io9's Complete Guide to Science Fiction Season

It's time for the annual science fiction season to begin. Spring and summer are when giant science fiction flicks hit the screens, and even more giant science fiction conventions open their doors to the hundreds of thousands of light saber-wielding masses. New television series will debut (Clone Wars!), and old ones will restart (Battlestar!) Plus, you'll have a chance to snap up copies of awesome new books from Greg Egan, Karen Joy Fowler, Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod, and Nancy Kress. If you want to know where to go and what to do when you're in a science fictional way from April to August, then look no further than io9's exhaustive, amazing, intensive list of everything scifi this season.

Special Note: We have tried to list as much as possible here, but there are always things that will get left out. If you want to know every single book coming out this season, check out Locus magazine's exhaustive and ever-expanding list. And if you want to know about more cons, check the user-generated list at ConFinder, as well as the Ansible Events List (mostly UK). If you know of sites that list European and Asian cons, let us know in comments so we can add it here.

Image above by Redandjonny.

April

Books
Karen Joy Fowler, Wit's End
Orson Scott Card, Keeper of Dreams
Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods
Walter Jon Williams, Implied Spaces

Movies and Television
April 4
Final Season of Battlestar Galactica begins

Conventions
April 4-6
I-CON 27 - Stony Brook, NY - $55 registration at the door
Odyssey Con VIII - Madison, WI - $45 registration at the door
WillyCon X-Treme - Wayne, NE - $20 registration at the door
April 11-13
CoastCon 31 - Biloxi, MS $40 registration at the door
April 18-20
Conglomeration 2008 - Louisville, KY - $40 registration at the door
EerieCon Ten - Niagara Falls, NY - $35 registration until April 8
New York Comic Con - New York, NY - $45 registration
Penguicon 6.0 - Troy, MI - $45 registration at the door
April 24-27
Nebula Awards Weekend - Austin, TX - $50 registration
April 25-27
RavenCon 2008 - Richmond, VA - $35 registration until
UberCon - Edison, NJ - $65 registration
Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention - Lombard, IL - $35 registration
April 26
Uni-Con 2008 - Rindge, NH - $25 registration at the door
April 26-27
Fantasticon 2008 - Copenhagen, Denmark - 15 euro

May

Books
Cory Doctorow, Little Brother
Ellen Datlow, The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (stories)
Greg Egan, Incandescence
Nancy Kress, Nano Comes to Clifford Falls (stories)
Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Steampunk (stories)

Movies and Television
May 2
Iron Man
May 9
Speed Racer
May 22
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Conventions
May 2-4
DemiCon 19 - Des Moines, IA - $45 registration
May 9-11
LepreCon 34 - Casa Grande, AZ - $40 registration through April 15
May 15-18
Eurocon-2008 - Moscow, Russia - $100 registration at the door
May 16-18
Chronicling Mars: The 2008 Eaton Science Fiction Conference - Riverside, CA - $110 registration until April 14
KeyCon 25 / CANvention 28 - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - 55 CAD before April 30
May 23-25
CONduit XVIII - Salt Lake City, UT - $35 registration until May 1
Oasis 21 - Orlando, FL - $30 registration until April 30
May 23-26
Balticon 42 - Baltimore, MD - $59 registration after April 1
Timegate: Regenerations - Atlanta, GA - $35 registration until April 30
WisCon 32 - Madison, WI - $45 registration through April 30
BayCon - Santa Clara, CA - $70 through May 10
May 30-June 1
ConCarolinas - Charlotte, NC - $25 registration until May 25

June

Books
Jacqueline Carey, Kushiel's Mercy
Stephen Baxter, Flood
Tanya Huff, Valor's Trial

Movies and Television
June 13
The Happening
The Incredible Hulk
June 27
Wanted
Wall-E

Conventions
June 13-15
DucKon 17 - Naperville, IL - $40 registration until May 1
June 26-29
Midwestcon 59 - Cincinnati, OH - $25 registration until May 25
June 27-29
ApolloCon 2008 - Houston, TX - $30 registration until May 1
June 28-29
ConRunner 2008 - Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom - £35 registration until June 21

July

Books
Charles Stross, Saturn's Children
Greg Bear, City at the End of Time
David Louis Edelman, MultiReal

Movies and Television
July 2
Hancock
July 4
Love Story 2050
Jul 11
Meet Dave
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
Jul 18
The Dark Knight
Space Chimps
July 25
X-Files 2

Conventions
July 3-6
CONvergence 2008 - Bloomington, MN - $53.50 registration
Westercon 61: A Gathering of Fen in the Desert - Las Vegas, NV - $60 registration until April 28
July 10-13
Science Fiction Research Association 39th Annual Conference held jointly with the 2008 Campbell Conference: "Teaching, Reading and Creating Science Fiction" - Lawrence, KS - $140 registration until April 30
July 11-13
OSFest: The Omaha Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival - Omaha, NE - $40 registration until June 30
Polaris 22 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - 50 CND registration until June 2
July 17-20
Readercon 19 with guests of honor Jonathan Lethem & James Patrick Kelly - Burlington, MA - $50 registration until June 30
July 18-20
Lazy Dragon Con - McKinney, TX - registration opens July 18
July 24-27
Dum Dum 2008 - Waterloo, IA - registration information available soon
San Diego International Comic-Con - San Diego, CA - daily registration from $20 to $35
July 25-27
Confluence 2008 - Pittsburgh, PA - $35 registration until early July (date TBA)
July 26-28
Finncon08 - Tampere, Finland - free
July 31-August 3
Oslo Science Fiction Festival - Oslo, Norway

August

Books
Ben Bova, Mars Life
Ken MacLeod, The Night Sessions
John Scalzi, Zoe's Tale
Tobias Buckell, Sly Mongoose
Judith Merril, Not Only a Woman (collection of four Merril novels, two co-authored with C.M. Kornbluth)

Movies and Television
Aug 15
Clone Wars TV series debut
Aug 29
Babylon A.D.

Conventions
August 1-3
Diversicon 16 - Minneapolis, MN - $30 registration until July 14
Fandemonium '08 - Nampa, ID - $30 registration until July 20
August 6-10
Denvention 3: The 66th World Science Fiction Convention - Denver, CO - $200 for full membership until July 10
August 15-17
Con-Version 24 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada - $60 registration
August 21-24
Gatecon - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - $135 registration
August 22-24
Bubonicon 40 - Albuquerque, NM - $30 registration until May 1
August 29-Sept. 1
Dragon*Con - Atlanta, GA - $65 registration until May 15, 2008

Additional reporting by Nivair H. Gabriel.

Send an email to Annalee Newitz, the author of this post, at annalee@io9.com.

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