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Showing posts from August, 2018

Special Con Review, Part I: WorldCon 76 Offers a Universe of Diversity

Credit: Pixabay.com WorldCon 76 (a.k.a the 76 th World Science Fiction Convention) in San Jose ran from Thursday of last week through Monday of this, but I was only able to attend Friday through Sunday. I wasn’t even there for the majority of Friday because I left the house late and had to take a later train from Sacramento. But even if I had been there all five days it still probably wouldn’t have been enough time to see everything. For one thing, the time slots of many great events overlapped with each other. For another, many of the panels were packed to the point where there wasn’t even standing room. At least half of the ones I made it into I was either standing or sitting on the floor which this latter was a literal pain after having sat for 20 minutes. Other than the overcrowdedness, it all went by really good. There wasn’t even much of a problem with the Alt Right protest going on outside the McEnery Convention Center. Before, I thought I was going to have to walk a

WorldCon 76 Charity Auction To Offer a Vast Selection of Sci Fi Treasures

Credit: Pixabay.com In less than a week I will be attending WorldCon 76! I’ve been looking at the programme schedule (the newly revised one ): the number of panels and other events are overwhelming! A person can’t say there won’t be enough events or activity there. There are going to be plenty of writing and art panels, fiction reading panels, author signings, game panels, film screenings, cosplay and of course the Hugo Awards ! You can find the programme schedule here  for more activities. One of the events that I don’t dare fail to mention, though, is the charity auction. It is the main charity event of the world science fiction convention for this year. I was looking at the list of donated auction items the other day and it has some really neat sci fi and fantasy stuff! My Donation In Honour of a Horror Show Host WorldCon’s charity auction will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California and Northern Nevada. The Alzheimer’s Association is a non

No Patience for a Sci Fi / Fantasy Novel Series? Try a Novella!

Credit: Pixabay.com As much as I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman and as great as his novel American Gods has been said to be, I have not read it. That’s because I’m not a big fan of novels that go over 400 pages regardless of genre. Not that I’ll never read American Gods ; I’m just not ready to work my way through an extra long work any time soon. Anything more than the equivalent of a 400-page mass trade paperback novel I normally try to stay away from. I’m afraid that if I try reading it that I’ll put it aside to read other things and take a break from it--a permanent break. It’s happened to me twice with one book -- Don Quixote . So, as much as I’d like to read American Gods and probably will someday, I’ve turned to the “alternative” instead. Actually I’ve turned to two alternatives: two American Gods sequels (see the list below for titles) . However, you probably won’t find them on shelves at the bookstores, much less the library, yet. At least not as their own book