Pros and Cons

I went to Ireland's national science-fiction convention today. Octocon. And let me tell you, it was miserable. Now, since I met, got books signed by and generally fanboyed at China Mieville, I'm more than happy with my time there. But apart from that... it was awful. There were five traders. One of these was Dandelion Books, which had an ok selection of secondhand sf and fantasy. But only OK. There are half a dozen authors I keep an eye out for in secondhand selections, and none of them were there - nor were any books that anyone I knew there and was talking to were looking for. Another was selling signed pictures of various TV series actors. Two more were a small comics and toy shop, and a small second-hand comics shop. And the fifth had a few more second-hand books, and a woeful tombola. And apart from the actual sessions - which admittedly, were quite good, that was it. Now I realise that I'm biased on this; I like the pickup games of gaming cons, and the good dealers that are usually there much more than I like sci-fi cons, but still. It was dead. And sf fandom seems to exist for the sake of existing - there were people there who evidently had more interest in the fandom than the sf itself, which is just weird.

However, China Mieville rocks, and I'll continue to give Octocon money if they continue to have guests like him.