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 in Nowhereville, unless otherwise indicated. Note that the schedule below may be subject to change during the week, please refer to the Seanchai Library website for the latest information through the week.
Monday, October 12th: Running from the Deity
Gyro Muggins reads the 10th (chronologically speaking) story of Alan Dean Foster’s Pip and Flinx series.
Continuing his pursuit of an alien weapon’s platform, the Krang, Flinx finds himself heading into the Blight. However, his ship, Teacher, announces it is in need of repairs and that while its autonomic systems can handle them, it will nevertheless need raw materials from a planet. Flinx therefore opts to land on the nearest world – the planet the “Arrawd”, place roughly equivalent in technology to Earth in 19th century – and therefore normally forbidden as a destination within the Humanx Commonwealth.
The planet has a lower gravity than more Humanx worlds, something that benefits Flinx physically – but things go awry when he injures himself and is forced into the care of a local couple, who find his abilities and technology – if the expression might be used – out of their world.
Despite his protestations, Flinx finds himself increasingly the centre of attention and the idea that he is some kind of deity – and while he finds himself drawn to the less complicated life on Arrawd and the fact it separates him from all the cares and worries he faces in the Commonwealth, he realises he must leave.
Unfortunately, by the time he arrives it this conclusion, three of the governments on the planet have decided to wage war in order to “earn” his blessings and claim him as their deity. And so, reluctantly, he has no other option but to both get involved in matters whilst simultaneously trying to escape the world view that he is some kind of god.
Tuesday, October 13th:
12:00 Noon: Russell Eponym, Live in the Glen
Music, poetry, and stories in a popular weekly session at Ceiluradh Glen.
19:00: Odd and the Frost Giants
Willow Moonfire reads Neil Gaiman’s story, originally written for World Book Day.
Winter isn’t coming – it’s refusing to go away, but no-one understands why.
Not only that, but Odd has run away from home, despite the fact he can barely walk and has to use a crutch. Nevertheless, he finds his way to the forest, where he encounters three animals: a bear, a fox, and an eagle, and they have a strange story to tell. Listening to them, Odd realises he must now embark on a strange journey, one he can barely imagine.
For he must now set out and save nothing less that Asgard, City of the Norse Gods. For it has been invaded by the Frost Giants, and while they hold it, winter will not pass away.
It’s going to take a very special kind of boy to defeat the most dangerous of all the Frost Giants and free the mighty Gods. A boy who is resolute, cheerful and infuriating and clever…
…A boy just like Odd, in fact.
Also at Ceiluradh Glen.
Wednesday, October 14th, 19:00: The Halloween Tree at the Haunted Hollow
A special Halloween tale from Ray Bradbury for a special Halloween event in Second Life.
On All Hallows Eve, young Pipkin is due to meet his eight friends outside a haunted house on the edge of town. But as runs through the gathering gloom, Something sweep him away.
Arriving at the house in expectation of meeting Pipkin, his eight friends instead encounter the mystical Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud, who informs them that Pipkin has been taken on a journey that could determine if he lives or dies.
Aided by Moundshroud and using the tail of a kite, the eight friends pursue Pipkin through time and space, passing through the past civilisations of the Egypt, Greece, Roman, the Celts … witnessing all that has given rise to the day they know as “Halloween”, and the role things like ghosts and the dead play in it.
Then, at length they come to the Halloween Tree, laden with jack-o’-lanterns, its branches representing the confluence of all these traditions, legends and tales, drawing them together into itself…
Thursday, October 15th, 19:00 The Book of Kindly Deaths
Seeking clues to her grandfather’s disappearance, Eliza Winter finds a hidden room in his Gothic house and finds a hidden room. Within it, only moonlight falls through the stained glass of the window, no matter what the time of day, to illuminate a tome that awaits a reader – The Book of Kindly Deaths.
Believing the book might hold a clue to her grandfather’s whereabouts, Eliza opens it to find it filled with tales dark and sinister – and through its pages, discovers that nothing in the world is quite what it seems and the darkness of tales can be terrifyingly real.
Before long, Eliza finds herself forced into battle against her darkest fears to save her family from the book’s guardian, the horrifying ghoul Grim Shivers. And as the pages turn, she finds herself tumbling into the heart of the Grimwytch, a haunted world of terrifying monsters where it’s forever midnight.
Offering a rich mix of dark fantasy, original storytelling, sprinkled with a touch of Lovecraft and a soup·çon of Gaiman, and finished with an author’s name superbly suited to the weaving of dark tales, The Book of Kindly Deaths is a tale that has never failed to please lovers of mystery tinged with dark happenings.
Saturday, October 17th, 13:00 The Baba Yaga at the Haunted Hollow
Caledonia shares adventures from Folk lore, and some more modern version, of the famed Russian Witch, at Haunted Hollow. There will be a teleport from the main landing point of this month-long Halloween event.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 