New up we have our Spring edition of SF news (covering books, film, TV, forthcoming books, scienceetc.) and reviews as well as book listings of the SF, Fantasy and Science books you can expect in the shops this spring. This large-ish news page also has our recommendations as to the Best SF Books of 2015 and Best SF Films (with links to trailers).  Elsewhere in the mix we have a few convention reports as well as our diary of 2016 national conventions and forthcoming SF/F films.

See ‘Most recently added’ below. Enjoy.

Forthcoming

In March we will have the first of four for 2016 of what we consider were the best of the 51 science journal Nature ‘Futures’ SF stories of last year (2015).  This adds to the story posted back in December (see bottom below).  These are short, one-page PDF stories that reflect a possible future.

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

Most recently added

v26(1) 2016.1.15 — New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2016

• Newscast for the Spring 2016. Which includes within it loads of sections covering SF books, films and TV as well as science not to mention fandom and convention news. See the master newscast link index that connects to all the news sub-sections.
• The Hugo Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form: Is it really recognising the breadth of SF achievement? – Jonathan Cowie (This builds on George R. R. Martin’s December thoughts.)
• British Fantasycon 2015 – Ian Hunter
• The 2015 Hispacon – Spain – Sue Burke
• 26th Festival of Fantastic Films 2015 – Great Britain – Darrell Buxton
• ConFuse – The 2015 Swecon – Karl-Johan Norén
• 2016 Diary of Major SF Conventions & Forthcoming SF Films of the Year

v26(1) 2016.1.15 — Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

• A Few Words for the Dead – Guy Adams
• Dreamland – Robert L. Anderson
• Tales from the Vatican’s Vault – David V. Barrett
• Dr Who: Deep Time – Trevor Baxendale
• Xeelee Endurance – Stephen Baxter
• Killing Titan – Greg Bear
• Dark Run – Mike Brooks
• The Supernatural Enhancements – Edgar Cantero
• The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet – Becky Chambers
• The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (2nd review) – Becky Chambers
• The Three-Body Problem – Liu Cixin
• Night Music: Nocturnes Volume 2 – John Connolly
• Edge of Dark – Brenda Cooper
• The Relic Guild – Edward Cox
• Humpty Dumpty in Oakland – Philip K. Dick
• Willful Child – Steven Erikson
• Grendel – John Gardner
• The Tin Men – Christopher Golden
• Dead Ice – Laurell K. Hamilton
• Misspent Youth – Peter F. Hamilton
• Star Wars: Lords of the Sith – Paul S. Kemp
• Doctor Who: The Drosten’s Curse – A. L. Kennedy
• Roboteer – Alex Lamb
• The Hunter’s Kind – Rebecca Levene
• The Gracekeepers – Kirsty Logan
• Dr Who: Royal Blood – Una McCormack
• The Bone Clocks – David Mitchell
• The Dead Lands – Benjamin Percy
• Doctor Who: The Time Lord Letters – Justin Richards
• Dr Who: Big Bang Generation – Gary Russell
• Lie of the Land – Michael F. Russell
• Lock In – John Scalzi
• The Sky Pirates – Leisel Schwarz
• Way Down Dark – J. P. Smythe
• Children of Time – Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Night Lamp – Jack Vance
• Supersymmetry – David Walton
• Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

v26(1) 2016.1.15 — Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

• Biocode: The new age of genomics – Dawn Field & Neil Davies
• Thunderbirds: The Vault – Marcus Hearn
• A Very Short Introduction to Corruption – Leslie Holmes
• C. S. Lewis and his Circle – Roger White, Judith Wolfe & Brendan N. Wolfe
• The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales – Jack Zipes (ed.)

v25(7) 2015.12.15 — A new story from the Nature Futures series

• Reversal of Misfortune: Alternative culture by J. W. Armstrong
  Being able to see all your alternative quantum options may not be as welcome as you might think… Or is it?
• The index to all of the Concatenation selection of Nature ‘Futures’ stories.
• The guidelines for prospective ‘Futures’ SF short stories authors.

v25(6) 2015.11.15 — A new story from the Nature Futures series

• When The Music Ends: Criminal records by Philip Ball
  Seeking perfection in music can only lead to catastrophe…

Full ‘What’s New’ list

“SF2 Concatenation” it’s an absolute exception, an English pro-Europeanist (in favour of European co-operation and cultural interchanges) SF site is just a miracle in such a provincial and closed and nombrilist society as England’s one, a 3% country :

” When it comes to international literature, English readers are the worst-served in the Western world.

Only 3% of the books published annually in Britain are translated from another language; fiction’s slice is less than 1%.

This contrasts sharply with continental Europe: in France, 14% of books sold in 2008 were translations; in Germany, the figure was 8%, according to Literature Across Frontiers, a translation advocacy network. Yet the bias for English literature appears to be universal: two in three European translations are from English, and about 40% of all novels published in France and especially in smaller European countries, the number of translations from English can reach an incredible 80% of all translations.” 

Indeed, an united and independent Europe is increasingly necessary, while a politically divided one would bring disadvantages in many areas, including the economic, cultural, political, social, scientific, diplomatic and military arenas. A major argument is the relative small size and importance of the individual European countries with respect to the current and rising powers on the world scale. The individual European countries would then have limited geopolitical influence and would be unable to represent their own interests effectively.

On the other hand, an united Europe, with a population and an economy larger than that of the United States, is a viable partner, or competitor, whose opinion and interests is be taken into account on the world stage.

The SF2 Concatenation only does three seasonal (spring, summer and autumn) editions a year and so any assistance you can lend in alerting the European SF community that a new edition is up is appreciated (by us and Europa SF Portal’s followers into European SF).

Hopefully some Europa SF regulars will wish to drop in to the http://www.concatenation.org  _SF2 Concatenation.

Twitter if you are on twitter and wish to re-tweet to your site/blog regulars !

Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation

                                                                            http://www.concatenation.org