It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in voice, brought to Second Life by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. and Seanchai Kitely.
As always, all times SLT / PDT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday October 5th, 13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street: The Hound of the Baskervilles
Caledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kayden Oconnell invite you to join them as they turn the lights down low, stoke the fire against the surrounding darkness and continue to bring us what is quite possibly the most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s works.
The third full-length novel written about Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles is likely to be a tale – at least in outline – unfamiliar to a very few. Adapted more than 20 times for film and television down the decades, starting with the 1914/15 4-part series, Der Hund von Baskerville, in addition to be adapted for radio, the story has likely reached a huge audience down the years.
But how many are familiar with the original? Adaptations, after all, pick and choose elements of a story they wish to take, some add their own twists and turns quite outside of Conan Doyle’s plot in order to keep their offering fresh and exciting to an audience. Others – such as Paul McGuigan’s The Hounds of Baskerville, featured in the BBC’s brilliant Sherlock series – draw inspiration from this tale of dark happenings at Baskerville Hall, ancient curses and more, but take their story in wholly different directions to those imagined by Conan Doyle.
So why not join Cale, Corwyn and Kayden as they continue reading from the original, first published in 1902, and discover just how Sir Arther Conan Doyle unfolded this apparently supernatural tale of giant hounds and murder, and the pivotal role played by John Watson himself?
Monday October 6th, 19:00: The Witches of Karres
Gyro Muggins delves into James H. Schmitz’s mix of space opera, hard science-fiction and fantasy, all mixed together with a flavouring of humour. The original story, a novella, was first published in 1949, and 1996, Schmitz expanded it into a full-length novel with three further adventures, prior to the series spinning-off into two additional novels, The Wizard of Karres (2004), by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer, and The Sorceress of Karres (2010), again by Flint and Freer.
There’s an old saying that no good deed ever goes unpunished. Such is the case for Captain Pausert, inexperienced space trader, skipper (and sole crew member) of the old Venture. He’s just starting to feel he might make it as a trader dealing in cargo no-one else will handle when he is persuaded to take aboard three young girls who had been enslaved on the planet Porlumma.
Turns out the young girls are not quite what they seem, and hail from the forbidden world of Karres and possess psionic powers. As a result, Pausert finds himself arrested on his return home and regarded as a criminal within the Empire. If that’s not bad enough, once freed by one of the young girls in return for his good deed of rescuing her and her sisters, the poor novice Captain discovers he’s out of the frying pan and into the fire, subject to pursuit not only by the Empire, but also the less-than-friendly Sirians, psychopathic Uldanians, space pirates, and even the darkest of all threats to humankind – the Worm World.
Tuesday October 7th, 19:00: Bellwether
Constance Elaine Trimmer “Connie” Willis is an American science fiction writer. She is one of the most honored science fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s. Her books have between them won 11 Hugo awards, seven Nebula awards and four Locus awards, making her the recipient of more major science-fiction awards than any other author.
Bellwether, published in 1996, was a Nebula ward nominee, brings together pop culture, love, chaos theory and a study of human behaviour. Dr. Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation, a company keen to find a means of predicting how fads happen so they might create one themselves and profit from it. Also working for HiTek, Dr. Bennet O’Reilly is studying monkey group behaviour and chaos theory. When a misdelivered package brings the two together, coupled with a series of unfortunate events, they engage upon a joint project involving a flock of sheep. Even so, more setbacks, disappointments and surprises are likely to arise before the answers to their questions are found…
Wednesday October 8th, 19:00: Caledonia’s Ghost Stories
Selections from Caledonia’s spooky-sweet original works, past and in progress.
Thursday October 9th
19:00: Gothic Ghost Stories
With Shandon Loring.
21:00 Seanchai Late Night
With Finn Zeddmore.
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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for September-October is Reading is Fundamental: seeking motivate young children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 