LONCON 2014 - back to reality
Got back from Worldcon late last night and my brain is still in science fiction mode. I had a terrific time, and have signed by to pre-support Dublin so that I can (hopefully) repeat the experience in 2019.
Arrived much later than expected because my train was cancelled, but the upside of that was the queue at registration was minimal. My hotel had a weird bathroom with a shower that resembled a disintegration booth from 70s telly science fiction! It was about a 15 minute walk to the con, and roughly half of that was walking the length of the Excel from one end to the other. For my bad knee I’d been advised to walk on smooth, flat surfaces, and the Excel has that in droves!
All my panels were over and done with by 23.00 on the Friday, so I had the rest of the time free. I think that was a good thing, as there were some frazzled folks who had stuff scheduled every day of the con.
Highlights:
- David Wake’s play - The Cancellation and Re-Imagining of Captain Tartan. Deeply, deeply silly and very funny.
- Settling the Alien World - this was one panel where the 75 minute slot really came into its own. It had a big ‘cast’ of panellists and there was plenty of time for all of them to have their say.
- Speculative Biology: Furaha and Snaiad - two very good presentations and lots of neat animations and illustrations. I’ll have to go look at their websites and see if I can find some other speculative biology sites.
- Race and British SF. I almost didn’t make it to this, since there was a typo in the programme and I had to go to the green room to find out that ‘room 5’ actually meant ‘room 15’. Good discussion, and nice to hear that YA novels are reflecting UK diversity.
- The Biology of Sex and Gender. Lots of interesting facts - who knew that fungi had 5 genders? This was one of those panels where the time flew by and when the moderator said “We only have 10 minutes left” I was really surprised that it had been going for 40 mins!
- Working For a Living - the invisibility of the working class in SF is a bugbear with me and this was a very good discussion of the topic.
- Space Colonies - The Ultimate Gated Communities or Sink Estates? Very informative, lots of good questions from the audience and I came away with a list of both fiction and non-fiction books to read.
- Amateurs Talk Tactics, Professionals Talk Logistics - there was a huge crowd for this outside a very small room, so they switched us to a larger one. Well done committee and tech for the swift swap.
Panels I failed to get into because the room assigned was too small for the demand:
- Military SF: Continuity and Change. It is military SF with Joe Haldeman on the panel, yet they put it in one of the smaller rooms. WTF?
- Why Are Alien Languages Inherently Human?
- Rat’s Monkey’s Ass (swearing in SF)
I was pleasantly surprised by the food prices at the Excel. The various concessions were ‘railway station’ prices rather than ‘London hotel’ prices, so food didn’t cost what I feared it would. Great selection too - I ate Thai, Indian, high street bakery, pizza and sushi amongst others.
Arrived much later than expected because my train was cancelled, but the upside of that was the queue at registration was minimal. My hotel had a weird bathroom with a shower that resembled a disintegration booth from 70s telly science fiction! It was about a 15 minute walk to the con, and roughly half of that was walking the length of the Excel from one end to the other. For my bad knee I’d been advised to walk on smooth, flat surfaces, and the Excel has that in droves!
All my panels were over and done with by 23.00 on the Friday, so I had the rest of the time free. I think that was a good thing, as there were some frazzled folks who had stuff scheduled every day of the con.
Highlights:
- David Wake’s play - The Cancellation and Re-Imagining of Captain Tartan. Deeply, deeply silly and very funny.
- Settling the Alien World - this was one panel where the 75 minute slot really came into its own. It had a big ‘cast’ of panellists and there was plenty of time for all of them to have their say.
- Speculative Biology: Furaha and Snaiad - two very good presentations and lots of neat animations and illustrations. I’ll have to go look at their websites and see if I can find some other speculative biology sites.
- Race and British SF. I almost didn’t make it to this, since there was a typo in the programme and I had to go to the green room to find out that ‘room 5’ actually meant ‘room 15’. Good discussion, and nice to hear that YA novels are reflecting UK diversity.
- The Biology of Sex and Gender. Lots of interesting facts - who knew that fungi had 5 genders? This was one of those panels where the time flew by and when the moderator said “We only have 10 minutes left” I was really surprised that it had been going for 40 mins!
- Working For a Living - the invisibility of the working class in SF is a bugbear with me and this was a very good discussion of the topic.
- Space Colonies - The Ultimate Gated Communities or Sink Estates? Very informative, lots of good questions from the audience and I came away with a list of both fiction and non-fiction books to read.
- Amateurs Talk Tactics, Professionals Talk Logistics - there was a huge crowd for this outside a very small room, so they switched us to a larger one. Well done committee and tech for the swift swap.
Panels I failed to get into because the room assigned was too small for the demand:
- Military SF: Continuity and Change. It is military SF with Joe Haldeman on the panel, yet they put it in one of the smaller rooms. WTF?
- Why Are Alien Languages Inherently Human?
- Rat’s Monkey’s Ass (swearing in SF)
I was pleasantly surprised by the food prices at the Excel. The various concessions were ‘railway station’ prices rather than ‘London hotel’ prices, so food didn’t cost what I feared it would. Great selection too - I ate Thai, Indian, high street bakery, pizza and sushi amongst others.