The convention is over, and it was a success. People took lots of photos, and they are starting to appear online.

• Johan
• Jussi
• Pasi

There are more details on the programme page, so go take a look!

It is becoming more and more obvious that Ian McDonald’s Brasyl is one of the books that posterity will remember about 2007. Locus Magazine announced the finalists for this year’s Locus Awards yesterday, and Brasyl is one of the five nominees in the SF novel category. All fingers crossed, now!

The museum ship Pommern has been away for maintenance, but has now returned to its normal place by the Nautical museum (very near the con site), so those who want can visit it during the con.

We are arranging a dinner for Saturday for those who want to go and eat together. We’re going to the restaurant Nautical (by the Nautical museum and the museum ship Pommern), and the dinner starts at six.

If you are on the members e-mail list, you have already received a link to the signup form. If not, please contact <acon@sci.fi> and we’ll send you the link. Act now — you need to sign up by Saturday the 19th.

The evening menu is:

Starters:

• Archipelago plate with Åland Islands delis
• Slightly smoked deer carpaccio with parmesan, pine seeds and herb salad

Main Courses

• Butter fried fillets of perch, fennel sauce, prawns and vegetables
• Grilled fillet of beef, oven baked beet roots, oxtail gravy, tarragon butter

Dessert

• Vanilla ice-cream with home made hot butterscotch sause and frosted sea buckthorn berries

Although the hotel booking deadline has passed, it’s still possible to reserve a room for the discounted Åcon price — the hotel has released the rest of the rooms to the public, but they promised to give Åcon members the agreed discount while there are rooms available. So if you’re still thinking about coming, act now!

The current member count for Åcon 2 is 75.

You can still sign up to become a member, but act fast. The hotel room quota was released on March 31, so the rooms will probably go quite fast. If you’d still like to reserve a ferry trip through us, please contact us as soon as possible, to see if it’s still possible to get the group prices from the ferry company.

Our Guest of Honour Ian McDonald’s excellent novel Brasyl has just won the BSFA Award. Congratulations!

We have a junior membership available for teens. Younger children don’t need a membership. See the Members page for details.