The Mitchell Mega-Mix

Right, straight after I talked about David Mitchell’s key position as a non-genre writer, he writes his most genre work ever. So this is what his SF novel looks like to me:

• A Hot Spell: Nina Allan
• Myrrrh Is Mine: David Mitchell
• New Year’s Day: Mitchell again. Ah yes, the only good bit of the book is the one he repeats.
• The Wedding Bash: Iain Banks
• Crispin Hersey’s Lonely Planet: Adam Roberts (although he won’t thank me).
• An Horologist’s Labyrinth: Nick Harkaway
• Sheep’s Head: Ken MacLeod

Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or

When Worldcon was held in Glasgow in 1995 I was too young to attend but promised myself I would go the next time it came to the UK. But in 2005, when it returned to Glasgow, I found myself utterly alienated from fandom and stayed at home. The pendulum swings and in 2014 I found myself very much part of fandom establishment and attending my first Worldcon. It was great.

My article on Loncon 3 is up now at the Los Angeles Review Of Books. It is mostly about the Hugos (with a little bit about the British bust) so if you want a proper con report to give you a flavour of the event, I’d recommend this one by Aishwarya Subramanian (who it was lovely to finally meet in person).

The article is also a tribute to the late Iain Banks which is slightly ironic because my last act at the convention was to slag him off on the ‘Dropping The M’ panel on Monday morning. This consisted of five fans of the man’s work nonetheless grappling with some of his manifest failings. It was enjoyable but everyone in the room was clearly winding down. Likewise, my first panel – ‘Big Anthologies: Bookends or Benchmarks?’ on Friday – seemed like a warm up. This consisted of three major anthologists plus me in the role of reader. But since moderator Jo Walton occupied the same role, I was a bit superfluous. This was rather cruelly confirmed when the panel ended and the audience rushed up to get their books signed by everyone but me. However, my two back-to-back Saturday panels – ‘YA on the Big Screen’ and ‘Just Three Cornettos’ – were bloody brilliant. A great mix of panelists, sensitive moderation and a hugely engaged audience. As David Hebblethwaite has said, it is a wonderful and unique experience.