Open to suggestion

[james_davis_nicoll]

What panel topics would induce you to watch if I was one of the panelists?

I've suggested one on space colonization with me, Charles Stross and a couple of Space Colony True Believers, as well as something related to my f/m posts.

Comments

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

Is an idea dead when it shows up in an SF RPG?

Mapping Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov onto the Christian trinity, and other ideas guaranteed to offend (now with more cats)

Not Only Belisarius Counts: other historical models for SF

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

Of course there's history other than Belisarus.

Why, there's the Battle of Roark's Drift, and also the 1905 Russo-Japanese War.

[resonant.livejournal.com]

The Battle of Roark's Drift was covered by both S&M Stirling and Tanya Huff in books published within a month of each other. At a book signing, she explained that they had apparently watched the same movie on TV, and had been simultaneously inspired.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

How did the books compare?

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Stirling's setting was in an alternate-history where the 20th-century island of Nantucket (population 10,000) was thrown 5000 years back in time. They used their remaining technology to build sailing ships, single-shot rifles, and bayonets, and then proceed to get involved in a land war in Asia, fighting opponents armed with spears and swords. So, the events in the story pretty much lined up with the historical record - just moved a few thousand kilometers northeast.

Huff's setting was on a planet of aliens with a high birth rate. Their dumb and aggressive spawn were released into wilderness areas to fight and cull each other as they developed towards adulthood. A diplomatic delegation from other planets (including Earth) was sent; it had a multispecies armed forces unit attached to it for security. The security force's transport crash-landed in the middle of a wilderness area full of aggressive, hostile juvenile aliens. They took shelter in some abandoned buildings, and had to defend themselves until help arrived.

Read Stirling for the setting, Huff for the characters.