SF² Concatenation

New up...

Most recently added (mid-March) is the first of four one-page, short, SF story PDFs of the year that are our selection of among the best of Nature 'Futures' stories of 2018.  (Meanwhile, an archive of our past choices as to 'Best of Nature 'Futures'' is here.)  Enjoy.

Forthcoming

Late-April will see our edition for the summer*.  Note, this is a little later than our usual mid-April posting date.  This is because Easter is late this year and so is the announcement of this year's Hugo Award short-list, which we always report.  We plan to post 25th April (irrespective of whether the Hugo administrators have made their announcement).  However, some early article and review postings will be linked to from, and for our few die-hard followers on, Twitter.
* 'Summer' here being the northern hemisphere, academic year summer.

The edition for the summer will contain the usual large SF & science news page covering books, film, television and publishing as well as general science, the biosciences and space sciences.  Additionally, there will be:  another in our series of scientist cum professional SF author articles on their top ten science heroes;  a 52-week cinema box office analysis of the top SF/F/H films of the year to Easter; and our annual science and SF, exotica whimsy round-up from Gaia.

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

Most recently added

v29(7) 2012.3.15 -- 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.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

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.

v29(1) 2019.1.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• Amercia City - Chris Beckett
• Adrift - Rob Boffard
• Brief Cases: Stories from the Dresden files - Jim Butcher
• Kindred - Octavia Butler
• Sea of Rust - Robert Cargill
• Everything About You - Heather Child
• The Relic Guild - Edward Cox
• The Relic Guild (2nd review) - Edward Cox
• The Cathedral of the Known Things - Edward Cox
• The Watcher of Dead Time - Edward Cox
• Rejoice - Steven Erikson
• Doctor Who and the Kricket Men - Douglas Adams & James Goss
• The Quanderhorn Xperimentations - Rob Grant & Andrew Marshall
• Time’s Convert - Deborah Harkness
• The Minds of Billy Milligan - Daniel Keyes
• The Wall - John Lanchester
• Ball Lightning - Cixin Liu
• 84K - Claire North
• From Darkest Skies - Sam Peters
• The Pit and the Pendulum and Other Tales - Edgar Allan Poe
• Summerland - Hannu Rajaniemi
• Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis - Anne Rice
• Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat - Anne Rice
• By the Pricking of Her Thumbs - Adam Roberts
• Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson
• Oathbringer - Lynsay Sands
• Dreadful Company - Vivian Shaw
• The Bastard Legion: Friendly Fire - Gavin Smith
• The Gone World - Tom Sweterlitsch
• Hunted - G. X. Todd
• Nebula Awards Showcase 2018 - Jane Yolen (ed.)
• Star Wars: Thrawn Alliances - Timothy Zahn

v29(1) 2019.1.15 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• Quantum Space - Jim Baggott
• Artificial Intelligence... 'A Very Short Introduction' - Margaret A. Boden
• Inside Black Mirror - Charlie Brooker & Annabel Jones
• How Population Change will Transform our World - Sarah Harper
• Sleeping With The Lights On: The unsettling story of horror - Darryl Jones
• Wicked Mortals - Aaron Mahnke
• The AI Delusion - Gary Smith
• What Shape is Space?: A primer for the 21st century - Giles Sparrow

v28(7) 2018.12.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• Sparrowfall: The city never sleeps (1-page PDF short story) - Robert Dawson
  The AI keeps the city immaculate. But does everyone -- even the person that created it -- appreciate it?
  (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.

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.
   

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)

Full 'What's New' list