Invaders From Planet 3 - Ep 37 - Dublin Worldcon Voice of the Fans 3

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, it's this season's third and final Voice of the Fans episode, recorded at the 2019 Worldcon in Dublin, Ireland!

The quartet of commentators in this episode includes:

Author Daniel Bensen
www.thekingdomsofevil.com

Reviewer Carien Ubink
www.mcpigpearls.blogspot.com

Academic and author Dr. Tiffani Angus
www.tiffani-angus.com

And aspiring writer and Glasgow Worldcon bid volunteer Robin Duncan



Stay tuned for more regular-length interviews with authors, editors, artists, performers and others involved in science fiction, fantasy, comics, and all points in between.


To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!


Let the Invasion begin!

Farewell to Mike Resnick

Another of the giants has passed. The new year has started with a sad note for the science fiction community: a few days ago, Laura Resnick announced her father, legendary author Mike Resnick, died after a battle with cancer (and the family is still raising money through GoFundMe to pay for medical expenses, so consider following this link and helping out).

Resnick was one of those voices in the genre that was around as long as I can recall. I can't remember my first encounter with his work, but it might have been his short story "Balance" in the 1989 anthology Foundation's Friends — Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov, edited by Martin H Greenberg. I enjoyed his Old West science fiction novel The Doctor and the Kid, about Doc Holliday, but my favourite was Resnick's contribution to George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois' Old Mars anthology, "In the Tombs of the Martian Kings".

But to really do him justice, we need to hear from a serious fan of Resnick's work. That's why I've brought in my friend Geordie Howe (a guest on one of the first Invaders From Planet 3 "Voice of the Fans" episodes, and the bloginhood.com stringer photographer) to write the following editorial on what Mike Resnick meant to him:

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Mike Resnick, who, at his zenith, was one of the most popular figures in the science fiction fan and pro community, died January 9. He was nominated for the Hugo Award 37 times, winning 5, and 11 Nebula nominations, with 1 win. He was a Guest of Honor at Chicon 7 in 2012.

His daughter, Laura Resnick, announced his passing in an update to the GoFundMe created for his medical expenses.

For me, he was one of my favourite SF authors. He was a writer, editor, anthologist, and always a fan. 

I first remember encountering his writing in his series on the space brothel, the Velvet Comet, including Eros Ascending (1984), Eros At Zenith (1984), Eros Descending (1985) and Eros At Nadir (1986), some of which were first published by the small press, Phantasia Press.

I came to his non-fiction writings as a subscriber to the SF fanzine, Lan’s Lantern, where Mike’s travel stories were always a highlight.

Then there was his Lucifer Jones series, those about Santiago, his award-winning Kirinyaga series, the Widowmaker series, several other series, and a long list of novels, including Ivory (1988) — a spin on Richard F. Burton — and many others.

Then there was his non-fiction. Again, many, many books, but particular to me are Stalking the Wild Resnick (1991), Unauthorized Autobiographies (1981), Through Darkest Resnick with Gun and Camera (1990), Once a Fan…(2002), …Always a Fan (2009), Resnick Abroad (2012), Resnick on the Loose (2012) and The Business of Science Fiction with Barry N. Malzberg (some of their writing created a bit of sf controversy – but that seems to be standard in today’s social media).

He also edited dozens of anthologies, giving a boost to many, many new writers. There is a lot out there. Check out https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/mike-resnick/ to see what I mean.

I have numerous stories about encountering Mike. Here are a few:

He was guest of honor at Chicon 7 in Chicago in 2012. My wife, Marianne, and I were there and having dinner in the hotel restaurant the night before the con started. Mike came into the restaurant and did not notice the step drop down to the eating area. I saw what was about to happen and as Mike stumbled, I managed to grab him and support him before he would have completely fallen down. We had a good laugh at that incident with him telling me that it would have been interesting for the con if he had broken something. Later in the con, he presented a slide show entitled “Resnick Family Photos” where he asked the audience to guess the people in the shots. I was getting quite a few when he told me jokingly that I couldn’t play anymore.

Then, in Kansas City in 2016, I was talking to Mike in one of the [Worldcon] convention corridors and Robert Silverberg came up to us to ask directions. Mike went to respond but Silverberg cut him off, stating he had no faith in Mike’s sense of direction and trusted me. However, as it turned out, neither of us knew where the room was that Silverberg needed to be in.

At one kaffeeklatsch at an LA Worldcon, I asked Mike how he managed to write so much. He replied that if you wrote one page a day (as way of example), in a year you’d have a novel. Just write a little each and every day.

Over the years I managed to get Mike to sign most, but not all, of my books by him and attended numerous readings. He had this wonderful old-school habit of reading from paper copies and when the reading was over would give these stories out to audience members. Proudly, I have two of those paper copies in my collection.

His presence (and his wife Carol) have been absent for the last few Worldcons (due to his health) and he was sadly missed. There was then always the potential that I’d meet up with him again at some sf con. Now that is not to be. He will be missed.

Invaders From Planet 3 - Ep 31 - Dublin Worldcon Voice of the Fans 1

Season 4 of Invaders From Planet 3 launches with an all-new "Voice of the Fans" episode, recorded at the Dublin Worldcon this summer. In fact, there were so many fans who came out to share their stories about their first loves in science fiction, fantasy, comics and all points in between, that I had to expand it to three "Voice of the Fans" episodes!

In this first instalment, we'll hear from Ed Beecher, Dr. Wanda Kurtcu, Scott "Kludge" Dorsey, and Octocon co-chair Janet O'Sullivan.

Stay tuned for more "Voice of the Fans" episodes in the weeks ahead, as well as our regular, full-length interviews!

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!


Let the Invasion begin!

Who Wants to Be in a Podcast Episode?

Who wants to be a guest on a podcast episode?

As listeners of the Invaders From Planet 3 podcast know, every season, in addition to interviews with authors, editors, performers and artists, I like to include a "Voice of the Fans" episode featuring regular folks talking about their first loves in science fiction, fantasy, and all points in between. I'm currently in the middle of producing season 4 of the show, and I thought that since I'm headed to Dublin for Worldcon this year, I'd see if anyone else attending would like to be a part of this season's VOTF episode. With fans of all kinds of nerdiness coming from all around the world, what better  opportunity is there to showcase what got people hooked on genre stuff?

To that end, at some point during Worldcon, I'll be announcing a date, time and a public location at/near the convention centre where anyone who's interested can meet, and we'll record a quick interview where you get to share what first made you fall in love with speculative fiction. It can be a book, TV show, short story, comic, movie, video game, radio play, collectable, or anything — whatever was the spark that made you say "I love this stuff and I need more of it!"

If you're going to Worldcon in Dublin and you're interested in doing a quick interview, let me know in the Comments section below, and keep an eye out for my announcement on the Dublin 2019 Irish WorldCon Community Group on Facebook.

More details soon on how you can be a part of the Invasion!

Farewell to Brian Aldiss

It's a strange feeling being a middle-aged fan these days. When I first started reading adult-level science fiction and fantasy back in the 80s, the giants of the Golden Age and New Wave still walked the Earth, and more importantly, were still publishing. One by one, over the years, the stories stopped, and their lives came to a close. A week ago, Time claimed another: Brian Aldiss.

My first encounter with Aldiss' work was as a teenager in 1989, when I read "Let's be Frank" in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories: 19 (1957), edited by Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg. The short story chronicles the life/lives of Frank, a minor noble born at the time of King Henry VIII, who passes a genetic mutation down to some of his descendants, causing them to become new vessels of his consciousness. They are not clones/separate versions of Frank; rather, a single mind existing simultaneously throughout every member of the family who shares this gene (like a fully biological version of The Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation). This allows Frank to live forever, gain wealth and power, and eventually spread his mind across the world until, through his many descendants, he constitutes about half to two-thirds of the Earth's population. It was a clever little story, and a bit funny, but there was something sad (though this isn't reflected in the story's tone — it's just my impression) and disturbing about it too, with all those new humans being born, but more and more of them just being more and more of the same old Frank, rather than unique individuals.

Over the years, I read other Aldiss short stories and novels from time to time. Some, like Super-State, were okay reads, but didn't leave much of an impression, while others, like Frankenstein Unbound, were absorbing, unsettling and left a permanent mark (the protagonist desperately treading existential water as realities shift around him with increasing frequency; the mating dance of the monsters). On the shelf right now, Harm and the Helliconia trilogy are still waiting for me to crack them open. There were also movies based on his work: Roger Corman's version of Frankenstein Unbound wasn't very good, but Spielberg and Kubrick's A.I. — Artificial Intelligence (based on "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long") was deeply affecting in places (Teddy settling resignedly back as David leans forward against the windscreen of the submerged copter, desperately praying to the Blue Fairy statue in the murky distance for ages until their power cells run out gets me every time).

One afternoon at Worldcon 2014 in London, I was trying to choose between a number of program options. One of them was a session with Brian Aldiss. While the other panels, presentations, etc looked interesting, I thought there aren't many chances to sit and listen to one of the giants of the field reminisce, and (yeah, I know, this was a bit morbid) Aldiss wasn't getting any younger, so there might not be many more to come. I met up with my buddy Geordie (who has some nice stories about meeting Aldiss at conventions throughout the years) outside, and, along with way too many other fans, we jammed ourselves into a room that was much too small and listened to Brian talk about his life and his work. Sure it was uncomfortable seating, and yeah, the AC just couldn't keep up with the heat generated by all those bodies, but it was worth every minute. Brian was funny, charming, and interesting. At the end, the con organizers wrapped up the session by leading us all in a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday". I'm glad I had the chance to be part of it.

Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017 at the age of 92.


What are your memories of Brian Aldiss and his work? Share them in the Comments section below.

VCon Day 1 - Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time

It seems like almost no time at all has passed since we were down in Smokane this summer for Worldcon, and already October's upon us, a chill is in the air, Thanksgiving is coming up, and it's time for VCon.

Time is very much on my mind at the con this time around: there was the rush to get away from work on time today (especially since it was the last day of my contract and I wanted to wrap up as much as possible), trying to make good time in rush-hour traffic (which, luckily, I did), getting to VCon in time to actually take in some programming before the end of the day, making time for other outside-of-nerdity life this weekend, and, beyond all that, there's the theme of the con this year, which is Time Travel. Fortunately, even without a time machine at my disposal (although, as you can see from this photo from the dealers' room, someone at the con certainly has one at their disposal - and a flashy one at that!), it all seemed to work out. So far.

Against all odds, I made it from Downtown Vancouver to central Richmond to the con hotel in just under an hour (Been to the Lower Mainland before? Then you know the traffic hell of which I speak.) and was able to find a pretty good parking spot. Registration was friendly and reasonably fast, and I was pretty impressed with the con's programming schedule. In recent years, the programming's been hit-and-miss, but this year, even though it feels like there are fewer sessions on the schedule (and that's just a guess — I don't have last year's schedule for comparison and can't be bothered to hunt it down), overall a lot more of the panels look a lot more interesting than they have in a while. In fact, I'll even go so far as to say that hour-for-hour, the programming for modest little VCon this year looks more interesting than the average day at Worldcon this summer.

Next, I wandered around a bit to get my bearings. VCon's been at the Sheraton in Richmond many times before, but it's always good to do a refresher tour to see if they've located things in different rooms this year, and to see who's turned out. I had a nice chat with the folks at The 13th Colony BSG fan club table because I just can't resist stopping to check out a Cylon centurion mask. After that, I scouted-out the dealers' room, stopping to chat with my friend Walter at the White Dwarf Books table, as well as the folks at the Edge Publishing table (not much to buy from them this time around because they took all my money at Worldcon when I proved incapable of ignoring their collection of new anthologies). I also had to stop at a table selling knitted goods (she sold me a replica Tom Baker scarf a couple of years ago) to check out her new line of Doctor Who-themed scarves because my anniversary is coming up, and my wife loves the Time Lord something fierce. No buying though — not yet, because this time I was determined to stick to my no-buying-in-the-dealers'-room-on-the-first-day policy. Tomorrow though...

From there, I took in the Science of Fantastical Beasts panel. Think a "justify the science flaws" session focussing just on critters of myth, legend, and the fantasy genre, with a panel of scientists grasping at genetic straws to explain how these things could possibly exist and function in the absence of magic. Examples included the "vegetable lamb" of Hebrew mythology (think of a lamb that buds off of a tree, with blood tasting of honey, and flesh tasting of fish) that would probably be some kind of semi-ambulatory coral; and the King of Monsters, Godzilla himself: maybe akin to a sponge... a titanic colony of organisms, rather than a single creature. Yes, yes. I know. "Heresy!" you're no doubt hollering. "Godzilla is a force of nature beyond our ability to fully comprehend!" But maybe the big guy's a little like a bath product too. Anyway, lots of fun at this panel, and I was really glad to have caught it — especially since that was the only panel I had time for today.

After that, I sat down to interview author Kristi Charish for a little while. What's the interview for? Stay tuned, fellow fanboys and fangirls. Stay tuned. Suffice it to say that she's a great conversationalist and we had a pretty entertaining and informative discussion. If you haven't read her stuff yet, you probably should. Owl and the Japanese Circus has been getting a lot of good buzz, and I'm a huge fan of her "Canadian Blood Diamonds" supervillain short stories (the first can be found in Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories, edited by Claude Lalumiere and Camille Alexa). All in all, a good way to end a first day (even if this "day" was only 2-and-a-half hours of con time for me) at VCon.

Photos from Sasquan

Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny — oh no, wait... that's the original Battlestar Galactica. Let's try this again:

Fleeing from the brutal wildfire haze that has resumed smothering Spokane like a facehugger from the Alien franchise, we hopped in the car around mid-morning today and raced back along the beautiful (and yet, shrouded in smoke, haunting) Route 2 across the plains, and through the mountains, back to the coast to head north and home to BC.

While I've been posting a few photos from Sasquan/Worldcon to my Twitter feed on the fly over the past few days, this is the first opportunity I've had to upload all of them to the blog. Included here are the pics from Twitter, along with some that have not yet been posted.

Fighters at First Night in the park

The couple that cosplays together succumbs to Alien infestation together

Guess who I voted for in the Worldcon 2017 site selection?

Black Widow

Captain America

One tough customer at the coffee bar

Bounty hunters. We DO need their scum!

Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker. Sort of.

The last days of Krypton... er, a smoky evening in Spokane

This is how bad the air got by Friday night when the Masquerade let out

Where can I get a hat like that?

This guy's Captain Kangaroo cosplay could only have been better if he'd had Mr Greenjeans with him

All hail Immorten Joanna!

A pint-sized TARDIS, complete with mini Doctor

Miyazaki fans will know you don't want to feed this guy. You REALLY don't want to feed this guy!

Daredevil

We are Groot

Surrendering to the Inevitable

Well, it's done.

Last night I registered my wife and myself for attending memberships at Sasquan — the 2015 Worldcon in Spokane, Washington. But not before I reserved our hotel room though — lodgings in that town during that week are getting hard to come by (forget about blocks of rooms set aside for the con at the specific con hotels — those are long gone) — 'cause if you've got no place to stay, there's no point in buying tickets to the event. Luckily, I was able to find a room in what seems to be a nice enough hotel. So, we're officially locked-in for this shindig.

Wasn't an easy decision though. As I've noted in a previous post, we had to think long and hard about this one. After all, we're just coming off the high of Loncon3 this past summer, and we weren't sure we wanted to do two Worldcons back-to-back. Also — and no offence here to the good people of eastern Washington — Spokane isn't really on our list of vacation destinations. And our 10th anniversary is coming up not to long afterwards in October, and we want to get away for that occasion, so budgeting is a consideration.

And yet... and yet... Despite all of our hesitations, there's been an inexorable pull towards Spokane. The reality is, there probably won't be another Worldcon this close to us again for quite some time (Seattle's bid a couple of years ago fell apart, so there's no knowing when they'll try again; and Vancouver... well, the Worldcon rules, as I understand them after a limited fashion, seem to indicate the current VCon committee, for all its experience, doesn't have enough experience [which makes no sense to me], and there's a remarkable amount of fear around these parts among a not-insignificant portion of the community of going after something that big), so that along merits going. It's also within easy driving distance, which makes it inexpensive to get to, we won't have to worry about airline luggage weight restrictions (which means I can buy more books!!!), and we can take our time and stop along the way at our leisure going to and from. And some of our friends from the White Dwarf gang will be going (and we're trying to persuade some of the others to come too), so that'll be fun.

Now it's just a matter of waiting until August.

Meantime, if anyone reading this post is from Spokane or the area, or if you've been there before, what are some of the can't miss restaurants, sights, and things to do that you'd most recommend? Yes, I know, there are all kinds of travel sites, books, and other resources out there, but I'm always interested to hear about individual experiences — especially from fellow sf fans. So, what should be on our agenda in Spokane when we're not knee-deep in the con? Where do you go for the best burger? What's the best bookstore in town? What's the most interesting historical attraction?