he first grandmaster of science fiction is given the royal treatment at the Robert A. Heinlein Home Page, a site dedicated to chronicling its namesake's life and work.
The site's first and largest section, "Archives," is divided into three categories: "Reference Documents," "Essays and Articles" and "Multimedia." A detailed frequently-asked-questions list tops the first category, answering questions about the author's military service, his marriages (including his little-known first wife), his numerous pseudonyms, the three pre-World War II short stories he called the "stinkeroos," and much more. Other references include "Published Heinlein," which is a list of the author's work divided into short stories, novels and other formats, as well as the more exhaustive "New Heinlein Opus List" that includes every Heinlein publication and its various iterations.
The Essays category offers a few gems examining the nature of "federal service" in Heinlein's oft-debated Starship Troopers, as well as a look at what went wrong (and right) with the big-screen adaptation of his book The Puppetmasters. Rounding out the Archives, the
multi-media category has a handful of rare audio clips of Heinlein speaking during a 1980 radio interview, as well as shots of Martian and lunar craters named for the grandmaster.
The Links section offers just over a dozen links to other Heinlein sites, along with detailed descriptions of what visitors will find on them. Rounding out the site is a new feature: An evolving critique of longtime Heinlein critic/chronicler Alexei Panshin, who wrote the 1968 book Heinlein in Dimension. It's a work in progress with much left to be done, but worth bookmarking for future visits.
— Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week—August 19, 2002
cience fiction's slow and steady creep into academia is chronicled by Science Fiction Studies, the Web site for a print publication of the same name that has been turning a critical eye toward the genre since 1973.
While other publications review science fiction, the journal is dedicated to critiquing the reviewers. Its staff dissects the critical work of those analyzing fantasy, science fiction and horror literature, offering assessments of the author's academic skill, methodology and merit. The books reviewed are as diverse as science fiction itself, with topics ranging from feminism to post-modernism to good old-fashioned heroics.
Augmenting the reviews are tables of contents for all of the published journals, as well as synopses of the articles that appeared in each edition. If an edition sold out, its complete text is available online. There are also numerous essays on special topics, such as Brian Stableford's "The Third Generation of Genre SF."
The site's "Chronological Bibliography of Science Fiction Criticism" is an immense list of influential or noteworthy sci-fi critiques spanning the ages from 1634 to 2002. The "Wormholes" section isn't nearly as comprehensive, but does include hyperlinks to numerous speculative fiction journals, newsletters, library collections and scholarly organizations.
The academic style of the site's holdings can be a little dense, and it does require a mental shifting of gears to view science fiction as something to be critically studied rather than simply enjoyed. Overall, it's an excellent resource for anyone who's ever struggled to write a critical analysis of Clarke and Asimov while their peers tackled more terrestrial subjects such as Shakespeare and Hemingway.
— Ken Newquist
Site of the Week—August 12, 2002
he brainchild of authors Stephen Hunt and Geoff Willmetts, SF Crowsnest is Europe's most visited SF site. The page dishes up large servings of information on what's going on in SF literature, media and fandom around the world, spicing up the news with a dose of wry humor and plenty of ready opinions.
At first glance, this Web page appears to be a typical online SF magazine, one with a relatively conventional layout to boot. Everything a visitor will expect to find is here: interviews with authors like Michael Moorcock and Alan Dean Foster, artwork, convention listings, book reviews and discussion forums. The cross-linked essays in the Crowsnest library provide for endless surfing, leading a reader from an essay on whether Buffy's Slayer powers are derived from demonic possession to an article on Internet film releases, and from there to coverage of the Sidewise Awards. Added to this standard fare, though, is a host of less frequently seen extras, like market listings for writers, cartoons and a large archive of fiction. The Crowsnest also has a news section that is less devoted to staying current with SF than it is in covering a selection of topics in deeper detail.
Ultimately, though, what makes SF Crowsnest stand out from similar sites is its tone. Articles and market listings are irreverent to the point of sarcasm, and the editorials are pointed and topical, with an appealing lean into the acerbic.
— A.M. Dellamonica
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