Loncon 3: The 72nd World SF Convention

I’ll be attending Loncon 3, and I hope you are too.

** Final Update 7th August **

Kaffeeklatsch

Saturday 13:00 – 14:00, London Suite 5 (ExCeL)

Tony Ballantyne, Laura Lam

Come and chat!

I’m moderating the following panel:

I Can’t Do That, Dave: artificial intelligence, imagination, and fear

Sunday 13.30 – 15:00

From the Minds of Iain M Banks’ Culture to Portal’s GLaDOS, artificial intelligences abound in sf, and not infrequently they turn on their creators. Whether as idealisation of reason or deadly threat – or both– why do AIs have such an enduring appeal? Where do fictional AIs
stand in relation to the real-world science? And to what extent has sf explored the ethical questions surrounding the creation of sentience to better serve humankind?

Madeline Ashby, Tony Ballantyne,  Anthony Fucilla, Justina Robson, Tricia Sullivan

I’ll also be on the panel for the following:

British Comics: Influences and Influencers

Friday 11am
130 years ago the emergence of Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday saw the first comic book (as we recognise it) published in the UK. Since then the medium has gone through many cycles of expansion and contraction.


What comic books from outside the UK have been influential upon the development of comic books here – artistically, politically, and thematically?

And how have British comic creators and stories in turn exerted their influence upon the comic book industries in other countries?

Is there a recognisable British comic book tradition? And how is it changing and adapting in an instant, connected world with a multitude of styles and visions?

Urban Fantasy: London

Friday 18:00 – 19:00

The early twenty-first century commercial explosion of urban fantasy — first person, coexisting supernatural creatures, often noirish — was, at least initially, driven by the American market and American writers. Increasingly, however, writers such as Kate Griffin, Ben Aaronovitch and Paul Cornell are writing contemporary urban fantasy set in the UK and, in particular, in London. How has crossing the Atlantic changed this subgenre? How is it similar to or different from older forms of British urban fantasy?

Forte! Classical Music, Opera and the fantastic

Monday 12:00 (noon)
As the mass entertainment of previous centuries and arguably the preferred musical form for current blockbuster movies and games, classical music and, to an extent opera, are natural partners with fantastic story-telling. Panelists explore these connections: both themes of the fantastic in classical compositions and music depicted in SF&F.

 

 

 

Published by Tony Ballantyne