Alt.Fiction 2011 Report

Mark: Last year I attended Alt.Fiction in Derby, a small one-day event that turned out to be a superb experience. It was also my first con where I actually knew people so didn't wander around aimlessly for the day - a good thing indeed! This year it was over two days but, for reasons I won't bore you with, I could only get down for the Saturday. And what an awesome day!

I arrived early on Saturday morning and managed to have a sit down to browse the programme and see what I fancied attending. There was lots on during the day and while the workshops or readings didn't appeal to me there were plenty of panels that I wanted to go along to, the main ones being IS THERE ANYWHERE NEW FOR SCIENCE FICTION TO GO?, and ALASTAIR REYNOLDS GUEST OF HONOUR TALK, although I did sit in on the HAS FANTASY MOVED PAST TOLKIEN? panel and attended the raffle too.

The SF panel was first up (check out Amanda's full report of it here) and was with Tony Ballantyne, John Jarrold, Alastair Reynolds and Ian Whates - all did a good job in this one. The discussion was far ranging and I quite liked the topics raised. Bottom line: there will always be somewhere for SF to go! The fantasy panel was immediately after this and, while I'm not the biggest fantasy reader, it was interesting to see it discussed in such a way with regards to Tolkien (I have seen the films, if nothing else). Both entertaining panels :) Al Reynolds guest of honour talk was also good, more of an introduction to him and his background than anything else, but it was interesting to hear him talk about the upcoming set of novels he's writing and how African music has influenced him so much in its writing.

Other than the panels the day was generally a great way to chat to those I know online but rarely see face-to-face. I'm also rather shy when it comes to approaching people I haven't met before and because of this I missed out on talking to a lot of folks I would otherwise have liked to chat with.

At the end of the day I can easily say Alt.Fiction is my favourite con - it's well organised and busy, yet it keeps the small con feel very well. I'll be going once again next year and will seriously consider attending any other event that they run :)


Steve: This is the second time I've attended Alt Fiction as well and I think it's also my favourite convention so far. I attended Eastercon for the first time this year, and despite Alt Fiction only being 2 days, I attended more panels than the 4 day Eastercon event. I realise Eastercon is different every year and I am fairly likely to be attending the next one, but I am definitely going to the next Alt Fiction, because for me, it was much more interesting. There was a great mix of panels, so if you were into horror you could follow that thread from panels to workshops to podcasts and same for SF and Fantasy. Some of the panels were better than others, but all of the people involved were very invested in the genre and their enthusiasm and good humour was obvious. I also must tip my hat to Ian Whates for giving a razor sharp response to a very leading question from one member of the audience who had an axe to grind. He left the person without a leg to stand on and thankfully that was the end of it.

Briefly meeting and hearing some authors speak for the first time gave me a flavour of their personality and as a result it made me incredibly curious about their work. Sarah Pinborough and Guy Adams were both fantastic as hosts of the raffle and an incredibly funny double act and I expect they both earned themselves a few new readers.

I attended the same panels as Mark on Saturday, and once again I'm going to admit to another gap in my reading knowledge. Being more of a Fantasy reader than an SF, I was aware of Alistair Reynolds but have not read any of his books, so his guest of honour panel was fascinating to me. It gave me real insight into how he writes, where his inspirations and ideas come from and what motivated him to write SF in the first place instead of novels in another genre. It was also very obvious that he is still incredibly passionate about current and future work and the genre in general. So now I am the proud owner of Pushing Ice and will be reading that at some point this year.

Sunday I was there for half the day and although the schedule was lighter then Saturday, it worked really well and I found it very relaxing. The first couple of talks eased everyone into the morning and the panel about the reality of being a writer and the lifestyle that often accompanies it as a career was funny and insightful. The following panel about who read the genre was also well worth attending and proved to be fascinating. Unfortunately there were a couple of panels I missed later in the day, in particular the comics panel, but from what I hear they were also good fun.

Overall it's a great convention, it's smaller than Eastercon, but it made it less intimidating to approach an author and have a chat about their work, or ask a question in a panel and it made it easier to engage with other attendees I had not met before. Great stuff and I look forward to the convention next year as well as the other events organised by Alt Fiction throughout the year, so make sure to visit the website for updates.