So I went off to a science fiction convention this weekend for the first time in a looooong time. I saw a notice that my favorite author would be at Balticon there and I saw that I would be back in the US for the weekend so I went ahead and prebooked tickets.

When I was in college I was a Science Fiction convention regular and Balticon was by far the best of the local shows. I used to go there and live on no money for the weekend crashing where ever some merciful person would let me and spend my food money on books. I am better off now, but didn’t stay at the convention so I missed part of the old con experience, but overall alot has changed and nothing at all has changed.

I did get to sit in some panels that Gene Wolfe was in and got to thank him for his writing. That was very pleasent, I had managed to miss him many times in the past if he was nearby and if ever there was an author I needed to thank for the great books he had given me it was him. He is very classy in person and seeing him was worth the convention price for me. If you haven’t read his books and stories you really are missing on of the greatest living authors out there, I kid you not. See the ad at the bottom and go buy one, you won’t regret it.

The convention had all the usuals, so let me go over what I thought.

• The dealer room was disappointing. Not much there, some great stuff, but it was tiny had a pretty small selection of books, no real art other than jewelry and not much music or movies. I would rate it a D, not much effort visable here.
• The Art Room was ok, I saw about three things that would have opened my wallet if I was plush. I like topless women as much as any man, but jeez it was over done. By the time I cleared the first aisle I was more than tired of topless women in drawings, paintings and prints. Some very nice sculptures there from the art guest of honor and others and some worthy paintings and prints about, but again the art show felt small to me. I would give it a C, but some of the art was well past a C.
• The Con Suite was fantastic and very well done. It was big with a lot of seating and places to sit and read. They had snacks out which in my college days could have kept me alive and healthier than the con suites of the day did. I would call the suite an A, very well done and it wasn’t easy to do.
• The Panels were mixed. I enjoyed some of them, but others were clearly not thought out and the guests felt lost in them. The big hall was well managed, the little rooms much less so. I would give it a C-, too much effort on the big hall.
• The hotel was nice, they used to run the con there years ago and it is nice now. That said the layout is weird and some of the small meeting rooms were tiny. Still no real compliants, a solid B+.
• Guests were ok, I have mentioned I was there for Gene Wolfe but the big name was Neil Gaimen. He was solid and certainly a worthy author, but from there it seemed to fall off pretty fast at least if the panel guests were indicitive. Not a lot of other names I knew on the panels. I was happy enough as I said with Gene Wolfe, but the guest list overall felt top heavy with it being presented as Neil Gaimen and others… I have to give them a C overall, Gene and Neil were great, but there are ton of ‘name’ authors out there who could have been there.
• Con staff. They were great and there were alot of them, at least in the Big Hall, the check in area and con suite. I didn’t meet a bad one, a solid A, even the hotel staff were very friendly.

Overall I would go a B-, well worth the visit, but I don’t know I will be back next year unless another guest grabs my eye. They got me with Gene Wolf this year, next year it would take a nice roster to make up if he isn’t there.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 28th, 2006 at 9:10 pm and is filed under Books, Movies, Pettiness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.