Featured Guests: Brian Aldiss | Pamela Sargent | George Zebrowski | Joe DeVito | Kevin Anderson | Rebecca Moesta | Steve Johannsen | Jolly Blackburn | Tom Purdom | More Guests!

  Philcon 2004 Principal Speakers:

Brian W. Aldiss
www.brianwaldiss.com

Unfortunately, Brian Aldiss will be unable to travel to attend Philcon 2004 due to medical concerns.

British novelist, critic, essayist, poet, and short story writer, including both SF and mainstream themes. Following his World War 2 service in the Royal Signal Corps in Burma and Sumatra he took a position as an assistant in an Oxford bookshop. His first writings were for a booksellers trade publication and his first SF sale came in 1954 with "Criminal Record" in Science Fantasy.

Pamela Sargent
http://www.engel-cox.org/sargent/

Pamela Sargent sold her first published story during her senior year in college at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where she earned a B.A. and M.A. in philosophy and also studied ancient history and Greek. She is the author of several highly praised novels, among them Cloned Lives (1976), The Sudden Star (1979), The Golden Space (1982), The Alien Upstairs (1983), and Alien Child (1988). Her novel Venus of Dreams (1986) was selected by The Easton Press for its Masterpieces of Science Fiction series; Gregory Benford described it as a sensitive portrait of people caught up in a vast project. It tells us much about how people react to technologyís relentless hand, and does so deftly...One of the peaks of recent science fiction. Venus of Shadows (1988), the sequel, was called a masterly piece of world-building by James Morrow and alive with humanity, moving, and memorable by Locus. The Shore of Women (1986), one of Sargentís best-known books, was praised as a compelling and emotionally involving novel by Publishers Weekly; Gerald Jonas of the New York Times said about this novel: I applaud Ms. Sargentís ambition and admire the way she has unflinchingly pursued the logic of her vision. The Washington Post Book World has called her one of the genre's best writers.

Sargent is also the author of Earthseed (1983), chosen as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association, and the short fiction collections Starshadows (1977) and The Best of Pamela Sargent (1987). Her novels Watchstar (1980), Eye of the Comet (1984), and Homesmind (1984) comprise a trilogy. She has won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and has been a finalist for the Hugo Award. Her work has been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian.

Ruler of the Sky (1993), Sargentís epic historical novel about Genghis Khan, published in the United States by Crown Publishers and in Britain by Chatto & Windus, tells the Mongol conquerorís story largely from the points-of-view of women. Gary Jennings, bestselling author of the historical novels Aztec and The Journeyer, said about Ruler of the Sky: This formidably researched and exquisitely written novel is surely destined to be known hereafter as the definitive history of the life and times and conquests of Genghis, mightiest of Khans. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of Reindeer Moon and The Animal Wife, commented: Scholarly without ever seeming pedantic, the book is fascinating from cover to cover and does admirable justice to a man who might very well be called historyís single most important character.

Sargent is also an editor and anthologist. In the 1970s, she edited the Women of Wonder series, the first collections of science fiction by women; her other anthologies include Bio-Futures and, with British writer Ian Watson as co-editor, Afterlives. Two anthologies, Women of Wonder, The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s and Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s, were published by Harcourt Brace in 1995; Publishers Weekly called these two books essential reading for any serious sf fan. With artist Ron Miller, she collaborated on Firebrands: The Heroines of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1998), published by Thunder's Mouth Press in the U.S. and Collins & Brown/Paper Tiger in the U.K.

Her novel Climb the Wind: A Novel of Another America was published by HarperPrism in January of 1999 and was a finalist for the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Gahan Wilson, writing in Realms of Fantasy, calls this book a most enjoyable and entertaining new alternate history adventure...which brings a new dimension to the form, while Science Fiction Chronicle describes it as a first class work from a first class writer. Child of Venus, the third novel in Sargentís Venus trilogy, was published in May 2001 by Eos/HarperCollins, thus completing a trilogy Publishers Weekly has termed masterful...as in previous books, Sargent brings her world to life with sympathetic characters and crisp, concise language. Two collections, The Mountain Cage and Other Stories (Meisha Merlin) and Behind the Eyes of Dreamers and Other Short Novels (Thorndike Press/Five Star) were published in 2002, and a third collection of fantasy stories, Eye of Flame (Thorndike Press/Five Star), came out at the end of 2003. Michael Moorcock has said about her writing: If you have not read Pamela Sargent, then you should make it your business to do so at once. She is in many ways a pioneer, both as a novelist and as a short story writer...She is one of the best.

Her publications in 2004 include Conqueror Fantastic (DAW), an anthology of original stories, Thumbprints (Golden Gryphon), a collection of Sargentís short fiction with an introduction by James Morrow, and a reissue of The Shore of Women from BenBella Books.

Pamela Sargent has lectured on science fiction, historical fiction, and science fiction by women at high schools, colleges, and universities in the United States and abroad, and lives in Albany, New York.

George Zebrowski

George Zebrowski's nearly forty books include novels, short fiction collections, anthologies, and a book of essays.

Science fiction writer Greg Bear calls him one of those rare speculators who bases his dreams on science as well as inspiration, and the late Terry Carr, one of the most influential science fiction editors of recent years, described him as an authority in the SF field. Zebrowski has published more than seventy works of short fiction and more than a hundred and forty articles and essays, and has written about science for Omni Magazine. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Amazing Stories, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Science Fiction Age, Nature, the Bertrand Russell Society News, and many other publications.

His best known novel is Macrolife (Harper & Row, 1979), which Arthur C. Clarke described as a worthy successor to Olaf Stapledonís Star Maker. Itís been years since I was so impressed. One of the few books I intend to read again. Library Journal chose Macrolife as one of the one hundred best science fiction novels, and The Easton Press included it in its Masterpieces of Science Fiction series. Zebrowskiís stories and novels have been translated into a half-dozen languages; his short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Stranger Suns (Bantam, 1991) was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

The Killing Star (William Morrow, 1995), written with scientist/author Charles Pellegrino, received unanimous praise in national newspapers and magazines. The New York Times Book Review called it a novel of such conceptual ferocity and scientific plausibility that it amounts to a reinvention of that old Wellsian staple, [alien invasion]...The Washington Post Book World described the novel as a classic SF theme pushed logically to its ultimate conclusions.

Brute Orbits (HarperCollins, 1998), an uncompromising novel about the future of the penal system, was praised by reviewers for its characters, originality, and thought. Paul Di Filippo, in Asimov's Science Fiction, said that Zebrowski never ceases to invest his individual characters with three-dimensional roundness...Startling, sobering, provocative, while Publishers Weekly called this novel boldly speculative. The book was also honored with the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year in 1999.

Cave of Stars, a novel that is part of his Macrolife mosaic, was published by HarperCollins in 1999. Skylife, an anthology edited by George Zebrowski with physicist and writer Gregory Benford, was published by Harcourt Brace in 2000. Swift Thoughts, a hardcover collection of his stories, with an introduction by Gregory Benford, came out in 2002. A second hardcover collection, In the Distance, and Ahead In Time, was also published in the same year. Synergy SF: New Science Fiction, the next volume of his legendary Synergy series of original anthologies, was published in 2004.

Questions about the registration? Contact: registration@philcon.org

At the Door Registration Rates:

Registration at the door will be:
Adult Weekend = $50
Children Weekend (age 7 to 12) = $25
Day Rate Friday = $20
Day Rate Saturday = $35
Day Rate Sunday = $20

Mail-In Registration Instructions:

No pre-registration forms postmarked after November 30 will be accepted. Children under seven are free when accompanied by an adult. Babysitting is available for children ages three months through age six. See Babysitting for more information.

If you are sending in more than one membership at once, please be sure to provide the name, and address, if different, of each individual so that we can send confirmation and future flyers.

“Badge” names are possible, provided we also have your real name.

Please make checks payable to “Philadelphia Science Fiction Society” and send to Philcon Registration, P.O. Box 3, Oreland, PA 19075. Remember that pre-registering allows you to avoid lines at the registration desk.