SF² Concatenation

New up...

Up April 2020, our Summer edition*.  It has its usual large seasonal news page covering core aspects of SF (books, films and television) as well as the season's science research.
* 'Summer' here being the northern hemisphere, academic year summer.

Also in this edition there is:  our annual survey of 52 weekly UK box-office charts to ascertain the top SF/F film for the 2019-'20 year to Easter as far as the public is concerned;  another article in our series by SF authors who are scientists as to their science heroes born in the 20th century;  an SF Worldcon-related guide to Wellington for SF folk (there will be other cons in Wellington given that this year's Worldcon has been virus hit, hence cancelled as a physical event);  talking of con cancellations, if you are a regular attendee of a particular convention series and are stuck at home in virus lock-down seeking something constructive to do, we have an idea;  and there's our annual science and other oddities with Gaia;  plus over a score-plus-ten standalone book reviews (see 'most recently added' below).  If you are one of our regulars you will also notice that we have one of our best of Nature Futures short, short SF stories in the mix.  This was to have been slated for a July posting but we have rolled it into this seasonal edition as we at SF² Concatenation are beginning to move into hibernation for the duration of this SARS-CoV-2 episode. (More immediately below.)

Forthcoming

In September we will (hopefully, depending on our lock-down) have our autumnal (northern hemisphere) edition.  This will consist of some articles and some standalone book reviews.  (Many thanks to our book review panel members who have been sending in their reviews on USB memory sticks by old-fashioned snail-mail post as our mission control is digitally isolated.)  Alas, there will be no seasonal news page in September for the autumn as publishers are going rather quiet on the book promotion front, cinemas are closed to new films, and all SF conventions have been cancelled.

Looking further ahead we will be suspending operations (other than receiving books from publishers for review).  We will not be checking our e-mails (our mission control is digitally isolated during UK lock-down -- ironically to prevent computer virus infection/master site hacking etc. as we had a major incident in the 2000s) but will pick up articles submitted by e-mail at some point in the future when we can get to the office.

Still further into the future, we aim to resume our seasonal editions three months after British lock-down ends.  (This is because many publishers have ceased sending out physical review copies of books during the current SARS-CoV-2 crisis and so, after lock-down ends, we will have to wait to accrue a season's worth of books and review them before we can resume full editions.)  We will though pick up our e-mails as soon as lock-down ends and liaise with contributors at that time.  We will also monitor publishers' catalogues as soon as the resumption of production of new ones recommences and so our first seasonal news page may have lengthier forthcoming books listings as these will include recent releases not previously covered.

Meanwhile, 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.  Talking of film trailers, while you're in virus lock-down, do check out our past annual film top tens and the 'other worthies' for ideas of films you might wish to download or stream.  There's plenty on the site to mine.  As a teaser we have included, in the current edition below, one from the archives from a younger Terry Pratchett.

Above all, during this difficult time, ensure that you and those close to you keep safe.

Thank you for visiting us.

Most recently added

v30(3) 2020.4.20 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2020

• Newscast for the Summer 2020. 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 Novakova (SF author & biologist).  A number of SF authors are also scientists. But who are the scientists and the science that inspired these scientist authors?  This is part of an on-going series by SF authors with science qualifications.
• SARS-CoV-2, COVD-19 and the SF community: A briefing
• Wellington: for visiting SF folk 2020 – Jacqueline Brasfield et al.  OK, so this year's Worldcon that was scheduled for New Zealand will now not take place as a physical event.  But what might the tourism dimensions have been like? (This overview might perhaps encourage a future Worldcon bid and in any case there are NZ natcons every few years in Wellington well worth attending in combination with a holiday.)
• 2019/20 (12 months to Easter) SF Film Top Ten Chart and Other Worthies  (All archive annual film charts here)
• 'Please [Redacted] My Last E-mail' (1-page PDF short story) by Kurt Pankau
  A new story from the 'Best of...' Nature Futures series.  Any future e-mails you get from me are also really from me. Even if they completely contradict everything I’m saying right now…
• One from the archives: When the Children Read Fantasy - Terry Pratchett (1994)
• SF Convention go-er appeal.  At home in lockdown?  Do you have a favourite convention you go to time and again?  Want to make an SFnal mark?  How about giving them a promotional puff..?
• Gaia 2020 - Annual whimsical SF and/or science snippets and exotica
  (Previous years' Gaia columns here.)

v30(3) 2020.4.20 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• Providence - Max Barry
• Doctor Who: Star Tales - Trevor Baxendale et al
• World Engines: Destroyer - Stephen Baxter
• The Wise Friend - Ramsey Campbell
• Exhalation - Ted Chiang
• The Sky Weaver - Kristen Ciccarelli
• The Secret Chapter - Genevieve Cogman
• Vulcan's Forge - Robert Mitchell Evans
• The True Bastards - Jonathan French
• Agency - William Gibson
• The Deathworld Omnibus - Harry Harrison
• The Deathworld Omnibus (2nd review) - Harry Harrison
• The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix
• The Nightjar - Deborah Hewitt
• Full Throttle - Joe Hill
• Elevation - Stephen King
• Elevation (2nd review) - Stephen King
• A Queen in Hiding - Sarah Kozloff
• Steel Crow Saga - Paul Krueger
• Battle Beyond the Dolestars - Chris McCrudden
• Bone Silence - Alastair Reynolds
• Bone Silence (2nd review) - Alastair Reynolds
• Revelation of the Daleks - Eric Saward
• The Infinite Noise - Lauren Shippen
• Dracul - Dacre Stoker & J. D. Barker
• The Sisters Grimm - Menna van Praag
• Doctor Who: The Target Storybook - Various
• The Forever House - Tim Waggoner

v30(3) 2020.4.20 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• Conjuring the Universe: The origins of the laws of nature - Peter Atkins
• The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America’s First Moon Missions - Brandon R. Brown
• Building A Resilient Tomorrow: How to prepare for the coming climate disruption - Alice C. Hill & Leonardo Martinez-Diaz
• Apocalypse Now: Technology and the threat of disaster - Oliver Letwin
• The Ankh-Morpork Archives: A Discworld Anthology Volume 1 - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs
• Jet Stream: A journey through our changing climate - Tim Woolings

v30(2) 2020.3.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• The Tentacle and You – It's a whole new start (1-page PDF short story) - John Wiswell
  You’re probably one of the first people in your entire civilisation to get this gift, and we know how overwhelming that can feel. That’s why we’ve compiled a few tips to coach you.
  Like it? Share the love: Twitter / Facebook.
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

v30(1) 2020.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2020

• Newscast for the Spring 2020. 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 – Ian Irvine (marine environmental geochemist)
• 30th Festival of Fantastic Films 2019 – Great Britain – Darrel Buxton
• British Fantasycon 2019 – Ian Hunter
• Dublin – The 2019 World SF Convention – Marcin “Alqua” Klak
• SF Convention Listing & Film Diary
• From the archives: UK SF Publishing Snapshot 2002 – Top SF/F authors? Top titles?
  Interesting to compare this last with this season's news page's SF publishing news.
  (Twitter alert here and Facebook here for this edition should you want to support our seasonal distillation of SF & science news and reviews effort, have SF followers and wish to take a second to Facebook share / re-tweet.)

Full 'What's New' list