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!

Following up: 45 Recommended Authors, plus our October guest readers

The KaCSFFS Thanksgiving Feast at The Writers Place is now in the rear-view (it was taking place when this post went live), but there are some updates due, from recent meetings past.

Recommended Reading

Back in September, inspired by our program of a reading by Christine Taylor-Butler, we posted this notice:

"You wouldn't be a KaXFAN if you didn't love reading. Whose fiction gets your juices flowing or inspires your imagination? We'll have a place where you can share a list of your favorite books and authors, too. We'll publish the list in a future blog post. If you can't make the meeting--or even if you can--please feel free to post a comment that shares some of your reading favorites! KaCSFFS is all about sharing our love of reading."

We got several pages of recommendations from our members (though no comments on the blog post--y'all are falling down on the job!). You'll find a lot of so-called Golden Age SF in this list, but also an eclectic mix of others. Remember, this list is not exhaustive, so we apologize if we left off your favorites: you should have left a comment! (You can do that now, in the place below this post!) Also, not to seem as if we're playing favorites, the recommendations are listed in alphabetical order by the author's last name. 

Poul Anderson: The Flandry stories; Three Hearts and Three Lions. 

Ilona Andrews: The Magic series.

Isaac Asimov: The Foundation Trilogy; The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, I, Robot, plus "the rest of the robots and many more."

Robert Aspirin: The Myth Series.

Robin Wayne Bailey: The Saga of Frost Series, Shadowdance, "and many, many others."

David Brin: The Uplift Series.

Lois McMaster Bujold: "Especially the Vorkosigan Saga and the Chalion Series."

Emma Bull: War for the Oaks. 

Edgar Rice Borroughs:  The Barsoom (John Carter/Mars) stories, and Tarzan.

Jim Butcher: The Dresden Files.

Octavia Butler: "Oh, my God, everything!"

Rob Chilson: Black as Blood, Men Like Rats, "and others."

Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama, 2001: A Space Odyssey, "and many others."

Glen Cook: The Garrett, P. I. Series 

James S.A. Corey: The Expanse novels.

E. Everett Evans: Man of Many Minds. 

Alan Dean Foster: The Tar-Ayim Krang, and the rest of the Flinx series and associated stories

Neil Gaiman: Stardust, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, "and many others."

Zenna Henderson: The Books of The People, especially Pilgrimage, and No Different Flesh. 

Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land, the Heinlein Juveniles, "and many more."

Robert E. Howard: The Conan stories.

N. K. Jemisin: The Broken Earth Series. 

Gini Koch: The Alien Series, especially Alien Nation, Alien Education, Alien Tango, and Alien in the House. 

Ursula K. Le Guin: The Left Hand of Darkness and other Hainish novels, the Earthsea books, and many others.

Madeleine L'Engle: The Wrinkle in Time books. 

Anne McCaffrey: The Dragonriders of Pern Series.

George R.R. Martin: Of course A Game of Thrones, but also Wild Cards, "and earlier works."

Holly Messinger: The Curse of Jacob Tracy.

Elizabeth Moon: The Serrano series the Paksenarrion books, and Vatta's War series.

Andre Norton: The Last Planet, The Zero Stone, Breed to Come, the Witch World Series, Beast Master, and "most everything else." 

Naomi Novik: Uprooted, and the Temeraire novels.

Nnedi Okorafor, The Binti series, Akata series, and "pretty much everything she writes."

Spencer Quinn: The humor-suspense Chet and Bernie mysteries "not normally marketed as fantasy, but when they're narrated by a dog . . . "
J. K. Rowling: The Harry Potter Series, "especially as read by Jim Dale on audiobooks."

John Scalzi: Old Man's War, Redshirts, "and many others."

Lawrence M. Schoen: The Buffalito books, and Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard.

James H. Schmitz: The Witches of Karres, and the Telzey Amberdon stories. 

Clifford D. Simak: Time Is the Simplest Thing, Way Station, and The Werewolf Principle. 

Wm. Mark Simmons: the Half/Life Chronicles Series, the Dreamland Chronicles. 

E.E. "Doc" Smith: The Lensmen Series, Spacehounds of IPC, The Galaxy Primes, the Skylark Series, the Subspace duo.

George O. Smith: Pattern for Conquest.

Christine Taylor-Butler: The Lost Tribes Series.

J. R. R. Tolkein: The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

A. E. van Vogt: Slan, The World of Null-A.

David Weber: The Honor Harrington Series, Out of the Dark, Path of the Fury (and its expanded version), The Hell's Gate Series, and the War God's Own.

As we've said--if you don't see a favorite on this list, please comment below!

Revised Readers

Before our October meeting, we announced that our program would feature short fiction or excerpts by three authors--but as it turned out, one of them had to cancel at the last minute, and another agreed to step in. Our final lineup consisted of Sean Demory, Sherri Dean, and Allison Stein.

The fiction was delightful, although the space was a bit tight--our venue had made an "oops" and booked another event during our time slot (we've since worked that out!). But we all managed to be cozy in the Library (what better spot for a reading, after all?).

Local author Sean Demory read an intriguing chapter from a current work-in-progress, to set the mood for the evening. Standing: KaCSFFS Director David Means. In the background: Allison Stein and Sherri Dean.

Sherri Dean read an as-yet-unpublished story (pages custom-edged with appropriate Halloween-themed designs) that managed to be both gruesome and humorous at the same time.

Allison Stein rounded out the evening with a seasonally-appropriate story, Field Test #421, from the Yard Dog Press anthology Flush Fiction Vol. II: Twenty Years of Letting it Go! edited by Selina Rosen; cover art by Sherri Dean.

IMAGES: Many thanks to Goodreads, for the Asimov Foundation cover image; to Barnes & Noble Booksellers for the Corey Leviathan Wakes cover art; and to Amazon for the Schoen Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard cover art. The photos of our October readers were all taken with permission, by Jan S. Gephardt, for use in KaCSFFS communications such as this. If you wish to use one, we request a credit and a link back to this page. Thanks!