aintained by the author, this page is crammed with information on Poppy Z. Brite: childhood photos, current photos, an autobiography, a complete bibliography and recent news updates. There is also a section in which Brite answers questions submitted by readers, plus an index of online interviews which should whet the appetite of even the most dedicated fan. True completists will find back issues of Purple Prose, a magazine devoted to Brite's work and activities, posted on the site.
The site also offers original fiction. Pieces include older work from Brite's pre-published days, as well as essays about recent travels, new fiction and the prologue to her first novel, Lost Souls. To those familiar with Brite's other work, it should be no surprise to hear that the content of these stories ranges from light humor to explicit sex and violence. Written with the same lush vividness that characterizes her novels, these tales will delight fans and shock the unwary.
Favoring a clean design, bright colors and plenty of details about her day-to-day existence, Poppy Brite's Web page gives websurfers a chance to see two faces of one of horror's most interesting new authors. She also provides an opportunity for readers to take note of the vast differences that yawn between writers' lifestyles and the work they produce.
-- A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week -- May 28, 2001
n excellent resource for researchers and readers, Fantastic Fiction provides extensive bibliographies of speculative fiction authors ranging from H.G. Wells to Isaac Asimov. Fans eager to discover every possible work by a favored writer will find that this site offers a crucial launch point for their search.
The information available on this page is comparable to that of other bibliographic databases. Author names, birth and death dates and photographs are provided, in some cases along with a short biographical sketch. Novels, stories, editing accomplishments, anthology appearances and awards are listed, too. If a writer has contributed to a TV tie-in series, the data is listed separately for easy access--and users interested in the particular series can look it up separately. High-resolution scans of book covers complete the standard array of knowledge available to surfers.
What, then, makes this page different from a different resource or even an online bookstore? First, the information on Fantastic Fiction is extremely up-to-date (check out the listing on Douglas Adams, for example, and you will see that his recent death is already recorded). Next, it is laid out in an attractive and user-friendly format, with lots of cross-indexing. Finally, the broad definition of fantastic fiction used by this page means that, while visitors can easily find SF literary giants here, they can also explore the work of writers working on the edges of conventional SF. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Margaret Atwood, Italo Calvino and Guy de Maupassant all have listings. Some authors' works--ones which have fallen into public domain--are even available as e-texts.
Another sterling page feature, and one which may be of especial interest to fans, is that some bibliographies include author-recommended books. Interesting in knowing which authors Anne McCaffrey, Pat Cadigan or Michael Bishop particularly likes? The answers are at Fantastic Fiction. This option provides insight into writers' personal tastes, while simultaneously opening up new reading possibilities to site visitors.
With its wide focus, elegant design and exhaustive attention to detail, Fantastic Fiction is a top-notch source of SF facts. It is also, quite simply, a great place for a book lover to go browsing when in search of some new and exciting reads.
-- A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week -- May 21, 2001
ight now up in heaven, Joe Barbera and Gene Roddenberry are huddled around a celestial computer monitor, laughing their wings off as they view an omnibus parody of their dual creations at www.stonetrek.com. Here The Flintstones and the original Star Trek are conflated into a humorous cartoon masterpiece, thanks to the wacky talents of Brian Matthews, creator; Jim Jenkins, head writer; Wally Fields, voice talent; and Lee Cain, techno guy.
A fairly swift initial download brings you to the home page, where you can acquaint yourself with the crewmembers--among them Captain James T. Kirkstone, a Fred lookalike; First Officer Sprock, more Nimoy than Barney; and Chief Medical Officer Leonard "Fossils" RcKoy--all staunch personnel of the U.S.S. Magnetize, a lumbering Neolithic spaceship "with its hybrid vegetable/mineral hull and magma/antimagma warped engines." Here you may also visit the Stone Trek store or nominate yourself as a bit player--an expendable doomed "Redshirt"--for future episodes.
Additional downloads of moderate duration bring you the various missions--two long adventures in four parts--plus a snippet of a Stone Trek-style music video, "Rock Mary." "The Deadly Ears" finds Sprock stung by intelligent bee-like insects in the most vulnerable part of his anatomy. A subsequent installment concludes the tale of the elephantine auricles, and the sight of alien bees wearing pointy "Vulcano" ears is one to cherish forever. "20001 BC: A Space Oddity" finds the galaxy-hopping cavefolk encountering the ruins of the Discovery and a certain godlike monolith. Kirkstone's white-room experience finds him confronted by various Shatner clones, who frighten him with tales of his post-Stone Trek career.
If you've ever longed to see Lieutenant Uhura perform her communications duty via a conch shell, this site is for you.
-- Paul Di Filippo
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