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/06b/sc322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Post-global-warming Vancouver is not what it used to be, with water where streets once used to be and parts of town divided severely into the have and have-not sections. Certain human beings living in the 22nd century have been modified in more or less unspeakable ways in order to be useful to others in positions of power. The main character is a boy who once used to be known as Simon Lau, but who has been wired up as a data shark and as an enforcer. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ld322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Trying to label and explain the main features of Norman Partridge's style to those still unfamiliar with his work is not an easy task. He is a horror writer endowed with a powerful imagination, a vivid narrative technique and the ability to move effortlessly from the terror tale to pulp fiction, from the crime story to dark fantasy. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/hs322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Gaia Jones is a loner after a failed marriage; her family relations aren't very good either, so she transfers to the A-Ki Station, which has a human section built by the mysterious amphibious, hermaphroditic Kishocha. Only one of the Kishocha has wanted to interact with the humans, the charismatic Kenjan, who swiftly becomes a popular celebrity. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ck322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Genevieve (Genny) Taylor works for Spellcrackers, a witch-owned business, that cleans up magical messes. Genny can crack spells and absorb magic, but her ability to actually cast spells remains pitifully weak. A ghost, whom Genny calls Cosette, haunts her, unwanted invitations from vampires flood her mailbox and, while she still has her job at Spellcrackers, powerful witches want her to move out of her apartment. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/dh322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Robin Hobb's latest work is the second volume of The Rain Wild Chronicles. It picks up right where the first volume, The Dragon Keeper, left off. We find the crew of the Tarman escorting a group of dragons, along with their keepers and hunters, up the Rain Wild River in search of the lost city of Kelsingra. Along the way... well, nothing much happens. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/aa322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Picking up right where Mostly Harmless left off, we find Arthur, Ford, Trillian and Random improbably rescued from the final destruction of Earth by none other than Zaphod Beeblebrox and the Heart of Gold. But Zaphod (being Zaphod) botches the rescue, forcing them to seek help from Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, who just happens to be passing by Earth to deliver some more insults. Wowbagger reluctantly saves them, and the story spirals out from there. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/td322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Kylara has survived being shot, awakening in the hospital of one the mercenary ships that are interdicting the planet of Sabine Prime. Quickly regaining her senses, she returns to the Glennys Jones only to find that her small trader ship is now to be a prison for crews from non-combatant ships in the Sabine area. Forced to agree to the mercenaries' use of her ship as a cattle car, Kylara must tread the thin tightrope of appeasing her guests while remaining in charge. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/if322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT This time out, the audiobook contains two stories. "If I Were You" was originally published in the February 1940 issue of Five-Novels Monthly and "The Last Drop" was originally published in Astonishing Stories, November 1941. One of the key features of the Galaxy Audio releases is their super production quality. With original music, and subtle yet effective sound effects, these audiobooks are like a great trip back to the days of radio dramas. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/bt322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT This is a funny, often hilarious adventure set in the wilds of rural and suburban New England. Not only that, it's a style of humor that rarely emerges in science fiction; a hip, sarcastic mix of personal observations mixed with pop culture and historical references. The late great Hunter S. Thompson was the master, but if there is such a thing as gonzo science fiction, Brain Thief is it. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/tw322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT The novel starts in a city perched part way up a massive spire known as Spearpoint. And at the very edge of the city an apparently dead angel is found. Angels come from higher up Spearpoint where a more advanced technology is possible, but every so often one ends up in the city and, when they do, they are taken to Quillon. Quillon is a pathologist who has been making a study of angels; but this one isn't quite dead, rather he has undertaken a suicide mission in order to get a message to Quillon. The message is: flee. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/bo322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Here is a collection of new fantasy short stories on the general subject of dreams. It differs from many such original anthologies in consisting mostly of quite short works -- perhaps one story here is a short novelette, the others short stories. The writers are all established pros, and they all reliably deliver good value. Which in a sense is the problem here. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Comics creator Matt Dembicki is the editor/creative force behind Trickster, a graphic novel anthology collecting tales of North America's first adventure heroes -- trickster figures like Coyote, Raven, and other "animal humans," who both transformed the world around them, and were often transformed by it -- in spite of themselves. Mark London Williams has a chat with him. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Mark Chadbourn talks about his new Fantasy series, The Sword of Albion which takes us into the treacherous world of spies in Elizabethan England; and debut novelist Sarah Pinborough gives us the inside skinny about desolate futures, self destruction and getting new novel A Matter of Blood published. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Newest arrivals this time include the latest from Stephen Baxter, Terry Brooks, Mark Chadbourn, Peter F. Hamilton, Robert J. Sawyer, James Barclay, Charles de Lint, Cory Doctorow, Norman Spinrad, Jeff VanderMeer, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/dg322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT The dedication of this volume reads "this book began in science fiction and fantasy fandom and so is dedicated to all those in that community." This is an intriguing set of academic essays on writing in the digital generation. One of the familiar tropes of declinist narratives of a lost golden age of the humanities is that writing and reading are in decline. Radio, television, the cinema, the internet -- all were supposed to kill off the written word. http://www.sfsite.com/06b/fr322.htm Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT The story tells the tale of a young man, Robert Walton who writes letters to his sister, Mrs. Saville, over in England about a sea voyage he undertakes alone. Feeling somewhat depressed and bored, the voyage is disrupted by another man's dire health and has to save him from freezing to death. Trying to keep him in good spirits, Robert converses with him and he becomes the companion and friend he wanted all along, yet the other man thinks he will be seen differently when he tells his own tale of woe. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick321.htm Wed, 2 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Rick offers his thoughts on the new Doctor Who, on the end of Lost and what shows will be returning in the Fall. He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in June. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/bm321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT The last twenty years have offered plenty of excellent short horror fiction, so it doesn't come as a surprise that the two major anthologists in the field, Stephen Jones in the UK and Ellen Datlow in USA, have endeavoured to collect the short stories they liked better, among the ones they chose for either Best New Horror or the horror section of Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/cd321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Horror fiction has resorted to the familiar monsters of myth and legend many times. Most notoriously, and notably, the vampire, but also the other familiar weird and/or undead creatures of the horror canon. One exception is the dragon. The dragon is the creature of fantasy, from the story of the Hobbit who lived in a hole to the Dragonriders of Pern. Dragons have not featured much in contemporary horror writing. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/eb321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT In this sequel to Privateers, Dan Randolph can save the world from ecological devastation -- if the politicians will let him. The earth is heading towards a greenhouse cliff, a sudden climate change that will destroy much of the planet in ten years if something isn't done soon. The ice caps will melt. Cities will be flooded. Millions will die. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/de321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Morganville, Texas is home to Texas Prairie University and vampires. The university attracts new, young "blood" and the vampires rule the town. The locals are all under protection from a vampire patron, with the families entering a contract giving them protection. It's very much like life insurance, but instead of a payout when you pass on, you simply don't pass on at the hands of a vampire. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/dk321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT For some reason, horror fans seem to be drawn to zombies. There are podcasts of zombie stories, several books and, of course, the re-writing of Jane Austen's novel as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Many fans will consider George Romero's Dawn of the Dead as the beginning of this craze, and some die-hard fans will think of Max Brooks, with his Zombie Survival Guide, as reason for the trend. But back before these guys brought about the flesh-eating scourge called zombies, L. Ron Hubbard wrote a mystery that brought the living dead into America. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/bw299.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT This story, winner of a 2010 Audie Award for audiobooks, is science fiction only in the sense that it is a work of fiction whose principal characters are scientists. As the work of 2009 Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductee, however, it is inevitably classified in the genre. It tells the story of Sandra Foster, a researcher laboring in the corporate catacombs of a company called HiTek. Her work focuses on fads and their sources, and for her current project she is trying to track down the mysterious catalyst for the 1920s craze for hair-bobbing. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT In 1980, Derek rode with a friend's family to the Westchase Five in Houston and stood in a line snaking around the shopping center housing the theater, waiting to purchase tickets for the earliest available showing of The Empire Strikes Back. As they waited, they sat reading comics and discussing what wonders might be visited in this sequel to Star Wars, which was at that time the life-changing movie for most. None of them knew what to expect, none of them really knew what to anticipate. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT As summer quickly approaches and temperatures in Central Texas are already hitting the high 90s, Rick Klaw has discovered a selection of recent titles to enjoy while basking in the balmy breezes -- or lounging in your air conditioned domicile. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/gd321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT At times, it feels as if this story is two separate novels woven together. One is straight historical fiction about Galileo Galilei's struggles with the Catholic Church in the early seventeenth century while the other novel is a science fiction tale which places Galileo in the far future. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/fw321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT A steampunk speculative future history beginning in the year 2415, the initial setting is a North America under the control of the United Yukon Confederacy; a puritanical, militaristic regime, loosely modeled on Victorian England. The story is presented as the memoir of Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce, and is a personal account of a man who, at times, was a close friend of the most powerful political figure of his day. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/el321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Escher's Loops is divided into three chapters of increasing size, each labeled a loop. Each loop is a series of interlocking narratives, in which something bizarre and inexplicable happens to the narrator -- in the first loop, we follow strange memories held by distracted people, beginning and ending with a surgeon who halts suddenly on the way into the operating room. http://www.sfsite.com/06a/bg321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT This issue, clocking in at 384 pages, is more book than magazine. The editor's lack of free time due to the day job during 2009 is the reader's gain, as in addition to fifteen stories there are three novellas. Even the comic "Knights of the Dinner Table" is longer. (And a crack-up. See Neil Gaiman accused of plagiarism!) http://www.sfsite.com/06a/yh321.htm Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:00:00 GMT Rich has to admit that before writing this review he had to go into his house's smallest room to retrieve the book. But not because he was using the individual pages! Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded is perfect bathroom reading: it's composed of short, sharp, essays on a vast variety of subjects, readable in any order, and enjoyable in brief snippets. 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.