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/05b/haj344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT "It is clear with all of these characters that they are stronger together than apart, and I definitely worked to show this with Dabir and Asim. Once they learn to trust each other and work together in this book, they are greater than the sum of their parts. I guess Asim came first, but only by a few seconds, because as soon as I could hear his voice, I knew he was talking about the adventures he had with his scholarly friend." http://www.sfsite.com/05b/fi344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT At heart, this is a straightforward thriller, the premise of which is a jobbing rock band, being stalked by a deranged sniper. The band are the Five, and they're portrayed as musicians, slogging away at their craft, but never quite getting the big break. Something starts going right, when a video for their latest song is commissioned. The problems begin when the video is broadcast as it gives the false impression that the band are disrespecting the US military in Iraq. The show is seen by one Jeremy Pett, a former US Marine sniper, now a dark shadow of his former self. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/sh344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Peter S. Beagle has a readily identifiable voice. It is weighed down with loss and regret; the voice of someone all too aware of the approach of death yet who regards it, if not with indifference, then with acceptance; it talks more easily about the past more than the future. And that voice is fully in evidence in this latest collection of stories. They are stories of memory, filled with sentiment that just occasionally slips over into sentimentality. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/df344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy was the beginning of a monster, and that monster spawned a second helping of stories under the guise of dark fantasy, in Subterranean Tales of Dark Fantasy 2. With some of the best known names in dark fantasy and horror, we get stories by Caitlin R. Kiernan, Bruce Sterling, Joe Hill, Kelley Armstrong, Glen Cook and William Browning Spencer. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/cd344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Editors of anthologies featuring only original stories have to make the best of the solicited or unsolicited submissions they receive and select what they think are the most accomplished contributions. On the other hand, when assembling reprint anthologies editors are free to include anything they deem to be suitable from the huge material already appeared in books and magazines. A great advantage indeed, especially when dealing with theme anthologies. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/hf344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Authors have been riffing off of Shakespeare just as Shakespeare himself lifted the plot of Hamlet off of Thomas Kyd. The trick to appropriating someone else's characters and story line, particularly those as canonical as Shakespeare is saying something beyond mere mimicry. Hamlet would be long since forgotten had not Will imbued an old (even for his time) Danish tale with personalities Harold Bloom famously termed "the invention of the human." http://www.sfsite.com/05b/jo344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Danny Shapiro's world is crashing down around him. His mother is slowly dying from heart disease. His father does not understand him. He is Jewish in the heavily Christian suburbs and as he gets older this is becoming much more of an issue. He cannot date the girl he wants to date because she is not Jewish and it would crush his already weak mother. His family is Jewish but does not attend services so Danny does not feel the comfort of ancient traditions. Danny is alienated, to say the least. His one and only outlet is his journal of his experiences with UFOs and UFO research. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/gr344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Galaxy Audio has taken 150 short stories written L. Ron Hubbard during the 30s through the 50s and turned them into a collection of audio pulp fiction. As you might imagine, many of these are science fiction, and each one has been re-imagined into two-hour audiobooks. This installment of the L. Ron Hubbard collection contains three stories that take a unique approach to science fiction story-telling -- "Greed," "Final Enemy" and "The Automagic Horse." http://www.sfsite.com/05b/bs344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 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/05b/gu344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT The cover image sets the tone for a somewhat darker collection this time. There seems to be a lot more poems (worthy of particular mention is Jim Pascual Agustin's "Sand Clings To Me Toes, Daddy" with its capturing of one of those moments in childhood that are both magical and sad, presaging the inevitable passage of time), the stories seem to be longer, and there are none of the short comics of the previous volume. As well as being longer, there seems to be a darker tone to these stories. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ft344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT There is a lot to enjoy with this collection. Starting when the reader first looks at the book, they will be surprised at how small the book is, and also how well designed it is. Her poetry and stories are about several fantasy creatures; elves, centaurs, fairies, and nymphs. There are some erotic ones though too. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming this time, we look at the latest from Terry Brooks, China Mieville, Mark Charan Newton, Cherie Priest, Harry Turtledove, several new Star Wars titles, plus a whole lot more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT With summer rapidly approaching and a large selection of goodies arriving in the Texas Nexus Graphica offices, Rick Klaw decided to forgo his usual monthly missives in favor of a column devoted to a handful of recent reads (and views). Next month, he'll return with a more traditionally Nexus Graphica-style piece. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/booknews344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's all happening on the Supernatural TV show at the moment with Season Six drawing to an exciting close and the news breaking this week that the show's seventh season has definitely been picked up by the CW network. But as the series goes into its usual summer break, we'll all be looking around for somewhere to get our Supernatural fix during the long lazy evenings. So why not try listening to music from Supernatural convention veteran Jason Manns or delve behind the scenes in Nicholas Knight's Official Companion books? http://www.sfsite.com/th344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT When a major high-brow director makes a movie based on a comic book, it does not usually turn out well: witness Ang Lee's Hulk and now Kenneth Branagh's Thor. Rick loves Branagh's Oscar-winning film of Shakespeare's Henry V. Thor, not so much. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT The first two weeks in May brought us the season finale of Fringe and the series finale of Smallville. The end of Smallville was worth watching. If you have not seen these episodes but plan to, stop reading now. http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ta344.htm Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT A lone traveler in a battered blue police box traveling through time and space, righting wrongs and keeping the universe safe. Doctor Who is an amazing show with a phenomenal 40-plus year history. But more than being the longest running and greatest resurrected television show ever, it's a reflection of the culture that created it. The writer captures the show's cultural importance with here, a critical study of the impact the show has had on British society and, through that, the world. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/th343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Although he died when he was only 42, Henry Kuttner, in the late 30s and 40s published, under a score of pen-names, hundreds of tales in the most famous pulp magazines (Weird Tales, Thrilling Mystery, Strange Stories, Spicy Mystery, Marvel Science Stories, etc). And the present collection, subtitled The Early Kuttner, includes forty stories and, mind you, is only the first volume. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ao343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT The magazine has, for a long time, borne the speculative fiction standard in Ireland. For a country with such a strong literary tradition, speculative fiction per se does not loom large in considerations of Irish literature. Of course, some of this is the same blend of snobbery and ignorance seen elsewhere, and some of this is due to the understandable but, as some think, rather tiresome preoccupation with exploring the same themes of "Irishness" again and again. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/sh343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT The novel sees The Raven having to survive a war that rages over their land as the mages of Balaia wage war on them in order to take their world for them by force. Ry Darrick has come back to his homeland to answer the charges laid against him for his past mistakes; treason, desertion and cowardice; accusations that are not normally associated with the warrior. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/pr343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT A hard-boiled detective novel, it is set in a future in which mankind has moved to new worlds far away from Earth and created any number of new technologies. But people still find themselves confronted by age-old problems that come from within humanity itself. In the end, despite all of the glitz of spaceships and high tech weaponry, this is really a book about freedom vs. tyranny, redemption, revenge, justice, and honor. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ch343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Dennis Guilder has known Arnie since they were little, and he was with Arnie the first day he saw Christine. Dennis, more than anyone, is aware of the unhealthy hold the car has on his friend, and has witnessed first-hand the changes Arnie has undergone. But Dennis knows a few things that even Arnie doesn't. He knows, for instance, how much Christine's first owner loved her, how he poured his heart and soul into the car, and how Christine was still the most important thing to him, even after his wife and daughter died in her. Dennis doesn't understand how, but he is convinced that the malign spirit of Roland D. LeBay still inhabits Christine, and that now, that spirit is beginning to take hold of Arnie. When the people that get in the way of Arnie, or Christine, begin to die, Dennis knows the car must be destroyed. He can only hope that it is not too late to save his friend. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/rk343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT A knight-for-hire whose lord is ambushed in a chapel during a diplomatic expedition in the hostile kingdom next door. The infant heir is the only other survivor of the ambush. Add in an unwed, potato-faced baker's daughter with her baby on her back. When these characters converge, so begins a tale of political intrigue, high adventure, blood feud and diabolical enchantment in a land of ancient enmities and shifting alliances. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/im343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT The schemes of Adryan, son of Elbryan and Jilseponie, are revealed in this installment of the series. Before his birth, Adryan was taken from Jilseponie's womb by Lady Dasselrond, a leader of the Tu'elafar elves, and raised as a ranger in hopes that he would save their land. It turns out that not letting the child or the mother know of each other's existence has stained Adryan's view on life. Leaving the elves, Adryan comes under the tutelage of the renegade monk De'Unnero, and plots to take the throne and conquer the world. Those that don't bow to him will be destroyed. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/ma343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 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/05a/am343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Jo Walton's latest novel is already being touted as one of the books of the year. Paul is not about to dissent from that opinion, except that what most critics have picked out for praise is one of the things that bothers him about the book, and what excites him about it hardly seems to have been noticed by other reviewers. http://www.sfsite.com/05a/gt343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT A Song of Ice and Fire began way back in 1996 with the publication of A Game of Thrones and here we are 15 years later and still just over half of this series has been published. When you compound that with the fact that this series was shaping up to be one of the greatest fantasy series ever written, it's easy to see why his readers were upset. However, when the news broke several years ago about a possible TV series... http://www.sfsite.com/books/new343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT We've been inundated with new books lately, including the latest from Eric Brown, Mark Chadbourn, Steven Erikson, Marie Jakober, Sarah Pinborough, Patrick Rothfuss, Catherynne M. Valente, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Civilization is a Faustian bargain. For every progressive step, individuals and societies pay some equal price. Farming allows us to feed large groups of people, but at the cost of settling populations to till the land, thus diminishing hunter-gatherers. Understanding the universe often means giving up our superstitions, forcing us to question our most basic religious beliefs. Circumventing this bargain poses the same problems as creating a perpetual motion machine. All of the schematics designed by the most earnest Da Vinci wannabe won't sidestep the first law of thermodynamics. But the dream persists. It fuels most science fiction, and has since the days of Victor Frankenstein. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT As the comics cognescenti you are, you've already read about Action Comics 900, that double-zero'd milestone of Super-ness which has made the rounds of "mainstream" news because Supes his own self appears be renouncing "truth, justice, and the American way," in favor of a more global perspective. Mark London Williams has a look at the furor raised over this nisunderstanding. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick343.htm Sun, 1 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT Fringe is better than Smallville, though Smallville used to be great when Al Gough and Miles Miller were writing it. Sanctuary is better than Fringe. But now Doctor Who is back. And Doctor Who is so much better than any other genre show on television that it makes Rick ashamed to have praised the others. Doctor Who is really good. As good as Firefly. As good as Babylon 5... 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.