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/10b/wo354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Webmind, the world's first true artificial intelligence, has finally revealed himself to humanity, sparking a firestorm of controversy and mixed reactions. Despite ingratiating himself by all but eliminating spam, he's already survived one attempt on his "life" and fears a repeat. Now he must convince his "creators" that he comes in peace, winning over a world conditioned to expect the worst of artificial intelligences who can break any encryption, invade any database, and learn any secret. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/ls354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT The collection has a range and sense of controlled exuberance. There is a disregard for easy genre categorisations. For instance, the title story is pretty much a mainstream literary piece about a lady with an eidetic memory, while the immediately following "Ever Seen By Waking Eyes" is a vampiric twist on Lewis Carroll's much-analysed and much-debated interest in young girls. Two very different "genres," yet both have the same tone and emotional impact. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/jp354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT This is very much a book of two halves, being two books in one connected only by basic theme. When one title is read, flip it over and start a whole new story from the other side. Halves come into play with the lead character of Judas Payne who is the product of rape by the Devil, and is half-white half-native American, who is in love with his half-sister, Evangeline. Flip the book over, and there's Webb's Weird Western Tales of Horror by Don Webb. This is a small collection of twelve unconnected tales, all with weird twists. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/fj354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Things seem to finally be going well for the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance. With the appointment of an interim Chief, the removal of Natasi Daala, the return of Luke Skywalker and the apparent disappearance of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, events seem to be favoring the Light Side of the Force. Or so you might believe with the eighth book in the Fate of the Jedi Expanded Universe series. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/bs354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT This issue has to be read to be believed, Peter Tennant's column being the best, Ray Cluley and Maura McHugh's stories captivate, and Mike O Driscoll's argument on genre fiction makes it a very enjoyable magazine that's well worth getting your hands on. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/di354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Miles and Ekaterin Vorkosigan deferred their honeymoon for a year after their wedding, but they've spent several months touring the nexus while their first children gestate in uterine replicators back on Barrayar. They're on their way home to be present for the birth when Miles's duties as Imperial Auditor intervene, and they are diverted to Graf Station to handle a budding diplomatic disaster. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/li354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Talk about a young hero coming up from reduced circumstances. Jamie O'Neill, at age 13, has lost his left arm and his voice as a result of a bout with bone cancer. The arm was amputated in order to provide a supply of healthy bone marrow to replace the diseased tissue and save his life, but Jamie was not consulted. He finds himself and his mother Anna living in a decrepit uptown tenement in New York City, not really making ends meet. Until one day Anna receives a letter revealing that a distant relative has died and left her the sole heir to a small island and a lighthouse off the coast of Northern Ireland. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/dd354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Westeros is a ravaged and war torn kingdom. House Lannister still controls King's Landing under Tommen's rule although it is tenuous at best. The Lannisters have earned themselves many enemies throughout the seven kingdoms and just about all of them are contending for the Iron Throne so the plotting, scheming and backstabbing are in full force. In the far north, Jon Snow has been promoted to Lord Commander of the Night Watch. He not only has to deal with the massive army of Wildings at his doorstep, but winter is coming. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT A unique melding of Frank Herbert's Dune, Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Michael Moorcock's The Dancers At The End of Time, A.E. Van Vogt's bizzaro, golden age space operas, and the Greek tragedies, The Saga of the Meta-barons (simply know as The Metabarons in the US) explores the multi-generational lineage of the universe's ultimate warriors. Originally introduced in May 1981 as a supporting player early on in Alexandro Jodorowsky and Moebius classic Incal series, the Metabaron played a prominent role throughout. Rick Klaw has a look at the first series of four graphic novels. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT This time we're looking at new works from Neal Stephenson, Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan, Charlaine Harris, Richard K. Morgan, anthologies of new horror in time for Halloween, and plenty more! http://www.sfsite.com/10b/no354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT The novel joins other notable society-wide apocalyptic fictions such as Stephen King's The Stand, Jose Saramago's Blindness, and Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: apokalypsis in medias res. Rather than give us the aftermath of catastrophe, we are thrust face-first into its genesis and immediate consequences. The effect is like the collision with an undivertable freight train, as society as we know it very quickly degrades into cataclysmic collapse. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/rh354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT When Robert Holdstock died, late in 2009, he left behind a body of acclaimed work that effectively constituted a paradigm shift in how we regard fantasy. But there was no equivalent body of critical work that his significance in the genre should warrant. This volume is a first step towards filling that gap. But only a first, and at times rather tentative, step. http://www.sfsite.com/10b/rd354.htm Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Red Dwarf. The Dwarf. The Boys From the Dwarf. Smeg Head. Kryten. Smeeeeg Head. Rasta Billy Skank. Holograms. SF trope rip-offs. Hell, every-decent-SF-movie-ever-made rip-offs!! And yes, that sentence does qualify a double exclamation in the best tradition of some seedy teen mag. Red Dwarf, then. Where to begin? http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica353.htm Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Mark London Williams has written about his life here as a middle-aged single dad. His readers's tolerance for the use of that "material" here is appreciated, by the way, but increasingly, he has become aware of how this affects his life as a comics-reader -- and an ostensible reviewer. So with DC working on new back stories now, he has been reading the new Animal Man, the Demon relaunch, the new Swamp Thing (his eldest became a huge fan after reading his collected Alan Moore editions) and the surprising Aquaman. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/sh353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Owen Adamo, a former Chief Sergeant of the Dragon Corps,now a professor of strategy at the university of Volstov, learns that Esar, the ruler of the capital, has a covert agenda to bring back magically powered sentient robot dragons, despite the likelihood of this action starting a new war. Adamo's confederates, the gay magician Royston, and the former corpsman, Balfour, would like to stop Esar's risky ambitions, but have to watch their step. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/al353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT The book takes place in the same world as the Mistborn Trilogy, but this time the story is about 300 years into the future. Guns, railroads and skyscrapers exist and electricity is just becoming commonplace. Kelsier, Vin and the rest of the gang have long since faded into the mists. As far as the plot goes, it has echoes of an old Sherlock Holmes novel and the author has created his own allomantic version of Holmes and Watson with Waxillium and Wayne, our two protagonists. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/fk353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT In recent years, Keith Brooke has been writing superior science fiction and fantasy novels such as Genotopia, The Accord and The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie. His considerable skills were first honed writing juvenile novels and short science fiction in the late 80s and 90s. Faking It collects nine of those short SF stories (including one never before published), all of which are set in a common near future. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/sc353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Every few years, international science fiction appears to be spotlighted by an American editor, whether it is the excellent SFWA European Hall of Fame edited by James and Kathryn Morrow in 2007 or Tales from Planet Earth edited by Frederik Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull twenty years earlier. Here we have Sky City, with stories selected by Carl-Eddy Skovgaard and published by Science Fiction Cirklen, an anthology of Danish Science Fiction originally published in 2007 and 2008 with new translations into English. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/gm353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT At first glance, the little village of Claysville may appear to be just like any other middle American town of its size: families grow and blend, and everybody knows one another and pitches in when someone needs help. If it seems that the Claysville way of life is somewhat sheltered or removed from the hustle and bustle of contemporary American life -- well, that's to be expected in any small country town, even in the 21st century. But there are certain laws in Claysville, both the official kind and ones that go mostly unspoken. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/gl353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT This non-stop military techno-adventure is set in the middle of a war in Central Asia in the 22nd century. Russia and the United States are fighting over the resources of Kazakhstan. It turns out that the country is rich in rare metals that are needed for the 22nd century's technological devices. They have to be mined deep in the mountains of Kazakhstan and the mines, countryside, little villages and cities of Central Asia become battlefields. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ra353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Imagine a future not so far away and not so fantastic, where humans are so dependant on robots that we hardly give them a second thought. They're in our homes, cars, phones, and work places. They clean out house, cook out food and take care of the dangerous and tedious work we don't want to do. And what would happen if they all turned against us? http://www.sfsite.com/10a/af353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Sirintha Jax saved the human race from the horrifying menace of the flesh-eating Morgut, but only by crippling interstellar travel for everyone. Worse, she may have stopped most of the Morgut, but a few ships still slip through, enough to devastate the planet of New Venice and kill several of her friends, a cost for which she'll never forgive herself. In the wake of her actions, it's time to pay the piper, and so Jax embarks upon a new phase of her life: war criminal and traitor. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/pkd353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT The second volume of this new edition of the collected stories of Philip K. Dick contains some 26 stories from the early period of his career. Written in 1952 and 1953, they represent an astonishing outpouring of talent. This kind of productivity was by no means unique for scriveners of the period. Writers working for the last of the pulps and newly burgeoning digest fiction magazines, especially those mired in low-end markets, had to produce at a frantic pace if they hoped to earn even a marginal living at their craft. The alternative was to keep a day job and write in stolen moments. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Recently, Derek attended a podcast on the "essential" science fiction films. What should every fan see? What are the linchpins of the genre? He served with a distinguished panel, and everybody mentioned so many different titles that after the discussion the moderator suggested the possibility of extending the topic. For example, could we name the worst science fiction movies? How about the best hard sf movies? What about science fiction movies from other countries? Maybe science fiction anime? Blends of science fiction and noir? He lost count but... http://www.sfsite.com/books/new353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Latest arrivals to the SF Site office include new and forthcoming works from James Barclay, David Drake, Greg Keyes, James Lovegrove, Justina Robson, and many others. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Rick enjoyed the first fifteen minutes. The rest not so much. He was bored by the rebellious teen. The pretty girl who knows science and the adorable pre-teen were OK. None of the dialogue sounds like anything a human being might say in similar circumstances. But characterization is not what people tuned in to Terra Nova to see. As well, Rick gives us a list of what SF is on TV in October. http://www.sfsite.com/10a/ll353.htm Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT Rosalinda Fitzroy wakes up from 62 years of chemically-induced stasis in a forgotten subbasement to a kiss. Normally, her mother wakes her up from stasis to a champagne brunch and a warm welcome, so her awakening is as jarring as the world which has self-destructed and put itself back together in the time she's been gone. She may have lived for over 100 years, but she's still a 16-year-old girl, frightened, knowing no one and recognizing little from the time she left behind. 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.