SF² Concatenation

Current state

With our editor as one of 11% of the UK adult population without internet connection (according to the UK regulator Ofcom), and so whose been in digital lockdown, news has been coming in from team members on paper and USB memory sticks, as have book reviews. A couple of periods of lockdown lifting has meant that library cybercafes have at times been open and this has enabled some articles to be sent in. Nonetheless, we have managed to pull together a seasonal edition.

Thanks to those that have stuck with us.

New up...

A new 'Best of' Nature 'Futures' short SF story. These are only one-page short stories and under arrangement with the weekly science journal Nature we select those that we think are among the best each year. You get to see those that the author has given us permission to re-post. (So far, for over a decade, all authors approached have kibndly given us their permission.)

For details of / links to the new content, scroll down to beneath 'Most recently added' below.

Stop Press: Hugo Awards

The Hugo Award short-lists were announced subsequent to posting our edition for the summer period. The short-lists for the principal -- 'Best Novel' and 'Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form' -- categories were:-

Best Novel
          Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse
          The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin
          Harrow The Ninth, Tamsyn Muir
          Network Effect, Martha Wells
          Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
          The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal

Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form
          Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
          Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
          The Old Guard
          Palm Springs
          Soul
          Tenet

Voting on the final ballot, by members of this year's SF Worldcon, DisCon III, will begin in late April and will close 19th November, 2021. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at DisCon III, which will be held 15th -19th December, 2021 in Washington, DC, USA.

Full details of all the Hugo Award categories can be found over at www.thehugoawards.org.

Forthcoming

Up mid-September 2021, our Autumnal edition*. 
* 'Autumn' here being the northern hemisphere, academic year autumn.

This will contain our seasonal news page of SF (books, film and TV) and science research summaries. It will also feature the usual forthcoming SF, fantasy and popular science book listings from the major UK publishers (which will also be available from specialist SF bookshops in other countries): something doubly handy in the run up to Christmas.  Meanwhile, you can check out our current and archive seasonal science fiction and science news pages.

Hopefully you should find something below to tickle your fancy.  Also, why not have a snoop around our past material using the quick links on the short-cut column left of here.  There are plenty of articles and the past seasonal news pages have links to other items of interest including YouTube videos and film trailers.  There's also plenty of on the site to mine.  As a teaser we have included, in the last edition below, one, ten years old, from the archives.

Thank you for visiting us. (And -- due to digital CoVID lockdown -- thank those of you on social media for spreading the word that we are still here. Genuinely appreciated.)

                ☺

Most recently added

v31(3) 2021.7.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• The Game (1-page PDF short story) - Michael Adam Robson
  Being chased by the robots is a bit of a pain considering they were not exactly rebelling...
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

v31(2) 2021.4.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2021

• Newscast for the Summer 2021. This includes within it many key sections. See also the master newscast link index that connects to all its SF/F genre and science news sub-sections.
   
• My Top Ten Scientists – Alastair Reynolds (astrophysicist & SF author)
• Moonrock 2021: a review prior to China's sample return mission – Duncan Lunan
• CoNZealand – The 2020 SF Worldcon – Simon Litten
• 2020/21 (12 months to Easter) SF Film Top Ten Chart Deferred!
  (All archived annual film charts are indexed here)
• Gaia 2021 - Annual whimsical SF and/or science snippets and exotica
• Ten years ago. One from the archives: Top 10 (and worst 10) Horror Films of the 20th Century – Tony Chester

v31(2) 2021.4.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• The Sentient - Nadia Afifi
• The Sentient (2nd review) - Nadia Afifi
• Dead Man in a Ditch - Luke Arnold
• Ghoster - Jason Arnopp
• World Engines: Creator - Stephen Baxter
• Inscape - Louise Carey
• The Trials of Koli - M. R. Carey
• The City Among the Stars -Francis Carsac
• Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown - Steve Cole
• Stoker's Wilde West - Steven Hopstaken & Melissa Prusi
• Steel Crow Saga - Paul Krueger
• Hold Up the Sky - Cixin Liu
• War of the Maps - Paul McAuley
• The Stranger Times - C. K. McDonnell
• Tomb of the Gods - Brian Moorland
• Gallowglass - S. J. Morden
• The Evidence - Christopher Priest
• The Lost Colony - A. G. Riddle
• The Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson
• Secret Santa - Andrew Shaffer
• Thirteen Storeys - Jonny Sims
• Bear Head - Adrian Tchaikovsky
• By Force Alone - Lavie Tidhar
• This Fragile Earth - Susannah Wise

v31(2) 2021.4.15 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• The Werewolf in the Ancient World - Daniel Ogden
• The Ankh-Morpork Archives Volume II - Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs & Paul Kidby

v31(1) 2021.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2021

• Newscast for the Spring 2021. This includes within it many key sections. See the master newscast link index that connects to all its SF/F genre and science news sub-sections.
   
• The British SF Association: A Year in the Chair -- Allen Stroud
• Creating a new SF/F publishing house -- Mark Bilsborough
• eFanzines: its curator reflects in its 20th year -- Bill Burns
• My Top Ten Scientists – Carole Stivers (biochemist & SF author)
• A Worldcon future -- developments from science symposia -- Jonathan Cowie
• CoNZealand -- The 2020 SF Worldcon -- Suzie Eisfelder
• DemiSemiQuaver -- The 2020 UK Filk Convention - Peter Tyers
• SF Convention Listing & Film Diary with links to con sites and film trailers
• Ten years ago. One from the archives: SF in Romania since the 1990 revolution -- Laurentiu Nistorescu, Antuza Genescu and Dorin Davideanu

Full 'What's New' list