http://www.sfsite.com/ The new issue of the SF Site is now online. Copyright 1996-2012 SF Site en-us http://www.sfsite.com/images/sfspot1.gif http://www.sfsite.com/ http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ml392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Robert Jordan's epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time, which has spun out over 23 years, 14 books (not counting a prequel) and two authors, finally winds to a climax in its final volume, A Memory of Light. And if you've been with the series from the beginning, all that reading time and emotional investment begs the question: was it worth it? Do fans get the payoff they deserve? http://www.sfsite.com/05b/5w392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT When the Others came, it was not in peace. They destroyed our modern infrastructure. They drowned our cities. They sent a plague to weed out the vast majority of the survivors. They enlisted silent killers and deadly drones to pick off the stragglers. And now those few who've made it this far must worry about the rumored 5th Wave, the one that will eradicate the last remnants of humanity and leave the Earth to its new owners. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ma392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT This book is a short sometimes sweet anthology, including the works of fifteen authors variously celebrated -- some deservedly so -- and others living on the fumes. There is no single theme to the collection, or anything to connect the individual plots, but the overall tone is a dark one, and concerns the dangers to both the victims and the practitioners whenever the power of magic is abused. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/oz392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Even if an author limits themselves to the version of Oz depicted in the 1939 Victor Fleming film, there are plenty of stories that can naturally branch out. However, John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have invited their authors to use the complete written works of L. Frank Baum and Ruth Plumly Thompson to create stories which shed light on Baum's most famous creation in Oz Reimagined. These sixteen authors make full use of the inspirational works. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/dp392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Kennet Singleton is not your usual nineteen-year-old. Many would be out enjoying themselves at that age, out with their friends, chasing girls, and other things associated with teenage life. Not Kennet, his life with his invalid mother means he has to care for her most of the time, and the only break he gets is working at the local funeral home where he cremates the dearly departed. This type of teen would give some the impression that he is a young Norman Bates character. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ar392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Anika Duncan and her partner Tom of the United Nations Polar Guard (UNPG) patrol the Arctic waterways, searching for those who would dump nuclear waste in its waters. They're piloting a blimp when a ship plows too quickly through the nearly ice-free sea. When they check for radiation, their detector beeps. They descend to the ship, but it fires a grenade that slams their blimp into the ocean. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/fratz392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT The novella (or short novel) may be the best of all lengths for science fiction -- long enough to fully explore the complex ideas, narratives, settings and characters needed for excellence in SF, but short enough to avoid the need for extraneous material that too often slows the pacing, diverts reader attention, and dilutes the emotional and intellectual impact of the story. D. Douglas Fratz believes that a persuasive case for this can be made with examples throughout the history of modern science fiction. He also gives us a glimpse into how he became a fan of ebooks and their role in his reading. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Last year, Rick Klaw contributed a column highlighting some of the works on comics history from his extensive collection. The piece turned out to be one of the most popular Nexus Graphica installments. As promised then, he has returned with another selection of books. And don't worry, he still has plenty more for yet another installment next year. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Forthcoming books include the latest from Joe Hill, Naomi Novik, Joe R. Lansdale, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mark Hodder, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Drew Karpyshyn, and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/im392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Iron Man 3 is a highly entertaining, unbelievably expensive film. If not great, it is at least very, very good. The Shane Black script is excellent, though Rick Norwood's favorite Shane Black script remains not this, not the Lethal Weapon series, but The Last Action Hero. He writes about flawed heroes and puts in plenty of clever bits to keep the jaded movie-goer on his toes. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/sb392.htm Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Though originally released as a crime novel, this book reads as a semi-realistic, semi-playful horror tale as though Sturgeon asked the what-if question about vampires: if vampires truly did exist, what would they be like? This short novel gathers evidence from the protagonist and several psychologists in a most unusual volume that will have many readers clinging it to their bosoms as one of their treasured oddities. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica391.htm Thu, 2 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Mark London Williams catches up with Art Slade (Dust, The Hunchback Assignments) after he announced a crowdfunding initiative for a new graphic novel, Modo: Ember's End, and the campaign around it. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/dave391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Steven Gould's Impulse begins years after the close of Reflex, as Davy and Millie now have a teenaged daughter, Millicent, nicknamed Cent. Davy has purchased, dirt-cheap, an isolated arctic hunting lodge. For Davy is on the run from the government whose only desire is to exploit his powerful ability, but soon enough found himself captured and tortured by a criminal terrorist organization. And in Gillian Philip's Firebrand, the first in her Rebel Angels series, takes place in both the faery realm of the Sithe (whose folk are nigh immortal) and the human world of the 16th century (where witch-hunts and religious persecution abound), the Veil, the shield separating and protecting the Sithe world from that of mortals is decaying. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/jh391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT When a collection begins with the three words "The Best Of" it's a certainty that you're dealing with a well-established writer. Such a collection generally serves two purposes. One is for those who already know the author's work, here's easy access to favorites old and new. The other is for readers less familiar with or new to the author, here's easy access to the best work of a writer with a long-standing body of work. This book fulfills both functions splendidly. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/nt391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT After a long hiatus, the series Mistresses of the Macabre edited by the invaluable Richard Dalby, an expert of ghost and supernatural British fiction, returns with a collection of short stories by Rosa Mulholland. An Irish writer belonging to the Charles Dickens circle, Mulholland (1841-1921) was the author of several successful, but soon forgotten novels. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/cw391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Marvel's Civil War is a "reboot" of the Marvel universe. It is not a fundamental change like the Star Trek re-boot that came with the last movie. Spider-Man is still Spider-Man and Iron Man still flies around and tries to control everything through Stark Industries. But some minor characters are killed and groups like S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers are forever changed. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/rs391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT The author weaves together a large number of stories and characters, although for several chapters it isn't entirely clear which ones will be ongoing characters and which ones will simply move in and out of the storyline or die off entirely. Few of them wind up living the lives they expect, even before the massive tidal wave of history rolls over them. Characters find that their choices aren't always the obvious ones, although they do make sense for the characters in the long run. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Although geek movies have pervaded the box office in recent years, movies made by genuine visionaries are in short supply. It's not that Joss Whedon's Marvel's The Avengers or Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight aren't great movies, or that there aren't great things in, say, Jon Favreau's Iron Man, but when it comes to daring, truly original directors tackling subject matter that might appeal to science fiction fans more steeped in literature than visual media, few of even the best directors appear up to the challenge. In the past, Derek Johnson gave short shrift to the director of what he now thinks is one of the best, if not the best, science fiction movie of the past ten years: Shane Carruth, who turned in the twisty time travel tale Primer in 2004. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ob391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT There is a tradition in written science-fiction of making sense. The graphic novel never had their John W. Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding who taught science fiction writers two important lessons: 1) know something about technology and how it works, 2) show, don't tell. Robert A. Heinlein took Campbell's lessons and made them work, and he is still the most enjoyable sf writer of all time -- not the greatest, but the most fun to read. Oblivion breaks the most basic rule in the very beginning. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT Rick has decided never to watch television ever again. Cable is expensive, commercials are annoying, and the ads inset into the picture during the story are intolerable. The last straw was Doctor Who Season 6b premiere, when BBC America had a "countdown" to the next program throughout the entire show. He also gives those of us who will a list of what SF is on TV in May. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/tp391.htm Wed, 1 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT The prologue sets us off in Philadelphia during 1780 where George Washington asks Benjamin Franklin if he will journey to Long Island where there are many war orphans he feels could be neglected or in danger. Washington feels that they won the war in an easier fashion than expected, almost too easy for his liking, and values the thoughts of his associate. It is this that begins the debate over Bunker Hill. Jump forward to 2009... http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica390.htm Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Rick Klaw looks at a batch of new titles including How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial, Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness and Fruit Ninja #1. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best13.htm Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT This is Year 16 of our annual SF Site's Best Read of the Year: 2012, the SF Site official Best Reading and Top Ten recommendations from everything we read in the previous year. This time you may find it interesting to see the variance in what SF Site Contributors and Readers have been enjoying by comparing the present list with our Readers' Choice Top Ten as chosen by the SF Site readership. I was surprised to see how little overlap there was between the two lists this year. In any case, between both lists, I'm sure you'll find plenty of worthwhile suggestions for further science fiction and fantasy reading. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/wp390.htm Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT The story is well known by now. In 1950 an obscure, short-lived magazine called Fantasy Book published a story, "Scanners Live In Vain," under the transparent pseudonym Cordwainer Smith. The story caught the attention of those people who did encounter the magazine because it was so accomplished, and it was quickly republished in an anthology edited by Frederik Pohl. Since the author's name was so clearly a pseudonym, there was some debate about who it might really be. In his introduction to this collection, Pohl says that speculation included Henry Kuttner, Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon and A.E. Van Vogt. All denied it, of course. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/ts390.htm Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Almost four years on from The Faerie Door, the author returns with a sequel. The premise is that the dark fey queen Ulricke, operating incognito as Mrs. Dreadlake, has found her way into Victorian England. The queen's malign influence is resulting in all manner of ill fortune, including workhouses staffed by enslaved children and hobgoblins marauding across the British countryside. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/in390.htm Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Some SF readers lust for estranging strangeness, others for a strange familiarity, bordering on wish fulfillment, i.e.: "I am a hulking barbarian and/or space cowboy with babes and/or hunks falling at my feet." Robert Freeman Wexler manages a fetching if quirky combination of the two modes in In Springdale Town. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/oz390.htm Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT This anthology presents fifteen short stories by well known authors, delivering varied approaches and inconsistent quality. Some, are true to the original themes of L. Frank Baum, others go completely off the deep end and really have very little to do with what people think of when they hear the name Oz. One should note that this collection is not suitable for younger children, containing as it does several examples of very dark and very adult writing. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new390.htm Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT This time we're looking at the latest from Stella Gemmell, John Scalzi, Warren Fahy, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Vera Nazarian, Sergei Lukyanenko, new anthologies from Ellen Datlow & Terry Windling, Gardner Dozois, a new magazine from Mike Resnick, classic reprints of Robert Silverberg, Robert McCammon, Harry Turtledove, and plenty more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best13.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT This is Year 16 of our annual SF Site's Best Read of the Year: 2012, the SF Site official Best Reading and Top Ten recommendations from everything we read in the previous year. This time you may find it interesting to see the variance in what SF Site Contributors and Readers have been enjoying by comparing the present list with our Readers' Choice Top Ten as chosen by the SF Site readership. I was surprised to see how little overlap there was between the two lists this year. In any case, between both lists, I'm sure you'll find plenty of worthwhile suggestions for further science fiction and fantasy reading. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/fs389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Cora, Michiko, and Nellie are all assistants, Cora to a lord who is an inventor in secret, and an MP in his public life, Nellie to a mysterious magician whose background is not clear, except he's non-English, and Michiko to a bigoted brute of a con man named Sir Callum Fielding-Shaw, who makes his living supposedly teaching self-defense. Michiko does what little teaching that takes place, while Sir Callum parties. The three girls meet accidentally one night when they all stumble upon a head without a body. Then they find out that someone is murdering flower girls. Are the murders related? http://www.sfsite.com/04a/gt389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Anti-hero Marla Mason was chief sorcerer for the city of Felport, until a disastrous encounter with a version of herself from an alternate dimension resulted in her being stripped of her office, and most of the powers that came with it. As Grim Tides begins, Marla is in exile on the Hawaiian island of Maui, living courtesy of her friend and long time associate Rondeau. Having no express purpose in life, her vague plan is to offer her services as an occult detective, regardless of the fact that she's far more suited to knocking down doors than she is to seeking out subtle clues. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best13b.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here we are at our 15th annual SF Site Readers' Choice Top Ten Books. Every year we ask our readers to vote for their favourite books of the preceding year. What follows below are the results of that voting. It's a banner year for Baen Publishing, with 6 of the top 10 books, including first, second and third choices. Congratulations to Baen, to all the other fine publishers, and to the authors who write the books we so enjoy reading. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/dave389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT In The Kassa Gambit, author M.C. Planck has chosen to play with the standard tropes often found in the space-adventure milieu. Prudence Falling captains a tramp freighter among the stars, she and her motley but loyal crew finding work wherever they can. The time is centuries after the ecological collapse of Earth when Man has seeded hundreds of planets in search of resources. It appears that humanity is alone in the universe. And in this third James F. David novel, Dinosaur Thunder (previous titles in this sequence were Footprints of Thunder and Thunder of Time). Dave found this newest to be a crackerjack read. What's not to love about time travel and dinosaurs? http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Last month, Mark London Williams mentioned how much he liked the James Vance / Dan Burr graphic novel On the Ropes, a sequel to their two-decades past masterpiece, Kings in Disguise, which he said "reads like a combination of Clifford Odets and James M. Cain." Or you can think of it as Carnivale without the mysticism. In the intervening month, he was lucky enough to catch up with Vance and lob some interview questions his way, to which he gave considered and thoughtful replies. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Recently, Derek noted that the Future used to be a place, as real a destination to movie goers and the general public as Chicago or Los Angeles, and about as strange to those who grew up a perfectly ordinary suburb during the heights of paranoia infusing the decade of the 1970s. The visual language of the movies released during that period shared many similarities: perfect geometries and Spartan design aesthetics. A recent viewing of three different 1970s dystopias -- George Lucas's THX 1138, Woody Allen's Sleeper, and Michael Anderson's Logan's Run -- served to reinforce this observation. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming books this time include the latest from Greg Bear, Elizabeth Bear, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, Mark Chadbourn, Peter Crowther, Cory Doctorow, Erin Hoffman, K.D. McEntire, Garth Nix, Kit Reed, Connie Willis, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick389.htm Mon, 1 Apr 2013 11:00:00 GMT Revolution is back. There have been several comments about Revolution that miss the point. They say, in effect, that they could make electricity. No. The premise of Revolution is that something inhibits electricity. Solar panels don't work. Alternators don't work. Human brains don't work. Well, maybe we have to give them a pass on that one. Natural electricity still works. Electric eels still work. It is only man-made electricity that doesn't work. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best13b.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here we are at our 15th annual SF Site Readers' Choice Top Ten Books. Every year we ask our readers to vote for their favourite books of the preceding year. What follows below are the results of that voting. It's a banner year for Baen Publishing, with 6 of the top 10 books, including first, second and third choices. Congratulations to Baen, to all the other fine publishers, and to the authors who write the books we so enjoy reading. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/hf388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here comes a new writer endowed with an uncommonly vivid imagination, with her stunning debut collection, featuring fifteen tales suspended between the fantastic and the horrific, each one representing somehow a different body part. Her stories are never banal, although, predictably, not all are quite successful. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/ff388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Colonel Alan Bookbinder. Married, with kids. Career soldier. Professional paper pusher. His life is sedate, his military service is undistinguished, and he's only good if you want to follow the money trail. And then his Latent magical abilities surface. The Supernatural Operation Corps may not know what Bookbinder's special gifts are yet, but it doesn't matter: he's still theirs. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sp388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Neo-Victoriana is a special realm of fantasy for many fiction writers and in this, the third volume of the Steampunk series, there are over twenty fiction stories and four non-fiction stories. They take readers through the cities of the Far East, where mad scientists, lethal assassins and adventurers dare to go but where no woman could ever venture, and with some of the most interesting real characters like Bram Stoker and Karl Marx. These stories have something everyone can enjoy. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2012 included Ardath Mayhar, Samuel Youd, Jack Scovil, Ralph McQuarrie, Dick Spelman, Moebius, Gene DeWeese, K.D. Wentworth, Leo Dillon, Ray Bradbury, Margaret Mahy, Harry Harrison, Josepha Sherman, Neil Armstrong and John D. Squires. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/ps388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Analog writers have collaborated to create this series of tales that concentrate on science and humanity. It is interesting when one writer edits a series of short stories, but when two notable ones join together, anything can happen, and it has with this award-winning team. These have the advantage of being both science and fiction and the two aspects are equal in these four stories which also come with an explanation for how they were conceived. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/oz388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Not as deeply satisfying as the original 1939 film, the new Oz movie is beautiful and clever and is easily the second best Oz film of all time. There are some slow moments early on, but the characters are delightful and it all comes together in the end. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sa388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Linh Cinder, humble mechanic, has been exposed as both a cyborg and a Lunar, and imprisoned. Levana, ruthless queen of Luna, is demanding her extradition, knowing full well that Cinder is one of the few threats standing between her and domination of both Luna and Earth. Cinder has only just learned that she's actually the lost Princess Selene, long thought dead but secretly spirited away to hide on Earth. She has no intentions of staying locked up. But if she escapes, she's going to need friends. Enter Scarlett. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/fratz388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT By way of introduction, D. Douglas Fratz has been reading science fiction for almost fifty years, and writing about it for more than forty. Since discovering the Tom Swift novels and the Heinlein juveniles in the early 60s, it has been a primary and continuous source of reading pleasure. He has been reviewing books and writing commentary on science fiction and fantasy fiction since 1969, and spend slightly more than two decades (1973-1993) editing and publishing the SF review magazine, Thrust Science Fiction & Fantasy Review (in its later years Quantum Science Fiction & Fantasy Review), which garnered five Hugo Award nominations. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica388.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Rick Klaw talks to Robert Boyd about his original comic art collection. "The first piece I got was given to me back in 1993 by David Collier," Boyd said. "I got it after sending him a fan letter." Since then he amassed some fifty pieces, a self-professed meager collection, but impressive enough for Boyd's alma mater Rice University to open an exhibit. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/ar365.htm Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT The book itself provides a guide to the city, with discussions of the laws and governance of Ankh-Morpork, guides to the guilds, many of which are based on that long ago diary series, and details of some of the deities worshipped in Ankh-Morpork. The largest section of the book, however, is taken up by an alphabetical gazetteer which looks at the various businesses extant in Ankh-Morpork. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica386.htm Sun, 3 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT As you may have read, this year's Academy Award-winning visual effects shop, Rhythm and Hues, which won the Oscar for their great work on Life of Pi is simultaneously going bankrupt. They are "restructuring," as the saying goes. How does Hollywood reward a company while watching it go out of business? There are lots of reasons, having to do with outsourcing of jobs, studios expecting "post" houses to absorb the additional costs when visuals are changed, tax subsidies in other countries where governments are willing to fund part of the cost to bring work to their shores. Mark London Williams looks at this situation. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/dw387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT The Demon Cycle is in full bloom. By the time The Daylight War takes place, Arlen and Jadir have had their confrontation and the Spear of Kaji is now in the hands of Jadir. He has begun his plan to assimilate all the northern lands for the impending holy war. Meanwhile, Arlen Bales is on his way back north to the Greenlands to be reunited with his people in order to make his own preparations for the upcoming war with demonkind. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/kg387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT "I have to say it was probably my dad's influence -- he was an electrical engineer and an avid science fiction reader. Science fiction novels were around the house for most of the 50s and 60s. I grew up thinking it is the ultimate form of intellectual literature. When I began writing science fiction, I had to take a crash course in science, because I am not the least bit technical." http://www.sfsite.com/03a/ao387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT On the day he should be celebrating his birthday, Jamey Barlowe and his sister Melissa are awakened in the middle of the night to find themselves whisked off to the one place where they might be safe. There's been a political coup in the United States, and their father is a public figure on the wrong side. With pursuit closing in, Jamey and Melissa are loaded on to a shuttle and launched. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil384.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/dk387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT The status of Batman -- the superhero who doesn't shoot and kill enemies -- has grown for decades, stepping beyond comics to TV, film, books, games, and action figures. Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, and David S. Goyer released a trilogy of movies that tried to create a realistic hero, asking, "How did Batman become a legend?" http://www.sfsite.com/03a/me387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT If readers liked the stories of Damon Knight, then these will be similarly welcomed. This is a collection of mainly science fiction short stories with a few fantasy ones thrown in to balance them out. The first story in the book is one of the most deceptive as it leads you to believe they will all be the same, but when you bear in mind these were written for magazines, you see where the subtle humour comes from, and also the serious nature of some of them. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/ho387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT The story, first published in 1937, remains the same: Bilbo Baggins joins Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves on a quest to recover stolen treasure from the evil dragon, Smaug. Any time good goes up against evil, there is going to be conflict. In this episodic quest, the challenges include trolls, goblins, giant spiders, and a Gollum who has an unhealthy obsession with a ring. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/bg387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Rich says this review is very late, for multiple reasons. One reason is that he finds himself at odds with the consensus, which makes him think he may have missed something. It's a new novella by an author Rich enjoys immensely, and it has gotten quite a bit of praise. So why, he wonders, was he left rather cold by it? He's forced to caution the reader that he may simply be wrong -- that he may have read the book in the wrong state of mind, or that he may simply not be the right reader for the book. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2012 included Ardath Mayhar, Samuel Youd, Jack Scovil, Ralph McQuarrie, Dick Spelman, Moebius, Gene DeWeese, K.D. Wentworth, Leo Dillon, Ray Bradbury, Margaret Mahy, Harry Harrison, Josepha Sherman, Neil Armstrong and John D. Squires. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/df387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT In this sequel to the post-apocalyptic zombie novel, The Devil's Wake, Domino Falls becomes the destination for a band of hardened, largely young adults aboard a bullet-riddled bus called the Blue Beauty. They seek civilization, sanctuary away from zombies (or freaks) and pirates. The characters: Native American "twin" cousins Dean and Darius, militaristic Ursalina, myopic Piranha and Kendra, the youngest at 16, who is in love with Terry, and Sonia. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/dave387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT For fans of large-scale, interstellar SF chock full of advanced alien cultures, super-science technologies, the thrill of discovery linked with ever-present danger, and perhaps the greatest Mystery mankind has ever known -- all played out against the immense backdrop of the galaxy -- you are in for a treat with Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford & Larry Niven. As for reading The Fractal Prince by Hannu Rajaniemi, it is like trying to play 3-dimensional chess -- blindfolded. Now pretend that your opponent -- in this scenario the author -- moves a piece (from any level) onto another 3-dimensional board floating in some invisible, virtual, quantum dimension. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT One thinks that, as a critic, Derek might be somewhat immune to cinematic tulip crazes , especially with what seems to pass for film anhedonia in most. Yet even today, he can feel himself awaiting something that looks so awe-inspiring that he practically dances in his chair as he awaits its arrival, or wish he'd had a motion-sickness bag for what he is often certain will be a train wreck of epic proportions. This hit him full force with two previews that opened the press screening of Jack the Giant Slayer. The first was Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim. The second was Man of Steel. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT New this time, we have a look at the latest from Terry Brooks, Brandon Sanderson, Tim Lebbon, Adam Roberts, Laurence Yep, and others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Something has changed on television -- programs are being renewed with far fewer viewers than would have been possible even a few years ago. Supernatural has been renewed for a ninth season with about 2.1 million viewers. The Vampire Diaries has been renewed for a fifth season with about 2.9 million viewers. In contrast, Firefly was cancelled for low ratings with 4.5 million viewers. Rick also gives a list of what to watch in March. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/ba387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT Just over seven years ago, the head of Philip K Dick went missing from an America West Airlines flight between Dallas and Las Vegas. A tired roboticist, transferring the talking robotic replication of Dick's head from one tech presentation to another, left it in an overhead baggage locker. An incident which has already inspired a radio play and received substantial media coverage at the time, it initially seemed to somewhat too slight to merit book-length treatment. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/bh387.htm Fri, 1 Mar 2013 11:00:00 GMT This is a small book about a large subject; the fictional realms and diverse characters created by Philip Pullman during his more than 30-year career. These are worlds filled with tales of the human condition, filtered through a fantasy lens. The author presents her personal analysis of Pullman's themes, with particular reference to innocence and experience, the journeys that Pullman's characters take, and his quoted belief that wisdom only really comes to us when we lose. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica386.htm Mon, 18 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT After three months of no new reviews, things have piled up a bit for Rick Klaw at Nexus Graphica in Texas. In an attempt to catch up, he's providing us with nothing but reviews this month. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/os386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT On a hot day in Vientiane, a private detective named Joe is hired by a mysterious woman to find the author of a series of cheap paperback thrillers, the kind of books that are kept on the back shelves of porn shops. The books seem to be set in a different world, one where the secretive Osama bin Laden conducts a vigilante, terrorist war against the decadent West. It's a world where, from Joe's viewpoint, fantastic technologies are used to destroy imaginary buildings and blow up imaginary hotels. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/gh386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT If you think that the ghost story is a literary genre which, after its golden era in the Victorian and Edwardian ages, is gone out of fashion, you're completely wrong and this anthology of modern ghostly tales is here to prove it. The editor has assembled thirty pieces of contemporary fiction (mostly reprints) dealing with spectres, apparitions and spirits visiting today's world, lurking in our cities, haunting our modern houses, disquieting our skeptical, technological minds. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ca386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Alcatraz Smedry is a 13 year-old foster child sent a bag of sand as his sole inheritance, only to find himself playing a pivotal role in a world that is so much more than he'd ever imagined. The sand, which is also more than it seems, is almost immediately stolen, thus beginning a chain of events leading to the young Smedry discovering he is part of a family with unique individual talents. A family at the forefront of a secret war being fought between the Free Kingdoms, and a totalitarian conspiracy known as the Librarians. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ee386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT The End of Earth and Sky is a frame tale set in an alternate universe, opening with an introduction by the narrator, Calin Lowford, in response to a comprehensive indictment that claims he is the most heinous of mega-super-extra-evil villains. Each chapter begins with a quote from this indictment, which, Calin explains, is written by someone whose world indeed ended. Calin is an ordinary young man, given to plumpness. He's termed lazy by many of his elders, and he's certainly tried several apprenticeships unsuccessfully before being made into... http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ng386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT At a time when the publishing world is acknowledging that its face is changing, and industry notables such as Donald Maass are encouraging writers to embrace that change and accept the challenge of using high impact techniques to "capture the minds, hearts, and imaginations of" today's readers and markets, Pravic is timely. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ae386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT No one really knows what goes into the making of a novel or collection of short stories and poems, but the author lets us into his own private world of getting published in his preface. Here he shares the ups and many downs of writing stories, in the vain hope someone will like them enough to publish them. From his college years to the present, his persistence is admirable, and many will empathise with his struggles. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil384.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ts386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Jules Verne sent his travelers on extraordinary voyages into space and into the bowels of the earth, through the skies and through the ocean depths, but he didn't send his characters on journey through time. That lack seems to have been filled by this Spanish writer who indeed specifically mentions Verne in the penultimate paragraph of this curious novel. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/dn386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT The author's website usually has 25 tips for writers on various subjects, told in a no-nonsense tough-guy voice. Plus, how could one pass up Dinocalypse Now, a 40s-era, pulp-flavored lark with universe hops, Atlantean technology, sentient chimps, mind-manipulating dinosaurs, and a mad scientist? What's not to like? http://www.sfsite.com/02b/wi386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT If you, like me, enjoy thumbing through small books of poetry, you will really appreciate this one. It is labelled as poetry but there is something for everyone with science fiction and fantasy, and other poetry that is much broader than imagined. The mere fact it is small enough to fit in your back pocket, or get tucked in your handbag is enough. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new386.ht Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT New this time, we're looking at the latest from L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Fiona McIntosh, James Lovegrove, Ramsey Campbell, Peter V. Brett, anthologies by Ellen Datlow, Rick Klaw, and plenty more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick386.htm Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Every year about this time, Rick gives his picks of the upcoming sf and fantasy films, based on the writers. How did he do last year? His picks were: The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Men in Black III, Prometheus, Brave, Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-man, Skyfall, Gravity, The Hobbit, Dark Shadows and Cloud Atlas. This year his choices are... http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica385.htm Sun, 3 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT So this is that time of year when Mark London Williams might be planning a tie-in with his "high season" of film journalism, where he is off to award shows and such (his tux is in for its annual dry cleaning), and would generally speak of the increasing overlap and tie-in between the comics and film worlds. Those overlaps mostly come with what Hollywood likes to call "tentpoles." Except, of course, studios don't make those films anymore. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil384.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/fw385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT "Sigmund Ausfaller, the paranoid intelligence agent, was a shadowy figure in some of Larry's early stories, more plot device than character. Those stories were written in first person, from Beowulf's point of view, and we learned little about Sigmund. After Sigmund's starring role throughout the Fleet series, however, we know all about him. It turns out (and I say this from reader feedback, not merely expressing authorial opinion) that paranoia doesn't preclude a protagonist being charming and sympathetic." http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cb385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT In the story, "Birthday," the narrator is a landlady who visits people's apartments while they are gone. She dresses in their clothes and imagines her life as theirs. Embarrassed, she kicks out a tenant, because of her desire to be that person. Later, she leaves her family to live in other apartments, with other lives. When all fails, she turns inward and finds that a simple desire drives her. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/tq385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT The post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel has become one the most respectable speculative tropes for mainstream literary types to dabble in, without risking the snobbish ire that can be turned by critics on anything that even hints of sci-fi. There are various reasons for this. The apocalyptic strain in Western thought is strong, and one that persists even if the explicitly religious element declines (some might say it gets even stronger). http://www.sfsite.com/02a/st385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Already into its eighth issue, this one is titled the All Martian Spectacular. It has the bonus of being separate from the previous ones, as its speciality is Martians featured in one way or another. Being set in the 1800s, the attitudes towards aliens were different. H.G. Wells wrote his novel about Martians attacking Earth, and many believed there were beings and life on other planets, especially Mars. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/no385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT It's already into its 22nd issue and is still going strong with the usual writers Edoardo Albert, Ron Sanders, Dave Duncan, Nancy Kay Clark, and Robert J. Boumis. The cover art is provided by L.A. based author, poet and illustrator Ron Sanders whose scene is a memorable one that wouldn't look out of place on a future War of the Worlds novel's cover. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/rc385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Shy South lives on her farm with her gentle stepfather Lamb and the rest of her siblings. While away, Shy and Lamb return to find their farm has been attacked and destroyed and her brother and sister Pit and Ro, have been stolen. Shy has never been one to take anything lying down so she and Lamb set off after them. Eventually, they are joined by a host of colorful supporting characters and their fellowship begins their long journey into the untamed far country. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/gb385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Down the River Road, first published in the Tolkien tribute, After the King, is newly revised and introduced with personal history and story origins, including photos. It's reminiscent topically of Mark Twain's stories of riverboats, but being Benford, of course, he spins this into a science fantasy based on the idea that "any technology indistinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Let's say that you want to spend this Valentine's Day with your significant other the way Derek Johnson spends most of his evenings. And let's say you want to, if not embrace the holiday, then give it a respectable nod with a love story. And let's say you're a science fiction and fantasy fan, and want something with enough geek cred to maintain your identity, but you already know every line of Somewhere in Time, The Empire Strikes Back, The Princess Bride, and The Fifth Element. In that spirit, Derek offers these ten movies, which should suffice for any true blue fanboy (or fangirl) who wants to inject a little skiffy romance in their evening's entertainment. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT New books this time include the latest from Robert V.S. Redick, Andrew P. Mayer, Mark Hodder, some classic short fiction from Harlan Ellison, the latest installment of The Mongoliad, and plenty more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Rick watched the final episodes of Fringe and Last Resort in January. Both will soon be forgotten. He enjoyed the action-packed ending of Last Resort. The characters and acting are excellent. But it only lasted half a season, and will probably go the way of Defying Gravity. Rick also gives a list of what to watch in February. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/sg385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT Anyone who has read Marvel or DC comics over the past couple of decades will recognise Grant Morrison as someone who first came to prominence in what amounted to a British invasion. A cultural and creative exchange that, like its musical equivalent back in the 60s, helped to both reinvent and ultimately revitalise the art form. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ge385.htm Fri, 1 Feb 2013 11:00:00 GMT In a degenerate far future, long after a nano- and biotechnology transformed the world, true humans live in small clans seeking to avoid exposure to the "changing vectors" that infect the wilderness around them and threaten to mutate and transmogrify them. One of their only remnants of high technology is a tenuous grasp of how to use these changing vectors to create beings to serve them as slaves. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/an384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT Gregory Benford has been one of science fiction's foremost authors for more than four decades, writing hard SF novels and stories that are among the best in each decade since the 70s. A new Benford short story collection is therefore a notable event. It has been more than a decade since his last short story collectio. This one includes most (but not all) of his short stories from the 2000s, plus a few earlier stories, seventeen in all, along with new and insightful afterwords. It is a testament to the quality of his stories that nine of the seventeen stories here were included in one or more best-of-the-year collections. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/bl384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT Here, we pick up the story right where she left off in City of Dragons. The dragons and the crew of the Tarman have reached the lost city of Kelsingra and now Alise, Tats, Rapskal and the others are trying to settle down and make a life for themselves in the city. The dragons that remained earthbound all go through the process of learning to fly and the dragon keepers are now developing into full-fledged Elderlings and searching for the silver that will allow the dragons to complete their development. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/ro384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT What we generally think of as graphic novels in the Anglosphere is a fairly recent innovation, deriving from more traditional comic books. In the Francophone world, bandes dessinees have a longstanding status and popularity which belies the slightly desperate quest of mainstream acceptability that often characterises English-speaking comics aficionados. The ligne claire style of Tintin or Edgar P. Jacobs' Blake and Mortimer adventures is, of course, not the only style of bandes dessinees, but perhaps it is the best-known and loved in the English speaking world. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/ah384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT The premise is enticing; God is apparently missing from the City of Angels, Lucifer resides in Heaven, and a psychopath is at war with both Heaven and Hell. Sandman Slim is required to leave his home in LA, and head "downtown" aka Hell. His mission, to rescue his lost love, scupper the plans of an insane serial killer, and while he's not otherwise occupied, stop the forces of Good and Evil from completely annihilating each other. Hardly the average day out, and filled with bloody promise. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/sm384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT When Trent edited poetry for Abyss & Apex and Kristine Ong Muslim's poetry slipped through the transom, her tightly woven imagination floored him. He hadn't encountered such magic carpets so idiosyncratic since those of Russell Edson. "Who is Muslim? Why have I never heard of her?" Upon finding her website, Trent fished around her back-inventory and learned she had only recently [back then] become striking. Since then, Muslim has only gotten better. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/cf384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT One night Alaeron, an alchemical researcher, comes upon a young woman being held at knife point by two suspicious looking men who believe she owes their master a large sum of money. Alaeron isn't one for getting involved in other people's affairs, but when women are involved, he makes an exception. Using a powerful time altering egg device, Alaeron stops the villains in their tracks, and gets the woman to safety. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/01b/fp384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT In the Oort Cloud, post-human societies sculpt ice into massive art forms, while on Earth uncontrolled nanotech and wild viruses twist and shape the desert and anyone who dares venture there. A thief and an angel contemplate the consequences of completing their mission, and two sisters play a game of family politics with the fate of the last humans on Earth at stake. That's just the start. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/dr384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT The period between the two world wars was the heyday of the autodidact, and publishers responded by producing books by eminent thinkers and scientists like Bertrand Russell and J.B.S. Haldane aimed at the general public. One of the oddest and most influential of these was published by Cape in 1929. It was written by the pioneer of X-ray crystallography, J.D. Bernal, but his slim volume was far more wide ranging than that specialisation might suggest. His book addressed the three enemies of humanity's future, and was thus entitled, taking a line from the Bible, The World, the Flesh and the Devil. It was an extraordinary exercise in what we would now call futurology. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/nm384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT "Little Nemo in Slumberland" chronicled the experiences of a little boy in his dreamworld. Each night he would don his pajamas, climb into his brass bed, and soar off to fabulous adventures in marvelous cities populated by fascinating characters and weird monsters. Time and space were annihilated. Even Nemo's bed came to life, lengthening and stretching its legs and carrying the youngster away from his home. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT After a nearly decade since the publication of Geek Confidential, Rick Klaw's newest book hits the stands in February. The Apes of Wrath delivers a collection of 17 simian-laden tales by many luminaries alongside four original essays on various aspects of apes in pop culture and a foreword by Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt. This anthology is the first book he has edited in 15 years. Pretty ironic since he initially established his reputation as an editor. Here's how it began. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT New arrivals this time include the latest from Mike Resnick, Hannu Rajaniemi, Gail Z. Martin, forthcoming books from John Varley, Lucius Shepard, Brian Lumley, Guy Gavriel Kay, and plenty more. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/rs384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT It started out as an open call for submissions and turned into a book of short stories and non-fiction essays that show how good a compilation of stories can be. For a long time now, science fiction has become science fact; the quirky gadget from the original Star Trek series developed into today's cell phone, while the PADD from Star Trek TNG became the e-reader device many of us read novels and stories on around the world. http://www.sfsite.com/01b/td384.htm Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT The book-end essays are the primary lectures and much of what you'd expect from the title. Picture a grand ballroom where many guests mill around, sip wine, and dip into the conversation. The first essay is something of an introductory piece on the history, even offering other perspectives on how to see the history. The last is better as it puts its topic within the context of the author's life, instead of propounding a dry, academic lecture. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica383.htm Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT So where to begin this year? Does Mark London Williams need to start the year with a tradition, to bookend the one(s) that ended 2012? Should he predict the ten books he will like best by year's end, and see how the actual final list compares? (Actually, Mark thinks that could be kind of fun, if he really had the vaguest notion of all the things he'd wind up reading.) Instead, he has several different columns in mind, and he decided to kick things off with not resolutions, exactly, but "tidbits." Touching on themes he'd like to expand on in the months to come, ideas for future columns, and short reviews of recently launched series. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/bh383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT This volume once again provides horror enthusiasts with an exhaustive overview of where the genre stands and what new directions it is taking by reporting what books, magazines and movies have been offered in 2011. As is customary, the bulk of the volume is the twenty-six stories that editor Stephen Jones deems to be the best that have appeared in print. The reader should pay particular attention to the copyright page, which clearly indicates which were the more accomplished anthologies and collections of the year. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/sw383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT Samuel R. Delany is, to a large extent, responsible for Paul being a critic today. He had written a few desultory reviews when he first read The Jewel-Hinged Jaw, and he discovered how criticism should be done. The book taught him that a rigorous critical approach to the subject could be revealing, exciting, energising and, not least, thoroughly accessible. He learned about, understood and enjoyed science fiction far more for bringing to it the critical approach that he had picked up from Delany. And, of course, he was completely convinced by the arguments advanced. Delany remains, to his mind, one of the half dozen or so critics whose work is essential for anyone who wants to understand the genre. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/im383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT If you got stuck on a train, or bus, or in an elevator and you had to have one book to choose from that would have to get you through the boredom, then this would be it. Crammed with short stories, poetry and longer stories that range from fantasy, horror, supernatural and science fiction, this is the sort of book you would have on your keeper shelf. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/bg383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT Philip Pullman tackles the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. Alan Garner did something similar in his Complete Fairy Tales. Like Garner, Pullman distances himself from rewriting them as modern stories -- developing full characters, setting, etc. -- but instead rewrites them only to improve plot points, occasionally embellishing or detouring slightly from the originals. "If Pullman doesn't make major changes," a reader may ask, "why would I want pay for this new book? Couldn't I get a classic ebook, free off the internet?" Good question. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/fm383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT In the original A Fantasy Medley, editor Yanni Kuznia brought together four of the most interesting authors to write four short stories. When the volume was released, it became a sell-out, and it wasn't long before another was envisioned and later written. Again, four eminent writers have joined to bring us four of the most unusual fantasy fiction since fantasy as a genre had started. Writers such as Tanya Huff, Amanda Downum, Jasper Kent and Seanan McGuire share their imagination with their readers. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT As is evidenced by the fact that we are celebrating a new year, the doomsayers who wrung their hands at the end of the world -- foretold, they assured all of us, by the Mayan calendar -- were as wrong as Karl Rove predicting Mitt Romney's Ohio victory on election night. Although for his own sake and sanity it means that Derek no longer has to find in his Netflix Instant Watch queue yet another painfully earnest documentary featuring wild-eyed soothsayers who toss apocalyptic prophecies that have more to do with their own imaginative wish fulfillment than anything having to do with this ancient calendar, it also means that Derek can forget, despite a few bright spots, what a mediocre year it was for science fiction and fantasy movies. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT Happy new year! Happily we have new books to consider, including the latest from Peter V. Brett, Warren Ellis, Ian C. Esslemont, Peter F. Hamilton, Andrew P. Mayer, Elizabeth Moon, Terry Pratchett, Allen Steele, Timothy Zahn, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT The best tv Rick has watched in recent months, aside from his on-going one-episode-a-night rewatching of Babylon 5, is the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "The Snowmen". His vote: not as good as previous Christmas Specials. For one thing, Rick is getting tired of the repeated use of the two-word phrase "Doctor who?" Once was great. More than once in every season runs the idea into the ground. Also, in this episode, the Doctor is uncommonly stupid, so much so that viewer will want to yell at him. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/ho383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT The Hobbit is good enough to rate four stars from Rick but he still finds it disappointing. He thinks his expectations were too high. He wanted to mention that The Hobbit is easily one of his ten favorite books of all time, up there with titles like Robert A. Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy, Jane Austin's Sense and Sensibility, and Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man. http://www.sfsite.com/01a/re383.htm Tue, 1 Jan 2013 11:00:00 GMT In his novels, Neal Stephenson is famous for his absorbing infodumps -- pages going into detail on say, the technical details of aspects of cryptography, or on the experience of eating Cap'n Crunch. Show, don't tell, they say, but there have always been authors who could make telling great fun, and Stephenson is one of those. So it's not a surprise to find him a fine writer of nonfiction, as this first collection amply demonstrates. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/rw382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT He is an eclectic fantasist, whose stories range from the surreal to the horrific, from dark fantasy to black humor. But labels count precious nothing for good writers and, if you want to know how good a writer he is, this collection, arguably featuring the best of his short fiction, is an unique opportunity. Including twenty stories,the volume does offers a complete overview of the author's different narrative styles and of his personal approach to reality. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/dd382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Jack Vance is justly revered as one of the grandmasters of science fiction, fantasy, and that strange middle ground, science fantasy. But, as a writer, he once had another incarnation. In the 60s and 70s, John Holbrook Vance (his full name) churned out mystery novels and short stories, including some for-hire jobs under the name of Ellery Queen. But, although he won an Edgar Award for The Man in the Cage, his parallel career as a crime writer never gained full traction. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/gf382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT There are two tales here, two stories of personal struggles and world-changing, mind-altering discoveries. There are myths to be shattered, legends waiting to be born, and lives ready to be changed. In two relatively short novels published in one volume, the author manages to unite the grandness of myth with the reality of everyday life, and the good news is that his characters, and possibly the world, are better for it. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/yb382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Each year for almost three decades, the massive collection of science fiction stories in this series has been the most important book of the year for lovers of short SF. While the shorter best-of-the-year volumes provide a valuable complement, it is this one that provides the most comprehensive reading experience, and the best guide to where the field currently stands, and where it is likely going in the future, and the 29th volume is no exception. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bc382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT It starts out in the mundane setting of Magnimar's city streets where Luma Derexhi, a cobblestone druid, works with her family of mercenaries who deal with any problem of the people from the city's elite. The wealthier they are the better chances the mercenaries have of making a tidy profit. Luma is the oldest child of the family, yet due to her half-elven heritage no one takes any notice of her. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/eh382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Most of Baen's novels are either fantasy or science-fiction based, so finding one that encapsulates both is a real find in the true sense of the word. Tinker is the protagonist in this story, and was once a human. She somehow got to be made into the elf princess of Elfhome. Their realm just happens to be within Pittsburgh, a huge city with sixty thousand humans where elves are in the minority, hoping to live through a war that is coming. Winter is also on its way. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Seems like just yesterday when Mark and Rick started this column (April, 2008 in actuality) and later that year when they delivered the first best of column. These annual events often featured atypical titles, mysteriously absent from other lists (though neither of them are above including the "typical"). As evident by their choices in the first half and this final installment of the 5th annual year's best of guide, Mark and Rick proudly continue that fine tradition. http://www.sfsite.com/12b/rj382.htm Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is primarily a sketchbook, providing a sumptuous overview of Alex Ross at work, including the mechanics of his technique, and insights detailing his creative thought processes. The artwork itself is mostly comprised of greyscale pencil and ink drawings, plus some colour works, the quality of which varies between basic and finely crafted concept pieces. As those familiar with his work will already suspect, the content is heavily dominated by images of Superman. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/sp381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT This novel continues on directly from the first in this sequence, Hard Magic, opening with a suicidal assassination attempt on US President Roosevelt. It's a crime which is set up to look as if it was perpetrated, not only by a magic user, but also one that was a member of the clandestine Grimnoir Society. Those behind the attempt are revealed, to the reader, as a kind of steampunk CIA, deliberately stirring up major trouble, with the ultimate aim of introducing legislation to force all Actives to register as state assets. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/bs381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Readers were first introduced to Hanosz Prime of Prime in the short story "Hanosz Prime Goes to Old Earth," published in Asimov's in 2006. That story forms a basis for Robert Silverberg's entry in When the Blue Shift Comes, "The Song of Last Things." He introduces the reader to a universe far in the future of our own where mankind can change their forms as readily as we change our clothes. An omniscient and chattering narrator explains, or often only hints at, the tremendous difference between humans during our own time and during the time of Hanosz Prime. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/tr381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT The art for this issue's cover is a new look at a character from an old story, the original robot was on the cover of issue #4 as it was thought it would be a good idea to bring the artwork and the pesky character back for another airing. The theme this time around seems to be on alternate worlds. The emphasis is still on science fiction mixed with the westerns, but this was thrown in at the last minute and gave the whole magazine a new edge they thought readers would enjoy. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/mr381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Something happened in the last decade. Before that, Kij Johnson was a respected if far from exalted short story writer, who had won the Sturgeon Award for "Fox Magic," which would grow into her first novel, The Fox Woman, but otherwise hadn't really troubled the award ballots. Since then, it is almost impossible to imagine an award shortlist that hasn't featured at least one of her stories, often going on to win. http://www.sfsite.com/12a/by381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the original story, a stepmother sent her adopted daughter to her aunts to get a needle and thread for making a garment, and when the daughter got there she found out her aunt turned out to be a Baba Yaga. The tale reads like a European dungeons and dragons scenario for a character where other characters help her on her way. It is a cautionary tale for the Baba Yaga, as it shows what happens when the witch doesn't get what she wants. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Like children's birthdays, or graduation dates, or even election seasons, it's time, once again for the Nexus Graphica Top Ten List which means that a whole year has gone by since Rick Klaw and Mark London Williams did this last time. And while things change, ebb, flow, fall and rise in the world at large, some things, still, are immutable. At least, the basic caveats for this list. Which, if you need a reminder, means that neither Rick nor Mark are claiming these are the "ten best" among all the comics work released last year -- on paper, in digital form, on web sites, etc. -- but rather, of all the things they've read and reviewed in this space, these are the ten that have stuck with them by year's end. So without further ado, here's the first half of the list. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT At the end of November, io9 released its selection of 19 science fiction movies that could, in Annalee Newitz's words, "challenge your preconceptions about reality and force you to rethink your place in the universe." A very bold statement, that, and while Derek disagrees with some of her choices, he finds little to call it life-changing... He finds many of her other choices, from Fritz Lang's arresting Metropolis to Andrei Tarkovsky's sublime Stalker, inarguable. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new381.htm Sat, 1 Dec 2012 11:00:00 GMT Books this time include the latest from Catherynne M. Valente, John Scalzi, Robert V.S. Redick, Robert Rankin, Terry Pratchett, Karen Marie Moning, Juliet E. McKenna, Robin Hobb, Felix Gilman, Ian Esslemont, Joe Abercrombie, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ad380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT It maybe that the author would like to live very far away from the rest of us, in a remote cabin somewhere, preferably where it snows a lot. This is not necessarily a place to escape the present, but rather a place where one might encounter, understand, and perhaps even embrace the future. Such, at least, is the setting and the circumstance that keeps cropping up in these stories. They are full of characters recalling, in isolation, some great catastrophe in which they were complicit; very often they know, also, what is necessary to put things right, but this withdrawal from society is needed before they can take that next step. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/gr380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a meticulously crafted novel that blends murder mystery, horror story and thriller into one very compelling and entertaining science fiction novel. This should come as no surprise to fans of the author. He has consistently proven himself to be one of the most creative and imaginative writers in science fiction. There aren't very many authors out there who can juggle three genres, a couple dozen characters and a multitude of plot threads with this much detail and pull it all together into one seamless novel. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/fb380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Over the years, Terry Pratchett has referred to numerous fictional authors and their works in his expansive Discworld series, from Achmed the Mad's Necrotelinomicon to Cohen the Barbarian's Inne Juste 7 Dayes I wille make you a Barbearian Hero! In his novel Snuff, Pratchett introduced the prolific chidren's author Miss Felicity Beedle, and he has now published one of Miss Beedle's books, a tribute to a lost style of children's book where all the kids are well-mannered and all the adults are infinitely patient. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ww380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT The woman doing the serial dying here is none other than British Special Ops agent Thursday Next, heroine of six previous novels as well as one imaginary novel who herself may or may not be imaginary. Of course, this is fiction, so of course she's made up, but this is the kind of fiction that calls into question the nature of reality by imagining a reality that is not very real, all the while dropping hints that consensual reality may not be so real as the consensus believes, and that suspending disbelief to sustain narrative is what we do in ordinary life anyway. Confused? http://www.sfsite.com/11b/su380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the trilogy's finale, Ingrid and Whispr run into a "meld," a human gene-modified for the desert, complete with a heavy water storage sack on his back. He wants a cut on their diamond haul, but the two aren't hunting diamonds. They believe they lose him; yet unbeknownst to them he dogs their trail. Later, after they've dodged searcher drones patrolling the area outside the SEAC facility, a four-armed anti-corporation Meld, living and prospecting in this forbidden zone, accosts Ingrid and Whispr. Meanwhile, Mole, the hired assassin sniffs out their trail to southern Africa. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/mp380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT The 5th volume in the Science Fiction Megapack ebook series presents 25 tales of high adventure through other worlds and times, including two award winners: Avram Davidson's Hugo-winning story, "Or All the Seas with Oysters," and Gardner Dozois's "The Peacemaker," which won a Nebula Award, and several nominees: Nebula Award finalist "The Eichmann Variations," by George Zebrowski; Hugo finalist "Code Three," by Rick Raphael; and,"May Be Some Time," by Brenda Clough, which was both a Hugo and a Nebula finalist. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ch380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is the third installment of the remarkable Subterrene War trilogy. This is not an easy trilogy. It has brutal battle scenes, shows the reader an uncomfortable vision of technology pushed too far and asks important questions about what it is to be human. And, on top of that, these three books are well-told, hair-raising trips through three different war zones in a truly dysfunctional world. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ha380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT All together there are ten authors at work here, two of whom write under a collective name, presenting paranormal tales from the world that lies just out of sight, most of the time. These include stories about bigfoot, albino vampires, professional wizards, a resurrected boyfriend, and a supporting role for a pleasure droid from the twenty-third century! The editor wrangles a nicely diverse collection of talent. But former glory is never a guarantee. Is what they serve up the literary equivalent of a gourmet meal, or more like a dog's breakfast? http://www.sfsite.com/11b/iw380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Readers of Kim Harrison's novels will have some idea of what to expect with her latest offering of short and long stories which are based either in or out of the Hollows. They feature bounty hunter and witch heroine, Rachel Morgan, and includes a special Hollows novella. This is a large book, so her fiction is more novella than short stories, and it takes the reader through her realms where nothing is what it seems when elves and other beings lurk in the shadows. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ho380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT It's tough to classify the Western Lights novels, which take place in a mysteriously sundered world where an ice-locked Victorian society coexists with a host of prehistoric beasts. The series wonderfully mixes horrific, fantastic and supernatural elements -- with a dash of Science Fiction thrown in -- cooked up into a string of stand-alone Victorian-esque potboilers. The author calls his books fantasy mysteries. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/fp380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Edgar Allan Poe has influenced many new writers with his short stories that ranged from the strange, to the eerie and bizarre. They were dark, but one novel he never completed was The Lighthouse, and this is the basis for the novel, as well as other characters the author has added for creative reasons. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT A bombastic ad of Thor #337 featuring a scary-looking alien destroying the Thor comics logo littered Marvel comics throughout late summer 1983. As a young comics fan, Rick Klaw knew something of the character. He had read the title for a brief period in the 70s and a smattering of the Lee/Kirby issues from the 60s. Something about this cover image of a strange creature that appeared similar to the Thunder God, really struck a chord. Rick picked up the issue the day it came out, thus launching a life-long love affair with creator Walter Simonson whom he intervews. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Inclusion stands among science fiction's chief virtues. While infighting breaks out, often about where the center presently resides, fans and critics think nothing of accepting works outside the genre into the pulp folds. Despite this, Derek Johnson admits to balking when it comes to extending the James Bond series, either in print or on screen, the same courtesy. It's not that he dislikes Bond but he finds the adventures featuring Ian Fleming's famous secret agent fit uncomfortably with science fiction, like a Savile Row suit not tailored for Bond's Walther PPK. http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ca380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a historical/romance/contemporary thriller/comedy/science fiction/fantasy unlike anything you've ever seen. Whether it is the wave of the future or a flash in the pan, Rick enjoyed it far more than he expected. What a less media savvy audience would make of this series of quick, vivid images that tells six different stories remains to be seen. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick380.htm Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT When a new genre television series comes along, Rick usually watches a few episodes, though in some cases, Arrow for example, a few minutes is enough. Then he either signs on or signs off. Sometimes he tells us that he makes a mistake. He gave up too soon on Lost and Heroes, and went back to them on Blu-ray. Sometimes the shows he likes are not to everyone's taste. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/pg379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Southern literature is as distinct a genre as mystery or science fiction. Just as those two genres can be combined, southern literature with its naturalistic darkness which hints at a horror lurking beneath the surface, can be combined with other genres, as Andy Duncan deftly does with many of the stories included in this collection. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/hm379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Crossing steampunk with magic, and primarily depicting the adventures of Jake Sullivan, war hero, private eye and ex-con, tthe story begins with him just out of jail due to making a deal with the Feds, which sees him using his special abilities to help take down criminals who are also enhanced by magic. All is going well, with just one more operation to complete for Jake to win freedom, when he encounters Delilah Jones. In addition to being an old girlfriend of his, complete with her own magical abilities, Jones is on the Feds hit list. When the mission goes badly wrong, Jake begins to discover that the authorities have been lying to him. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ft379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Fairy tales are the in thing at the moment in movies like Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror being successful takes on the popular "Snow White" story. Most girls had a favourite when they were young, whether it was "Cinderella," "Sleeping Beauty" or "Little Red Riding Hood." It still held their interest and compelled them to read others to see what they were like. When we think of fairy tales it is interesting that many of them were not actually English. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ah379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT "Caliph's and Sena's story begins at a straight-laced college. It's all very sinister and oppressive since the institution teaches holomorphy, which is a kind of blood-math. Holomorphy is essentially pseudo-science/sorcery of Lovecraftian bent. Caliph and Sena each have unpleasant histories with this discipline, Caliph by way of his creepy uncle Nathaniel (now deceased) and Sena through the witch coven that raised her. Caliph and Sena have disparate and mostly vague plans for the future. This results in a collision of motives with each one more or less using the other. Their whole relationship gets off on the wrong foot and by the time diplomas are handed out, it's a perfectly dysfunctional affair. Though they split up, lust, politics and the stirrings of possibly genuine affection draw Caliph and Sena together again as the power couple at the center of Isca City." http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ap379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction for the masses. It's a well-established technique; take a present-day setting, soup it up with a concept out of science fiction, one that's a little edgy but close enough to people's experience so that you don't have to spend a lot of time on technical details, throw in a thriller plot and a little romance and voila!, you've got it, a main-stream best-seller with just enough SF to give it a sparkle. Michael Crichton is the established master at this, but now we have anothe who takes a big step toward making the territory his own. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/tn379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT The novel takes the reader through to Adria, a wolf changeling and soldier who has to leave her past behind her in order to set about creating a new future for herself. But when she meets a SnowDancer, Riaz, her heart is torn in two just as his is troubled by how he feels about her. His needs are sexual, and all consuming. He is dangerous, and that appeals to her risky nature. They shouldn't be together, but they can't be apart. Theirs is a love that is terrible, yet wild and tortuous for both of them. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ju379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT The moons of Jupiter for the 36th and 37th issues of Jupiter, are Sponde and Kale. Sponde's cover, a robot or someone in space armor, is by Australian writer David Conyers, who is also associated with the Irish magazine Albedo One. Kale's cover, by Sam Mardon, also involves space armor: as a man is shown outside an exploding spaceship. Both enjoyable enough illustrations, and both representative of the somewhat old-fashioned and very much pure SF orientation of the magazine. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/wa379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Subterranean Press has been collecting many, although not all, of Robert Silverberg's short stories since they published To Be Continued in 2006. The series has now reached the late 1980s with volume 7, We Are For the Dark, which brings together ten stories, many of which have historical backgrounds, from "Enter a Soldier, Later: Enter Another" to "Lion Time in Timbuctoo." http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ew379.htm Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT Both collections deal with the category of literature known as juvenilia: works written before the writer came into his full maturity. Both writers deal with the idea that the point of the book is just to make some money, but they also believe their mistakes may help beginning writers. Buckell is more contemporary and aware of the current speculative scene while Priest's concerns are more literary, yet both give useful insight into the process of maturing as a writer. http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ Thu, 1 Nov 2012 11:00:00 GMT New this time is the latest from Walter Moers, Peter Dickinson, David Weber & Jane Lindskold, David Drake, Mike Resnick, some classic reprints from George R.R. Martin, Robert A. Heinlein, Cordwainer Smith, and much more besides. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/ac378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is the first book in a new urban fantasy series called the Spellmason Chronicles. Alexandra Belarus learns of her family history when she's attacked one night and saved by a stone gargoyle animated by her great-great-grandfather's spellmason abilities. Alexandra's danger awoke the gargoyle, which was created to protect the family. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/rs378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT It seems likely, in years to come, someone who has read Railsea in their youth upon picking up a copy of Herman Melville's Moby Dick and thinking to themselves: Hang on, I've already read this! For the first third or so of the novel, China Mieville is fairly true to his source material. The setting is transformed from the southern oceans to a landscape criss-crossed by a seemingly infinite number of railway lines. Trains of many kinds run on these lines, but the one we're particularly interested in is the equivalent of a whaler, hunting for the gigantic beasts that live under the soil: rats and antlions and especially the mole or moldywarpe. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/iz378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Here we have short stories, illustrations, and the usual interviews, news and reviews. Ben Baldwin's illustration of a futuristic android prepares readers for what is inside, as there are stories of rebels in the heart of revolutionary France, the poverty of an otherworldly Middle-Eastern country, the secret of dreams, home life with a twist, and what others think of humans. Each story is interesting, and is either fantasy or science fiction, but written in such a way that blurs what is seen in a way that is normal. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/tg378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT It's easy to get in the mood for Halloween with so many great horror stories available to listen to this year. It's always a more frightening experience to hear a good scary story rather than reading it in print. While it can be a challenge to find the best unnerving tales, this audiobook stands out because it claims to be a collection of true ghost stories. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/aa378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT The book tells the story of the eponymous platypus, an escapee from Adelaide Zoo, and his adventures in Old Australia, which he had previously idealised as a human-free paradise. Albert is haunted and infuriated by memories of his captivity, and the perpetual eyes watching his every movement. Further back, his capture from a simple life along the Murray River was even more traumatic. The story begins with Albert, days march north from Adelaide, delirious and seeming ready to die. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Some of the latest new arrivals include new and forthcoming works from Timothy Zahn, Brandon Sanderson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Ed Greenwood, R.A. & Geno Salvatore, Terry Brooks, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/lo378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Looper is an original but flawed time travel movie. A number of mainstream reviewers have found it hard to understand. SF readers familiar with Robert A. Heinlein's "All You Zombies" will find the time loops in this film elementary. H.G. Wells once advised science fiction writers to stick to one impossible idea at a time. If you have a story about flying pigs, don't add flying broomsticks. Looper has two science fiction ideas, time travel and telekinesis. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/yz378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT The aliens have heard our music, and they like it. Actually, they love it to the point where the first time they heard human music it caused all listeners to become comatose with rhapsody, disrupting entire societies to the point where, after recovering from the shock, calendars were re-numbered, with all dates now measured by whether they are Pre or Post K. What the K stands for is one of the underlying jokes of this hilarious first novel. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/as378.htm Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Intended for both academic readers and laymen, the author has produced a small book about big ideas. Specifically, the archetypal symbols which are the basis of fantasy fiction, from the fairy tales of the Middle Ages to the million-selling genre of the present day. Traditional myths are used for guidance and as a starting point, from which the author offers insight based on his psychological interpretation of the figures and themes addressed. Potential readers who are now thinking that this is a stuffy, highbrow work, may like to reserve judgement. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica377.htm Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT It's another all-in-one edition where we wax like columnists of old (Mark London Williams is thinking "Herb Caen," for all the old Bay Area mediaphiles, in honor of both the Giants and the A's winning their divisions this year) with an item-strewn comics column that mixes in reviews! It'll be a marvel, true believers! http://www.sfsite.com/10a/fd377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Readers will journey to Kurald Galain wherein we find the birth of all the events that take place within Malazan Book of the Fallen. One look at the Dramatis Personae should speak volumes to those who are familiar with the Malazan Empire. Welcome back Anomander Rake, Silchas Ruin, Mother Dark, Spinnock Durav, Sister Spite, Sister Envy, Draconus, Hood, Gothos, Kilmandaros, etc. The list of characters is long and impressive and the story contained within is even more so. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ka377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT The premise of this book is one that may have been on people's minds for a considerable while. If you could go back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, would you? As with anything to do with time travel, there is cause and effect, consequences of any actions done by one person, and this book is about just that. The 22nd of November 1963 is one of the most famous dates in modern history, and many have pondered what they did on that day. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/dr377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Fans of Jane Yellowrock are in for a true treat with the fifth book in this series about the tough vampire hunter. This story not only has a complex plot that fans have come to expect, but it also delves into Jane's past, giving insight into who she is and why she makes many of the choices she makes. The author also tackles more of Beast's character and her relationship to Jane. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/om377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT After traveling in time on a mission to kill Hitler before the start of the war, World War II Army Corporal Jack Mallory wakes up with most of his unit dead or dying, facing down a hungry Velociraptor -- which he starts shooting in the face. After an instance of bloody mayhem, he meets up with other time travelers likewise stranded in prehistory, including 19th Century British inventor James Richmond, 20th Century scientist Veronica Keaton, and Captain Abigail Valentine and the surviving crew of the Chronos, the first faster-than-light vessel from some nebulous point in Earth's far future. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ex377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Exogene is a hell of a science fiction novel but to call it a sci-fi novel is to undersell it. It is a hell of a war novel, but to call it a war novel is also underselling it. It really is the story of a woman finding out what it is to love, to be loved and to know where one stands with God -- in short, to be human. But that seriously undersells this book and makes a violent tale of war, genetic mutation and out-of-control science sound like some piece of warm and fuzzy chick lit. It is certainly not that. So, what is it? http://www.sfsite.com/10a/dl377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT The year is 1593, and England's greatest spy, Will Swyfte, is on another do or die mission. This time it is in pursuit of missing black magician John Dee. Without Dee, the slowly failing magical defences that have protected England from the worst ravages of the Unseelie Court will surely crumble. Dee carries with him an obsidian mirror; an object of power that legend tells could set the world aflame. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/sb377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT As with Christopher Moore's previous takes on Shakespeare, the New Testament, horror movies and the whole vampire shtick, the irreverent treatment, this time, with a topic associated with holy matters retains reverence of its subject. In this case, the French Impressionists and the idea that maybe Vincent Gogh didn't off himself in a suicidal depression, but was perhaps the victim of his muse, or possibly the entity victimizing his muse. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Growing up in Alief, a once-burgeoning suburb in southwest Houston, Derek's diversions from the mundane life came from books and movies. He checked out whatever adventure stories he could from the library, and when he could braved crowds at the multiplexes springing up like weeds. If he missed a movie in release, he had to hope it would play on television at some point... and that he was home to watch it, and could stay up past his imposed bedtime. My how things have changed these days. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Wow, there's some exciting stuff this time, including the latest from Terry Pratchett, James Enge, Suzanne McLeod, Steven Erikson, Hannu Rajaniemi, and plenty more! http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT How many fantasy, science fiction, or horror shows are there in the new Fall season? It depends on how you count. If you include animated shows and comedies, at least fifteen. If you only include live action shows with space travel, one. Television science fiction has largely come to mean a show set in the near future with one big idea not very well thought out: aliens land, aliens destroy civilization, aliens move in next door, there's a nuclear war, everybody gets a glimpse of the future, a parallel world is discovered. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/de377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT Americans have no idea who Judge Dredd is. They're staying away from this movie in droves. Which is just as well, since this Americanized version of Judge Dredd is a milksop compared to the version from the British weekly comic paper 2000 AD. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ww377.htm Mon, 1 Oct 2012 11:00:00 GMT When people think of the United States, they think of all the good bits: writers, artists, musicians, and places like Mount Rushmore, and landmarks like The Statue of Liberty, but in this graphic novel of tales, writer and artist, Andy Fish explores the darker side of its history with the ghosts and monsters hidden around every corner. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica376.htm Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Rick Klaw has a look at Heartless by Nina Bunjevac, The Hive by Charles Burns, Monsieur Jean-The Singles Theory by Philippe Dupuy & Charles Berberian, The Manhattan Projects Volume 1: Science. Bad. by Jonathan Hickman and The Essential Warlock Volume 1 by Jim Starlin. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ni376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Subterfuge, misdirection, false assumptions and misplaced suspicions are the building blocks of many a good murder mystery. This is a novel that constantly leads its characters, and its readers, down one path, only to have the story twist away in a new direction. By the end, what begins as a murder mystery with some political overtones has become, for everyone involved, much, much more. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/mr376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This collection contains nine stories of varying lengths. The longest of them is "Watching Trees Grow," is actually a short novel -- it runs the better part of 100 pages of rather small type. It's an alternate history story, and in an era when these things are as common as lying politicians, it's the most fascinating, and convincingly written example since Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee (1953). The story begins at Oxford University in 1832, but it isn't the 1832 that we are familiar with. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/kd376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The story centres on a deep cover special ops group led by an American soldier code-named Odin, whose mission brings him into contact with myrmecologist Linda McKinney, a scientist who studies the social structures of weaver ants. The gist of the plot is that persons unknown have taken McKinney's research, and used it as the basis of programming for what amount to swarms of autonomous drones; flying machines large and small that can be used to target any individual, asset or country. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ns376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT With a prolific literary career spanning over forty years, Brian Lumley is one of the most famous and celebrated contemporary horror writers, whose Lovecraftian tales and vampire Necroscope novels (just to mention a few examples) represent true genre milestones. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/by376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The anthology has assembled eighteen stories that appeared in original anthologies, collections and magazines during 2011. They include "Roots and All" by Brian Hodge, an extraordinary, insightful tale where the strength of brotherly love and the nostalgia for a long gone past get imbued with supernatural horror and Leah Bobet's "Stay," a creepy, atmospheric piece revisiting the myth of the Wendigo. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/ll376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The premise is that if a woman -- it can be any woman at all -- looks at a lizard, they will be struck with a deep, intense desire. Lizards, though at least to Lisa Tuttle, belong only to men who are the sensual desirable type that women lusted after in the first place. In this story, a woman is taken from what she perceives as her reality, and plunged into another one where lizards are the key to relationships. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/va376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Married life for Tim Thorburn hasn't been good, but his business has been, and he has a new idea for his next business venture. He wants to be known as The Man Who Rediscovered the Medlar. Yet in going out into the countryside to produce award winning fruit, he never thought he would get all the help he could muster from the most unusual sources. Tim is one of life's dreamers, and would love nothing more than to be a grower of the most unusual fruit imaginable. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pm376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT John Carter's multiple world spanning adventures have become legend in the annals of heroic, action literature. Battling hordes of enemies on the mysterious world of Barsoom, the Warlord of Mars has left his mark on classic literature that has inspired the stories and adventures that we enjoy today. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Newest arrivals at the SF Site office include the latest from Kevin J. Anderson, Stephen Baxter, Stephen Deas, Rowena Cory Daniells, Peter F. Hamilton, John Ringo, Michael Z. Williamson, some classic reprints from Andre Norton, Mike Resnick, Philip K. Dick, and plenty more. http://www.sfsite.com/09b/pi376.htm Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This seventh collection of commentary is an eclectic mix of material reaching back to the 80s, but has its main focus on his 21st century writings about the evolution of the genre over the past century. Its title is a reference to the first words spoken by Frankenstein's Monster in the seminal 19th century novel by Mary Shelley, words which John Clute argues provides a touchstone of meaning. Pardon This Intrusion includes 47 essays and talks, several of which have not been published previously. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica375.htm Mon, 3 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT In Jewish tradition, fall represents a new year, which it also does on school calendars. So for this new year juncture, what better than to contemplate a single book which also takes in the idea of seasons, their passage, and the sometimes-shattering ways we find ourselves hard into autumn. Mark London Williams has a look at Year of the Beasts. It's a hybrid, it's a comic, it's a YA novel... http://www.sfsite.com/09a/as375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a small collection of shorter works from an author best known for his vast, sprawling, epic tales. Some writers are naturally at home with longer stories, others excel when restricted to shorter forms, but few can manage both with equal aplomb. Tad Williams is one such author. Already having legions of fans means a large number of readers will buy this collection regardless of what any reviewer says. So the job here is not to preach to the converted, but to offer an overview to those who are not yet in the author's camp. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/be375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT All of those who love short science fiction look forward each year to the release of the two senior annual best-of-the-year anthologies by Gardner Dozois and David G. Hartwell/Kathryn Cramer, the latter of which is now only the slightly smaller of the two. For the record, the Hartwell and Cramer volume this year has only four stories of its 24 that are also included in the Dozois -- although as usual there are many other authors who have different stories chosen for each -- and perusing both remains essential for all serious SF readers. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/es375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT "In addition to practicing your writing skills by writing, find ways of improving your skills by learning: attend workshops/classes, read advice books, join a critique group, etc. Be willing to experiment with new ways of doing things, but remember that not all advice applies to all writers and all stories. Find the advice that works for you, and don't worry about the rest." http://www.sfsite.com/09a/tk375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The series continues with this third installment that puts our divining hero where he seems to want to be, in the middle of nearly impossible situations. Apprentices of both light and dark mages have been going missing, and Alex Verus gets appeals from both sides to track down who's behind the shielded disappearances. But as usual, he's bitten off more than he can chew alone. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ta375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is an anthology loosely themed by the editor and interpreted by the authors. The title suggests this anthology focuses on apocalypses; however, most of these are fantasy stories. About half of the stories would stand well -- if not stand out -- amid the contents of a professional magazine. If there's a standout among these, it might be the Odyssey-flavored, African fairy tale "Nyabinghi's Sacred Drum" by Susan Urbanek Linville although DeAnna Knippling's alien "The Third Portal" gives Linville's tough competition for that prize. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/eu375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Calum is set the unenviable task of naming newly discovered planets. Calum is what is known in the field as a Euonymist, as a planet namer, but it isn't as easy as others think, certainly not his uncle or his wife. It is more difficult than that, and he spends most of the plot trying his best to think of these names for something that is sometimes beyond him. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ob375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Short stories are the true staple for a reader. They are easy to read and quick enough for short journeys or sitting in waiting rooms -- though not to see the doctor or dentist. These stories are far too scary for that. One Buck Horror, this time around, has several stories of interest to just about anyone who likes a good scare. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ss375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Hero tales are the oldest tales, and yet like Roddy McDowell contemporary writers in the heroic mode can't get no respect. While it is still sometimes used as a term of lit crit abuse, "science fiction" has largely completed the gentrification process of achieving literary respectability. The dystopian fictions of Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy, the genre bending of David Foster Wallace and Johnathan Lethem, the elevation of J.G. Ballard into something of a patron saint of British literature, Philip K. Dick achieving the canonical landmark that is inclusion in the Modern Library edition; all have combined to render SF-nal elements acceptable in quarters formerly forbidden. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/rd375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This collection of stories test our sense of reality and what is surreal. The author has done the excellent job of putting characters in unusual situations that would leave us perplexed as to why we were there in the first place. In fact, his stories thrive on the fact that his characters accept, for the most part, the world they are put in. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Unrealized adaptations of great novels clutter soundstages across the globe. Often the movies in question seldom rise from development hell because of budgetary concerns or because artistic ambitions exceed studio of filmmaker grasp. Some cannot overcome the structural challenges. And then Derek thought of David Cronenberg. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/tr375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT There was really no point in making a mindless action film based on another equally mindless action film based on a cute short story by Philip K. Dick. The basic plot of both movies and of the short story starts out with a character who longs to go to Mars, arranges to have memories of a trip to Mars as a secret agent implanted in his brain, and during the implant discovers that he really is a secret agent who went to Mars. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Before he created Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry created a tv series called The Lieutenant, about the peacetime US Marine Corps. It is just out on DVD from Paramount, and it is pretty good. Falling Skies has ended until next Summer. Rick thinks it was the best sf on tv this summer. Rick also gives a list of what to watch in September. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/sg375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This trilogy is primarily a coming of age story, featuring a 15-year-old English schoolboy named Peter de Soto, and his Spanish cousin Bonifacia Espasande. The initial setting is northern Spain, in the summer of 1900, where Peter is on holiday at the home Bonnie shares with her mother. While out butterfly hunting, the pair happen upon local broken down ruins, where they find what eventually proves to be a portal to another place. Access is gained via the use of a family heirloom, and in the deep dark of night the pair vanish from Spain, to emerge in a world not their own. http://www.sfsite.com/09a/bw375.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This book is a collection of essays subtitled "Exploring George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire." In one, Daniel Abraham's "Same Song in a Different Key" is a first hand account of his work adapting the books for a successful comic book series being published by Dynamite. A very hands-on account, it gives details of the process unique to this project, and also provides interesting suggestions about how comic book adaptations can be approached in general. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/rs374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT It's a rollicking adventure book for boys that liberally plies the classic tropes of swashbuckling romances like Treasure Island and Kidnapped, with a dash of The Odyssey thrown in for good measure. But at its core, the novel is a retelling of Moby Dick. Only instead of taking place on a whaling ship, it takes place on a train traversing the railsea -- a jumbled landscape of rails extending in every direction as far as the eye can see. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/rt374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The first collection of Nebula-winner Eric James Stone traces the development of this writer from humble beginnings -- chopping wood behind his log cabin in Kentucky -- to award-winning writer. All of the stories are entertaining; half will stick with you. While more than capable of evoking thought and strong emotions from the reader, Stone remains unafraid of the Golden-Age-style, short-short entertainments. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/el374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT "First, batteries are expensive and require scarce materials. Replacing a petroleum cartel with a lithium cartel may shift wealth while leaving consumers no better off. Second, batteries take time to recharge -- if you can find a charging station -- whereas there's a world-wide infrastructure that lets drivers quickly refill their gas tanks. Recharging from a household power outlet (rather than with an expensive, high-voltage charging station) is an overnight affair." http://www.sfsite.com/08b/tt374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The action takes place in 1765 Boston shortly after the Stamp Act riots and as tension is revving up between the colonists and the royalists. Ethan Kaille, the hero of our tale, is a conjurer, who uses organic matter -- usually his own blood, but leaves and grass will do -- to create magic. He uses his magic to eke out a living as a thieftaker, and as long as he sticks to middle-class clients, Sephira Pryce, Boston's ruling thieftaker doesn't bother him. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/mo374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT The back blurb begins: "Fusing historical events with a gripping fictional narrative, this first book in the trilogy reveals a secret history of Europe in the thirteenth century". In point of fact, if Alma had known about this particular sandpit way way back when it was first being mooted, and if she had known that there would be this many contributing writers involved, she would probably have tossed her own hat into the ring for a chance to do something with this material http://www.sfsite.com/08b/ln374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Weird Western horror anthologies are becoming increasingly popular and by now constitute a definite subgenre with its devoted fans. Low Noon is the third installment in a series including Six Guns Straight From Hell and Showdown at Midnight. If you're looking for some good fiction to keep you entertained, then this is the book for you. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/nh374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT A gravedigger works late into the night during the Dark Ages, creating a book using papyrus pages bound to a tree which it is believed to be used by a sorcerer. When he has completed it, he gains enough power to serve the leader of a powerful Scottish family. Hundreds of years later, a man attends a book sale away from London, where he finds a very ancient book, its binding giving it away instantly. Not knowing why he has done it, he steals the book, but what he doesn't know is that the book is one that is possessed. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/po374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT As the third sortie into the world of Pax Britannia, created by Jonathan Green, following El Sombra, and Gods of Manhattan -- both highlights of the steampunk genre -- it is described by the publisher as a "galaxy spanning adventure" and true to its word begins with a small group of aliens playing God. What follows is a trip through time, taking in the 1920s, a large World War II episode, the alternate future aftermath of that conflict, and then into the furthest future. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/ps374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Prominent and alluring courtesan Gwinvere Kirena has had her Chateau Shayon stolen from her, so she hires Gaelan as an assassin. But that's just the beginning. He will have to kill all five wetboys, the supreme assassins of the land, and their leader. If she hires him and he succeeds, can he trust that she will not turn on him? http://www.sfsite.com/08b/sl374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Balor and his evil demon warriors want to take over the Land of the Young, and Slaine, the first High King of Ireland along with his wife, Queen Niamh, have to battle them in order to keep their land safe from the invaders. During the battle, once it looks like Slaine and his men have won, a cruel demon lord, Moloch, offers to make a deal with them. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Purveyors of one of the least understood and respected aspect of comic book production, translators largely remain anonymous and typically only garner attention under negative circumstances. In a hope to enhance an understanding about the little understood skill, Rick Klaw interviewed Jerome Saincantin, the newly-minted Public Relations Officer and main translator for CineBooks -- a UK-based, English language publisher of French and Belgian comics. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT This month we're looking at the latest from Kelley Armstrong, Terry Brooks, Justin Cronin, Steven Erikson, M. John Harrison, Terry Pratchett, Allen Steele, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/ne374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT His science fiction ranges from serious-minded studies of realistic persons plunged into fantastic realms to fairly conventional adventure SF, to children's fables, to a historical bio-novel of the late Renaissance painter Peter Bruegel, to at least one deadpan pastiche of the old Verne-Poe-Bradshaw-Burroughs hollow earth novel, called appropriately, The Hollow Earth. At least, it seems to be a deadpan pastiche. That's one of the charming aspects of Rucker's work, although it may also have limited his success. Sometimes you don't know whether he'd kidding or not. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/ei374.htm Sat, 1 Sep 2012 11:00:00 GMT Fenway Park is turned into an island, robot pitchers are throwing 120 mile per hour fastballs to juiced up hitters, and enough advances in medical technology can revive the frozen remains of an individual from the Twentieth Century. That's the set-up this novel, and yes, the author is a Red Sox fan. And if you haven't figured it out yet, that means the man being revived is none other than Ted Williams, arguably the greatest hitter of all time. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica373.htm Thu, 2 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is one of those catch-all columns from NG Central, where we play with format a little bit. Mark London Williams rolls the sidebar into the main column, talks up reviews and main subject all at once. He begins by writing about Comic-con (it keeps getting bigger and more crowded), then a review of The Dark Knight Rises which he thought the film failed to fully cohere, and the motives weren't always clear and finishes up with a look at three of the Before Watchmen books. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/wu373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT This third outing for PC Peter Grant, Britain's first trainee wizard in more years than anyone cares to remember, bears the legend 'If you've been on the underground you know what horrors await...' As astute readers will infer, this means that large chunks of the novel are set in or around London's underground system. Nathan recently reviewed another third book by a best-selling author that he said was akin to rock stars making their difficult third album, and Ben Aaronovitch's third novel in his urban magic series goes some way toward proving that point. But is it another corker of a tale, or more like something the cat coughed up? http://www.sfsite.com/books/new373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT New arrivals at the SF Site office include the latest from Jasper Fforde, Ben Aaronovitch, Ben Bova, Graham Joyce, Patricia A. McKillip, Harry Turtledove, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/dc373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Over a span of some sixty-five years, well into the Twenty-first Century, Jack Vance, now ninety-five years of age, produced an astonishing stream of short stories, novelettes, novels, and occasional works of nonfiction. While most of his production has been labeled science fiction, he often tested the bounds of that classification, moving toward the realm of pure fantasy on the one hand, often mixing elements of the detective story into his works on the other. He also produced a respectable body of non-fantastic mystery and adventure fiction. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/cn373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Stories about the future, where we're going, how we get there, and whether the journey was a good idea in the first place have been written and suggested since man came to the understanding that there WAS something that would happen 'later.' Over the centuries, some stories have taken a positive outlook, but the most intriguing are those that present us a dark tone of warning, and few manage to write them as consistently captivating as Mike Resnick. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/oc373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT This ebook collection -- a novella grouped with two shorter stories -- is one which encompasses characters trapped in miserable circumstances: sometimes without choice, sometimes by their own devising. "Screwtop" is the prison labor camp located on Redsun, surrounded by volcanoes and marshes, making escape so impossible that the guards seem unworried when prisoners try to escape. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-sf-volume07.htm#29 Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT In 1984, Gardner Dozois gathered together what he thought was the best short science fiction of the previous year. He scrutinized as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1983 that he could get his hands on and chose those which he felt best represented the science fiction field. Jim Frenkel published it as part of his Bluejay Books line (for three years) and it has been produced every year since then (by St. Martins's Press). Volume 29 has been added to the lists compiled by author, by title and by volume. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/dd373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Cyberpunk is a popular subject nowadays and it's no wonder when the Wild West, new technology and the threat of aliens rear its head. David B. Riley brings the past back to the reader with Miles O'Malley's adventures in what he calls the weird west. The character started out in a few short stories; in "Cabal Asylum," and "Hadrosaur Tales," and then he went on to feature in two other novels. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/sn373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Lourdes Medina has followed her fifteen-year-old mare from Texas to buy back the horse her brother Chuy sold in order to spite her after she spurned the man he chose for her to marry. At the auction, however, she falls for a well-dressed gentleman who is bidding against her and has a more slender, red-haired woman in a dark green walking suit hanging on his arm. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/dg373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT The dragon is dead, yet the dragon lives. From the very first lines of the very first story about the dragon, "The Man Who Painted The Dragon Griaule," that paradox winds its way through the narrative and ensnares the lives of the characters. The dragon is huge, its body sculpts the ridge that forms the Carbonates Valley, and for generations of inhabitants, the will of a dead dragon has been the most pervasive influence in their lives. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT As the summer draws to a close, the movies that surprised Derek the most during this steroid-enhanced release season possess little in the way of genre tropes (though both touch on fantasies of some kind or another) and often uneven quality. He's speaking of Steven Soderberg's scattered yet still interesting Magic Mike and Adam Shankman's often lame-brained yet infectiously charming musical Rock of Ages. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Rick has read several articles in the news condemning "binge tv viewing" watching an entire season or an entire series non-stop. What impresses him the most is what busy-bodies people are, how much fun people have telling other people what they should and should not do. He once watched the entire Batman movie serial, four and a half hours, back to back. It's one of his happy memories, as watching the first four seasons of Breaking Bad back to back will be a happy memory for the binge viewers. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/dk373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a long, silly, disappointing costume hero film with a number of memorable flaws. One is Batman and Bane fight by punching each other in the face. We saw infinitely more exciting movie fights in the previews. Wasn't Batman supposed to know some martial arts? The Karate Kid could beat both these guys with one hand tied behind his back. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/sp373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT The big trouble with the new Spider-Man is that we've seen it all before, and Sam Raimi, director of the movie Spider-Man, did it better. Also: are we really supposed to believe that there are giant mechanical cranes lined up on Broadway, with operators standing by where they can reach their machines on a few minutes notice? http://www.sfsite.com/08a/ar373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Youth, anger, and rock and roll -- three things with the power of magic, especially for those of us who were young in the sixties. In this combination murder mystery and road trip novel, George R.R. Martin evokes that vividly, and then ponders where it all went. The opening swiftly sets the scene: as the hippie generation swelled into student protests in the late sixties, the rock band called Nazgul became the voice of a generation. Their rise to fame peaked on September 20th, 1971, at an enormous outdoor concert in West Mesa, New Mexico, then abruptly fell with the shooting. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/st373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Mia Price, has a unique addiction; she craves lightning and has been struck so many times that she has veiny scars all over her body. Luckily her face has been exempt, but one more strike and they'll expand there, too. Mia, and her mother and younger brother, Parker, live in Los Angeles, a city rarely hit by lightning. Its lack of affinity for lightning, doesn't preclude earthquakes, and a massive one, which many believe originated with an electrical storm has turned downtown L.A. into a wasteland with the surrounding areas not a whole lot better. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/os373.htm Wed, 1 Aug 2012 11:00:00 GMT Set is a god who has set his sights on a young woman. He has taken an interest in her, and it isn't just a minor crush, he is in it for the long haul after seeing how Naomi is unhappy with her life. She starts out as uninterested in his advances, and even indifferent to them, but she soon comes to understand him more than she thinks later on. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ns372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT One lead character adventuring through an even dozen titles, aided by a solid cast of reoccurring major characters, handfuls of minor characters and one shots, half a dozen running themes, plus individual side quests that can cover a quarter of a book. So far, it sounds good though not so very different from any other fantasy series. But this is the Nightside, where nothing is ever quite the way it seems. The Nightside is a small city, located somewhere beneath London, and accessed via the London tube network. People can arrive there accidentally, but most of those who enter know exactly where they are going. In the Nightside the darkest needs of the human condition are catered for in all their compelling, addictive and grotesque forms. All books in the series are first and foremost the story of John Taylor, the supernatural son of a creature from Biblical legend. Not that you'd know from looking at him. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/na372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT As the best-of-the-year volume that usually appears the earliest each year, one can look forward to reading the annual Nebula Awards collection. It whets the appetite for the meatier SF volumes that come later, especially the Hartwell/Cramer and Dozois tomes. This volume clearly demonstrates the increasing diversity in subgenres, themes and styles in the field. Reading this year's collection, however, somehow makes Douglas feel his age even more than past ones -- could the science fiction field be evolving faster than he can keep up? http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fb372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Sean can't understand why his boss, John Chang, has an unreasoning hatred for him, a red-headed gweilo who has come to work for a Hong Kong newspaper as part of what appears to be a gentle descent into mediocrity and self-recrimination over a disintegrated relationship with a woman he now loves and hates in equal measure. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/kv372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is the first novel in the Warriors of the Rift series that concerns a potential serial killer on the streets, but as the murders are not the usual ones, the victims all being vampires, and Nix de la Fuente is investigating them. Who could be the killer? It does help that she is no ordinary investigator. Half-human, half-demon, she is a complex woman. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fs372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT This first issue is an interesting, albeit uneven, debut. The two best stories are undoubtedly Noeleen Kavanagh's "The Pivot" and C.L. Holland's story "The Empty Dark." In "The Pivot," a young boy, Caill, with a talent for reading the emotions of others provides brief refuge to another boy -- the young king Clogher, whose clothes come with ominous splashes of mud and blood. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/df372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT "Sweetly Dreams the Dragon" is the imaginative gem of the trio. In the distant future, an intercepted Cycor transmission says that their previous attempt to destroy all life on the planet Danai failed, leaving behind humans and skraal. The Cycor need to return, resupplied. Meanwhile, humans have lost the technology and intelligence they once had that gained them the stars. On Danai, humans are at the bottom of a caste system of intelligent species. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/eu372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Victor is an apprentice mechanic to his father, the person responsible for maintaining life-support and other essential systems on board the mining ship, El Cavador. A gifted student with a natural ability to understand all things mechanical, Victor is already a valuable member of the ship's crew, although he's still a teenager. But it is his dedication to ideals instilled by his family and his sense of responsibility that may catapult him into the history books of the First Formic War. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/pk372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT For those of you out there that love nothing more than reading about heroic last ditch battles against overwhelming odds or get choked up with scenes about the brotherhoods formed when men fight and die together in battle, Paul Kearney is your man. His Macht Trilogy is an excellent example of pure military fantasy and if you are familiar with his work, you know there aren't that many authors out there who can navigate a battlefield better than he. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ro372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT One of the many false dichotomies sometimes posited between speculative and "literary" fiction is that speculative fiction is more concerned with ideas, concepts, technologies and archetypes; lit-fic is more concerned with emotions, lived experience, and the messy realities of individual lives. Whatever broad-brush truth there might be to this caricature, this is a limiting and misleading opposition that does a disservice to the possibilities both genres. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-sf-volume07.htm#29 Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT In 1984, Gardner Dozois gathered together what he thought was the best short science fiction of the previous year. He scrutinized as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1983 that he could get his hands on and chose those which he felt best represented the science fiction field. Jim Frenkel published it as part of his Bluejay Books line (for three years) and it has been produced every year since then (by St. Martins's Press). Volume 29 has been added to the lists compiled by author, by title and by volume. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fn372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Jack Holloway is a loveable rogue who trains his dog to blow up a cliff-side full of nesting birds in order to unveil a possible vein of sunstones -- a mood-ring kind of jewel that rivals the beauty and value of diamonds. However, an immediate call from Zarathustra Corporation tells Jack that his disregard for ecological impact has canceled his contract and kicked him off the planet. Zarathustra starts singing a different tune as soon as it turns out Jack's hunch was correct. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/gr372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a funny book full of one panel comic pieces that jump off the page, commenting about life on Earth and in outer space. Roger L. Phillips uses popular culture to raise laughs, even poking fun at new gadgets around at the moment such as the iPhone and iPod. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Did you ever wonder how some of the classics of sequential art came to be? Or perhaps who was the person behind those drawings you so admire. Well, Rick Klaw does too. This time out, he looks at titles such as Superman: The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero, Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture and The Comic Book History of Comics. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT This time, we're looking at new works from Stephen King, Dave Duncan, Ben Aaronovitch, Kim Harrison, Richard Kadrey, Ian C. Esslemont, Graham Joyce, Mike Resnick, James Maxey, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/el372.htm Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT John, a non-descript, average graphic designer in England, awakes to find that everyone on Earth is dead. No plague, no virus, no apocalyptic event, everyone just keeled over and stopped living. John then spends the next two years taking care of his former neighbor's cat and trying not to go insane or kill himself. The sheer desolation described in the silent, dead Earth is truly chilling. While this story of loneliness on a dead world is happening, the reader is swapped over to another world, similar to Earth but with different laws and at a different stage of development, called Crescent. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica371.htm Mon, 2 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Summer is one of those times when a lot of the topics covered here are mandated by cultural and media events. There is the inevitable parade of summer tentpole films, more and more of them sourced from comics. Sometimes those films can alarm people or amuse and beguile them to the tunes of hundreds of millions dollars. When we're lucky, they can be rousing superhero adventures and still gives us a filmmaker's view of the world. And sometimes, they're mostly just eye candy. Mark London Williams has seen The Amazing Spiderman and has some thoughts. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/re371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT The first thing to be said about this novel is that the plot is nonsense. Engaging nonsense, carried off with a great deal of panache, but nonsense nevertheless. The two central characters are sent dashing hither and thither across the solar system to find buried plot tokens that have been hidden decades before and yet whose discovery is somehow urgent for the immediate well-being of humanity. Of course, the things have been hidden so long that recovery has become filled with peril. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/in371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT After a century of cryogenic sleep following a space battle in which he was one of the only survivors, John "Black Jack" Geary was discovered. He awoke into a world in which he was a living legend, into a society made weary by a century of constant war and strife. Through a series of bizarre circumstances, he was forced to assume control of the Alliance's fleet, stranded deep in enemy space, and bring it home. Against all odds, he did so. His reward? Rather than being allowed a quiet retirement, he was promoted to Admiral, given command of a new fleet, and dispatched into the furthest regions of known space. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/jc371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT After numerous failed attempts and a dreadful direct-to-video 2009 clunker starring Antonio Sabato, Jr. and Traci Lords, the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, A Princess of Mars, finally arrived on the big screen just in time for the story's centennial. Re-christening the tale John Carter, acclaimed animation director Andrew Stanton in his first live-action endeavor created a lush, yet uneven film. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/kb371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT In a more fair universe, this collection would include the subtitle "Volume I: 1997-2010." In the universe in which we live, however, we have to settle for this single book that contains twenty of her stories that will leave the reader wishing to be allowed access to that other universe where the book is followed by more installments. The stories in the book are organized based on which of Baker's collections the stories were reprinted in, rather than in strict chronological or thematic organization, many of the tales relate to Baker's Company series about a time travel organization. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/um371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT John Carter, the former Civil War soldier turned Warlord of Barsoom, has been around for almost 100 years. His adventures have spanned multiple worlds, hordes of enemies, and countless adventures. His exploits have inspired numerous visionaries, from Superman creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel to modern day filmmakers George Lucas and James Cameron. And he continues to spark imagination in all those who seek to journey beyond the mundane. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ks371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT The narrator and Jebediah Burke are galactic policemen on the trail of the Star Gypsies, mysterious aliens who will save any desperate being -- human or otherwise -- from their circumstances. For instance, they'll fix your stardrive if you're stranded and can't make it to your daughter's graduation and, you think, you'd give anything to be there. Their prices are far below what you'd think you should have to pay. But they also want a small item of minor monetary value. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/jd371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Mega-City One is a post apocalyptic nightmare vision of the future where every citizen is a potential criminal who could run riot on the mean streets with only one man who can stop him, and countless others -- Judge Dredd. Each judge including Dredd is the law and judge in one person, they have the power to end the lives of criminals if they are deemed to be dangerous enough. Though what do they do against another Judge who has turned to evil? http://www.sfsite.com/07a/mo371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Moon Over Soho is the second novel to feature British Detective Constable Peter Grant, the UK's only trainee wizard. Those who picked up on the first novel, Rivers of London, will know that Grant's department, the Folly, has a staff of two policemen, and a female creature of indeterminate supernature. This time around, DC Grant and colleagues are on the trail of Jazz Vampires! The novel begins with the death of Cyrus Wilkinson, a part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, who apparently has a heart-attack just after a gig. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT People love their series. Fans love them because a new entry allows them to return to beloved characters and further exploration into a created world, whether that world imagines a 1938 with only tangential relation to the real location on the timeline (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) or leaves the comfort of a planet's gravity well altogether in favor of a galaxy far, far away (Return of the Jedi). So it's all the more frustrating when the key items that brought us so much joy fail to provide the same level of entertainment. Derek considers the possibilities of the third and final chapter in Christopher Nolan's Batman series. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Falling Skies is the best sf on tv this Summer, with likable characters and excellent special effects. Rick is disappointed that it, like all of the other alien invasion tv shows before it, doesn't seem to be going anywhere. He had high hopes, after the Season One Finale, that Season Two would up the ante. Rick also gives a list of what to watch in July. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/pr371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Prometheus is a major science fiction film, most notable for its thrilling action sequences and outstanding special effects. Some claim it is a prequel to Alien, and the ending paves the way for it to be the first of a Prometheus Trilogy. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/br371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Brave is a modern fairy tale, occasionally a post-modern fairy tale (the witch has an answering machine). A few chauvinist piggies have suggested that the heroine, Princess Merida, is a lesbian because she doesn't want to get married. Idiots! http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ge371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Ean Tephe is a starship captain whose engine is a god, unruly and kept in iron chains, which doesn't keep him from killing tormentors whom he fools despite his bonds. Three types of iron exist and inflict damage on gods depending on the number of times it has been forged in fire: third-made binds, second hurts, first kills. Although Tephe believes in the god that has enslaved the god of his engine, he has to play good-cop, use diplomacy, yet reluctantly apply cruelty when necessary. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/lw371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT Alida Beretta is a teenager living in a Colorado town and to everyone she is just a normal everyday teenager, but for one thing, a pair of bird's wings that have fully grown from her back. Alida has friends, though society does not accept people like her, winged ones who have the ability to fly and feel as free as a bird. She has to accept the prejudice from others as she's spotted flying around. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/td371.htm Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:00:00 GMT To some, Dracula is just a horror novel, the one that brought the vampire phenomenon to the world and set off many writers using the theme to pen some of their greatest novels to date. Stephen King and Anne Rice are among many who have been inspired by its author, Bram Stoker, and no doubt there will be many more new writers out there who have felt equally inspired by his work. This is not the only reason for writers being inspired though. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica370.htm Sun, 17 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT As a pop culture historian and critic, Rick Klaw owns a fairly large collection of prose works on comics history. In what he hopes will be the subject of several more columns, Rick presents some of the essential reads from his collection. This is by far not all there is but it's a start. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/av370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Angels of Vengeance is the sequel to Without Warning and After America. The premise is that a wave of entirely unknown energy descended upon North America, wiping out much of the population but leaving structures intact. Unattended, nuclear power plants ran amok and cities burned. Until the mysterious wave lifted as suddenly and inexplicably as it had arrived, no human being could set foot inside the vast area it covered. As this novel commences, the US is struggling to drag itself up by the bootstraps, and is in danger of descending into civil war due to the rebellious inclinations of Texas Governor 'Mad Jack' Blackstone. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/cu370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Alex Verus, a diviner who can see multiple futures at once, is minding his own business, working with his apprentice, Luna, to try to manage her curse when he's pulled into a plot to resurrect an old ritual to drain the life-force from magical creatures. Verus hates the ritual on principle, but he is also close friends with a huge spider named Arachne, who weaves exquisite clothing. It all starts when a beautiful enchantress runs into his magical shop with an assassin on her heels. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ap370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT The end is here. After eight harrowing Fate of the Jedi novels, the final galaxy-spanning battle between the Jedi and the Lost Tribe of the Sith comes to a head. Jagged Fel goes toe-to-toe in an election against former Chief of State Admiral Daala for control of the Imperial Remnant. And Luke, Han, Leia, Ben, Jaina, and Vestara face the destructive Force-hungry entity Abeloth across multiple worlds. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/fsf370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT With an equal amount of featured columns and short fiction, this issue manages to press all the right keys and deliver a good dose of enjoyment between the pages. The writers are diverse, and bring their originality with it, creating some of the most interesting and captivating fiction. Who knows what will come from science fiction stories like these in the future? http://www.sfsite.com/06b/fl370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Jen Wylie and Sean Hayden take on traditional genre tropes in their short fiction anthology, Flashy Fiction and Other Insane Tales. We run into vampires, zombies, hell, and alien zoos. Each writer brings a personal asset and aesthetic to the collection. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/mw370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Fomalhaut was first settled by the Quick, who used biotech to adapt their environment and themselves. The True came later, found the Quick to be easy pickings, and set up an aristocratic culture with themselves as the aristocrats. Now both are threatened by mysterious newcomers, the Ghosts, whose goal is altering history to make themselves the winners. Meanwhile, in an Amazon rain forest, a Child is growing up. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/gt370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT A Game of Thrones in comic form does suffer. It is not exactly "lost in translation," but trying to recapture the magic in this format is one tall task and the author gave it one hell of a try, but sadly missed the bullseye. If you're familiar with Martin's work, you may not have trouble "filling in the blanks" but this graphic novel wouldn't be enough to capture the brilliance of his original vision and, unfortunately, it could never be an adequate substitute for the book. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/os370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a magazine of fantasy and science fiction, yet it is broader than that. It is well designed, compact and, unlike most other mainstream magazines, it is small enough to carry in a bag. It is made up of three distinct elements -- poetry, fiction and non-fiction. A.E. Weber and Eryn Hiscock provide the poetry, "Dust to Dust," and "The Life Cycle of Clouds." The poetry is smooth and subtle, but hugely evocative. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Some of the new and forthcoming titles we're looking at this time include the latest from Robert J. Saywer, Keith Brooke, Gemma Files, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Brown, plus new editions of classics from Jack Vance, Robert McCammon, as well as much, much more. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/mf370.htm Sat, 16 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Ever wonder were Han Solo got some of the ideas to modify his YT-1300 Corellian Freighter? Were they just spurts of imagination and creativity, or did he have a little help? All this information and more can be yours. Haynes Publishing, renowned for creating durable and practical users guides for car, bike, tank, barbeque, and who-knows-how-many other items have teamed with Del Rey to release a detailed history and guidebook to modifying your YT-1300 Corellian Freighter. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ksr369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT "I wanted to write a novel about a relationship between a mercurial character and a saturnine character, and I wanted them to be from Mercury and Saturn respectively. That meant I had to describe a civilization that was inhabiting Mercury and the Saturn system.... Once I got going, the project of describing where humanity might be three hundred years from now took on equal interest for me, and became at least as important to the book as the original idea. The context of the culture was crucial to making the story of the couple strong." http://www.sfsite.com/06a/tt369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT The story starts on Mercury with the unexpected death of the influential grandmother of Swan Er Hong, who finds that she has been left messages for herself and others that she must deliver, including one to a colleague in near Saturn. This leads her to meet, among others, Fitz Wartham, a Saturnian diplomat, and inspector Jean Genette, who is investigating mysterious occurrences which he believes could be related to Swan's grandmother's death. After unexplained incidents on Titan and Mercury, it becomes clear to them that there is some kind of conspiracy at play. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ac369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT After four previous volumes that introduced us to the world of Virga and several of its inhabitants, the final volume brings all the various plots and characters together, in ways that both play to and confound expectations. It's a good way to end a series that has not only featured wooden spaceships and artificial suns, but also worked in serious observations on evolution, the nature of intelligence, post-human morality, and just how humanity might survive in a galaxy gone wild. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ck369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Let's first stipulate that women both fictional and real shaped David's concept of positive femininity. Which is why he is a sucker for characters like Mary Gentle's Ash and Justina Robson's Lila Black, independent women who can handle themselves despite considerable social and physical obstacles, and despite self doubts and insecurities sometimes unique to feminine sensibilities, and frequently better than the men for or against them. So this anthology sounded like something that would appeal, even if he had never read anything by the female authors collected here, nor the editors. But, that's half the fun of picking it up. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/sf369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Fans of Shadow World will love the third installment, Shadow's Fall which takes place three years after Shadowflame. David, the Prime for the South, and his queen, Miranda, are hosting the Signet Council meeting that takes place every 10 years. They're on guard as Prime Hart of the Northeast may have plans for revenge against Miranda who threw him against the wall and granted sanctuary to Cora, one of the women he had held captive. Cora only has a smallish part in this book, but it's likely we'll see much more of her in future storylines. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/fs369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Stories have always been a source of inspiration for musicians, but this illustrated cyberpunk anthology turns the tables by using music as an idea catalyst for the authors of these stories. A group of twenty-eight authors, musicians and graphic artists have combined their talents under the name of "The Very Us Artists" to create a near-future world that is dark and gritty, but not without hope. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/np369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Comedy never dies, no matter what genre it is in. This novel pretty much concentrates on the main ones that are popular right now; ninjas, pirates, and zombies and fairies. Just think of Samurai Girl, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and Shaun from Shaun of the Dead and you'll be on the right lines. This first book in the series starts out when GuyBoyMan, an unlikely hero (he doesn't even know it himself at the beginning) wakes in his parent's basement thinking he is their prisoner. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/wo369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT It feels like a cross between a malformed L. Frank Baum Oz book and Daniel Woodrell's backwoods noir, Winter's Bone. Mel, the first-person narrator in this stylized narrative, tells of life in Topeka, Kansas where men have come home with a severe case of alopecia from their battle with the flying-saucer Martians. Mole men, however, are a relatively more recent phenomenon. The locals spin all kinds of speculation about where the molemen's political allegiances lie. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ah369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Seven stories set in seven different worlds very similar to our own, but very different as well. This is what the author creates with his short story collection. It is a compelling read that ventures through the super-hero genre, alien/human intermingling, the second coming of Jesus, and even a well-known sitcom retold as a fan-boy extravaganza. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/us369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT This fast-paced tale for older teens takes off fast with first person narrator Josh, a normal surfer teen in a coastal California city, until his mom's abusive boyfriend attacks him. Josh turns into a mountain lion and mauls the guy, then races off in a complete panic until he meets another animal human. Josh has become a Wilding, a shape-shifter who can switch back and forth between his animal shape and human. For some reason it's been happening to local teens, no one knows why. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ff369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT As is the case with the majority of Wild Card books, Fort Freak is a mosaic novel; multiple writers working to common themes, honed by an editor. After the wider world adventures of more recent Wild Card titles, this work sees a return to where it all began, and focuses on Manhattan's Fifth Precinct, the 'Fort Freak' of the title. So named because Joker and human cops work side by side along with a smattering of Aces, albeit those with minor league abilities. For those who have been following this series for some considerable time, seeing Joker Town depicted again is a welcome return. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/mo369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Journalist, reviewer, essayist, video game author, Arinn Dembo appears here simply as an author of short fiction and poetry. The volume collects ten tales and nine poems covering different genres. Mario found her poem "The Humanist's Prayer" quite effective and "The Crown" elicited memories of some of the best Bob Dylan's lyrics from his golden era. As for the short fiction, it is extremely good. She is refined stylist, yet a strong storyteller, and a versatile author of memorable stories. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT This month's column is like a Giant-Sized Annual! The kind that used to be a whopping twenty-five cents in the days when regular comics were twelve cents. Yes, this dates London Williams. You may have noticed that at the top of this month, you have double the amount of Nexus Graphica than you usually do. And while some might say it was techno-gremlins that delayed the arrival of new material on this website, Mark prefers to think of this as his and Rick's Summer Annual! offering you more reviews and column width than ever before! Meanwhile, in compendium fashion, this column is a round-up of stray thoughts and observations from the world of comic-dom. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica368.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Captain America: The First Avenger chronicles the initial adventures of a character that first premiered over seven decades ago. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby introduced Captain America in December 1940, one year before Pearl Harbor. In 1940, war raged throughout Europe but most Americans saw Nazi Germany and the accompanying atrocities as a strictly European problem. Though sympathetic to the plight, polls showed that a vast majority of Americans stood against entering the war. Rick Klaw gives us a lesson in Cap's media history. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT It was May 1982, and Derek was living in Alief, a suburb rapidly going to seed in southwest Houston, and he had just finished the eighth grade. His freshman year of high school loomed three months away like some unspeakable eldritch horror, teen angst as written in some profane collaboration by S.E. Hinton and H.P. Lovecraft. As a means of escape, that summer he stayed in a small Central Texas place with his father. They'd drive the thirty miles into Austin each day and, using his allowance, he'd watch a movie during the afternoons. During the summer of 1982, he saw an awful lot of movies. Not just good ones, but great ones. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Some of the new and forthcoming books this time include the latest from Alan Dean Foster, Gregory Benford, Chris Roberson, Kij Johnson, and Terry Brooks, as well as classic reprints from Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, and Poul Anderson. All this and much more. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/av369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT John Steed and Mrs. Peel join forces when the Earth is attacked by gods and monsters. No? All right, you know better. You've almost certainly already seen The Avengers, and chances are you loved it. It may be the best superhero movie ever, and while it is a little too much of a fanboy film to win the Oscar for best picture, it will be on the short list. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/mb369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT The third Men in Black film is a clever and sentimental entertainment. You won't believe it for a minute, but it has enough charm that your suspension of disbelief will be willing. After the achingly bad Men in Black II, I'm glad Hollywood, in a rare moment of sanity, realized that an intelligent writer was needed. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ba369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT Battleship is not nearly as bad as many reviewers would have you believe, certainly not, as one reviewer said, the worst movie ever made. It took quite a bit of ingenuity to get an actual battleship into the film. (There are no battleships in the modern Navy.) And it took a certain cleverness to have a reason for warring combatants to use a strategy not unlike that in the Battleship game. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ds369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT The new Dark Shadows move has some good bits in it, but the inconsistency in character and tone, as when Dr. Julia Hoffman gives Barnabas Collins a blow job, are enough to spoil it for any Dark Shadows fan, and not enough to endear it to fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Here's what you need to do to enjoy Dark Shadows. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick369.htm Fri, 1 Jun 2012 11:00:00 GMT The good news for June is the return of last Summer's Falling Skies. It is the only sf series in years to hold Rick's interest. There was a brief time, a few years ago, when there was intelligent sf on tv. But Firefly and Defying Gravity were never given a chance to find an audience, yanked from the schedule before all the episodes had aired. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica367.htm Thu, 3 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Mark London Williams was lucky enough to see Avengers on the Disney lot somewhere in early/mid- April. The film's a lot of fun, the set pieces are terrific (the battle scenes have a nice logic to them -- in, of course, a "superhero movie" way -- as well as a good sense of staging and physical space, which is rare enough in action films these days), the banter between superheroes is good and it's the best Hulk movie yet made. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/wh367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT War in Heaven is the sequel to Veteran, and includes a few pages to explain what has gone before, then it's back down the rabbit hole that is the author's plot. Veteran was a moody shooter's paradise, boasting an attitude like a Rottweiler with toothache. The follow up continues right where things left off, and maintains the style. Yes, there are some moments of humour, but these are slight and of an acquired taste. His technique is to keep hurling material at the reader, trebuchet style, never letting up. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/wh367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT According to one of the editors, the term "dadaoism" is a portmanteau of "dadaism" and "daoism." Fine enough, but we're not any wiser. Having now read the anthology, which includes a total of twenty-six contributions (short stories, novellas, poems) Mario's own feeling is that "dadaoism" is another synonym for "weirdness." The book features a bunch of weird material and what really matters to most is whether it's valuable stuff or not. Weird fiction, per se, is neither good nor bad. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/pt367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Salim Ghadalfa is a warrior who has a dark past he would rather forget. He is a man who has his own religion, yet works for a church he loathes, and takes on many dangerous missions. One is where he has to accompany an aristocrat's daughter while he searches the length and breadth of Thuvia for the answers to why the man's soul was so ruthlessly captured. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/tn367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Amateur boxer Gemma Cross has quit her job as a pollster to prevent any potential controversies from affecting her boyfriend, Avery McCormack's race for the House of Representatives. On the heels of this decision, Gemma learns a long-kept secret about herself: she is part fae and part human. As a half-human, the fae have called upon her to become a warrior for their cause to return to the Olde Way. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/tp367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Dexter Colls is a policeman on holiday with his family on Theme Planet. He thinks he has found a great place to take a break from Earth life, but when his family goes missing, he doesn't know where to look until he unearths a conspiracy. This is what gets his policeman's instincts off and running, and this is also where he is out to find the culprits come hell or high water. http://www.sfsite.com/08b/wg350.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Paul is coming to the conclusion that the worst disservice ever done to "science fiction" was saddling it with that name. In particular, the "science" part. It raises expectations and assumptions on behalf of both readers and writers that the genre mostly cannot, and should not, even attempt to fulfil. As long as we expect fiction to incorporate scientific rigor, we are doomed to disappointment. And if we expect science fiction writers to be better qualified than any other reasonably well-informed member of the public to comment on the scientific issues facing us today, we are deceiving ourselves. http://www.sfsite.com/08a/rl349.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Peter Grant, a probationary constable with the London Metropolitan Police, has issues with focus and faces a move to the Case Progression Unit, a group that does paperwork for the real cops when a conversation with a ghost changes his destiny. Returning to the scene to recontact the ghost, a detective inspector asks him what he was doing and he answers with the truth and becomes the first trainee wizard in fifty years under Inspector Thomas Nightingale. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/bd348.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT One of the perhaps unexpected impacts of personal technology on our lives is a hyperlocalism. The futurism of days gone by has often emphasised the abolition of distance and the opening up of a global arena of action for all of us, but the smart phone and the social network seem to be instead opening up space for the nearby, the quotidian local. Science fiction has often tended to emphasise universal dreams. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/uc367.ht Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT With a custody battle coming up, Ashe Carver, monster killer, has switched from stakes to a job at the public library. But fate has other things in mind. Ashe find herself chasing a demon rabbit that escaped from the supernatural castle along with Captain Reynard, one of the castle's guards. But there's more than that going on here. Someone has stolen Reynard's soul, part of what bound him to the castle; a vampire king wants to impregnate Ashe since her sister, Holly, had a vampire's baby; and there's a dark fae prince who seems to have his finger in every pot. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT As Derek and his family walked out of Houston's many movie theaters on Westheimer Blvd., he was absolutely certain that his life couldn't get any better. It was December 1978, and, impossibly, a movie he was convinced couldn't possibly exist not only proved extant but also exceeded every conceivable expectation he might have had. He had just seen Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie. And it breathed life into the four-color sequential art he had been reading for over four years. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming books this time include the latest from Jonathan Carroll, Mark Chadbourn, Ari Marmell, Karen Marie Moning, Christopher Moore, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Best bet for genre tv in May is the second season of Sherlock, which aired in the UK in January. All three episodes come to PBS in May. On the other hand, if you are willing to wait until May 22, you can get whole series on DVD and Blu-ray. It's not really science fiction, but it feels like it is. Rick also gives a list of what to watch in May. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/fr367.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the distant year 2401, humanity has spread out across the solar system, governed by the suppressive, authoritarian Confederate Combined Forces. When murder is suspected on SOLEX One, a remote research facility orbiting the sun, the CCF Security Division dispatches Lieutenant Kyle Tanner, its best homicide detective to investigate. But more murders occur in the wake of Tanner's arrival, including an attempt on Tanner's own life. In the investigation that proceeds, Kyle uncovers a shocking threat that could not only claim the rest of the station crew, but humanity itself. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/jj347.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT You love the fantastic, it is in your blood. You have devoted a substantial part of your life to it, a part friends and colleagues have sometimes suggested has been wasted. Sometimes you wonder if they are right. You have poured your blood out through your pen but you find yourself unregarded, unrewarded and out of pocket. You are invested... so you want a return on your investment. How do you crystallise this labour into something that means something? How can you -- whisper it -- moneterise it? The answer is, of course, a book. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/dw345.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Not as well known in the science fiction field is Vance's output as a mystery writer -- eleven novels under his full official name of John Holbrook Vance, three as Ellery Queen, and several more under other pseudonyms. The Vance admirer who knows him for the mannered, intensely colored writing of his science fiction will assuredly be surprised by the deliberately matter-of-fact, almost flat, style of his mysteries. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fm324.htm Tue, 1 May 2012 11:00:00 GMT Besides the obvious and delightful spy-geek-Chuthluian horror cocktail that Charles Stross shakes together in his Laundry series, there's a bit of Stargate to it, what with the openings of gates into otherwhere and heroic types stepping through them. It has been that way since the beginning, when our man from the Laundry, a geek turned applied demonologist and secret agent, stepped through a hole in space to rescue the damsel in distress. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/is366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Twins, doubles and doppelgangers often take center stage in the novels of Christopher Priest, and his narrators are often not entirely reliable. Fans who enjoy these aspects of his work are sure to love his new novel as the author foregoes a single unreliable narrator for an entirely unreliable narrative. The book is presented as a gazetteer, or guidebook, of the Dream Archipelago, a world-spanning chain of islands with fantastical properties. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/iv366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The jacket art introduces us to Princess Ivy riding her trusty dragon, Elridge who is desperately trying to avoid the ravenous Meanstalk. Other than these two there is another equally funny character, Gizzle the Green, a Plant Mage. No, that's not quite right, he's a former Assistant Head Plant Mage at the Blooming Brightly Institute of Magical Flora, and he is key to the plot. Drusilla and Gizzle were once an item and she broke off their affair, leaving Gizzle feeling bad about the whole thing, and who can blame him. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/mm366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Set in 2085, 34 years following the amusement park's debut, the corporation funding Dream Park have now moved the action to the Moon, as the finishing touches are being put on the new park located at Heinlein base. The basic setup of the game is the same as in the previous novels: the elite live-action players from around the world flock to this first-ever game set on the Moon, and the stakes for everyone are enormous. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/aa366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT What do you do next after the zombies have moved into town? After the chicken nugget epidemic, or the global economic collapse? That question or a variation thereof, is faced by every character here in this collection. In a way, any large enough catastrophe is an apocalypse of sorts, leaving lives altered in its wake, with survivors who still need to live in a changed world. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best12b.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Welcome to the results of our annual SF Site Readers' Choice Top Ten Books. Every year we ask our readers to vote for their favourite books of the preceding year. What follows are the results of that voting. I want to thank everyone who participated, and I invite you all to compare the Readers' Choice Top Ten with the Editors' Choice Top Ten to see where our reading interests and yours differ and overlap. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best12.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is Year 15 of our annual SF Site Editors' Choice Best Books of the Year, the SF Site official Best Reading and Top Ten (...er, 11 this time, due to a tie) recommendations from everything we read in the previous year. The voting results were extremely close this time, which I shall take to mean -- even more so than usual -- that absolutely everything mentioned below is worth seeking out and reading, if you haven't already done so. http://www.sfsite.com/04b/vi342.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Angels are generally represented as either God-sent messengers or guardians protecting our souls from evil. And we must remember that devils and demons are, supposedly, just fallen angels. All in all, angels are supernatural beings bringing either light or darkness into our life. What better topic, then, for an anthology of fantasy /dark fiction? http://www.sfsite.com/05b/bs344.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Raylene Pendle (aka Cheshire Red) is a vampire who pretty much keeps to herself, even avoiding her own kind, with a personal moral code that doesn't allow for killing humans to suck their blood unless, of course, there's a good reason. She's even such a softie that she harbors two homeless kids in a Seattle warehouse where she stores her stuff. Not just any kind of stuff, but stuff she has stolen. She is a professional thief for both pay and pleasure, and when you're undead, things start to collect after a few centuries. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/et348.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The central idea is Language, which is the language of the Ariekei, the native intelligent species of the remote planet (remote as defined by its accessibility through human FTL travel, which is based on something like wormholes) of which Embassytown is the single colony city. Language is unique, in that it is spoken by two voices simultaneously, in that it will not support a lie, and in that it is unintelligible to the natives if not spoken by an intelligence. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Without Jack Kirby, the forthcoming The Avengers film simply would not exist. The Black Widow and Hawkeye, both of whom Stan Lee created with Don Heck initially appeared as villains in the pages of Iron Man, a concept conceived with Kirby. Kirby, alongside his longtime collaborator Joe Simon, first introduced the world to Captain America in 1941. The Lee-Kirby team were responsible for Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the first appearances of The Avengers. They were truly the McCartney-Lennon of comics. Rick Klaw explores the work and legacy of Jack Kirby. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT New this time, we're looking at the latest from China Mieville, Melanie Rawn, Timothy Zahn, Matthew Stover, Jane Yolen, John Birmingham, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/ve366.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is one of those books that either hits the spot or misses completely. There is no black and white in terms of its style, although it does buck the trend a little more, getting from beginning to end. The premise is a veteran military special forces operative, forced out of retirement to track down an alien killing machine. An infiltrator of the same type wiped out his entire squad, back in the day. Now, it's loose in his home town. Except, things aren't quite the way they seem. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ma343.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The Malazan Book of the Fallen has single-handedly raised the bar for fantasy literature. Its full impact upon the world of writing in general probably won't be felt for several years, but for fans of the genre and of the series, its impact is immediate and world changing. After Dominic finished The Crippled God, he closed the book and reflected back upon what he had just read and realized that this series of books is surely the best fantasy series that has ever been written. In fact, he couldn't think of anything even close. However, he took it one step further and asked himself if this once obscure series genre writer from Canada has created the crown jewel of fiction? The answer is, arguably, yes and why not? If you don't believe him, read it and then you tell him the work that you believe surpasses it. Dominic dares you. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/uq345.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The plot begins to thicken with the murder of Professor Galapogos, in his office at the Natural History Museum. Ulysses Quicksilver is soon on the scene, and determines that the killer has also stolen the professor's difference engine; the steam-punk equivalent to a personal computer. Throughout this work the author amuses with alternate tech, such as Ulysses Quicksilver's personal communicator; a brass and leather mobile phone, an Overground train network in Londinium Maximus, mechanical bobbies, and Beefeater-drones with clockwork craniums. We soon learn that Magna Britannia is the ultimate superpower, dominating a world where the sun never set on the British Empire, and Queen Victoria is almost 160 years old. http://www.sfsite.com/bw347.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Dystopias have almost as long a history as their twin, the utopia. But it was the 20th century when dystopias really came into their own, in novels such as Zamyatin's We, Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984 and Karp's One. Indeed it is possible to view the 20th century as the dystopian century, not just because of the prevalence of dystopias as a literary form but also because of the political horrors that provided so much inspiration. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/tw329.htm Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The story is set on Earth (perhaps), far in the future, as the climate is failing. The dominant "city" is called Spearpoint -- a vertical city, spiralling around a structure that seems to extend all the way to space. As the levels in Spearpoint increase in altitude, there is also an increase in what technology works. From the top comes Quillon, a posthuman renegade who discovers that his former masters are sending newly modified angels to kill him. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica365.htm Fri, 6 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT WonderCon is -- for you cognoscenti -- the smaller, Northern California edition of "ComicCon," as it has been owned and operated by the San Diego bunch for awhile now. Except that this year the Con wasn't going to be -- or couldn't be -- held in its traditional Moscone Center setting, in San Francisco, and so decided to test the waters south, and try out the Anaheim Convention Center for 2012. Mark London Williams paid a visit to see how it fared. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best12b.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Welcome to the results of our annual SF Site Readers' Choice Top Ten Books. Every year we ask our readers to vote for their favourite books of the preceding year. What follows are the results of that voting. I want to thank everyone who participated, and I invite you all to compare the Readers' Choice Top Ten with the Editors' Choice Top Ten to see where our reading interests and yours differ and overlap. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best12.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is Year 15 of our annual SF Site Editors' Choice Best Books of the Year, the SF Site official Best Reading and Top Ten (...er, 11 this time, due to a tie) recommendations from everything we read in the previous year. The voting results were extremely close this time, which I shall take to mean -- even more so than usual -- that absolutely everything mentioned below is worth seeking out and reading, if you haven't already done so. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/rw365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The book opens with Princess Adele struggling to reconcile her duties with the call of her heart. The Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink on an ill-conceived war with the vampire clans of the north, and the genocidal strategy formulated by Senator Clark drives Adele to desperate measures. Reunited with her love, the mysterious Greyfriar, Adele soon finds herself pursued by her own people, in addition to the bombastic Senator Clark. The American, despite an interrupted wedding ceremony, still considers himself to be her husband and, by default, the future Emperor. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The science fiction world lost another giant. On March 10, 2012, Jean Giraud, the artist also known as Moebius, shuffled off this mortal coil. An artist whose incredibly surreal work included the incredible panels for The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius, Derek first consciously encountered him in 1984, when he purchased a couple of volumes of Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Incal at a secondhand store in Houston. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/ac365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT You like big, mind-blowing ideas in your SF? Here's a doozy. Often, SF's big ideas go somewhere far away and open outward. This one does the opposite in a way that whips out the magnifying lens on our view of humanity. Aliens have approached the solar system, but their ship hangs out in the Oort Cloud, waiting. They do not explain their motives for coming -- except those which are not their motives. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/mu365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT It is easy to argue that over the past five decades, Robert Silverberg has been the field's most prolific author of superior science fiction of all lengths, especially short fiction. Although his short fiction has been featured in a number of previous collections -- some of which have been retrospective volumes with titles that include "best of" or "collected stories" -- this new Subterranean Press series of The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg is a welcome and necessary addition to the library of any science fiction reader. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/bl365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT This time around, Black Static boasts of reviews of new novels, anthologies, collections and even novellas plus DVD and Blu-ray reviews and give-aways of free copies. There is a lot of information packed into a sixty-four page issue that tests the boundaries of the unusual, fantastic and truly horrific. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/py365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The mysterious wooden box labeled "Pyxis" belonged to Corrine's recently deceased grandmother. Filled with glass vials containing various colored liquids, Corrine doesn't know what she's supposed to do with the box, but she does realize its intended for her use. If only there had been time for Grandma Doris to talk with Corrine before her unexpected demise. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/fm365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the influential 2010 essay "Reality Hunger: A Manifesto," David Shields argued that the age of fiction is past; non-fiction in its many variants (some of which borrow the conventions and practices of fiction) is the key literature of our time. This anthology could almost be Exhibit A in the case against Shields' thesis. The fiction is almost always not only more entertaining, but conceptually richer. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/hg365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT In some situations the only moral thing to do is to die. The Hunger Games acknowledges that fact. But it also rigs the game in order to have a happy ending. John D. MacDonald, in his books about Travis McGee, will sometimes have Travis McGee in a situation where the only moral thing to do would be to die. Travis McGee does not die. He is a deeply moral man, but to preserve his own life, he will kill any number of innocents. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Rick had high hopes for Touch, because he enjoyed Heroes and admires Tim Kring as a writer, but the pilot episode was so farfetched he doesn't have much hope of it surviving past mid-season, despite an audience of more than twelve million viewers for the premiere. There is an audience for really good science fiction television, but nobody is giving it to them. Rick also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in April. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/ar365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT Non-fiction writing in the fields of fantasy and science fiction comes in many forms, most of them familiar to a mainstream audience. There are also non-fiction works in the genres that are fairly unique to the field, to the point of looking like oddities to an outsider. Two recent works of non-fiction are good examples of two different types of non-fiction, both devoted to increasing our appreciation of the fantastic. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/bs365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The novel is set in Scalentine, a city which seems to be most of its "plane," sort of a universe among multiple universes, accessible from other planes by multiple portals. (Scalentine seems to be a sort of neutral ground for multiple races from different planes.) The eponymous heroine is that old cliche, a whore with a heart of gold. http://www.sfsite.com/04a/dt365.htm Sun, 1 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT The novel shows us a dark future, but one filled with a sense of hope, and the human's sense of survival in the most dangerous of circumstances. The protagonist, Cai Rui is a good humoured man who has to beat his way through adversity and all odds until he reaches his goal of taking down an alien entity calling himself The Deacon. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/dg364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Back in the mid-70s, in the first volume of an original anthology series that never saw volume two, Paul came across a novella called "On the Street of the Serpents" by Michael Bishop. It was, along with fictions by Samuel R. Delany and James Tiptree, Jr. whose work he was also discovering at that time, a story that helped to change the way he read science fiction. He didn't realize how new Bishop was as a writer, but he was doing something sophisticated, original, and challenging with the form, and it caught Paul's imagination. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/gl364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT This second novel re-introduces us to Derai characters from The Heir of Night as well as the two Heralds but also shows us the southern lads from the city of Ij to the Northern March of Emer, and acquaints us with a whole range of new, well-developed characters. Malian and Kalan have separated, since anyone searching for them would seek a boy and a girl, and are set on different paths. Assassins attack a House of Heralds in Ij which sets off a lot of tumultuous events. Everyone seems to have his or her own agenda and treachery abounds. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven363.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2011 included Anne McCaffrey, Darrell K. Sweet, Glenn Lord, "Rusty" Hevelin, Les Daniels, William Sleator, Philip Rahman, Martin H. Greenberg, Joel Rosenberg and Jeffrey Catherine Jones. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sd364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The author specializes in placing protagonists that are damaged physically and/or mentally into intense situations where morality plays a key role. Thomas Covenant is a leper whose self-doubt and self-loathing make him a unique and unlikely anti-hero unlike most other protagonists in high fantasy fiction who must struggle with great moral issues. His best short fiction follows the same structure, and it is a tribute to his immense storytelling skill that these protagonists are sympathetic and their morality tales compelling. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/va364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT His Saga of Seven Suns is a monument of epic science-fictional imagination, of galactic politics fluctuating allegiances between humans, aliens (some extinct, some formerly extinct, and some who will be), and "abandoned" robots -- a monument so grand that it took seven books to bridge them. Now in Veiled Alliances, he has returned to his saga to tell of its origins in preparation for a new series that picks up where the last left off. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sg364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT This anthology is a volume of twenty stories that feature science fiction, horror and the wild, Wild West. In these settings, cowboys, sheriffs and other humans have to fight off countless monsters in the guise of vampires, wizards, alchemists, zombies and other dark-hearted devils. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/fsf364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction gets straight to it with a tasty novelette, "Under Glass" by Tim Sullivan; who sees everything with a writer's vision of the future we have never known yet or at least until it is too late. This issue concentrates on Carolyn Ives Gilman's novella "The Ice Owl," with the front cover (by Kent Bash) depicting the arid, saffron landscape perfectly. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/rl364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The central character is Peter Grant, a young, mixed race British PC, who encounters something supernatural during the course of his duties; specifically, a talking ghost. Taking this in his stride he is soon immersed in a world where magic is real, and supernatural critters a fact of life. So far, not much different to a dozen other titles, you may think. However, as with the majority of fiction, the difference is not in a well trod theme, but all about the skill and imagination displayed in its execution. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/tb364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Virginia Woolf famously said that throughout history, the author "Anonymous" was usually a woman. An equal if not greater case could be made that Anonymous was usually more than one person. While the pendulum of scholarly opinion as to whether there really was a historical individual called Homer who wrote the epics now attributed to that name goes back and forth, there can be little doubt that many of the classics we enjoy were collaborative efforts. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/pe364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the future, humanity has scattered amongst the stars to colonize new worlds, and spread their influence across the galaxy. Back home, to accommodate all this transport, everyday folks are required to pilot shuttles, transport cargo, and maintain the multitude of orbital platforms that circle the earth. That's what Josh Bennett does and he really doesn't wish for too much more in life. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The legendary Jean "Moebius" Giraud has died. Like many of his generation, Rick Klaw first encountered his incredible works in the pages of Heavy Metal. A sharp contrast to the inferior Kirby-clones that dominated American comics of the 70s and early 80s, Moebius' organic, elegant art promised a wide range of emotional experiences from wonder to despair; hope to terror; and nearly everything in-between. Rick shares some of his personal "Moebius" memories. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Newest arrivals to the SF Site include the latest from Charles de Lint, Sarah Pinborough, James Barclay, Erin Hoffman, Alan Dean Foster, Juliet E. McKenna, Paul Kearney, Naomi Novik, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Every year about this time, Rick gives his picks of the upcoming sf and fantasy films, based on the writers. How did he do last year? His picks were: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, X-Men: First Class, Captain America: The First Avenger, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two and The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn. This year his choices are... http://www.sfsite.com/03b/jc364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote ten novels set on the planet Barsoom, starting with A Princess of Mars in 1912. There is an eleventh book in the series collecting two shorter works, one by ERB, the other by his son John. Andrew Stanton has written some of the greatest animated films of modern times, including Finding Nemo, Toy Story III, and Wall-E. http://www.sfsite.com/03b/sl364.htm Fri, 16 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT In tone and quality, Glenda Larke's Stormlord Trilogy is the closet thing Dominic has read to Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy in a long time. The setting, characters, world-building, theology and plot are all done with exceeding care and all come off without a hitch. The magic system also deserves to be mentioned. It's all based on water, not all that original, but Larke uses it in some very imaginative ways with a clearly defined set of rules. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica363.htm Fri, 2 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Mark London Williams has been going to award shows lately, and watching news of peoples' deaths. As some of you know, one of his other lives is that of a showbiz journalist covering various award shows, including, almost always, the VES Awards -- the accolades for the Visual Effects Society. And lately, he has been going to the Oscars as well. The VES show is always fun and, each year, there is a lifetime achievement winner. This year, the honoree was none other than Stan Lee. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/cd363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Context is the second collection of essays from Cory Doctorow, following on from Content. And like that first collection, it consists of a large number of very short pieces culled from a wide variety of sources, the oldest first appeared in 2008, the most recent in 2011. Given that there are 44 pieces squeezed into 238 pages, you can tell that none of them is particularly long or goes into any great depth. And though Doctorow is well known not just as a novelist but also for his online presence, it may be something of a surprise to realize that the vast majority of these pieces first appeared as columns in print media. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/ci363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The story takes up with the crew of the liveship Tarman having reached its destination of the lost city of Kelsingra. After successfully navigating up the Rain Wild River, Captain Leftrin has delivered his cargo of dragons, keepers, and hunters and has embarked on his return voyage to Cassarick to collect on his contract and resupply for his return voyage to his beloved Alise and Kelsingra. Meanwhile, Thymara and the rest of the keepers are still struggling in their duties as dragon keepers to service and feed their dragons. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/lc363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Aimed squarely at readers who love action combined with an historical setting, the novel uses the backdrop of mid-12th century Egypt during the Crusades. The ruling Caliph, Rashid al-Hasan, is losing his grip on power. Possible successors circle, attempting to murder their way to the top, watched by the scheming Grand Vizier. Amid the turmoil, the enemies of Egypt seek to take advantage, including Shirkuh, the strong arm of the Sultan of Damascus, and Crusader knights sent by the King of Jerusalem. The wild card is an old man. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/sl363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Zoe and Jake, a married couple, take to the Pyrenees slopes early in the morning to avoid the crowds. Shortly thereafter, they are chased by an avalanche that swallows them. Finding a tree, Jake climbs out of the snow while Zoe, buried upside-down, has to fight for every centimeter to crawl out. When they make their way downhill, the land is empty of people and oddly quiet. If this scenario feels slightly familiar, it is but Graham Joyce infuses it with his own admirable style and descriptive panache. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/ao363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The idea of humans colonizing other worlds is nothing new. Mix in a ship that doesn't have faster than light capabilities and you end up with a bunch of frozen colonists, making their way out of our solar system, knowing that not only might they not find a new world to inhabit, but the Earth they've left will be unrecognizable through evolution. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/iz363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT This issue begins in an interesting fashion with David Langford's Ansible Link where he mentions all that is right or terribly wrong in fiction. Personal favourites from this article are Court Circular, As Others See Us II, and the ever comical Thog's Masterclass. It is a mixture of humour and factual information that readers will find useful if they like hearing about everything in the fantasy and science fiction literary world to date. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction fans have always had a respect and understanding for the history of the genre. Unfortunately, science fiction has achieved such an age that each year sees our ranks diminished. Deaths in 2011 included Anne McCaffrey, Darrell K. Sweet, Glenn Lord, "Rusty" Hevelin, Les Daniels, William Sleator, Philip Rahman, Martin H. Greenberg, Joel Rosenberg and Jeffrey Catherine Jones. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/rg363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is a techno-thriller, though it's more precisely a geek-thriller in that the first person narrator, Lucy Stone, is an online game developer for a company called Small Worlds (one of number of jokes underpinning the novel's plotline). However, Lucy isn't so much a geek as a "chicks-kick butt"-styled heroine who is usually the smartest one in a room full of clueless testosterone. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/bt363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT The reader sees the oddities in Binscombe through the eyes of Mr. Oakley, a new resident of the village who is begrudgingly accepted into the strangeness of the town only because his family lived there in generations past. He seems to have taken the interest of Mr. Disvan, a mysterious old man who knows more of the history of the town than anyone alive probably should know. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Hollywood has declared war on Mars. Let's be more specific. With only a handful of days before it begins its theatrical release, John Carter appears poised to be one of the biggest flops in the history of cinema, a sort of Heaven's Gate for the geek set. No sooner did the trailer for director Andrew Stanton's adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars run during the Super Bowl than The Daily Beast's Chris Lee cited the as-yet unseen adventure film "with Avatar-size ambitions that's being greeted sight-unseen as the next Ishtar." http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil360.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Dervish House by Ian McDonald which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/03a/ch363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT Chronicle is a fun movie about teens with superpowers. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it does take itself seriously enough. It is in the genre of found footage (remember The Blair Witch Project?), and also in the genre of teens who love making movies (remember Super 8?), but is better than either of those. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick363.htm Thu, 1 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT No tv show in recent months has held Rick's interest, except for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, but he decided to watch a couple of shows written by writers he admires, even though he doesn't particularly like the series. Once Upon a Time, "Skin Deep" by Jane Espenson was much better than average, thanks to a great back story for Mr. Gold, which combines two different fairy tales in a clever way. Rick also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in March. http://www.sfsite.com/rssfeeds01.htm Sat, 1 Jan 2005 11:00:00 GMT After constructing our first RSS feed, it soon became apparent that the size of files could grow quickly. We decided to separate them into smaller ones, breaking them up by month. On this page you will find RSS feed files for all of our content beginning with January 2005.