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Worldcon Panels: Consistent Magic Systems in Fantasy
In many fantasies, particularly in very popular YA fantasy series, magic seems…well…magical. Things happen, for no reason beyond the quick application of a magic wand. Is it possible to make magic systems consistent? Who are some authors who’ve managed to achieve this?
L.E. Modesitt Jr., Tim Powers, Pat Rothfuss, Jo Walton (m), Gregory A. Wilson
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Worldcon Panels: Traveling Before the Motored Horse
For thousands of years, if you traveled anywhere, you walked. Taming horses for travel was a huge leap forward. Have fiction writers over the last 100 years really understood the details of “pre-motor” travel? Join horse and history experts Ellen Asher and Melinda Snodgras for an analysis of what it was really like to go cross country via horse.
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Worldcon Panels: Minority Representation in SF Art and the Ugly Reality
Minority representation needs to get better in our visual SF, including casting in film and TV and the design and selection of cover art. A discussion of what’s wrong with the status quo and how the industry can and should improve. Aliette de Bodard, Lee Harris, Lee Moyer (m), Naamen Tilahun
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Worldcon Panels: The Hidden Monkey Wrench in Cloning
How can two cats have identical DNA and yet look and act differently? What’s going on? Speculation on what we might not know and why cloning might be a whole lot more complicated than we think.
Nancy Kress, Sam Scheiner, Joan Slonczewski (m), Dan Wells, Patricia Wheeler
I came in 15 minutes late, so I basically have no idea who these folks are ( Read more... ) -
Worldcon Panels: The Alternate Alternate History Panel
Panelists provide examples of historical events in which time travelers clearly intervened to produce what we know as the historical outcome. For example, Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo when his driver makes a wrong turn at the exact corner where an assassin who had earlier failed to attack the Archduke happened to be standing, and ( Read more... ) -
Worldcon Panels: Creating Gods
How does an author introduce superbeings into a work without pushing the human characters into insignificance? Gods are often gigantic projections of human characteristics. Can they serve other functions as well? Why are polytheistic settings so common in fantasy? What sources are authors using, and why? Why do readers find them so compelling?
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Worldcon Panels: Far Future SF, Then and Now
Far future SF has been a staple of the genre since before the genre existed. How does this particular SFnal trope reflect the time in which the stories are written-the hopes, fears, concerns, and limitations of the then-present day. What can we learn by examining the far future fiction of the recent past and this coming fall?
Howard V. Hendrix, Kay ( Read more... ) -
Worldcon Panels: A Dialog on Free Will
Tim Powers and David Goldman have been having a discussion on Free Will over the years. Join in on the latest chapter of this dialog.
David W. Goldman, Tim Powers
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Worldcon Panels: Fandom Online
Fandom Online: Is the Argument Over? What Was (Is?) the Argument About?
Many SF fans are part of the online community too. Yet we seem to keep emphasising opposition rather than overlap. Are some of us always looking for a fight or is there still real cause for concern?
Claire Brialey, Chris Garcia (m), Teresa Nielsen Hayden, John Scalzi
Chris Garcia ( Read more... ) -
Worldcon Panels: Designing Believable Physics
Is it possible that the laws of physics behave differently in different parts or times of the universe? How would that impact world creation? Would biological development even happen, or might intelligence arise in some other way?
Gregory Benford, Ctein, Steve Gillett, John G. Hemry, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (m)
No picture for this one, sadly.
Hemry ( Read more... )