've been mildly interested for a while in dipping my toe into Robert Jordan's enormous Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels, just to see what all the fuss is about. But the sheer size of the series always daunted me—until now. I've just read the nine volumes of Jordan's "masterpiece" in a few minutes, and can immediately see that I was wise to forbear earlier. How, you ask, did I accomplish this miracle, short of possessing a watch that stops time? Easily! I visited Book-a-Minute SF/F, where scores of novels are distilled into their pithy—and hilarious—essences.
Click on any of the titles presented here, and you'll encounter the gist of the given book presented in under 100 words. Needless to say, the goal of such drastic boiling down is not to produce serious aids to the study of literature, but rather to highlight the banality of most books. The writers who contribute these capsule satires are more in league with The Onion than they are with Classics Illustrated or Cliffs Notes. You'll chortle if a book you think is particularly dumb is nailed, but you'll howl if one of your favorites is raked over the coals. Still and all, this is an enjoyable way to pass a half hour, guaranteeing that you'll never look at the high and mighty in our field the same way again. And these gleeful conspirators perform their surgery on mainstream classics as well, which you can visit via a handy link.
— Paul Di Filippo
Site of the Week—March 18, 2002
uthor Web sites run the gamut from carnivals of animated features, full of bells and whistles, to simple postings of the author's bibliography with a couple of pictures. The official Harry Turtledove Web Site, maintained by Steven H. Silver, falls somewhere toward the latter end of the spectrum. It's strictly a meat-and-potatoes kind of introduction to the work of this popular writer of uchronias, but on the other hand it's quite comprehensive and neatly organized.
An all-encompassing FAQ, combined with a short biography and several photos of Turtledove, unite to give us a good picture of the history-savvy man behind the fiction. Then that fiction itself is categorized and bibliographically assembled nine ways from Sunday: into thematic and serial groupings, by story collection or magazine appearance, with plenty of thumbnails of various book covers, including foreign editions. (Links for purchasing these books can also be found, naturally.) Anyone searching for a map to the enjoyment of Turtledove's fiction need look no further. Upcoming projects are highlighted, and scheduled chats with the author are advertised. But unless I missed a wing of this Turtledove museum entirely, there are no actual snippets of his writing to be found. This seems an ungenerous flaw in the design. How better to entice new readers than by giving away a sample?
But even with this glaring deficiency, the Turtledove Web site will serve as your passport to unlimited pleasure in worlds never born.
— Paul Di Filippo
Site of the Week—March 11, 2002
ame reviews, author links and a focused look at genre categories are just a few of the perks on offer at The Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide, a page that labors mightily to provide information on all things science-fictional, whether they originated in print or onscreen.
In addition to sections on books, authors and films, the Guide has a timeline of SF history—one which comes complete with a bibliography of 51 references—which goes back to a 3,000-year-old version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The most intriguing feature of this encyclopedic site, though, is its mammoth "If You Like This" section, an exhaustive compilation of types of science fiction and fantasy. Categories range from the prosaic (clones, alternate worlds and space opera come to mind) to the fanciful (Bambi's children, unicorns in the garden, "beam me up"). In each case, the Guide provides a definition of the subgenre and a list of important works that qualify as examples. Each listing is extensively cross-indexed, allowing for easy and interesting surfing. The icing on the cake is a list of genre definitions by David Hartwell which guides inexperienced SF readers to a chosen category by describing the book cover art favored by various schools of SF.
Like many sites that try to cover it all, this one has sections that are out of date, some by as much as three years. (The television section has the most recent entries, covering series like Dark Angel and Smallville.) However, this is a small complaint when stacked against the wealth of information available on this page. For anyone looking for book recommendations or researching a particular aspect of the genre, Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide is a highly recommended first stop.
— A.M. Dellamonica
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