A star shines on the hour of our meeting!

Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo

I never thought about writing a blog.

I mean, I was always just a reader, a compulsive book-eater kind of reader. Not a writer. But some friends and good old lord Chronos taught me that there’s no such thing as just a reader.

We read and we write like we breath. In and out, in and out. If we read and don’t write, we will eventually feel like we’re suffocating. Can you imagine only listening in to conversations and never putting any thought out?

I do, actually. And it is awful.

I’ve grown exactly like this up until my twenties. I would never speak my mind, almost never even talk. Unfriendly surroundings made me feel like nothing I could ever say would be of anyone’s interest. That’s likely why took me so long understand that I was suffocating.

(I might have been overcompensating something... now that I look at this mess)

So, I’ve conferred with my cat and he told me I definitively should start writing instead of pestering him so much about the three thousand ways the Game of Thrones series could have been better. Should have been better.

Since my cat can’t really speak his mind (thankfully), I conferred with close friends, who said that I should start writing something instead of bothering them about everything I’ve ever read or seen in the Fantasy and Sci-fi world.

They mean well, of course.

For some reason, they like my ideas and even encourage me to speak up. Weird, right? I’m still getting used to it.

Seneca the Cat: 'Go bother the internet. And give me treats.'

That’s how this blog came to be.

What kind of blog is named “Speak Friend and Enter”?

I’ve named it after a The Lord of the Rings reference. It had to be. LotR is an essential part of my origin story in the literary world. I will tell you about it some other time. And don’t worry, once I start, I may never stop talking about LotR ever again.

Ennyn Durin Aran Moria. Pedo Mellon a Minno. Im Narvi hain echant. Celebrimbor o Eregion teithant i thiw hin.

'The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter. I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Hollin drew these signs.'

What you will find here when you come visiting?

A lot of people write about those same subjects. But I’ve felt like most of them aren't interesting and don’t go deep enough in their comments.

I’m sure you don’t need another blogger telling you they’d rather have shipped Hermione with Harry instead of Ron, or that they would find a better ending if Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen ruled the Seven Kingdoms together, happily ever after.

What we need is better questions. Questions like what strengths and weaknesses Harry’s closest friends reveal about himself? What role each of those three kids have grown to fulfil among their triad? Why three is an important number? What kind of childhood ideal is imbued in the British School of Magic that makes it untranslatable to other countries?

And I will try to answer some of them.

For a reason I cannot fathom, people nowadays think that Fiction isn’t a serious business. That there’s no use in analysing narrative structures, deep symbolisms, internal lore, worldbuilding and magic systems. That there’s no rights or wrongs, and nothing that differs the Great Works from the Paper Wasters – ‘it’s just entertainment!’, they say. Oh, no. Not here.

Here I will write taking into account what in those narratives I’ve liked the most, what I’ve learned through them, the things they did (or didn’t) do well. Almost everything will revolve around Fantasy and Science Fiction, but I might bring you something new, different or even experimental(?!).

For instance, I will soon be posting about what I liked or didn’t like in the top 10 Fantasy TV series I’ve watched in 2019. A year that gave us both great surprises (like Mandalorian and Watchmen) and great flops (like Game of Thrones and Carnival Row).

I have a far-reaching list of interests, from Young Adult to Classical Fantasy and Sci-fi. You may find me writing about Hunger Games, The Selection, Throne of Glass or Red Rising, but I will also be writing about The Man in the High Castle, Frankenstein, The Foundation or (why not?) Shakespeare.

I suppose my day job, which also takes a lot of reading and writing (I’ve made you curious? find out more here!), will sometimes emerge here as well. I can’t help it, I love what I do.

There will be reviews, recommendations and ratings of books, TV series, movies, comics, games etc. I will keep it updated with my comments, speculations, theories, arts and news on both my latest and oldest obsessions.

Since I’m already here, I might as well add some anecdotes and fun personal stories. You may doubt that there’s anything interesting about my slice-of-life posts. And I tell you, yes, you’re right, my life isn’t that adventurous. But you should give it a chance anyway, I might surprise you. And I have a Cat. He’s funny and cute. And he’s my chief editor.

Why is there two introduction posts?!

There are a couple of reasons.

English is the original language of most books I’ve been reading. Some years ago, I found out the magic of reading stories like The Lord of the Rings and The Name of the Wind in their original language, the way the authors intended. And now I don’t feel comfortable going back to translations, even though we have great translations in the market.

There are also the latest releases, recent award wining novels and novellas, like Stormlight Archive or the Binti series, that have not been translated yet. Or some great works like Chimes, Among Others and The Dresden Files which were never translated and maybe never will.

I would like to write about those things as well.

So, I will write mostly in Portuguese, but there will also be some posts written in English that might not interest all my Portuguese-speaker readers.

And there will be duplicated posts, like this one, in both languages.

Now that you lent me some of your precious time reading my gibberish, I’d like to ask you for a little more!

If this blog interested you in any way, please subscribe and keep posted for new content every week. And if you have any ideas or suggestions for future projects, topics, books, movies etc., please write in the comment section, let’s discuss!