SF SiteThe new issue of the SF Site is now online.Dark Integers and Other Stories by Greg Egan- June 16, 2008 The author's reputation, first and foremost, is as one of today's preeminent "idea men" of SF. His fiction is built around scientific or sociological ideas -- that is to say, on speculation. Particular areas of interest seem to be mathematics, physics, and the workings of the brain (and indeed all of these ideas are often interconnected). He eagerly uses concepts from the cutting edges of these fields, and speculates beyond the cutting edge -- sometimes, as he has admitted, a bit implausibly.http://www.sfsite.com/06b/di274.htm The Secret of Sinharat by Leigh Brackett- June 16, 2008 John Stark, besides being a tough and independent mercenary, is a man with a very thin veneer of civilisation overlying an almost animalistic core. In somewhat of a parallel with Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes, Stark was raised from infancy by barely-human Mercurian aborigines, and under certain stressful situations, which are not uncommon in his business, he reverts to his origins and lives by his quasi-animalistic instincts.http://www.sfsite.com/06b/si274.htm The Happening: a movie review by Rick Norwood- June 16, 2008 What pass for horror movies these days are seldom designed to induce fear. Fear, after all, is an unpleasant emotion, though the relief afterwards is pleasant. There are the horror movies where you experience self-righteous satisfaction when women who have sex out of wedlock are killed or when teen-agers who have sex before marriage are killed. And there are the horror movies which produce roller-coaster thrills where each horrible death produces a shriek of laughter.http://www.sfsite.com/06b/th274.htm The Lion Hunter and The Empty Kingdom by Elizabeth E. Wein- June 16, 2008 The Lion Hunter picks up just after the events in The Sunbird, in which Telemakos, grandson of Arthur, is introduced, and becomes a victim of international intrigue. Readers unfamiliar with this novel will find expert back story painted in at the start of The Lion Hunter as Telemakos challenges himself to overcome the fears he suffered after being held prisoner, blindfolded and bound, as a result of deadly international politics.http://www.sfsite.com/06b/ew274.htm The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon- June 16, 2008 Meyer Landsman is about as hard-boiled as detectives get. He lives in a cheap flop-house of a hotel, and smokes too much, drinks way too much, and works obsessively -- besides abstractly thinking about suicide, drinking and working are what gets him through his days. He's divorced and estranged from his ex-wife Bina, who is now his superior officer, and he's plagued by family ghosts -- his chess-obsessed suicide of a father, his sister Naomi, a pilot who crashed her Piper Cub into a mountain,...http://www.sfsite.com/06b/yp274.htm Singularity's Ring by Paul Melko- June 16, 2008 The post-human universe isn't just for grown-ups anymore. In his first novel, Paul Melko brings the classic style of young adult science fiction headlong into a future where the singularity has come and gone, leaving old-fashioned human beings and a new kind of humanity, the pods, reeling and attempting to recover in its wake. It's a fast-moving story full of adventure, angst, and the growing pains of a young being known as Apollo Papadopulos.http://www.sfsite.com/06b/sr274.htm Prince Caspian: a movie review by Rick Norwood- June 16, 2008 Andrew Adamson, who helmed this film of the second book in the seven book Narnia series, decided to go all out for big-budget action this time. Maybe the studio pushed him in that direction, but he deserves the credit and blame for turning a human adventure into a special-effects extravaganza. In the middle is an entire battle sequence that isn't in the book and doesn't advance the plot.http://www.sfsite.com/06b/pc274.htm Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner- June 1, 2008 After Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, died in June 1936, a number of the works he had submitted before his death continued to be published in the pulps, particularly in Weird Tales. However, by 1938 this supply had largely run out, yet the demand for such fare hadn't -- so a number of authors attempted to fill the void, amongst them Henry Kuttner.http://www.sfsite.com/06a/ea273.htm Flora Segunda by Ysabeau S. Wilce- June 1, 2008 Flora Segunda Fyrdraaca is neither a girly-girl, nor a nerd. She is not an heir-in-disguise, nor does she have some tremendous magical power hidden away inside her, just waiting to be discovered. This isn't that kind of YA fantasy novel. Instead, Flora is the decidedly un-illustrious youngest daughter of a very illustrious family fallen on hard times, just a bit like Califa, the country where they live.http://www.sfsite.com/06a/fs273.htm Sword Masters by Selina Rosen- June 1, 2008 Most people understand sword & sorcery to mean derring-do with pointy weapons, set in a far-away kingdom where there may or may not be involvement with the supernatural and or magic. There is a distinct flavor of the Arabian Nights in most early twentieth century sword and sorcery, probably left over from the largely imaginary "travel" tales of the late 1600s and 1700s. The conflict in sword & sorcery tales is usually personal rather than ideological or political -- even when the enemies are...http://www.sfsite.com/06a/sw273.htm |