Current state

Things are slowly (unfortunately only slowly) returning to how things were before the SARS-CoV-2/CoVID-19 lockdown. After quiet spell, SF/F publishers are beginning to liaise as they used to.

Meanwhile, unable to get to the office, we have been in digital lockdown with no internet or e-mail. (The last seasonal edition, April, only got posted through some social distancing gymnastics and bubbling.) However, we are back and do have some book reviews this edition (reviewers sent in their contributions on memory sticks via Royal Mail snail mail).

There is now some limited internet access but alas not enough time to surf the net for TV and film news, so these sections of our seasonal news page have gone (for now). Fortunately subscriptions to print editions of key journals has enabled the news page's science sections to continue.

One surprise, the SARS-CoV-2, COVD-19 and the SF Community Briefing posted back in March has proved rather popular. Six months on, and the (first?) SARS-CoV-2 peak passed, it has worn rather (possibly even surprisingly) well. One thing though, in its section 'The science fiction and the pseudo-scientific' while it correctly noted that some disinformation was being circulated, it did not predict that some countries' national leaders would be so dismissive of the virus, and ignore the science, to the undeniable detriment of their own people. Very shocking and unbelievable to the point of not seeing that coming.

New up...

Up mid-September 2020, our Autumnal edition*. It has a smaller large seasonal news page but it is there. There are also some articles on SF fandom and science. Plus we have one of our choices in the 'Best of' Nature 'Futures' one-page PDF short stories series. Normally these appear between seasonal editions but we are rolling these into the seasonal editions due to limited internet access while partial lockdown continues. (For details of the new edition see ' most recently added ' below).

* 'Autumnal' here being the northern hemisphere, academic year summer.

Forthcoming

In December we will (hopefully, depending on our lock-down situation) have a pre-Christmas 'Best of' Nature 'Futures' one-page PDF short story.

January 2021, we had thought back in March (at the start of lockdown) that we would be putting SF² Concatenation into hiatus early in 2021, but publisher and stakeholder non-e-mail communication has worked better than thought and now, with internet access back (albeit very limited and intermittent), it looks like a seasonal edition in January may well be possible. There might even be a return of the seasonal news page's lists of forthcoming SF, fantasy and non-fiction SF & science books from major UK publishers.

Of course, if there is a second spike and another hard lockdown then this might not happen. So fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, hopefully you should find something below to tickle your fancy. Also, why not have a snoop around our past material using the quick links on the short-cut column left of here. There are plenty of articles and the past seasonal news pages have links to other items of interest including YouTube videos and film trailers. Talking of film trailers, do check out our past annual film top tens and the 'other worthies' for ideas of films you might wish to download or stream. There's also plenty of on the site to mine. As a teaser we have included, in the current edition below, one from the archives.

Above all, during this difficult time, ensure that you and those close to you keep safe. We are not out of this yet.

Thank you for visiting us. (And thank those of you on social media for spreading the word that we are

still here. Appreciated.)

☺

Most recently added

v30(4) 2020.9.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Autumn 2020

v30(4) 2020.9.15 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v30(3) 2020.4.20 -- New Columns & Articles for the Summer 2020

v30(3) 2020.4.20 -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews

v30(3) 2020.4.20 -- Non-Fiction SF & Science Fact Book Reviews

v30(2) 2020.3.15 -- A new story from the Nature Futures series

v30(1) 2020.1.15 -- New Columns & Articles for the Spring 2020