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Our home page colour this season is green now that we have the northern hemisphere summer. Yes, the plants are blooming....
HELP SF Convention reporters wanted
We are seeking to expand our convention reports of national SF conventions beyond Britain. If you would like to contribute a report then feel free to contact office [at] concatenation [dot] org for a one-page con-reporter's guide.
September 2025 news
Essential Science Fiction: A Concise Guide was published 20 years ago. There are still just a couple of boxes left! This book's entries primarily consist of fan-voted SF award winners (such as the Hugo and Locus Awards), fan surveys of books and films from some past Worldcons, Eastercons, and the Anglo-Romanian SF Exchange, and SF books that have been continually in print for over 75 years. Any author that has more than three entries also gets an entry on themselves with reference to their other ('secondary') works. There is also a tick-box, collectors' index of books and films with primary entries listed in bold and secondary entries in non-bold. If you want to see more details, reviews of this title, or a copy then click here.
June 2025 news
SCI-FI LONDON - BRITAIN's PRINCIPAL SF FILM FEST has been held (19th - 22th June '25) at the Picturehouse Finsbury Park, London. A dozen features and scores of shorts were screened in addition to there being an SF quiz, kareoke, pet dog cosplay. Plus there was a screening of the ten finalists for the 48-hour film making challenge and the winners announced. And the great news.... It looks like there will be another next year (2026) with another 48-hour challenge next April and the film fest proper later in the year. Check the Sci-Fi London website to view some trailers, some Challenge winners and more, with news of next year's event towards the end of the year.
This year's SFL 48-Hour Challenge winners can be viewed at these links:
1st place: 'Warm Welcome' by Team: Death by Cat Bag
2nd place: 'The Set Up' by Team: Biaol
3rd place: 'Solid State' by Team: Gifme5
Last year's Sci-Fi London reviewed here and the 2023 event reported here.
The 2025 Locus Award winners have been announced (voted for mainly by readers of what is effectively the US SF/F trade magazine Locus). As usual we only list the major categories (and those that are more easily accessible this side of the Pond).
- SF Novel
The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar
- First Novel
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
Details of all the category wins can be found at locusmag.com.
The 2025 Nebula Award winners have been announced (voted for mainly by SF writers of America). As usual we only list the major categories (and those that are more easily accessible this side of the Pond).
- Novel
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
- Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Dramatic Presentation
Dune: Part Two
Details of all the category wins can be found at www.sfwa.org.
The 2025 Horror Writers' Association Bram Stoker Awards have been announced at the World Horror Convention. The awards are named in honour of the author of the seminal horror novel Dracula. The principal category wins were:-
- Novel: The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
- Debut Novel: The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim
- Graphic Novel: H. P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe
- Screenplay: The Substance
Full details of all the category wins can be found at www.horror.org.
May 2025 news
Jim Walker. It is with sadness that we report news that the British SF fan Jim Walker has passed. Jim was a friend of, and contributor to, SF² Concatenation. His first offerings were a couple of book reviews back in the mid-1990s. From the early 2000s to 2017, he was one of our regular convention reporters, especially of Eurocons. He also took part in the Anglo-Romanian Fan Fund activities of the 1990s to early 2000s attending events both here in Britain when there were visiting Eastern European fans, and also in Timisoara, Romania, with our two International Weeks of Science and SF in 1999 and 2003. In addition to Eurocons, he was a regular at Britain's (there are others) Festival of Fantastic Films and the British Eastercon. A civil engineer by training and profession, in retirement he made short films with local friends including a couple of SF offerings which, naturally, were screened at the Festival of Fantastic Films. Farewell old pal.
Advance Post
We have a convention report now up of Windycon in Chicago, USA.
New up...
Posted to keep you going over the summer break, another 'Best of Nature Futures' short story. The science journal Nature publishes these roughly once a week, but unless you are a subscriber you will not see these little SF gems as they are usually behind a paywall. However we have an arrangement with Nature and secure the authors' permissions to re-post four of those we think are among the best each year. If you can't wait for the next on in November, we have our archive of past 'Futures' stories here.
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For details of / links to the new content, scroll down to beneath 'Most recently added' below.
Forthcoming
Our 'autumnal'* season edition will be up mid-September. As usual, this will include an extensive, seasonal news page, with its sections on Film News; Television News; Publishing News; General Science News and Forthcoming SF Books from major British Isles SF imprints for the season, among much else. Our most recent seasonal news page is here. There is a lot to unpack with many links to YouTube trailers and other videos so, if you have not already gone through it, take time to make a mug of tea, settle down at your PC or with a laptop or pad, and dive on in.
* 'Autumnal' season here being the northern hemisphere, academic year autumn.
Separately, we will have a couple of stand-alone articles and convention reports. Plus there will be the usual tranche of stand-alone book reviews. Something for every SF enthusiast and/or science bod.
What's not to like?
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Most recently added
v35(4) 2025.7.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series
v35(3) 2025.4.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2025
v35(3) 2025.4.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews
v35(3) 2025.4.15 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews
v35(2) 2025.3.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series
v35(1) 2025.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2025
v35(1) 2025.1.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews
v35(1) 2025.1.15 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews
v34(7) 2024.12.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series
v34(6) 2024.11.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series
- The Nana Inheritance (1-page PDF short story) - Amanda Helms
The deathbed of your beloved grandmother isn’t really the place where you should decide who inherits her brain, but that’s what we did...
v34(5) 2024.9.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Autumn 2024
Full 'What's New' list
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