Advantages: Low Priced, Variety of Authors in that Genre
Disadvantages: Book Commitment, Editors Choice, Poor Delivery, Low Customer Service

...The Fantasy & Science Fiction Book Club (FSF) is an online and catalogue based book club, offering readers the chance to purchase Fantasy and Science Fiction books, at great savings against the recommended retail price (RRP). *Introductory Offer from FSF* I originally joined FSF in June 03, on the recommendation of a friend, and have purchased many books from the FSF website. I rarely use the catalogue to order from as I find it time consuming, and like to receive a confirmation of my order via the online ordering section. I was actually enticed, like so many before me, by the offer off: “Any 5 Books from just 50p each!” Whereby the customer is asked to choose from a pre-selected range of books 5 Titles that they would like. Each book is priced at a minimum of 50p, with several of the more popular (or multi... Read review

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Advantages: Some real gems
Disadvantages: Some dross

.... Clarke, because it is clear that some of the authors of the stories in this book have read them for us and have presented them as the pre-digested pigeon milk that a pigeon feeds its young. One of the gems, however, is a quirky story by Cordwainer Smith, called Drunkboat. At £7.99, I'd say the book was worth buying for this one story, alone. Quirky? True. Weird? Yes. But this is a fantastic story of overwhelming love that is very moving. Do I recommend this book? Yes, but cautiously, because as the editor admitted, he has deliberately excluded some of the finest voices of 20th century science fiction and this some of the best examples of the genre.... Read review

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Advantages: A steady stream of reading for hard SF fans
Disadvantages: Not easy to find for the casual reader

...I have been a subscriber to the US published Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine for several years now (this is short compared with many subscribers, its readership is typically very loyal), and have never had an overall bad issue. -- Overview -- Despite the title, the magazine is mainly science fiction. I will cover a breakdown of contents below. The science fiction is of the 'hard' variety. This means that the science is an integral part of the story. In 'soft' SF the story could effectively be set anywhere- it 'just happens' to be set (for example) space. In Analog the vast majority of the stories are firmly based on what could potentially happen (i.e. the science is realistic) - this is definitely not a fantasy magazine. However do not be put off by this; the characters, plots etc are not reduced in quality because of this... Read review

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Advantages: Entertaining, extremely useful
Disadvantages: The publishing advice aimed at Americans

...How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy was published in 1990 by Orson Scott Card. Card is an American sci-fi and fantasy author probably best known for his story Ender's Game. The advice in the book is based on his own experiences and he clearly knows something because he's written numerous novels and been very successful as a writer. This book is an excellent guide for those who wish to write stories in the science fiction and fantasy genres. This book was my first encounter with Card's work. It was given to me as a Christmas present a few years ago, and I came to the conclusion that if he could write a 'how to' book this interesting, I should try his fiction. The book is intended for those writing speculative fiction (a different term for 'science fiction and fantasy'). While it includes some general information... Read review

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Advantages: Brilliant story, interesting characters
Disadvantages: Some inaccuracies

...as desperate as Lessa and F'lar to understand how things used to be before it is too late. Dragonflight is a wonderful mixture of fantasy and science fiction, with dragons and medieval culture going hand in hand with timetravel, teleportation and psychic abilities. I found it so different from other texts in both of these genres, it really was quite refreshing to read something so unique. There are some inaccuracies in this book, but they are barely noticeable and when you consider the complex plot of this book it isn't that surprising that a couple of errors have gone unnoticed (time travel can be a real bugger to write about!)… it really doesn't detract from the story at all. I would say that it is suitable for young teenagers upwards because the storyline would be a bit difficult for a younger reader to follow, plus there are some... Read review

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Advantages: The best of the Best from some of the newer, and also the more established elite of fantasy!
Disadvantages: You won't have a life ever again!

...genre escalating there have been added demands for older books to be put in print, a recent ' Fantasy ' Masterworks series has been released along with a ' Science fiction ' one, in these collections you can be guaranteed some of the best books around including the works of Dunsany, Leiber and Eddison among others. That sort of fantasy is very turn of the century stuff, in its content and the type of audience it was written for. Now we can almost see the tables turning, fantasy has just about slipped into the new mainstream, authors can now safely shift huge amounts of copies as they have huge mammoth 9 book contracts with the publishers I heard one fantasy author ( she shall remain nameless ) being described as writing fast food fantasy, and I guess that meant it was easily obtained and enjoyable at first yet not too satisfying... Read review

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Advantages: cheap books!
Disadvantages: have to order from every magazine, and I'm not fond of the club editions

...a few years, and I once again found myself drooling over one of these leaflets offering books at silly prices. You’d think I’d have learned a lesson from the first time, really, but nope – I talked myself into it. And do I regret it? Not a bit!! The difference is, by this time I’d discovered how much I liked fantasy and science fiction, so I joined the club specifically for that. So, first bit of advice for anyone thinking of joining one of these book clubs: make sure you have a fairly big interest in the particular genre. That first club I joined didn’t stick to one area, and I had difficult finding books I wanted. With FSF (Fantasy and Science Fiction), I had difficulty not spending too much! It’s worth pointing out that I didn’t own many fantasy or sci-fi books before I started, so... Read review

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Advantages: Ground-breaking graphical technology.
Disadvantages: Script and story suffers.

...Final Fantasy - The spirits within is an interesting movie, due to its ground-breaking graphical technology. It does however suffer when it comes to the There is, however, no doubt that this is worth watching, especially if you are interested in science fiction. The basic idea is interesting; aliens have attacked the human race, and the last humans alive live in sealed of cities. Disappointingly the development of this idea wasn't good enough, and the rest of the story suffers. Especially when one compares this movie to the Final Fantasy games, one would expect a development of both character and story that captures the viewer in a fantastic way. Then again, a movie is a movie, and a game is a game. On the positive side, the movies delivers a lot. It's a beautiful view, indeed. The voice acting is superb. And it's Final Fantasy... Read review

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Advantages: The characters and it is constantly fast moving
Disadvantages: None

...‘White Teeth’ is Zadie Smith’s first novel, and well worth getting into. It has been awarded numerous prizes including the prestigious year 2000 Whitbread first novel award, and the Guardian First book award. I would not claim to be a huge reader, but do probably read more that your average teenager, yet was a bit dubious about all the awards and praise that is heaped upon this book, but after reading it through, I can firmly say that it does live up to all the hype and beyond. True it did look daunting at first as some of these award winners can be complicated and nearly 550 pages of words, it may put a few people off, but believe me once you get into the novel you will not regret it. Zadie Smith comes from North-West London, and born in 1975, so plenty is to come from this young author. As I mentioned ‘... Read review

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Advantages: Exciting, moving, thought-provoking, well-written
Disadvantages: A bit old-fashioned; have to suspend belief somewhat for 1930s sci-fi

...as 'Sorns'. This book is science fiction from the late 1930s, somewhat in the tradition of HG Wells, and without the benefit of much knowledge of space beyond what astronomers could see through telescopes sixty-five years ago. Inevitably there are some holes in the plot, but somehow it doesn't matter, at least not to me. We know now that other planets in our solar system cannot support human life, partly through extremes of temperature and partly due to lack of air. But Malacandra is more like a fantasy world than the real planet which it's supposed to be. So it wasn't difficult to accept the three races who live there, whom Ransom gradually gets to know. In a sense this is a book of wisdom and philosophy couched in a fictional setting. Ransom first becomes friendly with the 'hrossa', a race of poets and boat-lovers, and - being... Read review

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