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.









Comments
Uhhh... Doctor Who?
Complexion like that, almost didn't notice the lack of armor
SPF 500
Having said that, I think I'm love.
"No, no baby. Leave the helmet on"
I think the tattoos clash with the helmet.
Who is that woman in the picture? I would like to marry her.
That's quite a list. Must try and make it to a Con or two this year. Haven't been to one since Balticon about seven years ago.
Also must speak with the recruiters with the 501st. If cool tats come with a tour of duty, I'm up for fragging some rebel scum.
@NefariousNewt: Shut the hell up. Just shut up. SHUT UP!
Eureka?
"Movies and Television
April 4
Final Season of Battlestar Galactica begins
April 5
Doctor Who Season 5 Begins (UK)"
@braak: Sorry. Jezebel comment leakage. Won't happen again. Return to what you were doing Citizen.
@KhaiJB: oops typo - thats season 4. wishful thinking on my part...
I'll be at CONvergence this year pretending to be David Tennant.
@NefariousNewt: Next you'll be pointing out the non-regulation length hair :/
while not really sci-fi [www.siggraph.org] is when lots of studios pimp their stuff...and where anything VFXy gets talked about...and the parties can't be beat.
I know it's not as cool as ComiCon, but Wizard World Chicago is happening June 26-29, 2008. And allegedly, Warren Ellis will be there.
OMG!! Space Chimps opens the same day as Dark Knight?!?
How will I choose which one to go see..?
errr....or maybe that was 2007? The web site isn't clear.
..and where will the io9 contingent be making an appearance this upcoming season?
Can you say 'generous expense account'?
I take it that you don't like Neal Asher in the least?
I'm looking forward to:
- Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity April 2008
- Line War Available April 30th 2008
@CSX321: Last I heard Eureka had not been picked up for a 3rd season. That is unless you know otherwise... I thought it was awesome..
@ideaman2020: I saw that too! Space Chimps! I mean talk about a movie that I know nothing about but am ready to see because it's about Monkeys in Outer Space! Primates in a Space Ship is like Science Fiction Nirvana. Oh My God I have to change my underwear!
If Jango Fett had looked like that, the Emperor could've conquered the Universe with Love. Where IS she keeping her blaster, anyway?
@braak
Sorry, but that trooper is spoken for.
She's Red of the inimitable trooper couple, Red and Jonny.
[flickr.com]
These crazy kids are great.
Maybe these are the droids your looking for, why don't I pull over someplace quiet and you can perform a thorough search.
"Aren't you a little flat-chested for a Storm Trooper?"
Yeah, that would be Red of redandjonny. And naughty naughty stealing a photo from flickr (and doubly naughty for doing so without linking back to it).
"Everything's fine here...We're all fine here now, thank you...how are you?...and what are you doing tonight?"
@Adam Fields: We credited it to Redandjonny and linked back to it. It's right there, in image credit at the end of the text in the first paragraph.
Tattoos make Plague cry over delicious pale skin...
More game-related than scifi, but I thing GenCon Indy is worth mentioning. Aug 14-17 in Indianapolis.
[www.gencon.com]
I also like Origins in Columbus, Ohio. June 25-29.
[www.originsgamefair.com]
And by "thing" I mean "think"
obviously
My inner Ricky Ricardo slipped out there.
@Annalee: Noted - I did miss that. Although... the flickr guidelines say that the picture itself must link back to the photo page.
Who is that angel? 'cause it's time to write a bad check!
@Plague: But tattoos are the easiest way to say you're a non-conformist just like everyone else!!!
i09 meetup at Baycon and Worldcon? pleeeease?
Go to Google Calendar on July 25 and enter "X-files II" as a daylong event. What response do you get???
I love tattoos! You forgot Concinnity at MSOE in Milwaukee April 26 and 27th. I only raise this point because I've just been hired to teach Science Fiction at there in the Fall. Hooray! My PhD is paying off!
@vurtscribe: Hey I graduated from MSOE! Yay! but science fiction not engineering?
@Adam Fields: OK, I tweaked it so the image itself should link back to the Flickr page. Thanks for the heads up.
Don't forget Starfest in Dever! Apr 18-20
[starland.com]
This is from the SciFi Channels website about Eureka-Sept. 27, 2007
Great news! The SCI FI Channel has announced that it has ordered a third season of all-new episodes of its most-watched show, Eureka. The new season is scheduled to debut on the channel in summer of 2008.
July Books:
Gardner Dozois' Year's Best Science Fiction vol. umpty.
July Con:
Conestoga, 7/25-27: [www.sftulsa.org]
@justpat: Sadly nothing, thanks for wasting my TIME!!
Out of curiosity.. what did you get?
@Log1c
I've been hired into the General Studies department. My PhD is in English Literature, but I've been working with the College of Engineering here at Louisiana State University as Tech Comm specialist. So MSOE is a perfect fit for me, a little of my SF passion and a little of Tec Comm goodness!
Did you like it at MSOE? The campus and city are wonderful.
@braak (is totally a chick. Seriously.): I think you need to get out from behind the puter a bit more often.
@Garrison Dean: I find that teh best way to be a non-conformist is to do NOTHING that anyone else already does, and when someone else does wha tyou do..stop doing it..I'm too apathetic to conform..
I think the girl inthe picture is all of TWELVE...
May 12th The Digital Plague comes out.
I dunno if anybody here read The Electric Church, but this is its sequel. It's real like guilty pleasure reading.
Hopefully I can get my gas mask out of hock before the local anime convention.
@XMACHINA: don't spoil the magic, XMACHINA. i love Space mountain, but only when the lights are OUT. dig?
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