Futuro Imperfeito

I’m alone in a crowded bar, nursing a pint of Guinness. This scottish guy comes over. He has a full red beard, and wears a kilt. He asks me if I’m having a good time in Glasgow. Yes, I sure am. When I tell him I’m from Brazil, he tells me his son is about to spend a year in South America. We chat for a while, and go our own ways. It’s that simple, almost as if we’ve known each other for a long time. We’re part of the same community.

Science Fiction fandom is often defined just like that: a community, a conversation, an exchange of ideas. This is the 82nd World Convention of Science Fiction: a gathering of fans, readers and writers to celebrate this conversation, this community. Glasgow hosted a crowd of 7.200 people from around the world, the third largest attendance in person, after Chengdu (18.900 last year) and Los Angeles (8.300 in 1984). 
The Glasgow Convention Centre sits beside the river Clyde, which once hosted great shipyards. Today, it’s surrounded by hotels. In my hotel, I see  Adrian Tchaikovsky and Aliette de Bodard, but I let them enjoy their breakfast without interruption: at 7 A.M., it’s too early for fanboy shenanigans…

This is my second Worldcon (the first was Chicago in 2022). I get my badge and I’m off to collect ribbons for it – promotions for other cons, fan clubs, publishers, authors etc. 

I’ve come with an empty suitcase. I left Chicago with 20 books; this time I end up with 42 books and magazines. One of the great things about a Worldcon is the chance to meet authors, have a brief conversation and get your favourite books signed. And also to meet new, independent authors.

So I get books signed by favourites such as Robert SIlverberg (Dying Inside): at 89, he holds a record for attending Worldcons. I just thank him for so many wonderful stories over the years, particularly Nightwings, an early favourite of mine. He thanks me back, and says it’s wonderful to hear this kind of reaction. I tell Alastair Reynolds how Revelation Space was important in bringing me back to SF after a while away in the early 2000s. I’ve been collecting signed books by Aliette de Bodard from Subterranean Press, but the release of Navigational Entanglements gives me a chance to meet her in person.

Of the Guests of Honour, I get Ken MacLeod to sign his latest, Beyond the Light Horizon, and the collection A Jura for Julia, also signed by illustrator and Guest of Honour Chris ‘Fangorn’ Baker. And the always smiling Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death, soon a series on HBO/Max). I get a laugh out of Adrian Tchaikovsky telling him how hard it is to keep up with his output (three novels just in 2024). I congratulate Ai Jiang (AI am AI, Linghun) for her recent wedding. Amal El-Mohtar tells me she has seen the lovely Brazilian edition of This Is How You Lose the Time War, and would love to visit the country.

Two writers – Ian McDonald (Desolation Road) and Francisco Verso (solarpunk collection Ecolution) – mention Brazilian author and friend of mine, Fabio Fernandes.

I tell Emily Tesh how she hit hard with Some Desperate Glory – an antifascist Space Opera – and she tells me that was her intention from the start. I say I’m from Brazil, where we just got rid of an extremist government, and she answers, “I know, but fortunately you managed to elect president Lula again.” She says that’s why she wrote the book, because of all the terrible things going on around the world and which we have to stand up to.

The highlight is the meeting with Emma Newman, author of the brilliant Planetfall series. She gathers her Patreon contributors for tea, and for an hour we discuss Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lathe of Heaven. She talks about the prospects of returning to the Planetfall universe (pleeeease!) and her upcoming release of The Vengeance, which she describes as The Three Musketeeers with werewolves and vampires. Her enthusiasm is catching, and makes this meeting worth the whole trip. 

Next: Parties and Awards