http://www.sfsite.com/ The new issue of the SF Site is now online. Copyright 1996-2007 SF Site en-us http://www.sfsite.com/images/sfspot1.gif http://www.sfsite.com/ http://www.sfsite.com/columns/best07.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT This is our 10th annual Top 10 Best Books list. As usual, we have a few surprises in store. The biggest surprise for Neil was our number one best read of 2006 -- but we'll get to that in due time. As many of our long-time readers already know, we can never quite manage to narrow down our Top 10 list to a mere 10 books. Every year the editors, reviewers, interviewers and other contributors to the SF Site are solicited for their top picks, and the results are compiled and amalgamated into this annual list. Because of the way we decided to weigh and calculate the results 10 years ago, we almost inevitably end up with a few ties on the list. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/greg2006.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT While there may not have been one or two books that obviously stood out from the rest this year, it turned out to be no problem making up a list of ten books that made more memorable reading, worthy of being highly recommended to others. The one problem that did present itself was the nagging realisation that, if this list wasn't expressly limited to print, an intruder from the realm of televised media could have made it onto the list. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/steven242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 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. The science-fictional year 2006 could have been much worse for the science fiction community in sheer numbers. While there were a few tragic surprises, the mortality rate for 2006 was no higher than would normally be expected. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ot242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT This book is the first in a two part collection of stories, narrated Arabian Nights style by a semi-wild 13 year-old girl who lives a lonely existence in sprawling gardens surrounding a sultan's palace. The other children are frightened of her, due to the marks that make her different to them. This, not unattractive disfigurement, was also what led to her being banished from the palace itself. In truth, the strange markings are the result of someone magically tattooing her eyelids and the flesh around her eyes when she was an infant. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/hs242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Retired police Inspector Suzette McGee guards a terrible secret: she's not a real human being, but a disposable. Disposables are androids produced by cheap nanofacture to handle all the jobs that are too dirty, degrading, or brutal for human beings to deal with. Zette has no idea why she's different, or why whoever made her went to the trouble of implanting an entire lifetime's worth of false memories. She's tormented by the question of whether there might be others like her. Or is she unique? http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ca242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Politics, intrigue, spy games, genetic engineering, love affairs, betrayals... lions and tigers and Bears, oh my. This is something different from her yet again and one has to stop and admire the sheer scope of creativity evidenced here. This is a novel of social science fiction, something built on a potentially hard SF basis which segues into something that Ursula K. Le Guin might have tried if she were writing this sort of thing. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/tt242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT This anthology presents a broad range of fantastic short fiction, from classic interplanetary science fiction to a mainstream story that has only slightly fantastic overtones. If the fact that this book was co-edited by Robert Charles Wilson leads you to expect lots of Hard SF content, you may be disappointed. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/sr242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Peter is working his way through the David G. Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer The Space Opera Renaissance anthology, and finding it well-done and to his taste -- it may be one of the editors best BIG review-anthology yet. Truly a doorstop at 940+ pages, with a surprisingly large number of new-to-Peter stories. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/se242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Science fiction arose from a prudish tradition and, though sex scenes are now common, that sex often seems contemporary and far less considered than other aspects of science fictional worldbuilding. Meanwhile, the mainstream of erotic literature is sadly deficient in imagination and technological savvy. This is a sophisticated collection of erotic stories that explore the strange intersections between sex, culture and technology, both straight and gay. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Neil has decided to target the classics of science fiction and fantasy that he has been avoiding. He has two stacks on his "waiting to be read" shelf for this particular project: a dozen classics of science fiction and fantasy, and a dozen more obscure titles that he has also been avoiding and have several times rescued from the annual household garage sale. It's time for him to check out these overlooked or (possibly) over-hyped books and test their mettle. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/km242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT "My initial pitch for the book, to myself, was: we've done New Space Opera. Now let's try New British Catastrophe. That got me thinking about the catastrophe novels of John Wyndham and J.G. Ballard and others, and how their catastrophes were always things that weren't likely to happen -- walking plants, a wind from nowhere, giant wasps, volcanoes in Wales -- instead of the catastrophe that everyone really feared. It was as if they were deliberately averting their gaze from nuclear war. That got me to the first point: to focus on what we really fear -- nuclear attack, terrorism, torture." http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pl242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick was disappointed by Pan's Labyrinth, the most favorably reviewed film of 2006. Leaving the theater, he overheard enough comments to know he was not alone in that disappointment, especially from people who had brought children. This is not a film for children. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/io242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT If John Crowley wrote the text on the label of a soup can, it would be worth reading. this book is much more than a label on a can: it is a collection of essays and reviews, a glimpse of a master's workshop, a box of wonders and a museum of joys. This is not to say that his non-fiction will displace his fiction in readers' affections. His fiction is singular; his non-fiction is thoughtful, erudite, and skilled, and it does what most other things of its type do -- it conveys information, ideas, and opinions. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/rb242.htm Thu, 15 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT While the title implies a biography, this is rather an exhaustive -- both in terms of detail as well as reader endurance -- scholarly examination of the Bradbury opus that seems to have collected every possible minutia that even die-hard fans might find themselves not caring too much about. In other words, this is a work intended for an academic audience, the type of people who actually read footnotes and care to know about such things as the line edits between an author's first drafts and subsequent revisions. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ai241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT One historical dividing line in science fiction is between those who think technology offers a lot of "cool" things that better the human condition (Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov) and those who think the opposite (Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells and their New Wave descendants sprung from the loins of atomic explosions and countercultural indulgences). The cyberpunks melded both with the sort of Zen-like attitude that technology is neither inherently good or bad, it merely is what it is. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT In this month's column from Smaragdine, Jeff marvels at the annual Steve Aylett Literary Parade held in late January. So intrigued by this event and the foofaraw surrounding it, Jeff takes some time to interview this literary hero of the Smaragdine inhabitants and reviews his new books, And Your Point Is?: Scorn and Meaning in Jeff Lint's Fiction and Fain the Sorcerer. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil238.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT You've waited patiently for a whole year, but at last your favourite season has rolled around again. Yes, that's right, it's time to finish reading those new books that have been stacking up on your bookshelves, your floor or bedside table, because very soon you'll need to determine which ones you feel are the best of the best. Or at least, you will if you want to have a say in the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Awards! This year will bring the SF Site's 9th annual Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. But only with your help. As many of our long-time readers already know, every year about this time we solicit our readers for their input on what were the best books they read in the past year. We'll tally the results and post them in February or early March so that you can see how well your favourites fare -- and, with any luck, find some great recommendations too. The deadline for voting is February 9, 2007. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/david241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Back in the old days, fictional wizards and witches were made, not born. You gained magical powers either through study of arcane texts you weren't supposed to read or through bargains with supernatural you weren't supposed to know. Very ambitious sorcerers hedged their bets and went for both. It's a great tradition, going back to antiquity. We were happy with it literally for thousands of years, and then came the cultural shift. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/en241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT As the climax of the Harry Potter series approaches, so the twittering about what J.K. Rowling has planned gets louder. Somebody, somewhere, has probably worked it out correctly. But until readers know for sure, guessing is a lot of fun. Such has been the impact of the series that it's easy to believe people will buy any old cobblers, if it has the boy wizard's name on the front. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ys241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Reviewers are saying wonderful things about this book -- and they are right. His writing, as always, is luminous -- in fact, the prologue is a poem told in prose, a love letter to Provence and its light and the depth of its past, only lightly covered by its present and by what we like to think of as "civilization"; this is a part of the world that he clearly knows, and loves, and this comes through clearly in the book. His handling of young adult characters is deft, often funny, often poignant. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/wh241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Animals are people too. If you don't believe me, give Wolf Hunting a shot, where animals are people, people are animals, and magic is not at all welcome. Let's start with Truth, who is a jaguar. Not just any old big cat, but a wise jaguar, not only sentient and talented, but quite insane. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ri241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT This collection will delight established readers, and would make a satisfying introduction to those who baulk at his multi-volume stuff. It includes an introduction from the author explaining why he writes what he writes, followed by fifteen short stories, five non-fiction pieces, two television ideas, and to finish off, a two-page title work. All of which include their own informative, entertaining introductory pieces. The appeal will depend on personal taste, but it is safe to say each inclusion has received the literary spit and polish that has made the author so successful. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ob241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT This book is a collection of stories and essays from throughout the author's career. What they reveal is a writer whose work is firmly within and a part of the modern science fiction tradition. The stories also show a concern for events, and their consequences, that are a little closer to the here and now than readers usually find in his more future-centered, space-oriented novels. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/jt241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT The James Tiptree Award Anthology has been accompanying the annual Tiptree Award for two years now, collecting a wide range of fantastic short fiction and essays held together by their common focus on gender issues. The nine pieces of short fiction range from magical realism to space opera -- on first glance, a rather eclectic mixture. Yet, most of the fiction is connected by a common interest in the question of how the idea of beauty is negotiated culturally and technologically. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/bb241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT "The Odd Couple" gets a spooky romantic spin -- with just enough grue to make the kids cheerfully shiver in this charming book. Picture two warring neighbors. Dapper Boris Kleanitoff, with his crisp, bat-winged suit and an eternally dour E.A. Poe-ish expression, is a die-hard neat-nik. But his neighbor Bella Legrossi is the exact opposite. In her funereal finery, with flies eternally buzzing around her tousled yellow locks, she is known far and wide as "the messiest monster in Booville." http://www.sfsite.com/02a/mw241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT H.G. Wells, the well-known author of famous SF novellas such as The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, was also a prolific writer of supernatural fiction, now assembled for the first time in this stylish hardcover volume. Mind you, in Wells's body of work the term "supernatural" doesn't always mean dark, horrific or ghostly. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on how good SF on TV is and what his preferences are. He also gives us a list of what to watch on TV in February. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/eh241.htm Thu, 1 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT As followers of conspiracy theory will know, Echelon is purported to be the eyes and ears of global Big Brother; an advanced communications and surveillance monitoring system at the murkier end of the NSA. Legend has it that Echelon is privy to everything sent over the telephone lines or airwaves. In the near future Echelon has shed its ties with the US intelligence community, and evolved into a world-shaping force which acts to enforce its masters' idea of a utopian society. There is no war, no terrorism, and no dissent. Nevertheless, something has gone badly wrong. 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.