SF SiteThe new issue of the SF Site is now online.Dispatches From Smaragdine: February 2008 -- a column by Jeff VanderMeer- February 15, 2008 In Smaragdine, all of the major newspapers and websites have posted their lists of the best books and stories published in the country over the past year. This it is time for writers not included on these lists host elaborate parties at which they are expected to pretend to cry and to seek comfort from their friends. Usually, though, it's all in aid of promoting their next project. Jeff takes time out to talk to Gregory Frost, author of Fitcher's Brides and his newly released Shadowbridge.http://www.sfsite.com/columns/jeff266.htm Star Wars: Death Star by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry- February 1, 2008 It is the most destructive battle station ever to threaten the Star Wars Universe. The Death Star's name says it all. A weapon of unimaginable proportion that can destroy entire planets in an instant. How could anything stand against such a construct But how did this monstrosity come to be And what of those that helped build ithttp://www.sfsite.com/02a/ds265.htm Jupiter, Issue 18- February 1, 2008 This is an SF magazine -- SF as in Science Fiction -- based in the UK. The magazine's appearance is modest: A-size sheets folded in half and saddle-stapled, black and white cover and no interior illustrations. But that's really not a drawback -- the presentation is very clean, the font nicely chosen and nicely sized. The focus is heavily on fiction -- there are five stories, plus one poem and one brief book review.http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ju265.htm Babylon 5.1: TV reviews by Rick Norwood- February 1, 2008 Rick offers his thoughts on where the strike by writers stands and what may happen before it ends. He also gives us a list of SF on TV in February.http://www.sfsite.com/columns/rick265.htm Precious Dragon by Liz Williams- February 1, 2008 The book opens slowly and somewhat confusingly, as the auhtor has to set three or four parallel story-trains into motion. Unlike the first two D.I. Chen books, you definitely shouldn't start here. Even readers who've read the first two book may be doing a bit of head-scratching (and toe-tapping) until she gets all her balls into the air. But then -- wow!http://www.sfsite.com/02a/pd265.htm Thief With No Shadow by Emily Gee- February 1, 2008 Driven by the need to ransom her brother back from a vicious group of inhuman creatures known as salamanders, Melke steals a necklace whose value is greater than she could ever have imagined, for it's actually the key to breaking a deadly curse laid upon the sal Vere family. Caught between honor and desperation, Melke makes a deal with Bastion sal Vere and his sister, Liana: if they'll take care of her grievously wounded brother, she'll steal the necklace back from the salamanders, using her...http://www.sfsite.com/02a/tw265.htm First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde- February 1, 2008 In Woody Allen's "The Kugelmass Episode," the titular character, an unhappily married college professor, conducts an affair with one of the classic adulteresses of literature -- Madame Bovary. He is able to do this quite literally thanks to the magician Persky the Great, whose contraption can project Kugelmass into the book. The overt joke is that after Kugelmass tires of Bovary, he asks to be thrust into Portnoy's Complaint, but instead is accidentally inserted in a remedial Spanish textbook,..http://www.sfsite.com/02a/fs265.htm The Wannoshay Cycle by Michael Jasper- February 1, 2008 The time is the near future, the place North America. The Internet is the Netstream, a kind of YouTube that has swallowed various communications media. Terrorist bombings are more frequent, there is a vicious street drug called Blur that turns addicts into monsters. The world, in short, has become a scary enough place before three alien space ships crash landed in the Midwest and over the border into Canada.http://www.sfsite.com/02a/wc265.htm Vote for SF Site's Readers' Choice Awards for 2007- February 1, 2008 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual SF Site Readers' Choice Best of the Year Awards. For the past 10 years, this has been the season when we solicit you, our faithful readers for your input on what you thought were the best books you've read in the past year. We'll grind your votes through our top-of-the-line super-secret vote-counting software, and post the results in February or early March. If you've forgotten what you chose in previous years, you can find them all linked at Best...http://www.sfsite.com/columns/neil262.htm Ice, Iron and Gold by S.M. Stirling- February 1, 2008 This is a collection of thirteen short stories, drawn from across the author's career as a professional writer. It's a diverse introduction for readers who have heard of his alternate history works, but have baulked at committing to an entire series. Helpfully, there are two stories included which afford a taste of the author's best known works; an original Emberverse novella, and an Islands In the Sea of Time story. Anyone who has wondered if they'd like the style and substance of those series.http://www.sfsite.com/02a/ii265.htm |