
Simon Pryor
It all started with Dan Dare in the Eagle Comic, then, once ten year old me arrived in Australia my hero became Simon Black as described by Ivan Southall. I devoured American pulp fiction - rarely, though, through the magazines themselves and more through the book collections that found their way into our school's library. I volunteered in the library (great way to avoid the football field) and pored over the book catalogues to find sci-fi titles to convince the librarian to buy. Wyndham, Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Silverberg et al filled my waking hours. Andre Norton turbocharged my imagination. Harry Harrison shaped my sense of humour. Le Guin changed my life. Since then, science fiction has been my most significant window into the world. Aussiecon Four in Melbourne was an eye opener. It was wonderful to hear people I was reading at the time, like Charles Stross, Kim Stanley Robinson, Gregory Benford and Lucy Sussex. Most of all, though it was the thousands of fellow fans and the resultant feeling of vindication - others, many others, read science fiction! The fantastic writers and stories on offer from around the globe in 2019/20 means for me that CoNZealand is an opportunity to joyously revel in my science fiction-ness and pause to think about what those stories are telling us about our world today.
Sessions in which Simon Pryor participates
- SF and Fantasy of Australia Programming - Programme Room 1 (Webinar)
- 12:00 NZST - 12:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Chronology of Calendars Programming - Programme Room 4 (Webinar)
- 14:00 NZST - 14:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Can Living in a Small Space on Earth Prepare You for Living in Space? Programming - Programme Room 3 (Webinar)
- 16:00 NZST - 16:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Film Festival Block 1
- 18:00 NZST - 22:00 NZST | 4 hours
- Media Screening
- Parties: 29 July, party band #1 Con Operations - Party Zoom
- 23:00 NZST - 2:00 NZST | 3 hours
- Party
- Staying Closer to Home: Science Fiction in the Solar System Programming - Programme Room 2 (Webinar)
- 11:00 NZST - 11:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Ray Bradbury Centennial Programming - Programme Room 3 (Webinar)
- 13:00 NZST - 13:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Presentation
- On Afrofuturism Programming - Programme Room 4 (Webinar)
- 17:00 NZST - 17:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Not Long Before the End? SF and the Economics of Resource Scarcity Programming - Programme Room 4 (Webinar)
- 19:00 NZST - 19:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Talk
- Parties: 30 July, party band #1 Con Operations - Party Zoom
- 23:00 NZST - 2:00 NZST | 3 hours
- Party
- The Second Golden Age: SF of the 1960s Programming - Programme Room 2 (Webinar)
- 11:00 NZST - 11:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Masquerade Events - Events Room
- 11:00 NZST - 11:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Event
- Climate Fiction/Climate Fact Programming - Programme Room 1 (Webinar)
- 14:00 NZST - 14:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Access to Space Programming - Programme Room 1 (Webinar)
- 16:00 NZST - 16:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Is Cyberpunk Mainstream Now? Programming - Programme Room 2 (Webinar)
- 18:00 NZST - 18:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Parties: 31 July, party band #1 Con Operations - Party Zoom
- 23:00 NZST - 2:00 NZST | 3 hours
- Party
- Hugo Awards Ceremony Events - Events Room
- 11:00 NZST - 14:30 NZST | 3 hours 30 minutes
- Event
- The Future of Engineering/Design/Manufacturing: Influencing the World, Influencing SF Programming - Programme Room 2 (Webinar)
- 14:00 NZST - 14:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Panel
- Arthropods in Fiction Programming - Programme Room 3 (Webinar)
- 16:00 NZST - 16:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Presentation
- Essentials of TARDIS Engineering Programming - Programme Room 1 (Webinar)
- 17:00 NZST - 17:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Presentation
- Parties: 1 August, party band #1 Con Operations - Party Zoom
- 23:00 NZST - 2:00 NZST | 3 hours
- Party
- In Conversation: Gary K. Wolfe and Joe Haldeman Programming - Programme Room 2 (Webinar)
- 12:00 NZST - 12:50 NZST | 50 minutes
- Dialogue
- Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin
- Signup required Registered On Wait List Session is full Programming - Programme Room 2 (Webinar)
- 14:00 NZST - 16:00 NZST | 2 hours
- Media Screening
- Film Festival Block 5
- 15:00 NZST - 16:30 NZST | 1 hour 30 minutes
- Media Screening