ConQuesT 30
May 1999
ConQuesT is an annual convention for fans who like to read science fiction. It's a medium-sized gathering in Kansas City MO of about 500 people, mostly from the middle states. It is basically a book -- not a media -- convention, so only has a handful of StarTrek/Babylon5 etc costume wearers (although Klingons are apparently a staple security force at many conventions).
May 1999 was the first time I ever attended a science fiction convention. There are scads of Cons all around the world, and many in California -- but I never much thought of ever going to one. The only reason I traveled to the ConQuesT was to meet my favorite author,Mr. Wilson Tucker .
I almost fell -- and I really do mean that literally -- off my chair in mid-1998, when I found out that he was alive and well and living in the midwest. It took me weeks to work up my first e-mail message to him, and I almost fell off the exact same chair, again, when he replied some days later. To make a long story short, I ended up flying to KC in May 1999.
Mr. Tucker wrote the finest adventure/mystery/romantic story I've ever read. This Witch. A soldier-of-fortune hero and a part-oriental, clairvoyant woman team up in the Mid-East to find a pre-Christian treasure. Their attraction is magical, mystical, magnetic. The writing style is elegant, charming, understated, witty. Absolutely spellbinding. Easily his best novel. Totally smoooooth.
The spy (plus adventure/mystery/hint-of-romance) novel The Warlock is also real smoooooth. It has one of the catchiest one-liners (near the story's end) I've ever come across -- it just sticks in your mind for life.
[ INTERLUDE: I read both the above (and then the ones below, and all his others I could find) in the mid-70s. I forgot the author (how on earth can you forget a name like Wilson Tucker??? -- hey, I was a young kid). But that one-liner, and those two titles, stayed in my mind for twenty years. Then in the early '90s I became a librarian, and for some reason got the urge to do some detective work to trace the titles down. And found them. ]
His SF /mystery/adventure novel The Time Masters presents one Gilbert Nash -- Gilgamesh of the epic/legend. It got me started on a crusade to read everything I could find concerning Gilgamesh (including Silverberg's excellent account). By the way, Time Bomb was an excellent Gilbert Nash sequel, more SF-ish, with a lot of time traveling.
Red Herring was his best and (unfortunately for me) his last Charles Horne detective story. Great characters. And great plotline, and writing, too.
Don't get me started about how upset I am that there aren't any more sequels to all the above.
I could go on and on. Yeah, I have all Mr. Tucker's books! Even, as he says, his "raw" ones. Also paperback versions with text revisions.
As I said, I could go on and on --- but have decided to post a few snapshots instead.
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Paraded through the convention in manacles and neck collar
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Pleading his case before the Klingon Grand Inquisitor, Admiral Kragtowl zantai-Trekkan
(aka "Bear") (aka William Reed)
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Mr. Tucker signing books
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Panel discussion with various authors; David Drake in middle, with Mr. Tucker
Some other pictures of Mr. Tucker, by Keith Stokes
Posted October 23, 2000
Updated August 14, 2001