t has been decades since Stephen King made the transition from widely read author to full-blown American celebrity. His fiction has spawned movies, television series and numerous other adaptations; his life has inspired more than one urban legend. Rumors claim that King hosts an annual campfire story event, or that he lavishly decorates his home for Halloween. For readers curious about the man behind this myth, the official Stephen King site can lay the rumors to rest.
This Web page is a thing of beauty, a sparely drawn testament to the possibilities of Flash. Easy to navigate, pleasant to behold, it is packed with information on Stephen King and his works. Offering the latest news on book releases and personal appearances, the site also has a message board, a bibliography, an extensive FAQ and tidbits about King's various outings as a
film actor.
Naturally, there are also intriguing extras. One is a map of Maine as imagined by King, with the locations of fictional towns like Derry and Castle Rock marked in blue. There is a photo gallery, too, and a links page, as well as a section that allows readers to subscribe to an official King newsletter. The Dark Tower series of novels—whose final installments
will hit bookstores in 2004—has its own section, containing character bios, a glossary for the series, a newsletter and information on artwork featured within the books.
A careful dig through this site will reveal infinite treasures and items of interest—mini-essays on experiences that inspired King's various books, a student poster he posed for while in college, a photo of the author with his first car—entertaining browsing for anyone interested in King himself or the wider mysteries of the writing process.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—December 8, 2003
as there ever been a musical instrument that sparked more devotion than the whimiscal, quixotic, half-daft theremin? Sure, guitars and violins and pianos all have their aficionados, and over the centuries have accumulated plenty of lore and fascination. But for an ugly box you don't even touch to play, and which was invented less than a century ago (in 1919 by the Russian physicist Leon Theremin), the theremin takes top honors for the fanatical allegiance it inspires among its quirky fans and users. To partake of all things thereminic, you must visit Theremin World. Here you will be inundated with a wealth of material on this spooky, ethereal-sounding musical instrument, which by its very nature reeks of science fiction, in the same way as all those illustrations of "yesterday's tomorrows" from 1930s issues of Popular Science.
The range of activities for the visitor to this site is awesome. You can participate in the forum, parsing the schematics of a theremin, prior to attempting to build one yourself. You can get the full backstory on Leon Theremin and his invention, as well as links to a large number of related web pages. There are plenty of audio samples available for download. Hours can be spent examining the catalog of 500-plus bands whose recordings employ the theremin. Shopping opportunities abound: shirts, mugs and bags with the Theremin World logo, CDs and movies, theremin kits and more. But my favorite feature of this site is the photo gallery. Here theremin players send in pix of their customized rigs. Theremins incorporated into flying saucer bodies and "flab-reduction" machines, and reconfigured as occult-looking triangles pierced by laser beams. It's a wavery, wavery, wavery world out there!
— Paul Di Filippo
Site of the Week—December 1, 2003
llwatchers is a film database with a difference, an offbeat attempt to categorize movies by their story structure. Instead of focusing on actors, directors and other creative talents involved in a movie, Allwatchers analyzes films based on their plot points, the type of characters they contain, or specific themes or story elements. Looking to see every movie ever made that features clones as characters? Allwatchers can provide a list in mere seconds.
First and foremost, this is a Web page for people who know just what they like ... and who want even more. One-click plot searches allow users to bring up listings of, for example, superhero movies or films with giant monsters. The statistics on films are sparely delivered and frequently make for hilarious reading, as Allwatchers' reviewers rate film protagonists from the Terminator to Marty McFly on their physique, smarts, sense of humor and emotional sensitivity.
Allwatchers covers all genres of film, but site visitors can move directly to a specialized section of the site to perform SF searches. The site also has a sister page that breaks down novel and television plots in exactly the same way for other fans.
This site will never form any serious competition for a straightforward movie database like the Internet Movie Database, but it does offer hard data for researchers seeking out shared themes in movies, for writers looking to compare their stories against standard narrative themes (or cliches), and, of course, for fans seeking movies of a type they particularly enjoy.
— A.M. Dellamonica
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