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Tag Archives: Adrian Tchaicovsky

Eastercon (April 2017) Part the first.

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Conventions, Musings

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Tags

Adrian Tchaicovsky, Birmingham, BSFA Awards, EasterCon, Emma King, F.D Lee, Inominate 2017, Joanne Hall, Kari Sperring, Pat Cadigan, Peadar O'Guilin, R.A Smith, Royal Institute


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Dr Emma King demonstrates thermodynamic principles (by blowing shit up)

I’m late in submitting my Eastercon diary. I blame work in the real world for sapping all the time I have available to blog – most of my spare time lately has been spent on writing (working on something new, it’s not going well but at least it’s going) and photography. I am also scrimping a lot here as, unlike last year’s diary, I am not planning to do an entry for every day. I had planned to do a daily diary while at the event but circumstance, alcohol and Russell Smith happened. Repeatedly.

This was my second ever Eastercon and already I felt like a veteran. I’d upped my game by actually staying in a hotel rather than going home each evening (arguments that they should have relocated to Manchester for my convenience were met with flat refusal, apparently the committee mostly live in Birmingham and they wanted the easy commute, strange coincidence…). I’d also been given three programme items to be on, two of which I was moderating and the third was with Pat Cadigan, one of the guests of honour.

There was an opening ceremony. The guests were introduced. Then Dr Emma King of the Royal Institute took the stage and proceeded to blow up bits of it using flour, gherkins, a lot of electricity and jelly babies. This sort of thing is apparently normal when the Royal Institute of Science put on shows and, according to her potted history of the institute, such things have been normal since it was first founded and evidence that it was almost certainly set up by Time Lords.* Luckily the stage survived (or was time shifted back to a time when it had not been blown up…) and proper health and safety procedures were followed. The only casualty was a single Jelly Baby.

6C1A0889After a Friday afternoon panel on communication in science and a wonderfully instructive workshop on preparing manuscripts for submission by Joanne Hall**, I started the weekend properly with a beer with R.A Smith. The fact that I have been having beer (and annual birthday dinners and parties) with R.A Smith since we were both at university does not make this unremarkable because this was a concept known as a ‘Literary Beer’ in which attendees at the conference can book onto a session with an author and sit and drink beer (or the drink of your choice) with them and talk books. A similar concept, the Kaffeklatsch, takes place during the day and supposedly replaces beer with coffee. However, I was aware that there were some drinking beer at Kaffeklatches and some heretics were even drinking tea! Russ had a good turn out for his beer and he proceeded to entertain with anecdotes and secret spoilers about upcoming events in his as yet unwritten book 3 of the Grenshall Manor series. He also performed an adequate re-enactment of a turret in the very obscure computer game Beachhead…

The next day I was at a loose end as I was not slated for any programme items until Sunday morning. However, I decided to check out the Women in Star Wars panel which played out to a packed room despite the early time of day. The discussion ranged over tropes that apply to women, particularly the idea of George Lucas riffing off Japanese ideas for female characters, as seen in anime and Japanese cinema and how that explained the paradox of Leia as the Princess who needs to be rescued but is also a strong, independent woman who is a leader in her own right. Apparently in Japanese cinema that is a common theme.

I followed this with a workshop on self publishing by F.D Lee that looked at many of the pitfalls that a self published author might get into. Some good tips, including pointing out that if you are publishing mainly on Amazon and other online sources, your cover is only ever really seen as a tiny thumbnail and so you should design it accordingly.6C1A0935

The afternoon was spent pleasantly in a Kaffeklatsch with two outstanding authors – Peadar O’Guilin and Peter Kalu. Originally it was supposed to be two separate events but because of very few attendees it was decided to merge them into one. The low numbers seem to have been across the board for this afternoon slot and one theory was because famous fantasy artist Fangorn was doing an art tour and everyone wanted to do that.  So we ended up with five in total, all writers in some form, and as Peadar generously pointed out we were all attending each other’s Kaffeklatschs.  There was a lot of discussion about Irish myth, African and Caribbean myth, football, zombies and zombie footballers. The last due to Peter’s latest book which apparently sees the 1966 England World cup squad coming back from the dead. As they do.

6C1A1064 In the evening I attended the BSFA awards to watch awards begin given out to some very worthy people and to see Kari Sperring’s Eurovision host impersonation. I then yet again demonstrated my lack of geek by failing to attend the screening of the new series of Doctor Who which was taking place at 7 but instead opted to attend another Kaffeklatsch, this time with the wonderful Adrian Tchaikovsky. This was very well attended, despite the draw of Peter Capaldi on a big screen, and according to Adrian much better attended than his first Kaffeklatsch where he was able to buy coffee for all the attendees for very little money. There was much discussion on various topics and, as you might expect insects were a theme.

Once that was over it was time for food and drink and, eventually, bed…

*This is undeniably true. I have evidence. Good evidence. Well, had… it seems the entire body of evidence linking the RI to Gallifrey has apparently just vanished. As if it had never existed. Removed completely from time. That in itself is suspicious enough. Also, I am sure I saw Emma wearing a scarf once.

**I am not sharing any secrets, you can go to a workshop on your own… It was very instructive and did confirm that I was at least doing most things right when submitting to publishers, though I needed to up my synopsis and cover letter game a touch. Publishers look for any excuse at all to reject.

 

 

 

@mancunicon – a weekend in the life of Eastercon part 3: Sunday

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Musings

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Adrian Tchaicovsky, Alan Garner, Ann Charnock, Annie Czajkowski, Communism, Deansgate Hilton, Doctor Who, EasterCon, Ed Fortune, Graphene, Jeff Noon, John Rylands Library, LM Myles, Madchester, Manchester, Manchester in Spec Fic, Mancunicon, Peadar Ó Guilínn, Peterloo massacre, Public engagement with science, R.A Smith, Ruth F Long, Starburst, Strange Horizons, The bookworm podcast, Tony Ballantyne


Sunday turned out to be the first (and only) full day I spent at the convention. I guess this is the disadvantage of living locally. While you get to save on hotel costs and travel costs, you miss out on some of the stuff that happens late into the night and early into the morning. Plus there is a tendency (for me anyway) to have to leave early to catch the last bus home and wander in lazily late the next day. Since it is unlikely Manchester will host for at least a couple of years, I suppose any future EasterCons I go to will be more full time.

As it happens, I made an effort on Sunday to get there early for a good reason which turned into an even better reason. I had promised R.A Smith that I would be present at the panel he was in with my camera so that I could take photos of him looking all knowledgeable and erudite. Since this panel was happening at 10am, and was therefore a so called ‘hangover panel’ this meant I needed to be in the building by not long after 9 in order (so I thought) to get a seat in what I suspected would be a packed room.

I was wrong on so many of the above assumptions…

This is where were staying... can you not see its similarity to a giant USB drive?

This is where were staying… can you not see its similarity to a giant USB drive?

When I wandered up to the Green room to see if I could track down Russ before the start of the panel, I was collared by  Starburst Columnist Ed Fortune, another of the panellists, and asked if I was doing anything just then. I said I was not and was therefore pressganged into service as a substitute panellist. Turns out Tony Ballantyne could not make it so I was a convenient Manchester based writer to contribute to the Manchester in Spec Fiction panel.

So, my assumption that I would not get a seat was unfounded as I had a reserved seat… right at the front. However, it also turns out that I didn’t need to worry even if I had not been in the panel as the venue was one of the larger rooms in the hotel rather than one of the smaller rooms such as used for the True Love and Trophies panel. There was still a large audience but the room was easily able to accommodate it with a few seats spare. I also did not manage to take any photos as I was somewhat busy being on the panel… Oh, and the audience were somewhat more awake than a ‘hangover’ panel might attract. They seemed to be a rather lively and interested group all told.

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The John Rylands library: for all your Cthuloid needs.

So… thrown into the deep end… and replacing a popular and well respected panellist in a HUGE auditorium with microphones instead of the more intimate setting of previous panels. The pressure was on. Luckily, I was able to call on a lot of knowledge I have about the city of Manchester. Myself, R.A Smith (the moderator), Anne Charnock and Ed Fortune discussed various things that made this city unusual and suitable as a setting for Spec fic. Anne was there with a lot of history references (first programmable computer, various other scientific advances including the recent graphene advances), I came in with the politics (Manchester has to take the blame for communism and even in the last election, when the map went decidedly blue, Manchester was one of the few areas still very red), Russ talked about the Madchester music scene and Ed rolled in some classics like Jeff Noon and Alan Garner while riffing off some Doctor Who audio set in the city and centring on the Peterloo massacre (with the comment made that he worked in an office on the corner of two of the streets mentioned in that audio and how that scared him). In all an excellent discussion and was supplemented by the comments from the audience about how strange some of the architecture in Manchester is… including the building we were in which does (as Russ pointed out) look like a giant USB stick. Speculations about what it might be downloading may be left in the comments below… Then there is the perfectly apt venue for an occult conspiracy novel that is the John Rylands library.

By the way, if the organisers of next years Eastercon in Birmingham are reading this, I would like to point out that I also lived in Birmingham for a long while and know an equal amount of weird stuff about that city should they wish a panellist for a similar topic… 🙂

image

Apparently it is Starburst tradition to take a selfie with the Stormtrooper… who am I to go against such tradition?

Once that panel was over, Ed invited me over to the Starburst offices to do a spot on the Bookworm – FAB radio’s regular Sunday book related show. We spent an hour talking book news (JK Rowling’s publication of her rejection letters being a major item of interest) and discussing the convention. As all three on the show (me, Ed and Ann the producer) were Eastercon newbies this mainly revolved around the atmosphere of the event as well as a discussion about some of the panels we had each attended. My first time on radio… The Podcast version will be published soon and I will post a link to that once it is up.

The Public Engagement in Science Panel

The Public Engagement in Science Panel

I got back to the venue and had a spot of lunch before wandering into the Public Engagement in science panel. Here a number of the conference delegates who were also scientists were discussing the issues of getting the public interested in all things science related. This, like the biology one on Friday, was an issue close to my heart and something I see both writers and teachers being involved in. The discussion was initially focussed on semantics – the differences between Understanding and Engagement, for example – and there were some good thoughts on how it should be about the public doing science – using the innate curiosity that humanity possesses to explore the universe – rather than just reading about it. Not sure they managed to solve the problem, at least not by supplying any practical solutions, but there were ideas aplenty.

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A storm hits Manchester, as seen from the 22nd floor

My final official engagement of the day was a visit to the Strange Horizons Tea party which was taking place in the Presidential Suite, 22 floors in the sky. There I hobnobbed with the editors of Strange Horizons and chatted with Ruth F Long again, mainly discussing Irish history and some strange anomalies in the Irish census data. A fun hour of chat and drinks and a chance to see the city from the great heights of the 22nd Floor. While a major storm was blowing in…

Then I ended the evening with a bit of relaxation in the form of a game of D&D refereed by Adrian Tchaikovsky. In this I joined R.A Smith, Ed Fortune, LM Myles, Peadar Ó Guilínn and Annie Czajkowski as a disparate group of monsters (I was a hobgoblin sergeant major) forced together out of mutual desire to escape a curse. It turned out exactly as you would expect a game run and played by a bunch of creative lunatics to go. Luckily the day was saved (thanks to cunning subterfuge, careful following of the letter of the rules, beheading a forger and the catchphrase ‘Greetings fellow humans!’) in time for me to head home…

In our final instalment shudder as the unexpected happens and Sunday is inexplicably followed by… MONDAY!

[Review] Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by D.A Lascelles in Reviews

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Adrian Tchaicovsky, Arachnophillia, books, Children of Time, Planet of the Apes, Science Fiction, Shadows of the Apt, Spiders, Terraformed planets


Children of Time

Written by Adrian Tchaicovsky

Published by: PanMacMillan

Children of Time opens with a rather neat concept. An obsessive scientist, Dr Avrana Kern, an excellent characterisation of the very definition of hubris, is seen at the culmination of her life’s work – about to release a colony of apes and a gene modifying nanovirus onto a terraformed planet. Her goal is to create a species of sentient ape and to collect data on their evolution and cultural development from a satellite in orbit. Clearly this is a universe in which ‘Planet of the Apes’ was never created otherwise she may have thought twice… However, a terrorist group who are opposed to such experimentation* target the experiment leading to the apes being destroyed, the nanovirus infecting a colony of insects and our arrogant professor trapped in the monitoring satellite slipping in and out of suspension as the centuries pass.

What follows are two separate stories. In one we see the development of the insect cultures created by the virus, in particular the species of spider who form the dominant lifeform on the planet. They go from primitive creatures not too different from our own earthly spiders to establishing a complicated society with religion, social issues and technology. Each iteration of this story sees a new leap in evolution as the spiders learn new tricks, helped by the virus, and make attempts to commune with their ‘god’, the AI in the satellite which is set to find evidence of sentience.

The other thread follows the last remnants of the human race, asleep in a generation ship called the Gilgamesh, travelling through the centuries in search of a new home. Here we have our hero, Holsten Mason, a mild mannered classicist – an academic who studies the ancients. Just as a modern day classicist would study the culture of the Romans or the ancient Greeks, Mason is an expert on the languages and cultures of the long dead culture who were capable of terraforming planets.

The story set in the Gilgamesh is fairly standard SF fare. Generation ships, light years of travel, changes in the crew each time the PoV character comes out of suspension. There is very little here that has not been seen before, though I am enamoured of the concept of the equivalent of a modern day Latin master – an expert in the culture and language of a civilisation millennia old – being used to translate documents and transmissions that could be vital for humanity’s survival. Mason is an entertaining and sympathetic ‘everyman’ who interacts well with the other characters on the ship, being the unwitting participant in the mutinies and insane plans that happen around him as the others vie for power when all he really wants to do is carry out his studies and conduct his somewhat understated and pathos filled affair with the ship’s chief engineer.

Where this book really shines, however, is in the wonderful treatment of the spider culture.

Tchaikovsky clearly has a thing for insects, in particular spiders. You can tell that simply by reading the fantasy series, Shadows of the Apt, for which he is more well known. All of that Arachnophilia also comes out in this. Indeed, I did harbour suspicions that Children of Time could very well end up as a prequel to that series. When reading Shadows of the Apt I did sometimes wonder how a planet could be populated by races descended from insects and here is a plausible explanation. In the end, however, this seems to not be the case but you do have to wonder if the author was riffing off his previous ideas and trying to justify them in some way? Certain plot events make this idea less likely but it was still an entertaining thought for a while. Whether linked to the Apt books or not, the spider culture in this novel is fascinatingly established with a clear line of development from primitive savages to a modern culture that explores some modern societal issues in an interesting way. For example, gender equality is given a lot of time, which is understandable in a species where the females traditionally eat the males after mating, and there are debates about religion and the ethics of survival. These sections of the story have an unusual feel to them, being written from the PoV of characters who do not communicate via speech but rather via vibrations on webs and a complicated body language involving multiple limbs. This means little or no dialogue in the traditional sense and this adds a little edge of ‘uncanny valley’ to the feel of these parts of the story.

The spider story could have faltered due to lack of characterisation. After all, each time we see them we are progressing several generations in their development. However, the author neatly avoids this by following set lineages of spider as they progress – the representative of each one being called the same name. So the story follows successive Portias, Biancas and the males that serve them which adds a false sense of continuity to the characters. This works well and allows the reader to gain a greater sense of empathy with the characters.

In all there is little not to like about Children of Time. It hits a number of SF concepts that have been revisited before but does so in an entertaining and novel way. Speaking as a biologist, the science aspects of the fiction are well represented and while on the edge of what may be possible, do not feel too far fetched with even the blatant deus ex device of the nanovirus to paper over any cracks in the evolutionary biology being not all that obvious. Definitely recommended.

*Maybe they have seen Planet of the Apes?

###

D.A Lascelles is the author of Lurking Miscellany, Transitions (Mundania Press) and Gods of the Sea (Pulp Empires). He lives in Manchester UK. You can sometimes see him writing about Zombie porn on https://lurkingmusings.wordpress.com/ but he mostly blogs about books, vampires, science fiction and Terry Pratchett. He is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his Pratchett articles was referenced on the French version of the author’s Wikipedia page.

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