It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.
Sunday, October 21st
14:00 Frankenstein Live
Fantasy Faire Radio and Seanchai Library will present Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, specially adapted for radio and live performance in six voices, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the novel’s original publication. The two-hour performance will take place live at this year’s iteration of “Haunted Holly Kai” high above the Blake Sea based Art Park, and will benefit Relay for Life.
Da5id Abbot, Corwyn Allen, Zander Greene, Shandon Loring, Elrik Merlin, and Caledonia Skytower will come together to present the script adapted by Skytower and Abbot from Shelley’s original novel. The performance, running just under two hours, will be live on stream at “Haunted Holly Kai: featuring Frankenstein” and simultaneously broadcast on Fantasy Faire Radio.
You can teleport to Haunted Holly Kai from Seanchai Library’s front door, or via the Holly Kai Park Information Centre.
Radio listeners can tune in by opening https://radioriel.org in their internet browser and choosing Fantasy Faire Radio in the left hand sidebar, by opening http://fantasy.radioriel.org in a network audio player.
18:00: Magicland Storytime: Mary Poppins Comes Back
Pulled down from the clouds at the end of a kite string, Mary Poppins is back. In Mary’s care, the Banks children meet the King of the Castle and the Dirty Rascal, visit the upside-down world of Mr. Turvy and his bride, Miss Topsy, and spend a breathless afternoon above the park, dangling from a clutch of balloons.
Find out more with Caledonia Skytower at the The Golden Horseshoe.
Monday, October 22nd 19:00: The Infinitive of Go
Gyro Muggins reads John Brunner’s 1980 novel about matter teleportation and dimensional shifts.
Dr Justin Williams and his collaborator, Cinnamon Wright, develop a form of instantaneous teleportation in which the departure and arrival points appear “congruent” with one another, allowing objects to be instantly moved from one to the other in a transfer process termed “posting”.
The system works flawlessly with inanimate objects, and when a situation arises requiring an urgent diplomatic solution arises, Williams is called upon to transfer a courier from the USA to an embassy in a foreign location. But something goes wrong: on his arrival, the courier is armed – yet he carried no weapon on his departure – and further demands he be given a countersign by those at the embassy – when no such arrangement had been made. Believing the mission to be compromised, the courier shoot himself, and the package he is carrying self-destructs.
In order to prove he did not sabotage the system, Williams has himself posted – only to find that while he feels unchanged, the world around him has changed in the most subtle of ways. As time goes on, Williams – with the help of a doubly altered Wright – realises that the teleportation device is moving its subjects between parallel universes. It is also apparent that some of those arriving in the dimension in which he now exists have far more knowledge about what is going on.
The question is, is it the system that is causing people to move between universes, or ir it something more subtle?
Tuesday, October 23rd 19:00: The House with a Clock in it’s Walls
Faerie Maven-Pralou reads the first in John Bellairs’ Lewis Barnavelt series, originally published in the 1970s.
In the mid-west United States in the 1950s, 11-year-old, orphaned Lewis Barnavelt arrives at the home of his Uncle Jonathan, who has been appointed his guardian. Overweight, shunned by other children, he finds himself in his uncle’s the ramshackle mansion where the ominous ticking of a clock can be heard coming from within the walls.
Lewis soon discovers his uncle is a witch, as is his eccentric neighbour, Mrs. Zimmerman – who is obsessed with the colour purple and anything with “Z” on it – are witches. Fortunately, they are witches of the “good” kind, and they are engaged in a literal race against time.
The ticking coming from within the mansion’s walls belongs to a doomsday clock, and if Uncle Jonathan, Mrs. Zimmerman – and now Lewis – must work out where the bewitched clock has been hidden by the warlocks who once owned the house.
Wednesday, October 24th, 19:00: The Jennifer Morgue
Corwyn Allen reads the second volume in the Laundry Files by Charles Stross.
Bob Howard is an IT expert and occasional field agent for the Laundry, the branch of Her Majesty’s Secret Service that deals with occult threats.
Dressed in a tuxedo (what else for a globe-trotting British Secret Agent?) and sent to the Caribbean, Bob must infiltrate Billington’s inner circle via his luxurious yacht. His mission? Prevent the Billington from violating a treaty that will bring down the wrath of an ancient underwater race upon humanity’s head.
Offering a wonderful pastiche on both the world of James Bond and a wonderful mimicking of Ian Fleming’s style of writing, Stross produces a novel that also evokes Lovecraftian overtones that is delightfully entertaining to read. In true Bond style, Bob is (reluctantly) partnered with an American agent – in this case a stunningly beautiful woman who also just happens to be a soul-sucking succubus from another dimension. Which, being the case, marks Bob’s mission somewhat differently to those of Bond: not only must he stop the bad guys and come through this at best shaken, he must totally avoid being stirred towards getting the girl…
Thursday, October 25th Walking After Midnight – Tales of Halloween
With Shandon Loring at Octoberville – take the teleport from Seanchai Library. Also presented in Kitelyhop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/144/129/29.
Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 