While MidAmeriCon II, this year’s World Con, is under way in Kansas City, we’ve put together COUCH CON, for those of us left behind. Please feel free to engage with these posts in the comments section (but do play nice, we are watching and won’t hesitate to delete offensive/abusive comments).
Our second post is by S.L. Huang!
What to Watch for at World (Universe?) Con 2116
Hello, Gentlebeings and Raptors! In case you haven’t been able to keep up with all the blogs and vlogs and flogs and tweets and fleeks and plocks, here are the main issues to keep your eye (or echolocation gaze) on at NewTokyoCon 2116!
Taking the “World” out of “Worldcon” — Site selection is causing an uproar this year, as Mars and Lagrange City are both making strong plays for hosting Worldcon in 2118. Better start saving for those shuttle tickets!
Proposal to allow a T’xchlix site selection vote two decades in advance — While I think the Martians have good points about how many scifi fans they have who never get to attend, IMHO the access concerns about T’xchlix requiring a twelve-year relativistic journey for humans are legit. But hey, raptors who show up at the Business Meeting will get the same vote as everyone else, so if they’ve got the numbers, more power to ’em!
“Which is the Darkest Timeline?” — Organizers hoped this panel would spark some spirited debate, but it’s mainly notable for being an eye-rolling dud, as everyone thinks the answer’s too obvious! The three “what if’s” being proposed are if events had gone differently in 2016, 2065, or 2103, but I’ve not seen much (if any) disagreement. The human race being forced to genetically merge with an alien species would have caused a mess for a while, sure, but that’s nothing compared to if 2016 had gone differently!
Record number of translated works — In Hugo nominations, this year we have 18 different original languages represented. Spanish and Chinese translations have taken over Short Story and Young Adult, we’ve got two Crimsian-writing Martian authors, and for the very first time the shortlist has a translation from T’xchlix’kit! Of course, the backlash on that last one has been all too predictable. We haven’t had this many pixels spilled over a human-turning-reptile story since that classic about the dinosaur way back near the turn of the millennium! (I’m blanking on the title at the moment, but IIRC it was by Grandmaster Rachel Swirsky? Someone call it out in comments.) Oh, Fandom, you never change.
New Hugo category — Speaking of the Hugos, there’s a proposal to add Best Tragoreel as a category this year! The counterarguments being that 32 categories are already enough and that humans miss half the tragoreel experience by not being able to see in infrared, and thus can’t competently judge the works. I answer this by pointing out that we still have “Best Editor, Long Form.”
Retro Hugo eligibility — And finally, the Hugo Committee has taken the unusual step of making a preemptive eligibility ruling, in this case that Chuck Tingle’s Space Raptor Butt Invasion 7 is not eligible for the 2066 Retro Hugos, on account of its not being science fiction at the time.
That’s all I got! What’s brillin’ your klat about NewTokyoCon? Tell me in comments, or drop a plock to me at ~SFFan9873249878! You can also like, share, or feel-o-meter this post below!
S.L. Huang justifies her MIT degree by using it to write eccentric mathematical superhero fiction. In real life, you can usually find her hanging upside down from the ceiling or stabbing people with swords. She is unhealthily opinionated at www.slhuang.com and on Twitter as @sl_huang. Out now from Book Smugglers Publishing: Hunting Monsters and Fighting Demons.
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