SF SiteThe new issue of the SF Site is now online.The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: by Volume -- compiled by Rodger Turner- November 16, 2007 In 1988, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling collected together what they thought was the best short fantasy and horror from the previous year. They went through as many of the magazines, collections and anthologies published in 1987 that they could find and chose those stories which they decided best represented the fantasy and horror field. Jim Frenkel arranged for its publication by St. Martins's Press and it has been produced every year since then. In 2003, Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant took...http://www.sfsite.com/lists/yb-fh-volume01.htm Overlooked or Over-hyped -- a column by Neil Walsh- November 16, 2007 Neil wonders whether anyone is reading his column. But he has decided to give it another try with Slan by A.E. Van Vogt, in which a young man who is more than human takes on pretty much the whole world as he quests for others (or even one other) like himself, and A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright, in which a dying man takes a time machine to the future in hope of finding a cure for himself and a way to go back to the past to cure his now dead former lover, and he leaves a manuscript behind..http://www.sfsite.com/columns/over260.htm One For Sorrow by Christopher Barzak- November 16, 2007 Adam McCormick has run away from home. While hiding out at the home of his girlfriend he takes a novel off the shelf to read. It, too, tells the story of a runaway, but a whiny, preppy kid that Adam feels doesn't have it too bad. After all, nobody knows he has run away, and nobody's after him. His only companion is the ghost of Jamie Marks.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/os260.htm River Horses by Allen Steele- November 16, 2007 On a frontier world, like Coyote, banishment can be a death penalty. Two ruffians, Marie Montero and her lover, Lars Thompson find themselves exiled from their community after they can't make the transition from Rebellion to peacetime. Rather than a permanent exile, however, they are tasked with exploring the planet, still widely unknown, and reporting back via radio every couple of days. To increase their chance of survival, a savant, Manuel Castro, is sent along with them.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/rh260.htm Ratatouille: a DVD review by Rick Klaw- November 16, 2007 Set in Paris, the story revolves around Remy, a rat gourmet with a hyper-sensitive palate, who uses his enhanced sense and cooking skills to help Linguini, a young dishwasher who accidentally becomes a chef at the famous Parisian restaurant Gusteau's, founded by the eponymous late chef. Chef Gusteau's former assistant Skinner now manages the formerly five-star bistro and even uses the legendary chef's persona to sell a line of decidedly down-scale frozen dinners.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/ra260.htm Cynnador by Patrick Welch- November 16, 2007 What's so unusual about this book then For a start, although it takes place in one of high fantasy's traditional settings -- a mercantile city in desert lands -- the story is complete in a single volume of under 200 pages, which is pretty rare in itself these days. More than that, the structure is unusual: the first 40 pages comprise a prologue and thirteen "preludes" before the main story starts.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/cy260.htm The Spiral Labyrinth by Matthew Hughes- November 16, 2007 Henghis Hapthorn is approached by a wealthy socialite with what appears to be a straightforward case: her husband has vanished after buying a small spaceship. Establishing that the spouse was not involved in hanky-panky, Hapthorn investigates further, to discover that several others who had considered buying the vessel also disappeared. He takes on a guise as a buyer himself -- to be captured by a super-intelligent fungus that leeches personality, experience, and knowledge from its victims.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/sl260.htm The Da-Da-De-Da-Da Code by Robert Rankin- November 16, 2007 Jonny Hooker is a 27 year-old musician who is accompanied, in a metaphysical sense, by an imaginary monkey boy called Mr Giggles. Nobody else can see or hear Mr Giggles, but that does not mean he isn't there. Soon after the story begins, Jonny is found dead in the pond of Gunnersbury Park. Minus his head, which appears to have exploded.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/da260.htm A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle- November 16, 2007 As the story opens, a talking raven arrives in a cemetery in the Bronx, New York to deliver a stolen baloney to a man who has been living in the cemetery for the past 19 years. Mr. Rebeck. Shortly he meets Mrs. Klapper who is here to visit the grave of her husband, Morris. The cast of major characters is filled out by a couple of ghosts, each of whom we meet on the occasion of his or her funeral.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/fp260.htm Kris Longknife: Audacious by Mike Shepherd- November 16, 2007 Naval lieutenant Kristine Longknife, Princess of Wardhaven, is in dire need of a vacation, after the way things have gone for her over the past few months. Thusly, she packs her bags and her entourage, and hies off to the planet of New Eden, where she hopes things will stay quiet for the time being, while she (reluctantly) fulfills various diplomatic and military obligations. The first assassination attempt suggests that things aren't going to be quiet.http://www.sfsite.com/11b/kl260.htm |