With Stars In My Eyes: My Adventures In British Fandom

by Peter Weston

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/430251.html[return][return]I don't think I've met (in the flesh) a single person named in this book; I attended a couple of speeches made by Terry Pratchett when I was an undergraduate, but that hardly counts. However I instantly felt I was reading a book by someone like me, about other people like me. I'm a relatively recent arrival in the world of active sf fandom (attended my first sf con only three years ago), but already feel very much at home in it. And my natural inclination is towards the more intellectual discussion of sf that it would appear Weston was trying to promote back in the '60s and '70s, so I feel naturally sympathetic to his Grand Project, such as it was.[return][return]That is really thanks to the way Weston tells the story, with enough information about individuals that I like to think I'd recognise key protagonists from his description if I bump into them in the pub. He is detached enough to recount his own mistakes in managing interpersonal relationships over the years of his involvement to make you feel comfortable with his narrative, and also to make you sympathise all the more on the one or two occasions where his feelings clearly haven't cooled down after the passage of decades.[return][return]I especially liked the occasional vignettes of people who I have at least heard of, though I'm struck that those I really wanted to hear more about are all those at the same literary end of fandom where Weston placed himself and where I'd like to place myself. My biggest frustration was that I'd have liked to hear more about the various cons described only briefly.

[Tommy]

Everything in fandom has already happened, to someone else!

Good stuff.