SF² Concatenation

New up...

Most recently added (mid-November) is our third this year of our choices as to the best-of-last-year's one-page PDF Nature 'Futures' SF stories.  See 'Most recently added' below.

This builds on our autumnal edition of news and reviews.  As usual its news page has sections on film, books and publishing, TV, as well as the season's forthcoming books listing of new titles (also fantasy and non-fiction) from the major SF/F imprints in the British Isles, many of which will soon be available elsewhere in the world.  (A great way to see what will be coming out and ideas for your Christmas shopping.)  And then there is the news page's science consisting of short paragraphs on the season's key, primary research papers that are cited so our scientist regulars can Google Scholar the papers for themselves (and our non-scientist regulars can see that we don't do fake news).  Plus there's the news page's science-and-SF-interface section where yesterday's SF is becoming today's fact.

Other autumnal content included articles and convention reports. Here there was another in our series by scientists are also SF authors as to their science heroes born in the 20th century (so by-passing Darwin, Einstein etc that everyone would otherwise select).  This was the 6th in our series that enables you to ascertain the science that inspires some of today's best science fiction writing (see also 'Your help requested' below.) This edition, coincidentally, not only do we have the scientist/author's article on his science heroes but also (see lower down) a standalone review of one of his books!

There was also a second convention report (further to the one posted last season) on this year's British national SF con (Eastercon) as well as another on the 2018 New Zealand national convention.  This last is most appropriate as New Zealand has just won the site selection vote for the 2020 Worldcon. (If you have ever wanted to visit New Zealand then this is the heads up for a chance to do it with a 5-day convention in the middle and you have two years in which to save up for it.)  Plus there was a raft of fiction and non-fiction SF or popular science books reviewed.

Your help requested

If, by chance, you know anyone who went to Hatfield Polytechnic or Hertfordshire University and was a member of its SF group PSIFA, could you kindly send them this link or mention this news on your SF social media in case an Old Age PSIFAn stumbles upon it.  It is PSIFA's 40th anniversary coming up and some of the old guard want to reach as many as possible of its past hundreds of members.  Thank you if you can spend a minute mentioning and/or forwarding the link. :-)

New topic. SF² Concatenation itself is seeking to contact SF authors (at least two SF novels commercially published) who have a science/engineering degree. We want to ascertain which 20th century born scientists have inspired them, hence possibly influenced their SF writing.  See 'Most recently added' below.  We hope a number of you can help. This is the link to share.

Forthcoming

Mid-December sees our fourth and final best-of-one-page PDF Nature 'Futures' SF story to tide you over the Christmas/New Year period before our spring season 2019 edition in mid-January.  We think these one-page stories are a delight and are ideal to read while you have your lunch / coffee / tea break.

You can either make a note in your electronic diary that our next edition (for the northern hemisphere's academic year spring) will be up for mid-January, or you can follow us on your rss feed or alternatively on Twitter. This we only use for site posting alerts, and as a special service advance-post alerts slightly ahead of the official posting dates. (We don't use Twitter for chat though anyone is welcome to on your own account and hash-tag us #SF2Concat; our only using Twitter primarily for site alerts means that you will not be pestered by our feed.)

For those few of you who follow us on Twitter we will alert you at the end of December to a New Year treat from the archives.

Meanwhile, hopefully you should find something below to tickle your fancy...

Most recently added

v28(6) 2018.11.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• Life, Hacked: Out For A Duck (1-page PDF short story) - Krystal Claxton
  So how do you know you are real, and not a copy of the real you in a copy-verse? Ask a duck.  (If you enjoyed this story and are on Twitter, then you can support the writer's work in a second
    by re-Tweeting this post's alert.)
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

v28(5) 2018.9.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Autumn 2018

• Newscast for the Autumn 2018. Which includes within it many key sections covering SF books, films and TV as well as science. See the master newscast link index that connects to all the news sub-sections.
   
• My Top Ten Scientists - Sam Peters (mathematician and SF author)
• Follycon - The 2018 British Eastercon - Peter Tyers
• Conclave III - New Zealand's 2018 national convention – Lee Murray (with an assist from Simon Litten)
• Wanted, SF authors who are scientists!
  If you like this edition then three seconds sharing Facebook / Twitter welcomed. Spread genre appreciation.

v28(5) 2018.9.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• The Tangled Lands - Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell
• Arm of the Sphinx - Josiah Bancroft
• Blood of Assassins - R. J. Barker
• Raft - Stephen Baxter
• Spring Tide - Chris Beckett
• Zero Day - Ezekiel Boone
• Doctor Who: The Day She Saved the Doctor - Susan Calman et al
• The Defiant Heir - Melissa Caruso
• Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion - Jenny T. Colgan
• Doctor Who: Twice Upon A Time - Paul Cornell
• Doctor Who: Rose - Russell T. Davies
• The Grey Bastards - Jonathan French
• Gnomon - Nick Harkaway
• The Testament of Loki - Joanne M. Harris
• The Smoke - Simon Ings
• The Fall of Deadworld – Book I - Kek-W & Dave Kendall
• The Night Lies Bleeding - M. D. Lachlan
• Nemesis - Alex Lamb
• A Talent for War - Jack McDevitt
• The City and the City - China Mieville
• Blackfish City - Sam J. Miller
• Into the Fire - Elizabeth Moon
• One Way - S. J. Morden
• After Atlas - Emma Newman
• Before Mars - Emma Newman
• Planetfall - Emma Newman
• Humans, Bow Down - James Patterson & Emily Raymond
• The Store - James Patterson
• The Complete Fairy Tales - Charles Perrault
• From Distant Stars - Sam Peters (see also his fav' scientists article above)
• Slow Bullets (2nd review) - Alastair Reynolds
• The Collapsing Empire - John Scalzi
• Head On - John Scalzi
• Doctor Who: The Missy Chronicles - Cavan Scott et al
• Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
• Downward to the Earth - Robert Silverberg
• Hunted - G. X. Todd
• Assassins’ Legacy - Ian Watson & Andy West
• The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn - Tyler Whitesides
• The Bitter Twins - Jen Williams
• Last Year - Robert Charles Wilson
• Judge Dredd / Anderson: The Deep End - Arthur Wyatt et al

v28(5) 2018.9.15 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• Demography: A Very Short Introduction - Susan Harper
• Dreams Must Explain Themselves and Other Essays 1972–2004 - Ursula K. Le Guin
• One of Ten Billion Earths: How we learn about our planet's past and future from distant exoplanets - Karel Schrivner
• Geology… A Very Short Introduction - Jan Zalasiewicz

v28(4) 2018.7.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• Legs-11 (1-page PDF short story) - Hugh Cartwright
  Meet the home help.  It's new and you get a free trial.  So what's not to like?
    (If you enjoyed this story and are on Twitter, then you can support the writer's work in a second
    by re-Tweeting this post's alert.)

v28(3) 2018.4.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2018

• Newscast for the Summer 2018. Which includes within it many key sections covering SF books, films and TV as well as science. See the master newscast link index that connects to all the news sub-sections.
   
• My Top Ten Scientists - Peter Watts (biologist and SF author)
• 2017/18 (12 months to Easter) SF Film Top Ten Chart and Other Worthies  (All archive annual film charts here)
• Follycon - The 2018 British Eastercon - Arthur Chappell
• Gaia 2018 - Annual whimsical SF and/or science snippets and exotica
  (If  you like the above news and articles as well as the below reviews, then do consider spending a couple of seconds sharing this seasonal edition's social media alerts: Facebook and Twitter. Spread the genre love.)

Full 'What's New' list