Meeting a hardcore scifi fan (also known as the Czech ambassador)
The ambassador with some of his Czech scifi books. On January 23, I trooped to Uno Morato for a meeting with the Czech ambassador to the Philippines, his Excellency Jaroslav Olša, Jr. , not to discuss matters of state, but to meet a him as a lover and reader of science fiction, too. I am hardly what you'd call extremely versed in scifi. My SF&F phase reached its bloom in my late teens, so I am merely a dabbler now. But when Paolo Chikiamco --speculative fiction writer, founder of Studio Salimbal , and friend--invited me, I was not going to say no. The Czech ambassador, his Excellency Olša, arrived at Uno Morato in a flurry, carrying plastic and paper bags with books. He was exuberant, interested, and interesting. He stumped us by revealing knowledge of Filipino sci-fi authors whom we had not heard of or barely knew. He wrote about Philippine scifi in Locus Magazine . He brought some old Filipino sci-fi books. He brought Czech sci-fi books, some of them extremely love...