Potlatch 25 Recap

The Potlatch 25 overlay assembled in San José to discuss Book of Honor Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson. First we stood in a circle and threw this constellation:

Constellation

We discussed the Book of Honor for about an hour. The readers thought it was well written, funny, and subtle. Some readers did not like Ariel, the main character, which is understandable because he is rather self-centered and unreliable. For them, the book took off when it became more about other characters. Others thought his predicament was realistic and empathized with him. We talked about computer games, artificial intelligences, ethics, relationships, saving the world, and what happens when they all get entangled.

Leonard joined us on Skype for a Q&A session. He answered questions about why Judy Chicago (because The Dinner Party is big but human-scale, and it is art that Jenny would really be into), his writing influences (Douglas Adams and Ken MacLeod), whether the Constellation has a Special Circumstances (yes, and it’s Curic, although she doesn’t use violence or coercion), and so on for 45 minutes. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

The writers workshop earlier in the day was small but well run, and the submitted stories were excellent.