#libreria gigamesh

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Luke Arnold: "There's a lot of me in Fetch, more than I'd probably like to admit".

Luke Arnold is an Australian actor, director and writer who rose to fame in 2014 for playing John Long Silver in the television series Black Sails. Throughout his career he has participated in various theatre and television productions that have allowed him to grow as a person and professional. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, he published his first novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City, which arrived in Spain a year later through Gamon Fantasy, the fantasy imprint of Trini Vergara Ediciones.

The work, winner of the BookNest Award for best first novel, places us in a world in which magic has disappeared and the magical creatures that inhabit it are gradually withering away due to the lack of magic. With hints of mystery, fresh, witty humour and light-hearted action, The Last Smile in Sunder City introduces us to Fetch Phillips, a private investigator with a drinking problem but a lot of charisma, who seeks to help any creature who requires his services, whether it be to find a missing person, solve a murder or ensure the safety of a client during an exchange.

Shortly after the publication of The Last Smile in Sunder City, Dead Man in a Ditch, the author's second book, arrived on our shelves as part of The Fetch Phillips Files that began with his previous work. Most recently, April 2023 saw the publication of With One Foot in the Abyss (One Foot in the Fade), which continues Fetch's adventures.

On the occasion of the release of this latest book, Luke Arnold has made a stop in the city of Barcelona, during his literary tour, to tell us a little more about his urban fantasy novels that are conquering readers from different countries. In Cuánta Cultura we have had the opportunity to interview him to bring you a little closer to this author who has arrived on the scene.

Photograph of Luke Aronld with two of his books (La última sonrisa en Sunder City and Con un pie en el abismo) in the Gigamesh bookshop (c) Pol S. Roca

Cuantra Cultura (CC) : In The Last Smile in Sunder City you dedicate the book to your father, who opened the doors to fantasy for you. I'd like you to tell us what fantasy means to you, how important it is.

Luke Arnold : I've always been drawn to fantasy since I was a child and it was this genre that shaped my imagination as a reader. I find that, as a writer and creator, I find the complexity of the real world too overwhelming. That's why I like the freedom that the fantasy genre gives me, a freedom that allows me to explore, also, very complex aspects of a completely invented world, whether social, cultural or political, without having the need to be tied to reality.

C.C : As an actor, if you had to play Fetch Phillips, how would you play him?

L.A : Actually I already do a bit of Fetch Phillips when I record the audiobooks in English and I think this is the only time I'm going to play him.

For anyone playing this character it's important to keep in mind that he has a lot on his mind: about the kind of man he thinks he needs to be, the kind of masculinity he should embody, what it means to do good and whether he's the one to do it… It's true that Fetch tries to project that vision he has (that he wants to have or thinks he should have of himself), but underneath it all he's just a nervous, anxious, repressed, fearful, sad, hopeless, guilty little boy.

However, there is a part of him that does like being the tough guy who gets drunk. It is very important for anyone who has to play this character to keep all this in mind.

C.C : We would like to know what made you take the leap into the world of literature. What was the spark that made you pick up your pen and create such a charismatic character as Fetch?

L.A : When I was a child, it was clear to me that I wanted to write. The first time I played something were stories that I had created. I would put ideas in my head, shape them and then act them out. That's when I started performing things in front of other people.

What tends to happen with these things is that, when you perform something, you tend to get called back for more stuff. They say "hey, we're going to do a play, we're going to do a short film, come and present this act" and as a teenager it's a lot more fun to perform than it is to be in your room alone, writing.

In that sense, life took me down that path, even though I was very clear that I was still a writer. It's been a process of finding myself as a writer again.

I remember, when I was young, I wrote a short story that was a prototype of both Fetch and Sunder City, but it was a very superficial vision. It was more of a typical tough-guy detective going around, investigating. There were some elements that still exist today, like the disappearance of magic, but the character of Fetch was more of a stereotype of what a young kid imagines that idea of the adult to be.

It wasn't until I got to a point in my life where I realised I had enough perspective to look at the vision of masculinity, maturity and growing up that I really started to get excited about writing this. I found myself able to set aside some of my time to dive in and sink my teeth into this world and this story.

"John Long Silver and Fetch Phillips have very different ways of dealing with their personal tragedies and their conception of the world as a dangerous place." - Luke Arnold

C.C : You talk about things you wrote a long time ago like the story that was the germ of Fetch and Sunder City, can you tell us, if you remember, what were the first stories you created?

L.A : I don't remember exactly what I wrote first, but I do know that a lot of the short stories I wrote as a kid were very much inspired by the comics I read. I would write my own comics or create stories based on probably whatever I was reading at the time, things with a lot of action. At that time I was already leaning very much towards fantasy and magical realism, in fact I have some of the comics from primary schools and they're all blatant plagiarisms of the Nightmares books or the X-Patrol comics.

Photo of Luke Arnold after the meeting that took place in the Gigamesh bookshop (c) Pol S. Roca

C.C : Writers tend to pour a part of ourselves into the story and the characters, both consciously and unconsciously. Is there anything of yours (way of thinking, any experience, lived feelings…) in the Fetch books that you have captured?

L.A : There's a lot of me in Fetch, more than I'd probably like to admit. In the end, I think books serve to explore a lot of things, they allow us to introspect and find out about ourselves. In this case, Fetch grapples with the idea of how to be a good person in a society that is broken.

When we conform and follow the herd, we become complicit in certain events that are happening in our society. At the same time, if we go against the tide, if we decide to rebel, the act itself has a cost, a price. And I think that in our world, whatever position we are in, we are all facing these same questions, the personal responsibility we all have for the society and the world we live in.

Many of us right now are in a dichotomy of whether to try to do good things for ourselves and our immediate environment (for our neighbours, family and friends), or whether to try to change the social fabric around us. This obviously leads you to wonder what the people you are rebelling against would do or how what you do will change society. The Sunder City books are a safe way to be able to explore, through Fetch, all these questions before you go out and start kicking things around.

C.C : For Black Sails you played the well-known fictional pirate John Long Silver, a character with a brutal evolution and a great charisma throughout the series. Those of us who have seen the series can't help but imagine Fetch a bit like Silver, although it's true that Fetch is a character with a great sense of guilt and a bit broken, but I'd like to ask you, first, if there's anything you took away from your performance as Silver and, of course, if there's anything of Silver in Fetch.

L.A : In my opinion, I think they are two very different characters, both in their view of the world and their place in it and how that manifests itself in their personalities. In the end, John Long Silver and Fetch Phillips have very different ways of dealing with their personal tragedies and their conception of the world as a dangerous place.

Silver is a very capable character, who knows how to take care of himself because it is clear to him that no one is going to do it for him. That's why he adapts so well and so well. It's also why his story starts out as a fish out of water in Nassau and eventually manages to cope. Not only does he get what he wants, but he also goes all the way to the top.

Fetch, on the other hand, has done terrible things trying to fit in. He did what the people around him told him what to do, what to say, what to think. In that sense I think they are very different from each other.

Photograph of Luke Arnold during the interview he gave me at the Gigamesh bookshop (c) Pol S. Roca

C.C : Who or what is your greatest inspiration when creating (films, theatre, actors, directors, etc.)? Tell me about your greatest idols.

L.A : I find it really hard to choose when I'm asked about top ten, favourites, etc., so I'm going to talk about more recent things. The first books that really caught my attention in that sense were Joe Abercrombie's books.

Lately I've been reading The Ultimate Revenge and The Heroes and I find it extraordinary how he, dealing with such big themes and ideas, is able to keep it all very much rooted in the characters and in the humour. Joe Abercrombie, in fact, I think I've only got a couple of books left to read. And then there's Terry Pratchett also for the same thing, for how he deals with these very complex ideas with humour and how he manages to stick with the characters. These two authors are very much reflected in Sunder City.

Another thing that Abercrombie has in common with Pratchett is that they both don't take themselves too seriously and that's very important when you're trying to deal with very big issues from a social-political point of view.

C.C : In an interview you said that one of your favourite fantasy books is Peter Pan. Everyone knows it from the Disney film, but there are many who have not read J.M. Barrie's work. What do you like most about this story? What would you say about it to encourage people to read it?

L.A : It's going to be difficult to answer this question because the first film I made as an actor was an adaptation of Peter Pan and I haven't read the book since. This was in 2002 and from then on I spent a lot of time working in the specialist department of fencing choreographers. Now what I have in my head, above all, is the film that I made and probably also the Disney adaptation. I think it's a good reminder that I need to pick up the book again and read it.

C.C : Would you be up for writing a pirate novel?

L.A : It would be super fun. The truth is that I don't see myself writing a realistic pirate novel, something from the Golden Age of piracy, a very historical work. It would have to be set in a fantasy world that takes the elements of pirates that we all love so much. What I'm still not clear on is how I would do it, what exactly that would look like.

In the Sunder City books, Fetch hasn't even been near the water yet, so that's a tough one, but my agent occasionally brings up the idea of pirates. I think my publishers would love it, it would certainly be a lot of fun, I just have to find a way to approach it.

Photograph of the three books by Luke Arnold (The Last Smile in Sunder City, Dead Man in a Ditch and One Foot in the Fade) published by Gamon Fantasy (c) Cristina García Trufero

The Fetch Phillips archives are not only urban fantasy noir novels to enjoy and pass the time with, but they also contain a reflection on what it means to grow up, to lose that innocence and see yourself involved in an adult world where the magic that existed in your youth is completely lost. It talks about the responsibilities one has towards oneself, but it also criticises today's society through a narrative with fantastic elements that lead us to ask ourselves certain questions about the world, its evolution and our role in it.

During his visit to Barcelona, in the meeting that took place in the Gigamesh bookshop, Luke Arnold announced that he was working on a fourth book of The Fetch Phillips Archives, so we will be able to enjoy a new adventure of this peculiar private investigator in the future. This is undoubtedly great news for all fans of his work.

From Cuánta Cultura, we will follow this author who has made us enjoy so much with Fetch very closely. We are sure that he will continue to surprise us not only as an actor, but also through his fantasy stories.

Photo credits to Libreria Gigamesh's Facebook official page and Cuanta Cultura

Translated with DeepL Translator

Source: Cuanta Cultura

[fanhunter]

#GlosarioReferencias de #Fanhunter2Semanas Más guiños a Amanecer Rojo (1984) de John Milius: trampa bajo el suelo. ^__^ @chemapamundirl  @ZonkPJ Juego disponible: https://lektu.com/l/libreria-gigamesh/fanhunter-dos-semanas-despues/17994 @DevirIberia @VanessaWed @celspinol

[arturlaperla]

El próximo martes 27 a partir de las siete se presenta en Barcelona, en la librería Gigamesh (Vicio y subcultura) el cómic “Melvin, Super Sexy Roller", editado por Bang ediciones. Estáis todos invitados.

http://bangediciones.com/melvin.html

http://www.gigamesh.com/libreria

[annleckie]

OK, this is my schedule of upcoming appearances. It is not complete--I don’t have a time for the thing at Libreria Gigamesh in Barcelona, and there are sure to be more things added in the UK. I’ll update this as soon as I know more about those.

[davidcanto]

David Canto parla de Gigamesh i del fenomen de 'Juego de Tronos' a BTV

El programa Àrtic de BTV va dedicar un reportatge a la llibreria Gigamesh i al seu propietari, l'editor Alejo Cuervo, responsable de l'edició espanyola de "Canción de Hielo y Fuego".

Un dels autors de "Filosofía de Hielo y Fuego", David Canto, parla de la importància de Gigamesh i del seu editor, del fenomen de 'Juego de Tronos' i del fantàstic a Catalunya.

El reportatge, firmat per Josep París, explora també els altres locals de l'anomenat "Triangle friqui", que pivoten al voltant de Gigamesh i Norma Còmics.

Aquí podeu veure el reportatge:

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Few photos of Luke Arnold for book signing event at Libreria Gigamesh, Barcelona on June 2.

Source: Libreria Gigamesh's facebook page

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Luke Arnold, actor: "Captain Jack Sparrow and Long John Silver would have understood each other".

by: Jacinto Antón for El País

The actor in the 'Black Sails' pirate series is also the author of the popular "Sunder City" series fantasy novels.

Australian actor and novelist Luke Arnold, Long John Silver in the series 'Black Sails'. (c) MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI

It's a thrill to be with the actor who has starred in a series that has kept you gripped for many hours in front of the screen. Luke Arnold (Norwood, Adelaide, 39) is a handsome, friendly Australian and a successful writer, but when you look at him and scrutinize his rare steel-blue eyes, you see great sails unfurled at sea, old galleons and the Jolly Roger, the pirate flag, fluttering menacingly at the top of a mast.

Arnold, who wears an earring in his left ear and sports the same beard and curly hair from the series, played a youthful and very handsome Long John Silver in Black Sails (four seasons, 2014-2017), the terrific prequel-twenty years earlier-to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The series was about the Golden Age of piracy and was centered on Captain Flint and Long John Silver, with the appearance of other famous pirates and buccaneers such as Blackbeard, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane, or Anne Bonney. The actor is also the author of a series of very popular fantasy novels (**The Fetch Philips series, published by Gamon, which begins with The Last Smile in Sunder City) about a world inhabited by humans and legendary beings that have lost their magic. Something that certainly hasn't happened to him. The interview is -where else- at the Gigamesh bookstore in Barcelona.

**Interviewer: This idea of yours of a world in which magic has vanished and fairies, elves, wizards, gnomes, centaurs, mermaids, angels and vampires languish and wither is very powerful.

**Luke Arnold: I don't know where it came from, but it is a metaphor for our environment where illusion has been abandoned and cynicism rules.

Interviewer: The loss of magic as a force that moves the world and the need to look for alternative sources also suggests our energy crisis.

Luke Arnold: Absolutely, we are running out of resources and inaction makes us accomplices. The stakes are high and we must roll up our sleeves.

Interviewer: It's very good to mix fantasy and crime novels, a Raymond Chandler-like detective in a Tolkien magic scenario.

Luke Arnold: I like the imagery of the hardened and disillusioned researcher, and if you put it together with angels, witches, gnomes or unicorns…. But I'm not the first to make those mixtures, there's Terry Pratchett.

Interviewer: And Tim Powers, who by the way also wrote On Stranger Shores, a novel that mixed magic and pirates. The fourth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, the one with the mermaids, was partly based on it.

Luke Arnold: That gave it that special tone.

Interviewer: Are you very interested in pirates?

Luke Arnold: Oh, yes, I find what they represent very appealing, not the peg leg and the rum, but their broad concept of freedom. I'm not someone who puts a lot of stock in dates and historical concepts, but I love the evocations. Black Sails understood perfectly the evocative power of pirates and the idea that they were exiles from society, and took that idea to another level.

Interviewer: What was it like to be Long John Silver in the series?

Luke Arnold: It was an honor to participate in Black Sails and very exciting to play the role, I was very aware of the expectations of the character. I had read Treasure Island before and seen all the film and television adaptations. Long John Silver, who in the series is closer in age to Stevenson's Jim, is a tragic character with something pathetic, more complex than a conventional pirate. And that is reflected in Black Sails.

Luke Arnold as Long John Silver in 'Black Sails'. (c) FarfarawaySite

Interviewer: What would Captain Jack Sparrow think of Long John Silver?

Luke Arnold: They would probably get along well, they would make a good team. They are both great manipulators. They're not the toughest pirates, but, on the other hand, they use their imagination very well. And they both move in a moral gray area. Villains who can be charming.

Interviewer: How was the shooting?

Luke Arnold: A dream, the scripts were fabulous, and they gave you all the toys; boats, swords, costumes. We shot for four years in Cape Town, we all got very involved and enjoyed ourselves immensely. What I liked most were the long scenes, with a lot of dialogue, especially with Flint, it was like a dance between two men.

Interviewer: Without making a spoiler, there is a moment of revelation of Flint's past that is a real shock?

Luke Arnold: Toby Stephens, the actor who played him, was the only one who knew that. We were all shocked. There in that twist, we saw that the series was going to be very different from what was expected, it was very audacious.

Interviewer: Do you long for the sea and pirates?

Luke Arnold: I'm now doing Nautilus, a prequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, for Disney.

Interviewer: Wow! Will it be Ned Land?

Luke Arnold: No, neither Captain Nemo. I'll be a soldier chasing him. And I'll also be in a thriller. And I'm still writing, I really like the series of novels.

Interviewer: Did you have to learn a lot of fencing to play a pirate?

Luke Arnold: Well, I was precisely the one who had the most experience with the sword. I studied theatrical fencing and my first job was as a fight choreographer in an adaptation of Peter Pan.

Interviewer: A premonition.

Luke Arnold: Hahaha, yes, I also played Romeo, who has to fight.

Interviewer: Better for Mercutio fencing.

Luke Arnold: Right. And Hamlet, but maybe I'm over my head for this one, for the prince. The Shakespearean character I'd like to play above all is Henry V.

Source: El País or for full version from other site: Notas de Prensa

**I changed some wording especially the bolded part also changed to make reading more easier for readers.

Translated with DeepL translator

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New video with Luke Arnold at GigameshTienda is out today, interviewed and shared by Victor M Garcia.

Here's the link below to hear what he talk about Fetch Phillips, his acting in Black Sails, editing his book and lastly his upcoming fourth book..? (who knows!)

credits to one fan from Sunder City server for sharing link!

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New instastory shared by Luke Arnold from Libreria Gigamesh today!

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La visita de @longlukearnold a Barcelona y su evento en @libreriagigamesh han sido geniales. ¡Gracias a @gamonfantasy por traernos a este excelente autor en castellano! En nuestro número 15 @bilbao_borja hizo una completa entrevista a Luke en la que puedes conocerle mejor a él y a su original obra, en ella sigue la estela de algunos de los grandes clásicos de la fantasía urbana añadiendo un toque de humor que recuerda a Pratchett. (Foto: srocapol)

Source: windumanoth on instagram

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Behind the scenes with Luke Arnold at Liberia Gigamesh on his books!

📸 credit to Gamon Fantasy

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Behind the scene with Luke Arnold at Libreria Gigamesh, Barcelona!

📸 credits to Cristina Garcia

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Luke Arnold is now in Barcelona for book tour with Libreria Gigamesh. Come to see him on June 2!

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New tweet from Libreria Gigamesh on twitter, wrote:

Ya tenéis en nuestro FB todas las fotos del encuentro con @LongLukeArnold del pasado viernes 2/6 📲 (more photos)

Si os perdisteis la charla está en nuestro YouTube 📺💥 (livestream)

Y si queréis ejemplares firmados 📖🖋️ (signed copies)

@srocapol 📸

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

Lo anunciamos el viernes pasado, pero volvemos a hacerlo. ¡Hemos entrevistado a @LongLukeArnold ! Podréis escuchar este nuevo episodio el miércoles a partir de las 18:30h

Translation:

We announced it last Friday, but we're at it again. We have interviewed @LongLukeArnold ! You can listen to this new episode on Wednesday from 6:30 p.m.

Source: Lectores Anonimos on twitter

Stay tune for the link on Wednesday!

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

@LongLukeArnold in @GigameshTienda best combination ever ☺️

credits: Maria Lucea - La Estantería del Lector on twitter