http://www.sfsite.com/ The new issue of the SF Site is now online. Copyright 1996-2010 SF Site en-us http://www.sfsite.com/images/sfspot1.gif http://www.sfsite.com http://www.sfsite.com/07b/yb204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT To the ever-growing stacks of collections of the year's best stories is now added this one. To the ever-growing arguments over what is or isn't science fiction and/or fantasy and/or the best can now be added an argument over what makes a story "for teens." The closest thing to a rationale offered here is in the preface. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/jv204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT For an author as widely known as Jules Verne, his reputation rests on relatively few books. This anthology of stories contains stories based on Verne's writings, not just his most popular books, but his most esoteric ones as well. Most of the stories are based on Verne's writing, although a few pull from Verne's life and times, or at least his potential life and times. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ma204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The premise behind this novel is a bold one; what happens when God dies. The author speculates that from the moment God is not able to keep an omnipresent eye on the entire universe, reality begins to falter. Human scientist first notice something happening at the far edges of the observable universe, where telescopes reveal that stars are disappearing. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/mh204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Presenter Michael Wood turns his considerable historical research skills towards the realms of fiction with this four-part television series examining the roots of some of the most enduring myths in history. He looks at Jason and the Argonauts, the Queen of Sheba, the mythical city of Shangri-La and King Arthur, chasing across the world for actual physical evidence to support these legendary stories. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/mw204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT "Look at King Arthur -- he first appears in the 9th Century as a Welsh freedom fighter, fighting against the Anglo-Saxons; and then by the 12th Century he's the Napoleon of the Middle Ages and marches on Rome and all this kind of stuff. Another 100 years go by and he's this chivalrous figure of romance with knights and round tables and spiritual quests. To the Tudors he's a political figure, and to the Victorians he becomes something else. The same character has the name Arthur but the story has changed out of all recognition." http://www.sfsite.com/07b/wa204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT It owes as much to the 1953 film, The War of the Worlds, as it does to the H.G. Wells novel. The opening narration is adapted from the novel, but the closing narration is adapted from the film. There are significant omissions from Wells' first paragraph. Wells writes that the Martians have "intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own". In other words, the Martians are not supernatural, but are creatures like us, subject to scientific law. They are smarter than we are, therefore they know more science, therefore are more powerful. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ff204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The Fantastic Four were the first squabbling super-heroes of the Silver Age, and you have to have been there to realize what an innovation that was, after the namby-pamby friendships of the D.C. super-heroes, who always got along and never ever argued. The conflict between the characters is a high point of the film. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/hm204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Of the myriad Japanese animation directors, Hayao Myiazaki is the most prestigious, even if Cowboy Beebop and Trigun may be more fun. Myiazaki's anime are beautiful and poetic, but they tend to wander all over the place, without really rising to a climax. Rick's favorite of his features is still his first, The Castle of Cagliostro. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/rr204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Having narrowly survived their encounter with agents trafficking in the addictive glass shards known as flects, Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor and his team limp back to where their problems began; Eustice Majoris. Ravenor is an unusual lead character, in that he is a paraplegic, confined to a fully enclosed support chair. This severe physical disability is offset by his formidable psyker powers, which enable him to roam in an etheric form, or wear the flesh of one of his team. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/sajg204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT "As an editor you spend your whole time in a darkened room cutting other peoples mistakes together, trying to make the best out of it that you can and you learn from these mistakes. Then there's directing the action scenes, it's a reverse process to the editing. I got so used to editing action sequences, that as a director I could easily break it down into its component parts." http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ip204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT It's always tempting, when reviewing a short story collection, to look for a single theme or quality of authorial voice that can neatly encapsulate the whole. So, one could say that in this gathering of nine atmospheric, fluidly-written stories, the author envisions the "real" world as a thin veneer over a much darker and stranger reality, which is always, fearfully, wanting to break through. Or one could say that she writes about characters who are cursed (or blessed?)... http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ws204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT This novel follows two other Elric adventures, The Dreamthief's Daughter and The Skrayling Tree, all of which take place while Elric is tied to the rigging of Jagreen Lern's flagship but has managed to send his soul out to the other realms of the multiverse, most notably our own world. However, while the adventure, which centers on the young Oonagh von Beck, starts in our world in the twenty-first century, it quickly departs, eventually landing Elric, Oonagh, their allies and enemies, Klosterheim and Gaynor the Damned, in the world of the Dark Empire of Granbretan. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/fs5204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT A common criticism against big-market fantasy journals is that the published material is too commercial, and that the only 'edgy' stuff happens off the radar screen and with smaller publications. In this issue, editor Gordon Van Gelder proves that not all major publications have sold their soul. Not totally, at least. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/no204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The 33rd issue of this fine small press publication is similar in tone and quality to its previous issue. As its title promises, it often features stories and poems about people on the edge of society, out of the way sorts -- or, as editor John Benson mentions with regard to this issue, people who have "disappeared." As before, the prose is generally fine, sometimes excellent. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT So far in July we've seen new works from Kevin J. Anderson, Julie Czerneda, Alan Dean Foster, Glen Cook, Paul Di Filippo, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/vox204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Scott Danielson is looking at audio SF -- on tape, on CD, on whatever. This time out, he has been talking to Stephen Eley is the podcaster behind Escape Pod. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Rick has TV reviews of the Stargate SG-1 episode titled "Avalon" and the Stargate: Atlantis episode "The Siege." http://www.sfsite.com/07b/rw204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Louis Wu on his 200th birthday is bored, having done all he wants to do in Known Space. A Puppeteer, a two-headed tripod with clawed hooves, ensnares Wu's curiosity on a job that will take him out of the known world. The Puppeteer recruits a Kzin, a five-hundred pound feline alien named Speaker-to-Animals, by insulting it. Teela Brown, another human but bred genetically lucky, also signs on after learning that her love, Wu, is going and that humanity's hope for survival hinges on a new starship that the Puppeteers will give Wu and Brown upon completing their mission to a place the Puppeteer is cryptic about. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/mo204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The time is 1875, the place a London cell block. Prison life is extraordinarily grim for Montmorency -- especially as he was horribly wounded while trying to escape a failed burglary. A young doctor named Mr. Farcett takes an interest in Montmorency's case, and slowly and painfully restores him to life with experimental treatments. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ia204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT During his lifetime, Isaac Asimov wrote three autobiographical volumes in addition to making autobiographical statements in various of his introductions and columns. A person might, therefore, be forgiven for thinking that there is no more to be said about Asimov's life (1920-1992). In fact, in 1994, this biography of Asimov proved that there was more to be said, and even that wasn't the final word. The writer has written an afterword which appears in the currently reprinted edition. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ww204.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The academics amongst you should be aware that this isn't a collection of literary criticism pieces. The various essays (and they truly are quite 'various') are rather personal thoughts and responses to the text. They're very accessible and by turns thought-provoking, entertaining and informative. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/be203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Behemoth opens five years after rifter Lenie Clarke, in an apocalyptic act of vengeance, seeded the deadly microbe Behemoth across a North America already reeling from out-of-control disease and environmental collapse. No living thing has any defense against Behemoth, and the entire biosphere is dying. Elsewhere in the world, governments frantically try to stave off contamination, and wage a losing battle against the destructive cult of the Meltdown Madonna, a dark mythos spawned by Lenie's Typhoid Mary-like odyssey. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/07a/sg203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Orson Scott Card published his first short story, "Ender's Game," in 1977. He later expanded the story into a Hugo and Nebula Award winning novel and turned his attention to sequels. Now, twenty-eight years after "Ender's Game" first appeared, Card has published the eighth novel about Ender and his companions. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ff203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT This is a collection six, novella-length stories, by well-known writers including Tanith Lee, Megan Lindholm, Kim Newman, Patricia A. McKillip, Craig Shaw Gardner, Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder. There is no connecting thread between them, other than their genre and the editor's requirement that each story feature at least one elf. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/fs4203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT This issue offers a study on why short fantasy is so danged hard for so many writers. The problem is not one of content or form. That is, fantasy has its writers who have fantastic imaginations, and who deliver that imagination with heavy subtext. Many of these writers are skilled artisans whose writing acumen generate excellent prose. However, the fantasy writer works with one handicap... http://www.sfsite.com/07a/np203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The action begins about 5 years after the end of The Year of Our War. The opening sequence is a challenge for the position in the Circle (the Eszai, or immortals) of the Sworsdman, Serein Gio Ami. The challenger wins, taking the name Serein from Gio Ami, and becomes the second new member of the circle in a couple of centuries. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Rick has some thoughts on Tarzan II, the DVD from Disney as well as what to watch on TV in July. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT "I did a huge concordance of the six Dune books, so I know all the references and what page number they're on, so we included all that information too. I'd also spent five years writing Dad's biography, Dreamer of Dune -- rereading everything he wrote and putting it together with the things he said to me." http://www.sfsite.com/07a/sabh203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT In the third book of Legends of Dune, the war against Omnius is all but won -- with a heavy emphasis on that "all but." Humanity has managed to pin Omnius down on Corrin, the last remaining Synchronized World, and has established a heavy military presence to guard over the last copy of Omnius' "evermind." Also on Corrin with Omnius is Erasmus, an independent thinking machine whose studies of humanity include analyses of mortality, disease, pain, and suffering -- but also explorations of art, music, and even family. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/sang203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT "I kept finding myself thinking about Cape Wrath. Then I started buying archaeological books about the Vikings in northern Scotland. I actually thought I'd write a Neverwhere story, but I soon realised that I was about to write a story about Shadow." http://www.sfsite.com/07a/rp203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT All Jim Marlowe wants is to leave for school. As a colonist on Mars, that can be a bit of trial. He has to travel to the other side of the planet via the ice canal schooners. He is packed, his Martian "bouncer" Willis is frolicking about and mimicking those conversations around him. His Mom is weepy, his dad is proud to see him off. Jim is glad to be getting a chance to further his studies while his family is planning their annual migration to another sector. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/le203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Fern has lived a protected life with her mother, learning about herbs and helping the local population with natural remedies and tinctures. When Mammy falls ill and is taken into hospital, Fern has to face the realities of living on her own for the first time in twenty-one years. With no reliable income and affected by the prejudices of the close community around her, Fern turns to the spiritual beliefs she grew up with but it turns out to be a dangerous path to follow. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/eu203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT All of the authors who have contributed to the anthology of essays clearly have a love and respect for Adams's work, even Susan Sizemore, whose essay "You Can't Go Home Again, Damn It! Even If Your Planet Hasn't Been Blown Up by Vogons" discusses how she has discovered that she and Adams's comedy have drifted apart over the years since she was first enamored by the series. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/gn203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT The heroine is an 18-year-old student at Wyverley College, for young ladies of quality. Sabriel's father is the Abhorsen, a unique type of necromancer, both feared and respected. Abhorsens see dead people, and kick their rotting backsides. Sabriel first began to follow in her father's terrifying footsteps, literally walking into Death, when she was twelve. One day, she knows that she will become the Abhorsen, served by supernatural entities called Sendings, and plagued by Mogget, a dangerous talking cat. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/he203.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2005 11:00:00 GMT Imagine you're just 16 once again: young and fit, everything to look forward to, with an entire world to explore... Now, imagine if you were not just 16 again, young and fit, with everything to look forward to, but you also had all of time and space to explore courtesy of a strange device/bracelet given to you by a nice (if somewhat mysterious) old lady who simply appeared in front of you in the woods one day.