escribing itself as "a guide to every Bruce Sterling work on the web,"
this page proudly proclaims itself to be created by fans and for a fan
audience. It delivers on both counts. Gathering up Sterling's non-fiction
for public consumption, the Index is a treasure trove for SF readers,
Internet junkies, environmentalists ... and anyone else who likes to read
thought-provoking material.
This is not a standard SF author's Web page. Though it contains some of
the elements a casual browser might expect--a biography and author photos,
for example--the content on this site is hard-core. The heart of the Index
is Sterling's columns--non-fiction pieces written for magazines including
Wired and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The
columns are offered in their entirety, for free, and their subject matter
and scope are vast and intriguing. Also included in the Index are speeches,
interviews, RealAudio clips of Sterling reading his own work, and
recommended lists of books and periodicals. It even contains the Turkey
City Lexicon, a list of terms used by science fiction writers to assess and
workshop each others' writing.
Does the body of work described on this site sound substantial? It
should. Interested readers and fans can use this archive to literally
follow Sterling's mutating areas of interest over the course of the past
decade. Web surfers intrigued by his take on global warming or artificial
life do not have to settle for summaries and outtakes of his old work. The
columns are accessible through an interface which is simple and elegant,
attractive but not especially showy. The data is well-linked, easy to read,
and on offer to anyone who may be interested.
Naturally, the huge archive does not include Sterling's novels and short
stories. Its contents are primarily non-fiction. That said, the Bruce
Sterling On-Line Index is an absolutely perfect source of browsing
material. With every click, readers can find themselves challenged by
visionary ideas and new aesthetic challenges. This site is the ideal place
for anyone seeking a good and engaging read, whether it is about current
scientific developments, the artistic course of science fiction or the
possible shape of the future.
-- A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week -- Jan. 22, 2001
pooks, slimers and full-torso vaporous apparitions continue to haunt
Ghostbusters fans at Proton Charging.
The fan site is slavishly devoted to all things Ghostbusters, from the
two movies through to the Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon. Fans who
vaguely remember a mid-1980s cartoon with the same name--but very
different characters--can read the writeup about Filmation's 1970s
Ghostbusters live-action show, and their failed attempts to update it
after the far more popular movie hit the big screen.
The site's news section covers anything and everything remotely related to
Ghostbusters or its stars, and tries to keep fans abreast of what's
happening (or not happening) with the much-rumored-but-never-developed
Ghostbusters 3. The site's feature news stories are more than just
rehashes of news items, though. There's an overview of J.
Michael Straczynski's (Babylon 5) writing duties on The Real Ghostbusters, cartoons and interviews with folks like Ron Hayes, the guy who designed the
action figures based on the cartoon.
Unfortunately, there are a few dead links, and a dearth of multimedia
material (forget finding soundclips or images here), but fans looking to
catch up on Ghostbusters lore would do well to stop by the site.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- January 16, 2001
part from Bill Amend's Foxtrot, few syndicated
comics acknowledge, let alone cater to, the science fiction community.
Fortunately, wherever traditional channels leave a gap in niche
entertainment these days, the Internet steps in. Hence Sluggy
Freelance, an unabashedly geeky adventure that's long been one of the
best of the growing crop of online comic strips.
New Jersey writer/artist Pete Abrams, who started the strip as a hobby
but has watched it grow into a full-time job, follows a newspaper format: a
new black-and-white comic every day, a longer color strip on Sundays, a
horizontal panel format, a punchline in each strip. But Sluggy
Freelance is way too much fun for the increasingly stodgy mainstream
newspaper comics pages. The strip centers around two longtime friends--budding mad scientist Riff and his dorky friend Torg--and their assorted
hangers-on, including a homicidal lop-eared bunny, a Giger-style alien who
works as a secretary, a blowhard vampire and a normal college student who
gets involved in their time-traveling, dimension-hopping, TV-parodying
adventures more often than she'd like. Over the course of the past four
years, Abrams has woven some surprisingly intricate and serious plotlines,
while parodying everything from Santa Claus to Dr. Laura's radio talk show
to movies (The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix) to television
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pokemon, The X-Files, and
many, many more).
Longtime readers can access the main page for a new strip every day, but
new readers will be lost unless they head for the Sluggy Viewer Guide. There, four years' worth of daily
strips are archived by plotline, with two of the all-time silliest story
arcs highlighted: "The Sci-Fi Adventure," in which the dimension-traveling
characters make cameo appearances on Star Trek, Star Wars
and Alien, and "Torg Goes To Hell," which introduces the
fan-favorite nebbish netherworld, the Dimension of Pain. The Guide lets
readers access strips by the day or by the week, so it's easy to catch up
on all the complex backstory, which is necessary to really appreciate the
later strips' humor and to feed the addiction that often hits newcomers
after their first taste of Abrams' twisted, fan-friendly wit.
--Tasha Robinson
Back to the top.
