March 20, 2018

Winter's icy grip on speculative fiction--and RAYGUNS!

This post goes live on the first day of spring--so what's its theme?

Winter, of course!

Specifically, winter as a theme in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Why? Because your Intrepid Editor finally laid her mitts on the list of the (mostly books and movies) that came up during our February meeting discussion (the aforementioned I. E. could not attend personally, on account of being at Capricon 38 that weekend).

So let's celebrate Spring by . . . um, anyway, here are some of the titles on the discussion list. All are at least partially set in winter or winter-like conditions, or involve a winter theme.

The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis.
The Shining, the book by Stephen King, and the classic movie it inspired; also, King's Dreamcatcher.
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman (part of the His Dark Materials series).
Hogfather, Discworld #20, and Wintersmith, Discworld #35, by Terry Pratchett
Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin.
Winter in Eden, by Harry Harrison.
Game of Thrones, inspired and guided by the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin.
Helliconia Winter, by Brian Aldiss, (third in the Helliconia Trilogy).
Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis
Cold Days, The Dresden Files #14, by Jim Butcher
The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. LeGuin
The World in Winter, by John Christopher
Tombaugh Station, by Robin Wayne Bailey (Pluto is pretty winter-like, you've got to admit!)
John Carpenter's The Thing (1982 movie).
Snowpiercer, the French graphic novel trilogy illustrated by Jean-Marc Rochette, with several different co-authors.
Quintet, the 1979 movie starring Paul Newman.
Ice Planet, a movie released in 2001.
Stargate (in which a second stargate, AKA The Beta Gate, was found in a glacier on Antarctica).

But wait! There's more! We also promised you
Rayguns!
Yes, the March meeting featured a nice collection of rayguns, in keeping with our Mars/Marvin the Martian theme. We thought you'd like to see them, too.

David Means's raygun had both lighting and sound effects.

Despite a turnout depressed by stiff competition from assorted St. Patrick's Day celebrations and our local Naka-Kon anime convention, we had a nice assortment of rayguns, complete with discussions and demonstrations, courtesy of Tyrell Gephardt, Corey Barber, David Means, Rosemary Williams, and Tanya Holthouse.

At left, the full Raygun Array. At right, Tanya Holthouse shows off her Darkwing Duck Bubble-Blowing Raygun, as well as her classic Marvin the Martian T-shirt.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Amazon, for the Wintersmith cover image, and to Rotten Tomatoes for the movie poster image from The Thing. Your Intrepid Editor, Jan S. Gephardt, took all the photos from the March 2018 meeting, with permission, for use in KaCSFFS publicity. If you should wish to re-post them, please do so with a link back to this post and an attribution. Thanks!

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