't do heroes and villains, because I don't believe there are
heroes and villains. Yes, there are people who do horrible things.
Sometimes there's really good people who do horrible things. That's another
problem the average reader has. People look for heroes and villains, and I
have a very nebulous sense of what right and wrong is. Which is kind of
dangerous and threatening."
Colony Fleet by Susan R. Matthews
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Hillbrane Harkover is a woman coming of age in a tense situation.
Every character in the book, actually, is living life on the edge. Life in the Colony Fleet, 400 years out
from Earth and 400 years away from its final destination, is a reality of ships, carefully managed
resources, and dedication to a mission. Generations have been born and died on the journey to 5 livable worlds,
all without ever knowing what it is to stand under an endless sky.
Mid-September Books
compiled by Neil Walsh
Recent arrivals include the latest Dune prequel, a novel about H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, and new novels from Elaine Bergstrom, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, and Paula Volsky. Also, there's no shortage of reprints -- including some well-loved classics and some worthy tales rescued from the well of obscurity.
The Year's Best Science Fiction: 17th Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
The selection here is broad ranging enough to satisfy nearly every reading
taste, from the surreal originality of Dave Marusek's Sturgeon Award winner,
"The Wedding Album," to the well-travelled terrain of Fred Pohl's
HeeChee-based "Hatching The Phoenix," from the touching humanity of
James Patrick Kelly's Hugo Award-winning novelette "1016 to 1" to the
powerful chill of Richard Wadholm's "Green Tea."
UBIK by Philip K. Dick
reviewed by A.L. Sirois
Glen Runciter's business is beleaguered. The telepaths his telepaths are monitoring -- to prevent
them from influencing consumer trends among the population -- are vanishing, and his precogs can't find them. Not
even his dead wife can help him, from her stasis tank in Switzerland. Apparently, someone doesn't like
Runciter's continuing efforts to get to the bottom of his problems, because he and several of his employees are
caught in an explosion...
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
reviewed by Rich Horton
This is a good read, with plenty of Zelaznyesque brio. It won a Hugo in a
tie with Frank Herbert's Dune. The story concerns Conrad Nomikos,
still living on Earth centuries after a nuclear war and after the bulk of
the population has gone to the stars to work for the advanced, civilized
Vegans. In the past, he'd been involved in the "Returnist" movement, urging
people to return to Earth, and resisting the Vegans' moves to buy up the
best Earth real estate.
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
This is part of a large future history covering tens of
thousands of years, and many colourful characters. The author mainly wrote short
stories, and readers of those stories will recognize several of the
characters that appear in here, especially C'mell and the Lord
Jestecost. The stories as a whole tell the history of mankind from the end
of our civilization to its expansion through space under the watchful eyes of the Instrumentality of Mankind.
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