SF² Concatenation

Our sad news...

There is no easy way to say this, so here it is.  Our founding co-editor Graham, died on Boxing Day.  His obit is within our seasonal news page in its R.I.P. section.

From this you will see that Graham had had a serious stroke a decade ago and this greatly restricted his movement; even typing was difficult.  As such he lost contact with many SF con-going friends and acquaintances.  We are trying to reach them and ask you, should you wish, to share this news on your social media should you have followers who are SF fans (who, in turn, may have followers who are SF fans and so forth...).  They say everyone is separated by six degrees.  Well, we are going to put that to the test.  If we can get the word out to reach his old SF friends then they will have a chance to say their goodbyes.  There are various (depending on your personal social media and internet preferences) links you can cut and paste below his obit to help promulgate this news ripple.  Old friends who can make the -- to be confirmed -- June PSIFA pub gathering (near a rail station in the Hitchin area) - which will include a few of Graham's lifelong compatriots since his college days - would be most welcome should this event still (given this latest news) go ahead.

New up...

Most recently added (mid-January) is our spring* edition with its giant, seasonal news page, convention reports, 2019 convention and film diary, and stand-alone book reviews, bit fiction and non-fiction SF and science.
* 'Spring' here being the northern hemisphere, academic year spring.

Your help requested

If, by chance, you know anyone who went to Hatfield Polytechnic or Hertfordshire University and was a member of its SF group PSIFA, could you kindly send them this link or mention this news on your SF social media in case an Old Age PSIFAn stumbles upon it.  It is PSIFA's 40th anniversary coming up and some of the old guard want to reach as many as possible of its past hundreds of members.  Thank you if you can spend a minute mentioning and/or forwarding the link. :-)

New topic. SF² Concatenation itself is seeking to contact SF authors (at least two SF novels commercially published) who have a science/engineering degree. We want to ascertain which 20th century born scientists have inspired them, hence possibly influenced their SF writing.  See Julie Czerneda's article below 'Most recently added' below.  We hope a number of you can help. This is the link to pass on to any scientist SF authors you may know .

Forthcoming

Mid-march will see the first of our choice of what we consider were among the best of the Nature science journal 'Futures' one-page (PDF) short, science fiction stories of last year. (Meanwhile, an archive of our past choices as to 'Best of Nature 'Futures'' is here.)

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

Most recently added

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