Site of the Week -- Aug. 23, 1999
ree Sci-Fi Classics, a site created by Blake Linton Wilfong (who
calls himself "The Wondersmith"), presents without charge 14 science fiction
stories now in the public domain, all originally published before 1920.
Wilfong also adds a pair of his own short-shorts to the selections.
Only four of the 12 authors featured are known primarily for
science fiction: Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Murray
Leinster. But the other eight are among the most renowned writers of the
last 250 years, including Hans Christian Andersen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard
Kipling, Jack London, Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Mark Twain and Voltaire.
Saki's "Tobermory," surprisingly, is the most enjoyable story on the site.
It's a hysterically funny tale about what happens when a scientist
teaches a cat to talk. Voltaire's stories "Micromegas" and "Plato's
Dream" are witty challenges to both the secular and religious
philosophies of his time. And Wells' "A Dream of Armageddon" is a brilliant
drama about a man who has a strange dream of the future that seems all
too real. Most of the other stories are also enjoyable, and they give readers
some interesting insights into the early development of SF.
The downside to this site is that Wilfong has taken it upon himself to do some
editing, which he describes as minor. The most egregious example
of this is Twain's "From the
London Times of 1904," in which his changes "fix a plot flaw" and eliminate
one of the endings. Without being able compare these altered tales to the original versions,
it's impossible to tell what the real impact of Wilfong's changes is. But, aside from this
bizarre caveat, Free Sci-Fi Classics is a site well worth
visiting for readers interested in SF's origins.
-- Clinton Lawrence
Site of the Week -- Aug. 16, 1999
eon Genesis Evangelion is a complex and confusing anime series, even to fans who
have seen all of it. (Most in America probably haven't--the cinematic
series conclusions haven't been released on video in the U.S., though
"fansubs" are available.) The elliptical ending of the TV series
raised more questions than it answered, and even the films don't tie
things up particularly neatly.
Fortunately, there's a handy guide to the entire Evangelion
continuum available at Ikari Gendo's Ultimate Neon Genesis Evangelion FAQs Page,
where many of the series' most baffling
details are explained from the point of view of Ikari Gendo, one of
Evangelion's central characters. Spoilers abound as the author addresses the
movies, the TV series, the characters, and the antagonistic "Angels"
separately. The site cogently integrates information from a variety of sources to
explain confusing topics, including the Third Impact, the Sephiroth, the
movies' incestuous history, and director Hideaki Anno's troubled emotional
state throughout the project.
Like most of the many, many Evangelion sites out there, this one's crammed
with photos and links. Unlike its competitors, it doesn't have downloads,
screensavers, music files, or other toys; it's purely informational. But
the information is detailed, thoughtful, well-written, and generally
serious. (For a humorous look at Evangelion, "Gendo" offers a link to "my
idiot son's homepage," a silly, snide spoof by the same Web-author, in
which the series' often-whiny protagonist stumbles incoherently over his
own set of FAQs.) The pages are extremely long and the huge amount of
graphic material can make for lengthy download times, but to confused fans
who want more than the usual recycled character bios and episode summaries,
the wait is well worth it.
-- Tasha Robinson
Site of the Week -- Aug. 9, 1999
he ships of Star Trek soar like gods through the starry skies of the
universe, and the Daystrom Institute Technical Library details each one of
them with loving care.
For tech-loving Trekkers eager to pick apart their favorite space vessels, a visit to the site is better than getting 20 bars of gold-pressed
latinum.
The library's creators revel in technical details, computing the maximum
power output of a Galaxy-class starship, analyzing the size of the
Federation fleet, and trying to work out some of the science behind the
series. And they do it all while carefully using color-coded text to
delineate between backstage information, wild hunches and official Star Trek facts.
The sheer amount of information on this site can be overwhelming, but it is
nicely managed by one of the better Trek-inspired computer displays.
It's the kind of site fans can easily spend hours clicking through, only to
return again a week later for another night-long session.
-- Kenneth Newquist
