Fantasycon - 2024 Birmingham

Hellooo!

So, I spent this weekend at one of my favourite events on the SF&F calendar Fantasycon which returned to the refurbished Leonardo Royal Hotel for a very busy three-day weekend. I had a very lovely weekend of buying books, watching panels, meeting people and did I mention buying books as that happened by total accident …honest…

Fantasycon had been slightly constrained by firstly a return from the pandemic, then a last-minute rescue by the BFS of a bid that had had a number of issues, but this year a bigger convention was restored and with circa 500 guests was very well attended. It was a great advertisement for the UK SF&F scene and a reminder that the British Fantasy Society now has a renewed sense of purpose and ambition that is very welcoming to see.

The Guests of Honour this year were the brilliant Tasha Suri, Alastair Reynolds and Ian Whates who attended various interviews and panels sharing their knowledge, insights and perspectives on the field.

It was the kind of schedule where I could easily have been cloned and still had clashes so interesting experiences for me were

Reading Something New – Charlotte Bond (moderator) Adri Joy, Rachel Knightley, Gary Couzens, Maria McHugh

Obviously, a panel on booktempting was going to interest me and this had a long list of good ideas for recommendations but also discussion on how you hear about books, get access to book news and the joy/pain of writing review up.

World Mythologies – Charlotte Bond (Moderator) Tasha Suri, Alexander Glass, A Y Chao and Joanne Harris.

Loved this panel which discussed the power of worldbuilding; where inspirations come from, how they play with a mythology, update it and have fun. Also, how some maps can be sometimes a chicken nugget. It was a lovely discussion with bits of history, science and more all thrown in. All authors worth a look!

Award Recognition – Adri Joy (Moderator), Francesca T Barbini, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Simon Kurt Unsworth.

Another really good panel that explored the artistic and commercial sides of awards. The barriers that some pose small press in the form of fees; how awards can and sometimes will not help an author; how they influence bookshops and the value they add to the community and how the various awards reflect different aspects of the community at the same time. The lack of simple answers here made this a very rich and interesting discussion.

The night was finished by listening to karaoke and chatting with friends. (I did not sing)

Saturday

I started with listening to excellent readings from Stephen Aryan, Thomas D Lee, Juliet E Mckenna and Teika Marija-Smits moving the audience from epic fantasy, future based fantasy, rural contemporary fantasy and a touch of historic fantasy too. Another great set of authors to investigate.

At this point there may have been a visit to the fine dealers rooms

Multi-Culturalism In SFF – How To Get it Right – Omar Koheji (Moderator), Stewart Hotston, Joao F Silva, Gabriela Houston, Anna Stephens

Now this was not the panel I expected to see. The small intro to the panel included “our Panel discusses the ways in which you can avoid the pitfalls when trying to create worlds of diversity and variety”. Very much from this I took it to mean how to write using cultural influences not your own and avoid making mistakes. This seemed to be the tone set by the moderator and Hotson, Stephens and Silva all had valid points from the values of research, perhaps creating something so unique you can’t clearly see the original influences and being wary of punching down and taking space from those who are better placed to tell certain stories. But then we come to Gabriela Houston’s confusing contribution.

Houston writes tales of Slavic folklore inspired by their own Polish background as such I was a little confused as the discussion went on why they were here as they were not writing about another culture that they’re not familiar with. Indeed, Houston seemed to focus on the ways people had confused her for a non-Polish author due to her surname even though she knew the culture; this then moved onto discussions of being wary to criticise an author when you’re unsure of their actual background – a valid point about authors having to reveal parts of their lives they don’t want to and audiences not jumping to conclusions about an author’s community but not what anyone else on the panel was talking about which I felt stymied the wider conversation. Houston instead seemed to have more a carte blanche attitude to people writing about other cultures, seemed to dismiss a lot of criticism of those who do it badly as ‘just Twitter’ and defended the work of Kate Clanchy offering a more narrow interpretation of the issues raised on that author’s work and indeed seemed to just reflect poorly researched things you can read online without the well-structured reviews and criticism of the work in question; on top of that they suggested being wary of sensitivity readers often seemed to be scams (which while may be true for an individual case but is also seen across the industry with rogue publishers, editors, coaches and even some types of reviewers so not exactly something authors should do their homework on to select one).

Confusingly Houston identified avoiding stereotypes and poor research as important but seemed to not appreciate that applying to a culture you’ve no actual experience needed a bit more care. Stephens offered a much better in my view answer of what would happen if someone accused you of doing this badly – investigate and if needed fix and apologise compared to Houston’s view that would be just Twitter so ignore it. I found it a puzzling and often dismissive attitude to an important subject. I will though praise the good moderation of the panel which moved the subject on and at moments of tension defused the situation. I would though wish future panellists will consider have they actually got anything to talk about on the actual subject matter before agreeing to participate.

After this I needed food and books

I was delighted to see the Flame Tree Launch of Anna Smith Spark’s A sword of Bronze and Ashes and Allen Stroud’s Europa – a really good discussion about how these books came about and readings. Well worth your picking up.

I was also very lucky to attend a reading of work by Phil Sloman, Trip Galey and Neil Williamson who balanced two tales of great horror with some lyrical literary inspired historical fantasy.

Wandering and chatting ensued before the very excellent British Fantasy Awards – a fine degree of shortlists and well deserved winners. Its brisk (take that Hugos) and was lovely to see so many happy faces.

To finish the night a Fantasy staple in the form of Dungeons and Disorderly with David Thomas Moore as Dungeon master and Alice James, Stewart Hotston, Mike Brooks, AK Faulkner and Laura bennet this year’s players going cyberpunk with audience participation there were Kraken, talking cats, Cyberorks, electric buttock and I once had to sing as Chthululu – no one will ever ask me to sing again. Much needed relief after a long day. Next year – pirates!

The final day involved the BFS AGM which is where the committee talks about the year past and future structure and plans. Its worth highlighting the drive the team have had to boost the BFS as source for writers. Multiple online workshops, a writers retreats and various author panels online, A commitment to paying guests, journal contributors and it is paying off as there has again been a significant growth in membership; much more interest from publishers a stronger web presence and review team and more plans to grow the presence in social media. It is well worth joining and this committee has done far more than many others to grow the society than any other I’ve heard of in many years. They should all be applauded. We may be North-West bound for 2024’s Fantasycon and 2025 we will be merged with World Fantasy so the future of the BFS is looking good – well worth you joining!

A chilled some would say tired afternoon was pepped up by the last two excellent panels starting with Ballroom Warfare – Anna Smith Spark (moderator) Shona Kinsella, Elijah Kinch Spector, Sinead Gosai and Andrew Knighton

Here other ways to have conflict and make a statement be that via costume, language and social power it was a fascinating study using various parts of history and books to discuss our concepts of beauty, power and status. Really interesting stuff and more interesting than simple hand to hand combat (although that can be fun too)

My final panel was another highlight –

Making Worlds – Mike Brooks (Moderator) Tasha Suri, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jen Williams and Shauna Lawless

 A benefit of having a great author moderator is that they avoid the more obvious questions and had some really interesting ones – best idea, strangest source, what influences them and everything from reddit threads to nature documentaries got referenced. It was a really good flowing conversation with fine great modern fantasy and science fiction authors working together to make a really discussion and everyone sighed when time up was announced. A train to Liverpool then beckoned

In fact, Making Worlds really sums up Fantasycon. I was pleased to see how many new people could attend this year and all were having a great time and pleased that this community is so welcoming – again something this incarnation of the BFS is keen to promote; and I stress poor behaviour is not being tolerated. The mix of professional authors with long careers, publishing newbies, big names and yet to be discovered add in weird reviewers like me and people who just like to read all gave a sense of a community that is now keen to engage, support and help. While the next day I’m tired to the very bones seeing all of this does energise the batteries and remind me why I like to talk to you Gentle Reader about books. So, join the BFS, keep an eye out for next year’s Fantasycon announcements and who knows I could be booktempting you in person! That was not a threat…that was a promise!

huge thanks to the organisers HWS Events, the BFS and of course the Redcloaks who keep this show ticking along!