December's here and there's so much to cheer! Christmas is a week away and end of the year peeking from the shades, we've so much to be grateful, we've blessings to celebrate. Little by little, day by day, what's meant for us, will definitely find its way. A bit of stumbles, a couple of scrapes, some broken hearts and lots of loss, makes us into a warrior forging their own path. Often guised as pressure and stress, our trials burn away the cover, enabling us to give our best.
I think you've guessed our theme by now, join us as we celebrate "A Very Merry Lost World Christmas"!
Well, my research on this subgenre, brought me to one simple conclusion. The A Very Merry Lost World Christmas was the OG(Original) dinosaur genre. It was intriguing and fascinating--a challenge of sorts, to share what makes this subgenre truly unique. Reminding me of the Jurassic Park, just imagine what it feels to have dinosaurs taking over the malls!
Dinosaurs have always lived amongst us--through their DNA, eggs or genetic engineering(in an attempt to resurrect).
On last remaining lands, massive dinosaurs chase, the last vestiges of humanity, who don't believe in fate. Driven to the center of concrete jungles, using the bushes as subterfuge, their obsession with Christmas, makes the last remaining people take refuge. Santa's always been there, everywhere, taking this chance to sow the seeds compassion, teaching the humans and dinosaurs to care.
The trend was first picked up by James De Mille's 1888 serial "A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder". Writers such as Frank Mackenzie Savile (Beyond the Great South Wall) and Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World) picked up on it. Eventually, "lost world" stories faded, giving way to the more interesting time travel tales, but, they are a staple read during Christmas. James Gurney's "Dinotopia" visualizes an isolated land where dinosaurs and people mostly live in peace, with Sharon Farber's "The Last Thunder Horse West of the Mississippi" showing us what the "Bone Wars" between O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope would have been like, if they been competing over a living dinosaur; the super flawed 2005 remake of King Kong took a creative step beyond to imagine how non-avian dinosaurs would have developed had they survived for 66 million years.
A normal cliche Christmas Lost World sub-genre has a group of T-rex'ers chasing screaming people, wrecking destruction and chaos everywhere. All through the pursuit, the raptors would fire at the stark truth.
In the struggle to navigate pressure of Christmas and all that the festival stands for, it's hard to maintain an equilibrium between the wants and needs. of what that means for them.
Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park was a bestseller, probably because the novel suggested a possibility of what science might be able to pull off in the time ahead--a tempting proposal that might have these mighty creatures being brought to life.
There are science fiction legends like Ray Bradbury and Anne McCaffery who have attempted the Lost World sub-genre, in their novels Dinosaur Tales and Dinosaur Planet respectively. These days, an array of dinosaur science fiction titles that feature dinosaurs, in fact it takes up a whole sub-genre of Science Fiction. Into these illustrious ranks, we welcome Decimen City.
I'd like to recommend these Christmas themed stories:
The book is about the nature of belief, in particular that people need to believe in small fantasies, such as Hogfathers and Tooth Fairies, in order to believe in larger ones, such as justice and hope. As Pratchett says elsewhere, fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind; it doesn't take you anywhere, but it tones up muscles that might.
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe by Charlaine Harris :
https://books.google.com/books/about/Wolfsbane_and_Mistletoe.html?id=tQXJEIDeVxIC&source=kp_cover
The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone. They are particularly hard for lycanthropes. Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have harvested the scariest, funniest and saddest werewolf tales by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of a full moon with a silver bullet close at hand.
Whether wolfing down a holiday feast (use your imagination) or craving some hair of the dog on New Year's morning, the werewolves in these frighteningly original stories will surprise, delight, amuse, and scare the pants off readers who love a little wolfsbane with their mistletoe.
This is all for now, Feel free to drop your favourite "A very Merry Lost World Christmas World" recommendations here in the inline comments.
We meet in the New Year with lots of hopes and blessings for the Year 2024. Wish everyone a merry Christmas and an amazingly blessed New Year! ❤️
Love you and take care. Stay safe, happy and protected.
Cheers, Nab =]