Skip to main content

Arisia 2016

This past weekend, Lauren and I went to Arisia for our sixth visit to the science fiction convention. We both had an amazing time, which I’ve shared through various social medias already. Posting on Ancient Logic gives me the chance to drill down into what is so great about this convention and what I’m going to take away from it.

An explanation for this follows. Scalzi on right, me on the left. (Lauren Shamitz-Crooks 2016)
First off, John Scalzi, author of Old Man’s War and Red Shirts, was the guest of honor. Scalzi has refused to attend any convention that doesn’t have a strong anti-harassment policy in place and after holding Arisia up as an example of a convention that has done this right, he agreed to attend Arisia 2016. 

Which created a kind of super-sized Arisia experience. There were good and bad elements to this. Although my experience in the Registration line was mild, I know friends who waited an hour+ for their badges. I haven't heard the final numbers but it felt more crowded this year. On the good side, I think talented and amazing panelists were also in abundance this year. I’ve seen my fair share of panel train-wrecks, but none were in evidence at Arisia 2016.

As mentioned, I had three panels this year, every single one amazing. During the Future of Mars panel, I even had the chance to talk with the guest of honor. Prior to the panel starting I presented him with a Fentimans Dandelion and Burdock soda, because he mentioned enjoying obscure sodas. He described the taste as being like “carbonated Ricola,” which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement but isn’t a total gift fail either.

So the panel. This was actually pretty great. Mars is one of those topics I have a natural interest in because I see it as the ur-topic of much science fiction. Even when a space opera isn’t set on Mars, per se, such as Tatooine or Vulcan, it’s really just a Mars story with the name changed. The conversation was wide-ranging and knowledgeable, with great input from Nalin Ratnayake, Jeff Hect, and Scalzi. Multiple people came up to thank Ken Schneyer for his moderation of the panel, which I personally think should be archived as a ‘how-to’ on running these things. I got a chance to talk with Nalin after the panel about his work. A bleak look at the future of education called “Parched Lands” appeared in Crossed Genres two years ago, and he just released his novel about Martian colonization, “Red Soil Through Our Fingers." I’d check out both.

I also had conversations with Ken Liu, John Chu, Sarah Weintraub, and Crystal Huff in the Genre Fiction in Translation panel. Ken and John have provided me considerable enjoyment as a reader from both their own works and the exemplary work on bringing Chinese speculative fiction stories into English. In addition to getting an impressive list of work to check out, the audience also heard the convoluted tale of how Ken Liu came to translate the “Three Body Problem” from China’s beloved author Liu CiXin (reviewed last year in Ancient Logic).

Saturday was the Geeky Bellydance show, where I saw my wife perform an amazing dance as a forlorn chicken with her Kira-luna partner Wendee Abramo. For the rest of the night I got to be part of a rock star’s entourage as people played tribute to the awesomeness of this number.

I had a number of great conversations with friends old and new, which I’ll list in no particular order: Alex LaHurreau, Gillian Daniels, Matt and Rachel McComb, Melanie Griffiths, Dan Toland, and Matt Timmins. 

Also cool was the Indie Game Expo which I'm hoping comes back next year. It’s the sort of thing really expands the reach of Arisia as well as bringing in local designers and creators. I played this game called Dragoon, which I'm totally buying, where you play a dragon with the power to either gather tribute from villages or lay waste to them all. Fun mechanics and clever art design make this is a winner. 

Finally, on the last day I took part in “The End of All Things” panel with Sarah Smith and Venetia Charles. We all took turns moderating the panel and enjoyed a huge turn-out for a panel scheduled second to last on the schedule. I added a bunch of titles to my to-read list and left the con feeling exhilarated but sad. The only real bummer about an Arisia weekend is having it come to an end and knowing it’ll be a year before it happens again.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review of R. Scott Bakker's The Darkness That Comes Before

First, a word about how I came to pick up the first novel in R. Scott Bakker's The Prince of Nothing historical fantasy series. In short, after finishing "A Dance with Dragons," by George R.R. I googled what should I read next. This series came up. I mention this because it might serve as a usual gauge for what to expect from "The Darkness That Came Before;" people liking Martin's mix of history, in-depth characterization, dark subject matter, and world-building will probably like Bakker's work. People not fond of entire chapters devoted to the Byzantine political maneuvers, a dozen pages of appendices on characters, maps, and language trees, or character names with umlauts should avoid this book. Basically, the story of 'The Darkness That Comes Before," follows a warrior monk by the name of Anasürimbur Kellhus, who during a quest to find his father, becomes entwined with a Holy War against a nation of fanatical monotheists. The story is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Death's End by Liu Cixin

Having recently finished the last book in Liu Cixin's instant classic "The Remembrance of Earth's Past" series, Death's End, I can only report a feeling of total amazement and awe. There is so much about this novel that blew my mind, that offered different and better ways of viewing the universe. This novel did what I wish more novels would, serve up a new universe entire, evoking beauty and horror, nobility and disgust, in a timeless monument to unfettered speculation.  Obviously, in discussing the events of the last of a trilogy books, spoilers are to be expected. I am, however, going to try to avoid discussing much beyond the first 100 pages of the third novel. I read the translation of this novel, as ushered into being by the amazing talent of Ken Liu. Ken has written of a certain prickliness when it comes to translating work. He makes an effort not to anglicize the source material, not smudging away the occasional difficulties in bringing Cixin...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Reaction to Peter Watts' "Echopraxia"

Peter Watts’ Echopraxia  is a side-sequel to his previous hard sf horror novel  Blindsight . Daniel Bruks, a biologist in the Eastern Oregonian desert, gets stuck in the middle of a war between a fugitive vampire and a cult of rewired post-humans called Bicamerals, ultimately kidnapped by them as they head towards the sun. The goal of post-human and vampire alike is to investigate a possible alien intelligence gaining strength there, to determine if it poses a threat, or offers a weapon for the two sides as they struggle for advantage. Bruks' goal is simple survival. Reading Watts is a simultaneously bracing and discouraging experience. Bracing because his depiction of the future and the oddities who inhabit it continue to get better and better, his plots more complicated and more involving, his characters less like sock-puppets for his ideas and more like actual human beings (or whatevers). Discouraging because Watts uses his considerable gifts, artistic and academic, ...
Post a Comment
Read more