Subversion

On my way across the Tasman last week, I read Conventions of War by Walter Jon Williams. This is the third and final book in the Dread Empire's Fall series. Like Paul McAuley, Williams is a writer who flits from one story type to another within the genre. This series follows the forms of military SF. The first two books were well done by the standards of the sub-genre but every so often you get little hints that Williams is not happy with the standard imperial model of galactic empire that prevail in other similar works. There seem to be too much stupidity and cruelty on the side of the POV characters but there wasn't anything really overt that marked this work as anything other than what was advertised.

In this third book, the gloves are off. One of the POV characters becomes an insurgent fighting an occupying force. The other, apart from trying to solve a murder mystery, spends his time dealing with even more of the above mentioned stupidity and cruelty. I may have read it incorrectly, but to me this is a pretty blatant allegory of the USA and Iraq. As such it is a much better book than the previous volumes. Works with political motivation are prone to forgetting about such basic elements as plot and character, but not in this case. In fact I suspect that a military SF fan, not spotting the political comment, would thoroughly enjoy this book.

I have to say my already high estimation of Williams has crept up a few notches with this work. I thank him for the message, the entertainment and a really effective way of killing hours waiting at Sydney airport.

Project - Con running guide

During Conclave I committed to doing something I wanted to do anyway. The advantage of this is that now I have additional incentive to get the job done.

What I want to do is update and extend the SFFANZ convention running guide. There is a draft version online, to which I have received some feedback. If anybody else has anything they want to contribute, then drop me a line. The plan is to make this document as inclusive of opinion as possible. There are some aspects of running a con which are disputed - I have no problem in presenting all points of view in this document and letting individual concoms decide which one will work best for them. The guide is targeted specifically at the New Zealand natcon by SFFANZ but it is being presented to the world if use can be made of it, but be aware that things like tax law and liability insurance requirements will be different in other places.