SF² Concatenation

New up...

Most recently added (mid-July) is the second of our one-page, short, SF story PDFs for the year that are our selection of among the best of Nature 'Futures' stories of the previous year, 2018.  (An archive of our past choices as to 'Best of Nature 'Futures' is here so there are plenty of short, SF short stories for you to dip into.)  These stories are very short and so ideal either for a lunchtime or a bed time read.  Enjoy.

Forthcoming

Mid-September sees our edition for the autumn*.  It will have all the usual sections, as can be seen from this current season's news page index.  In addition to the science & SF news there will be some history of local, student British SF with a couple of articles about Hatfield PSIFA 40 years on from its founding.  There will also be a convention report of this year's Eastercon, Britain's national SF convention, and there may even be some additional articles.  Some of this will be linked to a week or so in advance for the most dedicated of our followers through our Twitter alert service @SF2Concat.  Lastly, we will have our usual slew (well over a score) of standalone SF book as well as non-fiction SF and popular science books.  What's not to like?
* 'Autumn' here being the northern hemisphere, academic year autumn.

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

Note

• SF/F/H book reviewers wanted
Our book review panel sees members come and go (and sometimes come back again) as life's trajectory alters time available for book reviewing. We are arguably one or two reviewers down given the (northern hemisphere academic calendar) summer gap between seasonal editions is our largest in the year and so this season we have a few more books than usual awaiting review.  The above linked page explains how our review system works.  We review both SF/fantasy and non-fiction poplar science that relates to SF tropes.  The important things being: working to deadlines, keeping an eye on the publication details and putting the reviewer's name at the bottom of each review (as the MS word.doc reviews get separated from the e-mails to which they are attached).  If you are an avid book reader and UK based then contact us by the first week in September 2019 with your postal address.

Most recently added

v29(4) 2019.7.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• Mobile Hack: It pays to be well informed (1-page PDF short story) - Zack Lux
  You really (really!) need to look after that which looks after you...
  (If you like this story then you can support promulgating the author's work by re-Tweeting.)
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

v29(3) 2019.4.25 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2019

• Newscast for the Summer 2019 (which, for clarification, relates to the northern hemisphere and the academic year 'spring'). This 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. (Twitter alert if you enjoyed the reportage & have SF followers to whom you wish to spread the genre love.  Ditto Facebook.)
   
• Graham Connor – A life in Science Fiction & Space
• Sanity Blues: Science Needs to be Honest - Graham Connor (a re-post from 1998 in memory of Graham - its message still stands today!)
• My Top Ten Scientists – Eric Choi (aerospace engineer and SF author)
• 2018/19 (12 months to Easter) SF Film Top Ten Chart and Other Worthies  (All archive annual film charts here)
• SF Film recommendations from the 20th Century -- Part 1 (re-posting with trailers freshly check-linked) - Tony Chester
• SF/F/H book reviewers wanted
• Gaia 2019 - Annual whimsical SF and/or science snippets and exotica

v29(3) 2019.4.25 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• Sunfall - Jim Al-Khalili
• Doctor Who: Scratchman - Tom Baker & James Goss
• The Hod King - Josiah Bancroft
• Stone Clock - Andrew Bannister
• The Caged Queen - Kristen Ciccarelli
• The Sands of Mars - Arthur C. Clarke
• Splintered Suns - Michael Cobley
• Doctor Who: The Good Doctor - Juno Dawson
• The Blue Salt Road - Joanne M. Harris
• Vivat Regina - Maz Hedgehog
• Horror Stories: Classic Tales from Hoffmann to Hodgson (2nd review) - Darryl Jones (ed)
• The Raven Tower - Ann Leckie
• Broken Stars - Ken Liu (ed.)
• Ghost Virus - Graham Masterton
• Doctor Who: Molten Heart - Una McCormack
• Star Wars: Last Shot - Daniel José Older
• All The Lonely People - David Owen
• Shadow Captain - Alastair Reynolds
• Winter World - A. G. Riddle
• Red Moon - Kim Stanley Robinson
• Skyward - Brandon Sanderson
• Ocean Light - Nalini Singh
• Doctor Who: The Secret Vault - David Solomons
• The Labyrinth Index - Charles Stross
• Rosewater - Tade Thompson
• The Freeze-Frame Revolution - Peter Watts
• Emily Eternal - M. G. Wheaton

v29(3) 2019.4.25 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• TARDIS: Type 40 Instruction Manual - Atkinson et al
• The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, robotics and the future of work - Richard Baldwin
• Making Eden: How plants transformed a barren planet - David Beerling
• C. S. Lewis: A Very Short Introduction - James Como
• A Supernatural War - Owen Davies
• Biometrics: A Very Short Introduction - Michael Fairhurst
• At Least Know This: Essential Science to Enhance Your Life - Guy P. Harrison
• Columbus in Space - Julien Harrod & ESA
• Sleeping with the Lights On (2nd review) - Darryl Jones
• Climate Change and the Health of Nations - Anthony J. McMichael et al
• The Cosmic Mystery Tour: A high-speed journey through space & time - Nicholas Mee
• Interplanetary Robots: True stories of space exploration - Rod Pyle

v29(2) 2019.3.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• The Preprint: Time to Publish (1-page PDF short story) - J. W. Armstrong
  Discovering the true nature of time -- fundamental to reality -- is something that might not want to be shared...
  (If you like this story then you can support promulgating the author's work by re-Tweeting.)
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.

v29(1) 2019.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2019

• Newscast for the Spring 2019. This 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 – Julie E. Czerneda (biologist and SF author)
• San Jose - The 2018 World SF Convention – Peter Tyers
• Windycon 45 - Chicago regional convention – Sue Burke
• 28th Festival of Fantastic Films 2018 - Great Britain –Darrel Buxton
• British Fantasycon 2018 - Ian Hunter
• SF Convention Listing & Film Diary 2019 -'20
• Wanted, SF authors who are scientists!
• Best Science Fiction of Past Years - Possibly? – Newly created archive page (This last is because in recent years, in our spring news for fun, we give our suggestions as to the best SF/F/H novels and films of the previous year.  All well and good.  Yet, though it is only -- we stress -- a bit of fun, invariably nearly every year we cite a work or two that goes on to be short-listed and/or win a major SFaward.  So we thought it about time we collected these in one place with a note at the foot of each year's entry as to which went on to garner a major award.)
  If perchance you like the effort for this edition then feel free, for a second, to Facebook share or re-Tweet.

Full 'What's New' list