Friday
4 pm- Energy Futures (Eaton)
Fusion power has been ten years away for half a century. Renewable energy creates problems as well as solving them—for example, raising the price of corn and causing global hunger—and renewable energy projects such as wind farms now often face legal opposition from environmentalists (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/123656). Natural gas from oil sands and shale has a lower carbon output per megawatt than coal—but its low cost encourages us to use more energy. Where are the technology, economics, and politics of energy going in the 21st century? Robert Mitchell Evans, James H. Hay, Lynn Maudlin, Bob Mogg
(Sadly I will miss the 4pm due to day job commitments.)
6pm-Believable Evil (Garden Salon 2)
What makes a good villain? How do you go about creating a believable evil character? Authors will discuss their favorite evil characters from their and other works and discuss what makes them work. Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Lise Breakey, Robert Mitchell Evans, M Todd Gallowglas, Nancy Holder, Robert Pritchard
Saturday
11am-Political SF: When Ideology is a Character (Garden Salon 1)
When political philosophy permeates a work of SF, it can be as much of a character as the people (or AIs, or aliens) in the narrative arguing over its merits and carrying out its precepts. When does it work and when does it just get in the way of the plot? Who does it particularly well? Consider recent books by Dani and Eytan Kollin, Charles Stross, and Cory Doctorow, and other winners of the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Prometheus Award. On the other end of the spectrum, there is China Mieville and his list of Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read, which includes books by Ken MacLeod, Iain M. Banks, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Michael Swanwick. David Brin, Robert Mitchell Evans, Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin
12pm-Cold Sleep & Generation Ships: Interstellar Travel Without FTL (Garden Salon 2)
If you don’t have faster-than-light travel, your options for getting to the stars are a) suspended animation (Niven, Pournelle and Barnes’ The Legacy of Heorot) and b) dying of old age en route, but raising children to continue the mission (Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky). Both options create interesting directions for narrative. With option B, the crew tends to lose sight of the original mission… Robert Mitchell Evans, Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin, Gary Westfahl
2pm-SF and Horror Musicals from Rocky to Dr. Horrible (Garden Salon 1)
What makes a genre musical work? Some become cult classics — The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Shop of Horrors, Repo: The Genetic Opera, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have been done as musical theater. Then there are fan projects: the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s Shoggoth on the Roof (published and recorded, but never performed in public); the MIT “Star Wars Trilogy: Musical Edition” (entirely composed of filked Broadway songs); and the HMS Trek-a-Star of 1960s fame. Marc Biagi, Brian Bielawski, Robert Mitchell Evans, Andy Lowe
Sunday
12 pm-Fantasy (and SF) of Manners: When Culture is a Character (Garden Salon 2)
Long before Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a twinkle in Grahame-Smith’s eye, writers were marrying the tropes and styles of comedy of manners with science fictional and fantasy worlds and cultures. Consider Alexei Panshin’s Villiers books, Walter Jon Williams’ Drake Maijstral novels, Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman’s Riverside books, and Patricia C. Wrede’s Lyra series. While fantasy often treats the setting as a character, and SF often treats technology as a character, literature of manners treats culture as a character. Robert Mitchell Evans, M Todd Gallowglas, Dru Pagliassotti, Patricia C. Wrede
1pm-Do the Old Doctors Need a Facelift? (Garden Salon 1)
New audiences brought into Doctor Who fandom by the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors, who had decent production values, simply can’t get past the horrible SFX and colorization of what many consider to be classic Doctor Who episodes. Should we upgrade them for new audiences or leave them intact? Marc Biagi, Robert Mitchell Evans, Patrick Harris, Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin
