In which I actually complete a Swancon write-up for once

I wasn't sure I'd go to Swancon this year, but within a few minutes of arriving at the opening sundowner I knew I'd made the right decision to come. Swancon is as much about the people as the events for me, and I've had Swancons in the past where I've had a good time because of the people even if the programme was a bit thin and I had no idea who the guest of honor was.

Well, the programme was a bit thin, and I had no idea who Charlie Jane Anders was before she was announced last year as this year's guest of honor, but I had a good time. (And, for the record, Charlie Jane Anders' new novel is amazing, and also she turned out to be one of the people because of whom I had a good time.)

At times, it felt less like I was at a convention and more like I was on holiday in Fremantle coincidentally at the same time as a bunch of people I knew and other interesting people I enjoyed meeting. I did make it to a few of the panels, but often on the basis of who was on the panel, so they were an extension of the running-into-interesting-people thing.

I went to the Doctor Who panel this year. I often don't bother, because in my experience trying to fit the entire year's episodes into a one hour panel doesn't lend itself to meaty discussion of any particular issue: it's name an episode, everybody quickly mentions what they liked about it, on to the next episode. But that turned out to be just what I needed this year, and I left feeling more optimistic about giving Chibnall and co a chance to show in their second season what they can do now they've had time to find their feet. I also learned, which perhaps I should have realised sooner, that the meaty discussion happens after the scheduled panel is over, when everybody from the panel and audience who doesn't have anywhere they need to be hangs out in the corridor discussing the bits they didn't get to cover earlier.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to Swancon next year. Next year's committee seem like they're on the ball, and I expect I'd enjoy hanging out with people even if the programme doesn't come together -- but they're holding it on the Anzac Day long weekend instead of Easter, and I have commitments at home on Anzac Day. (At least, I will have commitments at home on Anzac Day if I'm still in the brass band then; there's a non-zero possibility that by then I'll have become completely fed up with the way the band is being run these days and quit.) And also next year is the New Zealand Worldcon which I'm considering going to, and I'm not sure if I have the resources to do a Worldcon and a Swancon in the same year. On the other hand, if I am still in the band this time next year, we'll probably be going to the Nationals on the Easter weekend, so it would be possible for me to do the Nationals and Swancon in the same year for once.

Sidebar: Alan Garner

The free book table at Swancon had an old copy of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, which I picked up because I figured it was about time I actually read it. It's the 1978 Ace edition, which amuses me because of how obviously the cover is pitching for a particular audience. (The black-robed-and-cowled villain exists in the novel, for the record, but the mask is entirely in the imagination of the cover designer.)

So now I've finally read that, and have the first sequel on hold at the library.

Because another thing I learned at Swancon this year is that there are now two sequels to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. A few years ago, fifty years after the notoriously ambiguous conclusion of The Moon of Gomrath, Garner published a new sequel called Boneland. Instead of trying to finish out the story as originally intended, as a trilogy of children's books, it's a novel for the many children who became adults during the long wait, with the protagonist as an adult haunted by the unfinished business of the strange things he encountered as a child. The panelist who was talking about it at Swancon said that it's denser and more complicated than the first two books, and also that she found it very satisfying. So I have my eye on the library's copy of that as well.