This was the first WorldCon that I'd ever been to, and since it was in my erstwhile home town for only the fourth time in its 68th iteration, it was a chance I was not going to miss. I had been involved in conventions before, but usually as a presenter, and working while not presenting to ensure the conference was a success. To be a spectator was a bit of a novelty.

For the uninitiated AussieCon 4 is the 68th World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) held in Australia (and specifically Melbourne) for the 4th time. The first (AussieCon, with no suffixed numeral) was in 1975. To be honest I was an ardent fan of Science Fiction from before then, and I am amazed that I hadn't realised that these events had taken place in my city. It is easy to forgive the first one as I was just a teenager, but then there have been another two in the intervening 35 years, and I managed to miss both of them. Well not this time.

Like all WorldCons, AussieCon 4 is entirely run by volunteers, and they do a fantastic job. Registration was a breeze and even when problems arose the organisers handled it with simple yet effective solutions that meant that nobody was grumbling. The only problems I heard of from other members were of the venue, and not of the convention. And even then they were minor - like not having freely available WiFi, and the fact that the seating provided in the foyer was deceptively uncomfortable.

I only managed to get to two sessions (apart from the opening ceremony) as I wanted to sit in on a session that conflicted with that of Cory Doctorow, so I managed to get a ticket to his session on the same topic (Copyright and Creativity) at the Melbourne Writers Festival. Even so, the sessions I did attend were well attended and provided an interesting contrast. The first ("Spoiler Alert: reviewing plot-driven fiction without giving the story away") was a panel of reviewers (mostly fans) and their experiences and tips on reviewing. It reawakened my interest in reviewing and I'm sure KC will be happy to hear that! (As one who takes her reviewing duties very seriously KC has very strong opinions about my rather more casual attitude to the task).

The next panel was "Perfectly packaged: designing and marketing science fiction". Four panelists from publishing houses explained how they see their role in bringing a work to market. A lot of the discussion was around cover art, and the differences in different markets. An example was that the American covers tended to have more text on them (with at least three or four "selling points") and tended to be more action oriented, while British markets tended to shy away from too much text on the cover. The importance of the cover was then countered by the stats that admittedly were off-the-cuff but suggested that 99% of books were passed by without a reader viewing more than their spine. It was suggested that you had less than a second for the book to capture interest - then perhaps two or three seconds for the cover art to entice the prospective buyer to turn the book over or flip open the cover. I guess the most interesting idea that I took away from this session was that the cover art is there to give the reader what it feels like to read the book, and not try and be descriptive about the story.

Then I had to hot foot it up to the Capitol Theatre in Swanston Street. Although I did manage to confuse myself and walk around 1km too far as I headed up to the LaTrobe Street end before having to come back down to the Collins Street end. Yes, both ends have RMIT campus buildings, and Capitol Theatre is one of them.

Cory Doctorow's talk on Copyright and Creativity was, as usual, insightful, commanding, and entertaining. If you are a writer and have ever been convinced by your publisher that E-books are going to kill the industry and strong DRM (Digital Rights Management) is going to save the day, take the time to search out one of Cory's talks. I think you may come away with at least a more balanced perspective on the state of the art in DRM and the size of the problem it is supposedly trying to solve. This is a man who has released all his books both in traditional published paper form and as electronic books covered by a Creative Commons license, and done so successfully to both the amazement and delight of his publisher.

Points that Cory covered (and forgive me if my rendering of them has changed the sense or intent - all errors are my own):

Copyright has gone beyond its traditional role of regulating the entertainment industry to becoming an all pervasive regimen for controlling the lives of ordinary citizens. Good use of copyright makes good sense - pervasive use makes no sense.

Art has never been a discipline that followed the rules of economic rationalism and virtually no artist ever got into it to get rich. While Cory didn't mention it I might make the point that Vincent van Gogh died virtually unknown and never made a fortune (or even a decent living as far as I can tell) from his art, as did many artists we now know as greats. Cory was quick to point out that this is not how he would like it to be, but it is how it is. The extending of copyright will not change this dynamic as it doesn't address the underlying problem.

The current discussion on DRM is actually not about copyright, but about distribution control and putting more control into the hands of the distributors of works and not the creators.

No DRM works. Or more correctly it can never work as intended. Consider DRM on an ebook. Since you must still be able to read the book there is no way to stop you (using DRM) from retyping the book, effectively getting around any and all DRM no matter how supposedly secure or strong it may be.

It is difficult to monetise fame, and impossible to monetise obscurity. To take something that I know a bit more about as an example, MySQL in its early days had as its prime aim "ubiquity". That is, make sure everyone that is doing anything with data thinks of using MySQL first. Then the money will come later. Building an audience and then connecting with them in real ways is more important than trying to treat everyone as a potential criminal and expecting to "protect" revenue that way.

Looking forward to tomorrow's feast and wishing I could clone myself so I don't miss anything!

Title: THE GOOD GUY
Publisher: Harper
Author: Dean Koontz
Edition released: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-00-722660-3
456 pages
Reviewed by: Adam Donnison

Sitting in your favourite bar, trading sarcastic commentaries on life with the barman, you don't expect to find yourself being mistaken first for a hired killer and in a matter of minutes for the killer's client. Tim Carrier was just having a bit of a lark when the odd man started chatting, but by the time he realised that the man had mistaken him for a killer, he had left with Tim holding an envelope with $10,000 and a picture of the mark. Minutes later the killer then mistakes Tim for his client, and Tim tries to persuade him that the job is off - even giving the killer the money as compensation for wasted time.

Tim then finds Linda Paquette, the intended victim, and tries to warn her, only to find that the killer doesn't take no for an answer and Tim and Linda are set on the run from a man who has far too much information at his fingertips than is healthy.

Koontz does action well. Which is just as well. THE GOOD GUY could use a believable story line as well. Or maybe even just a little less of the formulaic elements like pretty girl in distress, "ah shucks" quiet hero with a history, jingoism, conspiracy lurking in the background, and what is it with American thrillers and cars? Why does the girl have to have a memorable car?

The start is unbelievable. The villain is unbelievable. The ending is painful. The plot predictable. But for all that if you lose yourself in the action it can be a bit of fun.

Title: HUNTER'S MOON
Publisher: Gollancz
Author: David Devereaux
Edition released: 2007
ISBN: 978-0-5750-7985-5
231 pages
Reviewed by: Adam Donnison

Jack is as good a name as any for the central character of HUNTER'S MOON. By his own admission a "bastard by disposition", Jack is a member of a secret government organisation who fight against the forces of dark using magic and violence.

Jack is given the brief to "close down" the Enlightened Sisterhood, a group of women who have been co-opted into a clandestine attack on the government. Jack takes up a job as a musician in a local bar and builds himself a cover story while liaising (in more ways than one) with Annie, who is in deep cover in the Sisterhood.

The Sisterhood use brainwashing and sex to control their group and Annie eventually succumbs to their tactics - resulting in Jack going in to try and rescue her and bring the Sisterhood to justice.

HUNTER'S MOON is pretty much black and white with no shades of grey. Jack is a hit man with no conscience nor qualms and relishes in his role. The evil Sisterhood is comprised of women who are essentially cast as man-haters. There was never any real doubt how this book would end, except perhaps the body count.

Title: END OF THE WORLD BLUES
Publisher: Gollancz
Author: Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Edition released: 2006
ISBN: 978-0-5750-7953-3
342 pages
Reviewed by: Adam Donnison

Neiji is a young schoolgirl who has $15 million in stolen currency locked in a railway locker, and Neiji needs to hide herself. Neiji takes on the role of a cosplay - a costumed play gang member, and becomes Lady Neku. Neku is sleeping rough in the Roppongi district and takes a liking to Kit Nouveau - a British army deserter that has made a life for himself in Tokyo running a flea-bit bar. Mind you, Kit just sees her as a kid in trouble who needs a coffee.

Kit is married to a sado-masochistic ceramic artist, and is having an affair with the wife of a local Yakuza crime lord, while ostensibly teaching her English. When the affair is discovered the already tattered fragments of Kit's life start to blow apart.

Neku manages to save Kit's life twice in quick succession, once when a Yakuza hit man takes action into his own hands and another when Kit's bar is blown apart, killing his wife Yoshi.

Kit is persuaded to return the England to find the truth about his former girlfriend's death, and Neku follows along. Kit falls into a maelstrom of intrigue and danger, and Neku gets caught up as well.

Neku however, is not your average schoolgirl. Coming from the far future where the world has dropped into decay and tribalism, Neku is linked to the past and Kit by a simple object that may contain the key to her own problems.

END OF THE WORLD BLUES is a finely crafted thriller with a fantastic twist. In some ways the addition of the visitor from the far-flung future is almost a distraction from the main game, although it starts to make sense towards the end of the book.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood has managed to achieve a balance between action and plot that is very satisfying. The threads that tie the characters are pulled together with finesse.

There is no doubt about the the eligibility of END OF THE WORLD BLUES to win the 2007 British Science Fiction Awards Best Novel.

Title: RESPLENDENT
Publisher: Gollancz
Author: Stephen Baxter
Edition released: 2006
ISBN: 978-0-5750-7983-0
544 pages
Reviewed by: Adam Donnison

RESPLENDENT is book four of the DESTINY'S CHILDREN series and is a collection of short stories around the same theme, sorted into a timeline order. Each story stands on its own and has a short link paragraph added at the end to tie the book together into a novel-length anthology.

Starting around AD 5,300 and ending at AD 1,000,000 RESPLENDENT covers the period of humanity after the Qax have left, freeing humanity to begin rebuilding a society and expanding their frontiers.

Each story is eminently readable, although trying to read the entire anthology in a single session shows quite clearly that this is a collection of parts rather than an integrated whole. This is not to take away from the work in any way, and like all Baxter's work, this is great science fiction. Having the stories in the time order rather than published order also provides a continuing narrative that gives this a novel-like feeling, despite the occasional jumps in the story. The link pieces do well to cover the gaps.

Some stories could have been left out without affecting the story, indeed, may well have had a positive effect given the similarity that some of the clustered pieces show. If you are a Stephen Baxter fan, then RESPLENDENT is a convenient and effective collection of his shorter works published over the period 2000 to 2006, ending with a previously unpublished piece to bring the final threads together.