SF SiteThe new issue of the SF Site is now online.The End of Science Fiction by Sam Smith- December 16, 2007 We meet Detective Inspector Herbie Watkins, who has been called out to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman in central London. At the same time it becomes common knowledge that the end of the world is nigh -- six days nigh, in fact -- and not merely the world: the entire universe has been discovered to have played something of a cosmic trick upon us and is collapsing at breakneck speed back into a Big Crunch. Hearing the news, Watkins carries on with his job as a policeman, spending...http://www.sfsite.com/12b/es262.htm Chessie Bligh and the Scroll of Andelthor by Thora Gabriel- December 16, 2007 Chessie Bligh, a neglected 14 year-old American girl, is sent to a foreign boarding school accompanied by her only friend, a puppy named Wuggbert. Seeking to defy the social climbing aspirations of her uncaring, wealthy parents, Chessie switches places with Aelyn, a physically similar girl she happens to meet while changing aircraft in New York. Thus does Chessie find herself at Die Sterntaler. The school turns out to be an elf encampment at the rim of the Grand Canyon, hidden from human sight..http://www.sfsite.com/12b/cb262.htm The Nail and the Oracle by Theodore Sturgeon- December 16, 2007 It is now generally accepted as a truism that Theodore Sturgeon was the best short story writer to emerge from science fiction. Perhaps even, so a lot of his advocates would claim, one of the best short story writers in American literature. It's a big claim. But it is not always supported by the evidence.http://www.sfsite.com/12b/na262.htm The Golden Compass: a movie review by Rick Norwood- December 16, 2007 The Golden Compass is one of the most beautiful and original fantasy films of all time. Sadly, the call for a boycott by the Catholic League of Decency caused the money men to order a short film, an hour and fifty-three minutes. Only about half the book made it to the screen, but everything there is opulent and intelligently crafted.http://www.sfsite.com/12b/gc262.htm The Broken Kings by Robert Holdstock- December 16, 2007 While most people associate Merlin with the legends of King Arthur, the author has been examining the magician's history and ties to Jason, Captain of the Argo, in the Merlin Codex trilogy, which culminates with The Broken Kings. Located now in Alba, the land that would be Britain, Merlin finds himself facing the conflict between King Urtha of the Cornovidi and his children, Kymon and Munda.http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bk262.htm The Blue-Haired Bombshell by John Zakour- December 16, 2007 Zachary Nixon Johnson, the last freelance PI on Earth in the late 21st Century, is having a typical Tuesday. You know, attacked by killer plants, nearly killed by traffic while rescuing a heiress's dog, stalked by an ad agency, menaced by genetically-engineered ogres... the usual. And then things get weird. And dangerous.http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bb262.htm Spider-Man the Icon by Steve Saffel- December 16, 2007 Even if you've never read a comic book or seen any of the Sam Raimi films, you know who Spider-Man is, the iconic super hero Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created in 1962. The author, however, has not only read Spider-Man comics and seen the films, he has dedicated a significant amount of time to the webslinger and the various products that have been tied in to the character over the last 45 years.http://www.sfsite.com/12b/sm262.htm Overlooked or Over-hyped -- a column by Neil Walsh- December 16, 2007 This time Neil take a look at a relatively recent work which may not yet have entered the annals of "classic" speculative fiction, although it did receive something of an instant cult following and, later, a moderately massive amount of hype. But even as it began to take the bookstores by storm, it didn't capture any major awards. So is it a classic Or is it overlooked And who really wrote the works of William Shakespearehttp://www.sfsite.com/columns/over262.htm The Dog Said Bow-Wow by Michael Swanwick- December 16, 2007 There are two types of story. But it isn't as straightforward as the difference between realist and fantastic or between genre and mainstream. No, the two types of story are those that want you to be aware they are story, and those that don't. The difference between these two types is not in the telling, but in where the telling is intended to take us. Immersive stories mean to tell us something about the world by way of the characters, setting, plot we encounter in the story. Framed narratives.http://www.sfsite.com/12b/bw262.htm Land Of The Headless by Adam Roberts- December 16, 2007 This book is written as the first-person retrospective memoir of Jon Cavala, a poet of moderate success who, within the space of the first few pages, is beheaded for the crime of rape. Straight away, we are into the territory of words not meaning exactly what we expect them to mean. Cavala lives on Pluse, which is one of many "Planets of The Book" -- planets colonised by dogmatic religious sects fleeing what they saw as the decadent liberal decline of Earth for new worlds where they could...http://www.sfsite.com/12b/lh262.htm |