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/kb348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT In more ways than one, the author has zipped up his boots and gone back to his roots. There are plenty of references, some subtle some a slap across the chops, to past fan favourites. Parallels, both natural feeling and a little forced, are drawn with favourite plot lines and vintage characters. There is a deliberate sense of history repeating in terms of what these characters are doing, but Feist neatly sidesteps the trap of writing them as if they were no more than alternate takes. http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-sf-volume07.htm#28 Sat, 16 Jul 2011 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 28 has been added to the lists compiled by author, by title and by volume. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/ds348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Python Isle is a small, uncharted island somewhere between Australia and Africa. Its inhabitants are the direct descendants of King Solomon, trapped here for many centuries, and effectively cut off from the world by the savage storms which encircle the island. Here they remain, faithfully guarding Solomon's vast treasure. It was only a matter of time before their peaceful existence was disturbed. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/gm348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's tough being a teenager. It's even tougher being an unappreciated alien living on Earth. And when, like J!m, you're both of these things at the same time, there's enough adolescent angst to nuke the planet. In fact, nuking the planet is exactly what humanity did years earlier in order to defeat an alien invasion led by J!m's father. Now, J!m and his mother live in a run-down section of town and try not to attract attention. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/cc348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT While a lot of, if not most, science fiction has to do with the interplay between culture and technology, A Civil Campaign uses that interplay in service of a romance -- or, as the subtitle puts it, "a comedy of biology and manners." In this case, the manners come in the form of Barrayaran society, which is still clinging to the feudal government and rigid sex roles that it developed during the Time of Isolation. The biology comes primarily in the form of galactic uterine replicators. However, now that this generation of sons has grown up, they're suddenly feeling the dearth of marriageable women rather sharply. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/lj348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT In Jupiter, Bova introduced Grant Archer, a researcher that made fleeting contact with gigantic creatures (some are several kilometers wide) that live extremely deep in the oceans of Jupiter. Now, 20 years later, Archer is in charge of Jupiter's research station and he is determined to prove that those Leviathans are intelligent. He assembles a team of experts and the book follows those experts as they get to know one another and as they determine how they can best meet and interact with an utterly alien life form that may or may not be intelligent. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/et348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 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/07b/bd348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 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/07b/ao348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's an insider's book not just because of the myriad references to such iconic figures as Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein and, big daddy of them all, but perhaps not nearly as hip as it once was since the Peter Jackson cinematic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. More importantly, it's the evocation of how you felt as a teenager in first discovering authors whose extraterrestrial or otherwise fantastical settings somehow seem to be speaking directly to your awkward, too-smart-for-your-own-good, virginal kid self. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT In the 50s the duo of Charles and Ira Louvin were the hottest thing going. With their countrified brand of gospel music, the brothers sang of fire, brimstone, and Satan. One of their biggest hits, the 1952 "Broadminded," told us that the Bible taught that broadminded is really spelled S-I-N. They talk about how things must remain how they are. That drinking and dancing are wrong. All this brings to Rick Klaw's mind the reaction of many SF fans to graphic novels. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Canadian postal workers were legislated back to work (boo!) so the mail is flowing again (yay!) bringing to the SF Site doorstep the latest from Lisa Goldstein, Jacqueline Carey, Holly Black, Timothy Zahn, Daryl Gregory, Fiona McIntosh, Harry Turtledove, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/tf348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT There is quite a good movie hiding inside the over-loud, over-long third film in the most recent incarnation of the venerable Transformers. It's likely that you have limited interest in watching two almost indistinguishable robots pound each other, and the plot contrivances that allow puny humans to determine the outcome of the battle become increasingly strained. But there are any number of small moments that make the film a joy. http://www.sfsite.com/07b/vm348.htm Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Our visions of Mars are subtle and complex, and have changed repeatedly over the years. It is, after all, not just a close neighbour but also the planet about which we have been able to learn most, there is a familiarity to Mars that cannot really be said about anywhere else in the solar system other than the moon. There is also something tantalizing about the place. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ts347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT It's a dark time for the denizens of Orkney Farm, where a rogue mylodon has snatched the venerable Foud, Mr. Magnus Trefoil, out of his study. Now the giant beast has returned, sniffing around the bedroom windows of the late Foud's little daughter Mary. Telltales in the coffee room of the Hop Toad attribute this ill fortune to Trefoil's recent unearthing of a cache of mystical items belonging to his late ancestress Tronda Quickensbog, a sorceress of legendary repute. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/bw347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 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/07a/th347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Tom Harris has the form of a detective story, one that consistently throws the reader off kilter, does not allow complacency or certainty, yet a detective story nevertheless. A detective thriller, even. A detective story that suddenly breaks down, for this is a book of two halves, the second very different from the first. Some questions are answered but most aren't. This is no classic whodunnit, partly because we don't quite know whatwozit in the first place. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ft347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Still a rarity in fiction writing, science fiction meets the Wild West results in a wealth of time travel and steampunk adventures. In this issue of the magazine, we find nine tales in this rather well-presented glossy magazine that is really a book by the looks of it. It features works by C.J. Killmer, Laura Givens, David Lee Summers, Raymond Broadbeard and Lee Clark Zumpe. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/cd347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Imagine a world where books are valued -- not like we appreciate books in our society, but really valued. A place where authors are celebrities, first editions are coveted, people memorize and recite famous excerpts, and even crimes are committed over rare books. This is the world of Zamonia, a mythical lost continent. The story features an unlikely hero, Optimus Yarnspinner, a naive dinosaur-like creature from Lindworm Castle, a self-proclaimed author who has yet to be published. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/od347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT The story begins with an alien survey of Earth in the year 1415. The aliens are exploring and documenting all habitable planets and rate all inhabited planets on a technology scale. They find the Earth of 1415 backward technologically but decide to watch some military action in Europe. What they witness is the Battle of Agincourt between Henry V's England and France -- some of the fiercest fighting of the Hundred Years War and the site of horrific slaughter. The aliens that witness this slaughter are horrified. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/tt347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT There is a weapon that can change the course of the war against the Kurians. Captain David Valentine doesn't know what it is, or exactly where he can find it, but he does know that if he can get to Haiti with a large enough ship, he can meet up with a man called Papa Legba who can show him the way. To that end, he goes undercover for a year as a Coastal Marine in the Kurian Zone, getting promotion after promotion as his own worst enemy. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/tk347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT While walking through the wooded acreage of her Haven, Maine home, novelist Bobbie Anderson stumbles across something very interesting -- literally. After picking herself up off the ground, Bobbie looks back to see a thin piece of metal jutting out of the soil. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Bobbie begins to dig, in spite of the strenuous protests of her faithful dog, Pete. Bobbie doesn't know it yet, but she is about to unearth something never before seen on this world. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ko347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT For Miles's first assignment as an official Imperial Auditor, he is sent to investigate the crash of a space freighter into the Komarran Soletta Array -- a giant mirrored satellite that provides much of the light and heat needed to make Komarr habitable. Not to investigate the mechanics of the crash itself -- that much falls to Lord Auditor Vorthys, an engineering specialist -- but to probe the political currents that eddy around the incident. Miles is normally right at home in the waters of politics and intrigue. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/bg347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Black Gate first appeared in print as a quarterly zine. That idea evolved over fifteen issues to the present form, a book-length anthology that comes out when it comes out. The previous issue, at nearly 400 pages, was so successful that the decision was made to stay at that length. For the amount, the price is quite reasonable, and the online subscription is half that. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Mark London Williams is away so guest columnist Cullen Bunn stepped in to tell us that one of the perks of writing a comic book series like The Sixth Gun is that he gets to read (and re-read) a bunch of favorite Weird Western comics, short stories, and novels and watch (and re-watch) favorite Weird Western movies and TV shows. This, as they say in the biz (at least in his little corner of the biz) is research. Even when it's not research, it's inspiration. (One of the toughest battles any writer will face is convincing his or her loved ones that -- no, really -- watching that movie trilogy all afternoon is work!) http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Derek went to see Chariots of Fire at the Fox Theater in Austin in 1982. He tried to see Academy Award winners whenever they were playing. The preview that played before the movie began was for the major Harrison Ford release that summer, Blade Runner. Derek cannot remember a single scene from the movie, but he can tell you, almost shot for shot, nearly thirty years later, exactly what happened in that preview. He remembers walking out of the theater babbling about it, and how it was like nothing he'd ever seen. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/ca347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT The pilot episode begins with the poisoning of Uther Pendragon at the hands of his daughter Morgan Pendragon. Merlin gets Uther to sign over the succession of his kingship to his bastard son Arthur who has been kept hidden away and his identity unknown, even to himself, until Merlin shows up to gather Arthur up to take the throne and repair the now crumbling monarchy. In subsequent episodes Arthur establishes his court by gathering his knights and rebuilding the ancient fallen Roman stronghold known as Camelot while Morgan continues to plot for the throne using her dark powers. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT Falling Skies is the best new science fiction tv show since 2009's Defying Gravity, which was also a Summer series. Defying Gravity was cancelled half-way through its first season. Rick hopes Falling Skies has a longer run. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/gl347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT The Green Lantern movie isn't as bad as Rick had feared. He particularly liked the first face-to-face meeting between Green Lantern and Carol Ferris, where something happens that he has wanted to see happen for years. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/lp347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT The book starts somewhat deceptively with an image straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare. Yamesh-Lot seems to be a cross between an evil demon and a malevolent god, summoning up the dead to create an army of terrifying reanimated corpses. A little Lovecraft with a touch of George Romero? The author doesn't stay in the supernatural horror mode for long, though. http://www.sfsite.com/07a/jj347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 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/07a/et347.htm Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:00:00 GMT The author is a man with much to say about the truth surrounding aliens and whether they exist. He starts the first chapter with the reason for this book, being his own encounter with aliens he describes as an actual close encounter as he felt nauseous at being in the craft itself. The fact there are a great deal of chapters in this novel means he has a lot of newly discovered information on aliens to back up what might be conceived as bizarre claims. 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.