Next meeting

Our third Library Book Club meeting will be held on March, 17th (it´s Tuesday this time, not Wednesday as usual) at 6:30 pm in the Clubroom in the Central Library.

You still have time to select the author for this meeting: Haruki Murakami or Ian McEwan.

You can vote in the left column of the screen till March, 1st. (Voting is now closed.) You can also suggest which book you would like to read in the commentaries to this article. We will choose the title and discuss it.

Murakami’s novels, translated into English

Hear the Wind Sing (1987)

A Wild Sheep Chase (1989)

Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1991)

Norwegian Wood (2000)

Dance Dance Dance (1994)

South of the Border, West of the Sun (2000)

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1997)

Sputnik Sweetheart (2001)

Kafka on the Shore (2005)

After Dark (2007)

McEwan’s novels

The Cement Garden (1978)

The Comfort of Strangers (1981)

The Child in Time (1987)

The Innocent (1990)

Black Dogs (1992)

Enduring Love (1997)

Amsterdam (1998)

Atonement (2001)

Saturday (2005)

On Chesil Beach (2007)

Children’s fiction

Rose Blanche (1985)

The Daydreamer (1994)

We spent a great time on the Discworld

The participants discussing this series didn´t have the same knowledge about fantasy literature. A Discworld’s expert was present, as well as a person that only heard about the Discworld and even a person who has never heard about this world before.

We couldn’t decide which book is the best one and who is the favourite character. The mostly mentioned book was the sixth story The Pyramids, that stands aside the series and only four characters appear in the other books.

Here came out a question: Which book should a beginner read as a first step to the Discworld. What do you think? (Use comments below)

My personal opinion is that the best books are those at the beginning of the series as all motives are new and surprising. Maybe later characters are described more in detail and during time they change, but in the first two books there is the naive tourist Twoflower, that is described perfectly by only one sentence.

We also mentioned Jan Kantůrek, the Czech translator of the Discworld. Terry Pratchett says, that the best translations are into Czech and into Dutch. But Kantůrek had problems with the English language, because he only holds the English-Czech vocabulary in his head but he can’t speak English. He usually has to have two or three snifters before he finds the courage to talk to Terry Pratchett. During their first meeting Kantůrek had an interpreter and Pratchett was shocked. By the way, Kantůrek is an amateur theatre star and usually plays the Librarian (orangutan, no monkey) from the Unseen University.

Later we had time for a little game. Our small company divided into two groups - the Dark and the White one and we played something that could be called an Activity game. Each group prepared for the other one some terms from the fantasy literature and one player tried to express the word to her/his co-players by pantomime, depicting or drawing a picture . There sure were good actors and painters among us.

Dark group (around left table) tries to guess right Mr.M´s acting

Next topic! The Discworld!! (18th February)

The topic for the next meeting is Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series. Until 2008, 36 stories of the Discworld series have been published. The first book, The Colour of Magic (1983), introduces the cynical wizard Rincewind, who guides the tourist Twoflower. Their journey is full of incredible experiences resulting from misunderstanding and on effort of Rincewind to flee. The story continues in the second book of the series The Light Fantastic, but both characters reappear in other novels.

An interesting group of characters is presented by persons that rule the magic. The witches (from Lancre) use magic rarely, they prefer a special kind of psychology: the headology. Three main witches are Esmeralda Weatherwax, Gytta Ogg and Magrat Garlic. They appear in Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad and Lords and Ladies.

Wizards from the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork create a group using real magic. Older wizards are usually lazy, fat and in fact, don’t know, how magic works. Younger wizards practise modern experiments and try to achieve progress in magic science.

A very charming character of the Discworld is Death. He does not kill, only collects. Death is fascinating for his humanity and loosing his objectivity. For this, he (or her, depends on the translation) has problems with the Auditors of Reality, that supervise life on the Discworld. Auditors are supernatural beings, gods that hate life, because it is unpredictable and they prefer lines and rules.

Some novels from series are situated to the city of Ankh-Morpork. Protagonists are guards from the City Watch (Night Watch, The Fifth Elephant), Lord Winder, despotic ruler of the city, or wizards, of course.

The series has many characters, I can not name them all, but I am sure that you will remember others on Wednesday. Maybe you have not read any book of this series yet, but you can still manage, because the stories are quite short and readable. Some of the books can be found at the MLP branches or in the Central Library as well.

If you have no time to read, just find some information about the Discworld on Wikipedia sites.

See you on the Discworld on Wednesday 18th at 6:30 pm in the Central Library in the Clubroom.

World of Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre based on magic and other supernatural forms like
mythical creatures and gods. Same as in horror or sci-fi literature,
typical for fantasy literature is its milieu and props. The story is usually
placed to a world, that has either no or least connection to our world.
Sometimes even an alternative world is created.

The origin of the fantasy literature comes from old legends and myths (Greek, Celtic).
Typical fantasy literature started to appear in the 19th Century. In the 20ties
of the 20th Century fantasy literature became known from Pulp Magazines.
Those were and still are quite cheap magazines with not only fantasy,
but also adventure novels, westerns, horrors and crime stories.

In Weird Tales (Pulp magazine) Robert Ervin Howard introduced
his hero Conan the Cimmerian. J.R.R.Tolkien had a great deal in making the fantasy
literature very popular. His Hobbit and most of all the Lord of the Rings became
the most famous books. Tolkien´s friend C.S.Lewis is the author of the Chronicles
of Narnia, the tales from the alternative world.


Fantasy subgenres

Alternate history - could be a subgenre of sci-fi, but where magic
works and legendary creatures come alive, it becomes a fantasy
subgenre
Comic fantasy - this subgenre skits ideas and motives of the fantasy
in a better or worse quality
Heroic fantasy - the hero of this subgenre is usually on the quest
and carries one or more magical items
High fantasy (Epic fantasy) - epic struggle between good
and evil fantasy worlds with a moral tone
Sword and sorcery – is concerned more on action and muscels, the hero is
usually immoral and his/her motivation goes for their own profit
Urban fantasy - takes place in an urban estate, where magic sneaks
from the fantasy world
Other subgenres - Dark fantasy, Fairytale fantasy, Steampunk,
Prehistoric fantasy

Recommended recent authors and their books:

Sapkowski, Andrzej: Witcher
Pullman, Philip: His Dark Materials
Novik, Noemi: His Majesty´s Dragon
Pratchett, Terry: Discworld series
Chadbourn, Mark: The Age of Misrule series
Clarke, Susanne: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel
Gaiman, Neil: Stardust
Rowling, Joanne: Harry Potter

Fantastic quiz

1.Which mythical creature often appears in fantasy stories?

A. Duocorn
B. Unicorn
C. Nocorn

2. The name of a powerful character from Cimmeria?

A. Ciri
B. Conan
C. Red Sonya

3. Where did Smaug the dragon live?

A. at the Lonely Mountain
B. in the Lonely Lake
C. on the Lonely meadow

4. Which weapon does Xena usually use?

A. Shakram
B. Spear
C. Bumerang

5. Author of the Never-ending story?

A. Michael End
B. Michael Ende
C. Michael Endless

6. The name of the Sapkowski’s Witcher?

A. Gerard
B. Geralt
C. Gertrude

7. Unforgivable killing curse from the Harry Potter novel?

A. Crucio
B. Alohomora
C. Avada Kedavra

8. Which actor played Captain Shakespeare in Startdust movie?

A. Robert Redford
B. Robert Downey Junior
C. Rober de Niro

9. Which world has been created by Terry Pratchett?

A. Discworld
B. Otherland
C. Earthsea

10. What did Gandalf puff out, when he was smoking in Hobbiton (before Bilbo’s birthday)?

A. Flower
B. Cake
C. Ship

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Correct answers: 1B, 2B, 3A, 4A, 5B, 6B, 7C, 8C, 9A, 10C

Evaluation:
Number of the correct answers:
1 - 3: fantasy ignorant (recognizes books)
4 - 6: fantasy reader (recognizes fantasy books)
7 - 9: fantasy expert (recognizes only fantasy books)
10: fantasy god (doesn't recognize fantasy and reality)

Let us know how many good answers did you have.
Use comments.

Our next meeting will be fantastic !!!

Fantasy literature is the winner of the voting.
Now, which book would you like to read for book club? It is up to you again. Here is place for your suggestions of titles and authors (write the commentary to this article).

On next Monday we will select one the most mentioned author and title.