SF² Concatenation

New up...

Most recently added (mid-July), our second this year of our choices as to the best of last year's one-page PDF Nature 'Futures' SF stories.  Alfred is a free gift from the government: a small. squat, household-hep droid.  That's all right then, isn't it?  See 'Most recently added' below.

Forthcoming

Once the (northern hemisphere) summer SF convention and science field trip and symposium season is over, in September we will have our autumnal edition of news and reviews.  As usual it will have 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 will be the news page's science (with short paragraphs on the season's key, primary research papers) as well as the science-and-SF-interface section.

Additionally, there will be 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).

There will also be a second convention report on this year's Britain's national SF con (Eastercon) as well as one on the New Zealand national convention.  This last is most appropriate as New Zealand is poised to win 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 two years in which to save up for it.)  Plus there will be a raft of fiction and non-fiction SF or popular science books reviewed.

You can either make a note that this edition will be up in your electronic diary for mid-September, or follow us on your rss feed and alternatively, lastly on Twitter which we only use for 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 and hash-tag us #SF2Concat).  Plus, if you want to, you can contact us directly.  And that's it.

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

Most recently added

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.)
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

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.)

v28(3) 2018.4.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• Lawless: Welcome to Badrock - Dan Abnett & Phil Winslade
• Star Wars’ Canto Bight - Saladin Ahmed et al
• Senlin Ascends - Josiah Bancroft
• Places in the Darkness - Chris Brookmyre
• The Tethered Mage - Melissa Caruso
• Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick
• The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
• Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams - Philip K. Dick
• Doctor Who and the Kricket Men - James Goss
• Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant
• You Should Come With Me Now - M. John Harrison
• Strange Weather - Joe Hill
• Strange Weather (2nd review) - Joe Hill
• The Dragon Lords: False Idols - Jon Hollins
• The Ballad of Halo Jones - Alan Moore & Ian Gibson
• Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
• Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics – Part 3 - Dean Mullaney (ed.)
• Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer
• Too Like the Lightning (2nd review) - Ada Palmer
• The Will to Battle - Ada Palmer
• Elysium Fire - Alastair Reynolds
• Revenger (3rd review) - Alastair Reynolds
• Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson
• The Eternity War: Pariah - Jamie Sawyer
• The Bastard Legion - Gavin Smith
• Dogs of War - Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View - Various authors
• The Genius Plague - David Walton

v28(3) 2018.4.15 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• Conjuring the Universe: The origins of the laws of nature - Peter Atkins
• Mass: The Quest to Understand Matter from Greek Atoms to Quantum Fields - Jim Baggott
• Blockbuster Science: The Real Science in Science Fiction - David Siegel Bernstein
• Heroes & Villains: A photographic odyssey into the fantastic world of cosplay - Andrew Boyle
• Religion vs. Science: What Religious People Really Think - Elaine H. Ecklund & Christopher P. Scheitle
• Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction - Erle C. Ellis
• Doctor Who: The Book of Whoniversal Records - Simon Guerrier
• Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J. R. R. Tolkien's Legendarium - Walter S. Judd & Graham A. Judd
• Terry Pratchett Discworld Imaginarium - Paul Kidby
• Monstrous Creatures - Aaron Mahnke
• Miracles: A Very Short Introduction - Yujin Nagasawa
• Explorations of the Marvellous - Peter Nicholls (ed.) (In memoriam)

v28(2) 2018.3.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• I Die A Little - Bo Balder
  Sometimes it is impossible to stay on a new planet no matter how much our children like it.

v28(1) 2018.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2018

• Newscast for the Spring 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 - Andrew Bannister
• SF Conventions Across Europe - Roberto Quaglia
• Helsinki – The 2017 World SF Convention - Peter Tyers
• British Fantasycon 2017 - Ian Hunter
• 28th Festival of Fantastic Films 2017 – Great Britain - Darrell Buxton
• The 2017 Hispacon – Spain - Cristina Jurado
• The 2017 Celsius 232 – Spain - Peter Tyers
• 2018 Diary of Major SF Conventions & Forthcoming SF Films of the Year
• SF/F/H book reviewers wanted

v27(7) 2017.12.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• The Fourth Law of Humanics - Ian Stewart
  What of Asimov's Laws once the robots have won...?

v27(6) 2017.11.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• The Department of Correction - Ninan Tan
  Offender, Mr Smith, turns up for a medical procedure. A lesson has to be learned.

v27(5) 2017.9.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Autumn 2017

• Newscast for the Summer 2017. 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 - Paul McAuley
• Understanding Polish SF conventions - Marcin 'Alqua' Klak
• Eurocon 2017 – Dortmund, Germany - Jim Walker
• Lexicon - New Zealand's 2017 national convention - Lee Murray, Dan Rabarts and Darian Smith
• Innominate - The 2017 British Eastercon - Peter Tyers
• Innominate - The 2017 British Eastercon - Arthur Chappell
• and, following this summer's North American eclipse, a 30th anniversary blast-from-the-past with the 1st International Week of Science & SF and the 1999 European eclipse with Bob Sheckley

Full 'What's New' list