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/02b/ip362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Keith Brooke's Infinity Plus -- its first incarnation being a repository of free online fiction from nearly every major writer in the field -- has been releasing ebook singles, which he compares to the 45 rpm music singles of yesteryear. Give it a try, he says, and you might decide to buy the album -- a larger collection or novel by the same. Great idea, that -- one worth exploring with stories by John Grant, Anna Tambour, Iain Rowan, Kit Reed, Lisa Tuttle and others. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/sn362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT If ever there was a man who was married to his job, it's Ankh-Morpork City Watch Commander Sam Vimes. There's only one thing that could get him to take a break from policing the dirty cobbles, as well as his own mismatched but proven police force, and that's an order, however gently worded, from his beloved wife, Lady Sybil Ramkin. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/dv362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Rather than stretch out an idea until it snaps, the author presents a tight, action packed tale of what his publishers term mobsters, mystery, magic and mayhem. The mobsters are a mixture of West Indian, Jewish, Irish and Italian immigrants, all competing -- often bloodily -- for a piece of the action in Harlem. The main contenders are Papa House and the Queen Bee, who are running rival gangs yet have very different ambitions. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ft362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Alex, who runs a magic shop in London, is a diviner, so he can see the results of his actions before he makes choices. If he needs to walk across a room without being seen, he can look ahead and judge the exact moment when someone will look the other way, so he can walk by, for example. Both the Light and Dark mages want to use Alex's talent to open an ancient artifact that has recently surfaced. Alex, an entity unto himself and with an attitude, has no interest in being used and normally he'd flee. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/he362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT 1991. It had been seventeen years since the first Star Wars film had graced the silver screen. Over time, its popularity had dimmed. The toys were no longer on the shelves and an entire generation had only experienced the trilogy on their TV screens. There were rumors of another trilogy, theories about what was going on at the fabled Skywalker Ranch, but these had become the stuff of legend, little believed by more than the hardcore Star Warrior. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/fc362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT This slim volume contains some fourteen short stories and a couple of poems on the connecting theme of interplanetary visitation. Mostly, Earth is visited by visitors from a planet you've never heard of before. They come and go in graceful silvery disks. Occasionally, it's the Earth folks who visit the aliens on their home worlds. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/ld362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT The novel opens with a strange man attacking Jamie, who has just left an exercise dance class. When he bites her, Jamie knocks him to the sidewalk where his head smacks the cement. She assumes she just killed a mugger. Her friend Kate thinks he's rapist. However, we readers know differently. When he gets back up, they take off in a van to go to a party. The party is full of booze, prescription drugs, and kinky sex during which Jamie awakens as a zombie. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/pr362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT YA is the new black. At least, within science fiction more and more authors are writing YA novels, and YA novels are attracting more and more attention within the genre. What is it that we say to a YA audience that we do not say to an adult audience, or vice versa? Judging from Ian McDonald's first venture into writing a YA novel, the answer seems to involve, perhaps unsurprisingly, complexity. But it is not simply that one form is more complex than the other. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/td362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Over one hundred and fifty years ago there was the Great War, which wiped out most of humanity, brought down all the old cities and technology, and eliminated just about all animal life. But humanity has struggled its way back to reclaim the land. In Middle America, life continues, farmers grow their crops and raise their stock, and try to make an honest living in the world. But there's a much darker side to all of it, beyond the new war between the Loyalists and the Rebels brewing in the West. This darkness goes to the root of all society and no one wants it uncovered. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil360.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Dervish House by Ian McDonald which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/books/new362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT New and forthcoming books this time include the latest from John Birmingham, Alan Dean Foster, Nancy Kress, Robert McCammon, John Meaney, Elizabeth Moon, Alastair Reynolds, and many more. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Nearly one hundred years ago, Edgar Rice Burroughs, under the nom de plume of Norman Bean, created the seminal planetary romance. "Under the Moons of Mars" from the February, 1912 All Story Magazine featured former Confederate Captain John Carter. Fleeing Apaches, Carter hides in a cave where he is overcome by fumes. He awakens on Mars, Barsoom to the natives. In the lighter gravity of the smaller planet, Carter achieves nearly superhuman accomplishments. He can leap extraordinary distances, his strength increases dramatically, and he develops telepathic abilities. Rick Klaw looks at the appearances of John Carter through the years. http://www.sfsite.com/02b/df362.htm Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Although David Farland/Dave Wolverton is a best-selling fantasy and SF writer known primarily for his novels, he also has a pair of story collections available in both audio and Kindle and other ebook formats. He's the kind of writer for readers who like a little style in their writing -- without overdoing it -- reminiscent in ways of Walter Jon Williams. Like Williams, style never gets in the way of story. Both want to pull you into and through the story. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/graphica361.htm Fri, 3 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT So as with his column about continuity -- which was engendered by a review of Stan Lee's how-to-write-comics book last year -- Mark London Williams is embarking on another of his "meta" discussions about comics, as he tries to figure what makes them tick as a medium, and how they're changing. This is kind of a two-fer, like one of those Ace paperbacks with back-to-back covers on each side (except, of course, those were prose and we're discussing the four-color panel). http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil360.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Here we are again, offering you your annual chance to let the world know what you thought was the best of all the speculative reading material you encountered from the past year. If you've been a regular visitor to the SF Site for more than a couple of years, you are quite probably already familiar with this annual event. If you're new to us, all you need to know is that we want to hear what you believe was the very best of what you read from the past year. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best Read of the Year including The Dervish House by Ian McDonald which was the top choice last year. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/nh361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Now in its 22nd year, this anthology remains one of the few opportunities, for those unfamiliar with the secrets of the genre magazines and of the small, specialized press, to enjoy some good horror fiction through the mass market channels, available even at the local bookstore. For those who follow more closely the labyrinthine ways of horror fiction, the annual compilation always provides material which somehow had escaped their attention. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/rc361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT In this adventure, Jane starts out as a bodyguard to the envoy that Leo Pellissier has sent to Asheville for a parlay with a North Carolina vampire who seeks to become master of his own city. A fanged attack on campers quickly turns Jane into an investigator, facing enemies, both recognized and unrecognized, from her past. As usual, her mouth gets her in trouble on numerous occasions. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/cc361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the second of A Land Fit for Heroes series, our story involves Ringil's efforts against slave traders and the rescue of one of its victims from a fate that goes beyond indentured servitude. Meanwhile, the paths of three former comrades who fought together in the Dragon wars -- Ringil, Egar the Dragonbane and Arceth Indamaninarmal -- begin to intersect towards a quest to find a mythical island that shares existence with the Grey Places that may be a bulwark against a threat to civilization. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/hb361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT The craft of writing short stories is a very different skill to that of a novelist, and being able to accomplish one is never a guarantee that the other will be its equal. In this case, however, X. Trevelyan manages to produce something that has charm, style, and just enough substance to create its own micro-world. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/em361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Claire Havilland is an acclaimed actress, perhaps just a bit past her prime. Her agent inveigles her into an interview with the niece of the Grand Marshal of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade -- said niece is a huge fan of Claire and a bit stagestruck. The kicker is that the Grand Marshal is a famous roboticist, Dr. Oakes -- and his "niece" is a robot -- or "artificial," which is the polite word. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/rs361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT James Barclay has created two series of books thus far, The Chronicles of the Raven and The Legends of the Raven, but essentially "The Raven" books are one long series of overlapping stand-alone adventures. Of course, there is some carry-over between books, but in a pinch you can probably pick any one of them up and not be lost in the storyline at all. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/pdf361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT "I used to plot things out in much more detail than I do now. Of course, I was never someone like Poul Anderson or Hal Clement who created immense binders of background info and character sheets for their projects. But I still used to have step-by-step breakdowns for plots. Now I'm much more looser and organic. I usually know beginnings and endings (mostly), and a few select key high points in between. But the passage from step stone to stepstone is Brownian motion." http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ab361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Stories with a similar motif or concept tend to rub off on one another when gathered in one place, often conferring more power to each. In rock, these would be the concept albums of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters where, even if there were a weak song or two, you don't mind because they cohere well together as a whole. In the genre, similar strength came when Isaac Asimov collected his robot stories or Fred Saberhagen his alien, killing machines -- the Berserkers. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ju361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT Rich has long characterized it as a distinctly old-fashioned magazine. By this he refers to both its focus on pretty much pure science fiction, but also its fondness for tropes and plots that hearken back to the 50s through 70s, more or less. This isn't of necessity a bad thing -- indeed it's nice to have a magazine or two that provides a home for such stuff. Still, there is a burden on such stories to make the old new -- otherwise, why bother? http://www.sfsite.com/columns/derek361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT The future used to be a destination. It used to be The Future. And like a Zeno paradox, the closer we got to it, the more unattainable The Future seemed... until we realized that the destination had been demolished, the hundred-story skyscrapers of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and the pristine courtyards of William Cameron Menzies's Things to Come are now a never-ending string of strip malls selling cheap cell phones and tax advice. http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT The Doctor Who Christmas Special was the best sf Rick has seen on tv this year, and is a likely winner of the 2011 best sf drama Hugo, short form. While he's waiting for something else good to show up on television, he as been watching all the old good movies in chronological order, starting with Elmo Lincoln in Tarzan of the Apes. He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in February. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/lm361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT In the middle an atomic war (pre-ICBMs) waged by fleets of bombers directed by a Soviet and a Western EMSIAC, Dr. Martine, a neurosurgeon in an airborne MASH plane, has had enough of the murderous madness. He steals an aircraft and, defying the computer, flies to a south Pacific island where he holes up for eighteen years, performing lobotomies on the locals, who have a tradition of skull-boring each other to control aggression. http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ls361.htm Wed, 1 Feb 2012 11:00:00 GMT This is Robert Silverberg tuning into his melodic voice to retell the myths surrounding this character. Those familiar with Greek myth can anticipate Orpheus' dive into Hades to retrieve his beautiful Eurydice, as well as his part in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The story opens with the typical Greek bard's calling upon the Muse. Also, it establishes some of the themes to be visited throughout. 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.