WorldCon 2010 - Melbourne

[GOLLUM]

Just wondering, what is the total number of votes for the award? That two should tie seems remote. Or do they award a tie if the two top vote getters are within, say, 1% of each other?

I liked The Windup Girl a bit better myself, but I don't really have any problem with the tie. I thought Eugie Foster's novelette was easily the best on of the nominees in that category and McIntosh's Bridesicle was an excellent short story although I'd probably have voted for Kij Johnson's Spar.

Weell....McIntosh won in that category.

As far as what the voter breakdown was, they've apparently going to publish the entire voting procEdure in Locus magazine. So once that occurs we'll see what is what......

 

[Connavar]

OK, today was Sunday and the second last day of the Con. A highlight of today's proceedings for me was a panel discussion featuring Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories. The panel included Gardner Dozios, George RR Martin and Australian author Terry Dowling, the latter who appears to be a somewhat close friend of Mr Vance. Whilst they focused on the Dying Earth "series" they also spoke about Fritz Leiber's classic Lankmahr series, the point being that both of these series have that timeless quality, which is likely a key reason as to their apparent appeal to readers of today.

Other great works by Vance that were mentioned and that I happily own copies of, included The Dragon Masters, the Demon Princess series, Planet stories and Lyonesse. Key points regarding Vance's work aside from them being, in many cases, marvelous works in their own right, was the deliberate sparsity of Vance's prose that still manages to achieve a level of richness through the judicious use of words but also the employment of dialogue and his obvious admiration for one P.G. Wodehouse. The other thing frequently mentioned was Vance's ability to imbue a certain level of ambiance into his works; Vance loved to breathe life into his worlds as a precursor to populating them with various "characters". One thing I was not aware of was that Vance has been severely visually impaired for the last 20 odd years and as such was using a voice recognition program to help him write up his manuscripts.

o good night and adieu!

Shame you hadnt read Jack Vance Gollum you would have enjoyed the talks more. Him being my alltime fav author im so jealous of you.

Listen to GRRM great taste,admiration and read JV

Everything you mentioned from the talks is something his readers would understand and the reason you read Jack Vance.

 

[GOLLUM]

Shame you hadnt read Jack Vance Gollum you would have enjoyed the talks more. Him being my alltime fav author im so jealous of you.

Er...actually I have hence my reference to those books and anthologies I own..... It was in fact why the panel discussion was such a highlight for me!

Cheers.

 

[Rosemary]

Great write up on the AussieCon, Gollum.

I shall post my efforts in my Blog!

 

[GOLLUM]

Weell....I'm going to set up a blog soon and probably have an article on the Con as an early addition to the blog site.

 

[Connavar]

Er...actually I have hence my reference to those books and anthologies I own..... It was in fact why the panel discussion was such a highlight for me!

Cheers.

You had ah my bad i thought he was one of those you had collected but not read yet. Looking forward to see that blog about your experience in the Con in general too.

Heh i thought you were talking about Vance stories they talked about and what you knew about them after the talks.

 

[GOLLUM]

Nope although I have not read ALL of those series I own yet; you are correct. I just enjoyed listening to what they were saying on the panel about Vance the man and his Dying Earth series. People then got to ask questions from the audience but I was just enjoying the chat and did not ask anything. It's a shame you were not there Conn. You really would have enjoyed the Convention!!...

 

[Connavar]

Nope although I have not read ALL of those series I own yet; you are correct. I just enjoyed listening to what they were saying on the panel about Vance the man and his Dying Earth series. People then got to ask questions from the audience but I was just enjoying the chat and did not ask anything. It's a shame you were not there Conn. You really would have enjoyed the Convention!!...

I needed a big reason to go down there and i didnt know about Vance talks. I must look at these kind of cons, UK ones are only one hour plane trip away.