


Next I walked to my hotel with
From the book collecting I went to a panel on choosing religion as a setting for a novel, with Evan Friedman, SM Stirling, Louise Marley, Lois Bujold, PC Hodgell, and Sharon Shinn. Not immediately gripping, but interesting overall--I really ought to re-read some of the early Shinn like Archangel, and read her other stuff (I've been reading the Mystic and Rider set, plus some of her YA books). Louise Marley, whose books relevant to this panel sounded very Serious and perhaps Literary, turns out to also be Toby Bishop, who wrote the rather fluffly "flying horses which bond to humans" book I read recently. No photos of this panel or the next one, as the official photographer seems to have spent the afternoon at the Regency Ball.
After that I sat through part of Space Drives, moderated by Elizabeth Moon, with Larry Niven and John Barnes. Not bad, again, though it wasn't looking to be a lively discussion while I was there. Elizabeth Moon would ask a question, they all would answer, and that was generally it--on to next question. I left to go back to my room and post some of my notes to the Bujold list, grabbed a fast-food turkey wrap, and headed off to the Hugos.