Pros and Cons

[gothwalk]

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.

Comments

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

Have to agree with you, I was very disappointed in it indeed, it sometimes feels like they don't care and don't really want to make an effort, at least this year they had books for sale by the authors at the con, the non-appearance of some of the authors says something!

I liked it

[cheerfulcynic.livejournal.com]

But then I only ever go for the guests and the programme and the programme definitely had stuff to chew on. I was expecting good things from China but Juliet E. McKenna was a revelation. I have not read, nor am I likely to read her books but she is a damn good intelligent and articulate panellist and her presence as a guest will be a definite pull factor from now on.

I reroute around fandom automatically but had damn good political, econmonic, sociological, typographical and ethical discussions with people who would be described as archetypal fans.

Picked up a good Paul McAuley and resisted the lure of some early MZBs.

The music on Saturday night was pretty good too - I have the bruising to prove it:)