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A really brief Renovation report. And a book I'm this close to throwing at someone.
Had a blast at the 69th World Science Fiction Convention.
Got to a good number of panels, took a ton of notes. Two standouts were the "Alternate Alternate History Panel" where the idea was to identify the moments in history that had to be the result of interference by time travelers. Take for example the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. After three failed attempts, the driver took a wrong turn that resulted in the motorcade stopping directly in front of the food shop where Gavrilo Princip had retreated after the failure to carry out the attack. See the stalled cars, Princip acted, shooting both the Archduke and his wife.
Which led to World War I. In which a young Austrian corporal earned the Iron Cross and later got into politics... How else do you explain the Archdukes car stalling directly in front of an assassin on a side street not on the correct route? The driver was a time traveler!
The next best example was the life of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, the first true emperor of Rome. Augustus, according to Roman accounts, had been sickly most of his life. He wasn't even named by his parents out of the belief that he'd die young. He was pale, skinny, had a constant cough, and coughed up blood when ill. Yet he lived to be 75, and was Emperor for forty years. By the time he died, the bulk of Roman adults had never known anything but the empire, and accepted it as the norm. Had he succumbed to any of his many illnesses, Rome might have returned to being a Republic. Meaning no Roman roads, no Roman conquest of Judea, and no spread of a messianic Judean cult across the non-existent empire. Obviously time-travelers were providing Augustus with advanced medical care!
Also very good was the "Building Realistic Planets" panel. All sort of crunchy goodness there.
Made all three of Dr. Demento's panel events, including his fascinating presentation on the life and music of Frank Zappa.
There were three panels I had to walk out of. Some of the larger meeting rooms had terrible acoustics, and all the rooms had been provided with microphones. Some panelists refused to use them, even after multiple cries from the audience of "microphone, please!" Some even looked annoyed that we expected to be able to hear the proceedings.
Spent most of my time in Hall 2, which was the main exhibit hall. Everything that wasn't a panel or a stage event was here: Dealers Room, Art Show, Fan Lounge, Fan History Project, Autographing, Teen Lounge, Day Gaming, and Fan Tables. Along with the con bids and our table for Convolution, there was a nice group of ladies who were there to hand out free books, DVDs, and videotapes from the library of a fan who had passed away. Great idea, and us more vocally-trained folks would occasionally take up up the call of "FREE BOOKS!" for them. They gave away almost everything. I got a couple of good Viking movies (The Long Ships and The Vikings), Field of Dreams, and the first Harry Potter film for Kiri.
Really didn't spend too much time on the party floor except for Friday night. Spoon conservation + a strong dislike of very crowded spaces. We do go up Friday for the Convolution kick-off. I wandered down to the London in 2014 party where I witnessed one of the worst example of fan behavior ever. They had a three-room suite, and in the bedroom they had two promotional videos playing. As we watched, a young woman came in, grabbed the house phone, yelled at us to turn the TV off, got very huffy when no one acted. When a befuddled fan finally did turn off the TV, she tried to make a call, slammed down the receiver, and stalked out. We had to tell the party leader that their promotional tape had been shut down. WTF?
Missed the Hugos due to exhaustion. But the next day I got to not only hold Chris' Hugo, but was put in charge of it.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kshandra actually had it in a much more interesting place at one point.
Sunday, after saying our goodbyes, we staggered down to our hotel pool and enjoyed some down time.
The drives up and back went off without too many problems. Taking US 50 was a good plan, as most of the time we had the road to ourselves and the climb into the Sierras is far more gradual than I-80. We also got to see one of the most awesome distance markers in the US
Now, the book. I really like the Ring of Fire series. I like the concept, I like the research that goes into detailing the effects of dropping a West Virginian mining town in Thuringia during the Thirty Years War. Some of the books are gripping, with political intrigues and conflict and well-drawn characters from both up-time and down-time. 1635: The Tangled Web isn't one of these books. It claims to be a "blended novel", a collection of different stories that make a whole. What it actually is a confusing mis-mash of numerous characters, endless expository text, and almost now action. Even the action points (like the kidnapping of an important abbot) happen off screen! I am never buying another book written by Virginia DeMarcie solo. She's decent with a co-author, but I cannot take 300 pages of endless talking!
Got to a good number of panels, took a ton of notes. Two standouts were the "Alternate Alternate History Panel" where the idea was to identify the moments in history that had to be the result of interference by time travelers. Take for example the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. After three failed attempts, the driver took a wrong turn that resulted in the motorcade stopping directly in front of the food shop where Gavrilo Princip had retreated after the failure to carry out the attack. See the stalled cars, Princip acted, shooting both the Archduke and his wife.
Which led to World War I. In which a young Austrian corporal earned the Iron Cross and later got into politics... How else do you explain the Archdukes car stalling directly in front of an assassin on a side street not on the correct route? The driver was a time traveler!
The next best example was the life of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, the first true emperor of Rome. Augustus, according to Roman accounts, had been sickly most of his life. He wasn't even named by his parents out of the belief that he'd die young. He was pale, skinny, had a constant cough, and coughed up blood when ill. Yet he lived to be 75, and was Emperor for forty years. By the time he died, the bulk of Roman adults had never known anything but the empire, and accepted it as the norm. Had he succumbed to any of his many illnesses, Rome might have returned to being a Republic. Meaning no Roman roads, no Roman conquest of Judea, and no spread of a messianic Judean cult across the non-existent empire. Obviously time-travelers were providing Augustus with advanced medical care!
Also very good was the "Building Realistic Planets" panel. All sort of crunchy goodness there.
Made all three of Dr. Demento's panel events, including his fascinating presentation on the life and music of Frank Zappa.
There were three panels I had to walk out of. Some of the larger meeting rooms had terrible acoustics, and all the rooms had been provided with microphones. Some panelists refused to use them, even after multiple cries from the audience of "microphone, please!" Some even looked annoyed that we expected to be able to hear the proceedings.
Spent most of my time in Hall 2, which was the main exhibit hall. Everything that wasn't a panel or a stage event was here: Dealers Room, Art Show, Fan Lounge, Fan History Project, Autographing, Teen Lounge, Day Gaming, and Fan Tables. Along with the con bids and our table for Convolution, there was a nice group of ladies who were there to hand out free books, DVDs, and videotapes from the library of a fan who had passed away. Great idea, and us more vocally-trained folks would occasionally take up up the call of "FREE BOOKS!" for them. They gave away almost everything. I got a couple of good Viking movies (The Long Ships and The Vikings), Field of Dreams, and the first Harry Potter film for Kiri.
Really didn't spend too much time on the party floor except for Friday night. Spoon conservation + a strong dislike of very crowded spaces. We do go up Friday for the Convolution kick-off. I wandered down to the London in 2014 party where I witnessed one of the worst example of fan behavior ever. They had a three-room suite, and in the bedroom they had two promotional videos playing. As we watched, a young woman came in, grabbed the house phone, yelled at us to turn the TV off, got very huffy when no one acted. When a befuddled fan finally did turn off the TV, she tried to make a call, slammed down the receiver, and stalked out. We had to tell the party leader that their promotional tape had been shut down. WTF?
Missed the Hugos due to exhaustion. But the next day I got to not only hold Chris' Hugo, but was put in charge of it.
kshandra actually had it in a much more interesting place at one point.Sunday, after saying our goodbyes, we staggered down to our hotel pool and enjoyed some down time.
The drives up and back went off without too many problems. Taking US 50 was a good plan, as most of the time we had the road to ourselves and the climb into the Sierras is far more gradual than I-80. We also got to see one of the most awesome distance markers in the US
Now, the book. I really like the Ring of Fire series. I like the concept, I like the research that goes into detailing the effects of dropping a West Virginian mining town in Thuringia during the Thirty Years War. Some of the books are gripping, with political intrigues and conflict and well-drawn characters from both up-time and down-time. 1635: The Tangled Web isn't one of these books. It claims to be a "blended novel", a collection of different stories that make a whole. What it actually is a confusing mis-mash of numerous characters, endless expository text, and almost now action. Even the action points (like the kidnapping of an important abbot) happen off screen! I am never buying another book written by Virginia DeMarcie solo. She's decent with a co-author, but I cannot take 300 pages of endless talking!
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