SF² Concatenation

Happy birthday to us, Happy birthday to us...  As of Easter we were 30 years old.

New up...

We have our second this year of our choices as to the best of last year's Nature 'Futures' SF stories. As usual it is a one-page (PDF) short story that has either a bit of a twist and/or edge. This time we have murder on mind, if memory serves...

Below that we have our Summer (northern hemisphere) edition with its seasonal round-up of SF and science news, articles and book reviews.

This is a slightly special edition for those sentients with a penchant for using base ten and for whom our planet's whole-orbits about its parent star mean something.  This year is our 30th year of SF² Concatenation doing SF.  This is something that could not have happened without the support of its team and the current band of contributors.  Way to go.  Meanwhile the organising committee of the 1987 British national convention, BECCON, at which SF² Concatenation launched, and our two extant founding editors are getting together for a 30-year, rural reunion just prior to this year's Worldcon.  Speaking of which...

Worldcon

This year's Worldcon is this side of the Pond in good old Europe. Some of us will be there looking forward to meeting old friends and seeing some of you in Helsinki.  Of course, if you are reading this the four weeks between that event and our autumnal edition, we're sure it all went well and we will have a convention report in hand.

Thank you...

Thanks to all from all over the planet who helped our friends down in south-east London get their new SF group up and running. It is small, it is friendly and it meets the 2nd Thursday of the month for a drink and informal SF chat. The numbers attending are not that great, but there are numbers, and -- thanks to you -- the social media is beginning to attract some local attention. In short it is early days yet, but things are decidedly moving in the right direction.  They say everyone is linked to everyone else by 6 people. So if on your social media you have SF friends who in turn have SF friends in London, who have friends in the SE of that city, a share, or like etc, on social media helps. We have provided them with an online page (www.concatenation.org/n-heath-sf.html) you can paste in your social media. And if you are on Facebook you perhaps can share/like https://www.facebook.com/northheathscifi/.  Thank you again to everyone whose chipped or clicked in.  Wonderful.

Forthcoming

Mid-September will see our autumnal edition. (Well, autumnal in our northern hemisphere, but we're sure our potential southern friends work it out.)  Its large-ish seasonal news page has sections on film, books, TV, as well as the season's forthcoming books listing of new titles from the major imprints in the British Isles, many of which will soon be available elsewhere. And then there's the news page's science as well as science and SF interface section.

Accompanying this will be another article in our series of scientist SF authors' choices as to their top ten scientists of the 20th century. Plus there will be at least a couple of SF convention reports.

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

Most recently added

v27(4) 2017.7.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• The Memory Ward - Wendy Nikel
  Lisa is saving her memories before she loses them to dementia. And then, playing an old one back, she discovers...
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature 'Futures' stories.
• The guidelines for prospective 'Futures' SF short stories authors.

v27(3) 2017.4.20 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2017

• Newscast for the Summer 2017. 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 – Ian Stewart
• Eurocon 2016 – Barcelona, Spain - Jim Walker
• The 2000AD 40th Anniversary Event - Anthony Heathcote
• SF Film recommendations from the 20th Century -- Part 3: The Space Age (1960-'69) - Tony Chester
• 2016/17 (year to Easter) SF Film Top Ten Chart and Other Worthies  (All archive annual film charts here)
• Gaia 2017 - Annual whimsical SF and/or science snippets and exotica
  Share re-Tweet for this edition's alert here

v27(3) 2017.4.20 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• The Hanging Tree - Ben Aaronovitch
• Class: Joyride - Guy Adams
• The Massacre of Mankind - Stephen Baxter
• The Massacre of Mankind (2nd review) - Stephen Baxter
• Obelisk - Stephen Baxter
• Take Back the Sky - Greg Bear
• Class: The Stone House - A. K. Benedict
• The Day Before Forever - Anna Caltabiano
• Fellside (2nd review) - M. R. Carey
• Babylon's Ashes - James S. A. Corey
• Arthur Conan Doyle: Gothic Tales - Arthur Conan Doyle
• The X Files Origins: Agent of Chaos - Kami Garcia
• Class: What She Does Next Will Astound You - James Goss
• Star Wars: Bloodline - Claudia Gray
• Star Wars: Catalyst - James Lucenoh
• Doctor Who – The Whoniverse - George Mann & Justin Richards
• Void Star - Zachary Mason
• The X Files Origins: Devil's Advocate - Jonathan Mayberry
• Down Station - Simon Morden
• The White City - Simon Morden
• Arcanum Unbounded - Brandon Sanderson
• Arcanum Unbounded (2nd review) - Brandon Sanderson
• Elantris- Brandon Sanderson
• Defender - G. X. Todd
• The Liberation - Ian Tregillis
• Judge Dredd The Mega Collection: Mean Machine - Wagner et al
• The Guns of Empire - Django Wexler
• Pelquin’s Comet - Ian Whates
• Doctor Who and the Crusaders - David Whitaker
• The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham

v27(3) 2017.4.20 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• The Oxford Illustrated History of Witchcraft & Magic - Owen Davies (ed.)
• The Extended Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
• Einstein at Home - Friedrich Herneck
• Artificial Intelligence: What everyone needs to know - Jerry Kaplan
• The Science of the Game of Thrones - Helen Keen
• Eugenics: A Very Short Introduction - Philippa Levine
• The Oxford Dictionary of Science - Oxford University Press
• True Genius: The Life and Work of Richard Garwin - Joel N. Shurkin
• Infinity: A Very Short Introduction - Ian Stewart
• Intellectual Property: A Very Short Introduction - Siva Vaidhyanathan

v27(2) 2017.3.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

• Ghosts in the Machine - Aaron Moskalik
  Can you prove that you are alive? Really prove that you are alive? Administration may want to know...

v27(1) 2017.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2017

• Newscast for the Spring 2017. Which includes within it loads of 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 – Tony Ballantyne
• 27th Festival of Fantastic Films 2016 – Great Britain - Darrell Buxton
• British Fantasycon 2016 - Ian Hunter
• 2017 Diary of Major SF Conventions & Forthcoming SF Films of the Year
• SF/F/H book reviewers wanted

Full 'What's New' list

Want to thank SF² Concatenation contributors for their efforts?
Tell a friend about us and/or mention us on your social media
in our 30th anniversary in (2017) year.
We are not big on social media ourselves. Yes, we are ever so 20th century...