All events start at 7.30pm unless otherwise specified.
Other events may be added to the programme. Details will be included in the list once when we know them.
| Sunday 21st January, 7:30pm | Magic! | Video Room, New Hall |
|---|---|---|
| Magic is a key part of fantasy fiction, with spells, rituals, sacrifices, witches, wizards, priests, faeries, demons, elementals, magic swords, magic rings, magic wands, spellbooks, schools (and colleges and universities) of magic all featuring in many works. Who can work magic, how do they do it, what magic can be worked, and what's the price of magic - and who pays it? And which magic makes the books and films that contain it magical themselves, and which magic is sufficiently unimaginative to be indistinguishable from technology? | ||
| Wednesday 23rd January, 7:30pm | DVD Showing: Babylon 5 | 11 Atherton Close |
| We'll be picking up the plot of Babylon 5 in the middle of season 2, with the episodes "There All the Honor Lies", "And Now For a Word", "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum" and "Knives". | ||
| Sunday 28th January, 7:30pm | Isaac Asimov | Room 1, 11 Fitzwilliam Street |
| [The blurb has been lost in the mists of the Internet] | ||
| Saturday 3rd Feb - 4th Feb, 8:30pm until dawn | The Afmaelisdagr, and the Wake For The Old Year | 155 Gilbert Road and Top of Castle Mound, Castle Hill |
|
Come, celebrate our new year (it's the birthday of Jomsborg the New) with us, playing games, talking, drinking mead... all night (or you can leave after a bit if you get tired, possibly to join us again for dawn). The Reeve of Jomsborg has a very important duty to perform - the sun must come up, else the world shall be plunged into icy darkness! After sunrise (sunrise is scheduled for 7:35am, but we'll need to be there earlier), we'll go into town to find some breakfast. Note that there will be no regular CUSFS meeting that Sunday, as we will all be very tired. | ||
| Wednesday 7th Feburary, 7:30pm | DVD Showing: Babylon 5 | 11 Atherton Close |
| We'll be finishing Season 2 this week. | ||
| Sunday 11th Feburary, 7:30pm | Award Winners, or "Just because a book won an award, does that automatically mean that it is bad" | Room 1, 11 Fitzwilliam Street |
| Science fiction has two main awards - the Hugo and the Nebula, and there are many other awards too - many magazines and societies make their own awards (including the hallowed CUSFS Hall Of Fame), and SF can also win mainstream awards such as the Oscars. But does winning an award mean that a work is any good - or if you're a cynic, does it always mean that it's a work to avoid?! Come and discuss which awards get it right and which get it wrong, which works have been showered with awards despite being very bad and which ones have been cruely neglected. | ||
| Wednesday 14th Feburary, 7:30pm | DVD Showing: Babylon 5 | 11 Atherton Close |
| We'll be finishing Season 2 this week. | ||
| Sunday 18th February, 7:30pm | Annual General Meeting, Committee Elections and Games Evening | 155 Gilbert Road |
| After we've got the AGM over with (we don't normally take too long), there will be plenty of time for games old and new. | ||
| Wednesday 21st Feburary, 7:30pm | DVD Showing: Babylon 5 | 11 Atherton Close |
| More B5 episodes | ||
| Sunday 25th February, 7:30pm | The highly science fictional (and science factual) topic of Biotechnology and related fields. | I4, Gisborne Court, Peterhouse |
| Biology! The Science of the ancient mysteries! The Science that aims to explain LIFE itself! We have seen the Triffids raise their hideous stings above the streets of London, we have heard the Andromeda Strain almost laying waste to humanity, and Greg Bear's Blood Music has destroyed civilisation as we know it. Reality, as usual, is slow in living up to the promise of fiction. Why is this, and is it truly a bad thing? | ||
| Friday 2 March, 1pm | Lunch in the rooms of Kelvin | I4, Gisborne Court, Peterhouse |
| In days of yore, CUSFS would meet in someone's room once a week, there to eat and converse pleasantly. We haven't done this recently, but now seems an excellent time to start. We shall have food, good company, and of course the ghost of Kelvin hovering over the revels. | ||
| Sunday 4 March, 8pm | How To Survive An Alien Invasion | I4, Gisborne Court, Peterhouse |
| In the event of an alien attack, what would YOU do? Death and misery lie all around you, the White House and Big Ben have both been blown to Technicolour smithereens! Bullets are ineffective against the new overlords, be they Martians, Tripods, Vegans, or even a Black Cloud. If you don't want to be part fo the screaming masses, come to CUSFS and learn the secret ways of the saviours of Earth! | ||
| Friday 9 March, 1pm | Lunch | Venue TBC |
| As the previous week, but with knobs on. | ||
| Sunday March, 7:30pm | Turkey Reading | Room 1, 11 Fitzwilliam Street |
| Science Fiction is sometimes good, often bad and occasionally Really Bad. In the latter case, it is so bad it is utterly awesome. Bring your favourite misplaced adjectives to biblioclastic CUSFS, stride in a sea of mixed metaphors and marvel at the wonders of bad plotting! If you are lucky, we might even dig out the Eye of Argon for you. | ||
| Friday 16 March, 7:30pm until late | Games Evening | Burrell's Field Common Room, Trinity |
| The best way to finish the term; come and play games old, new, silly and sensible with CUSFS! If you have any games you would like to play, bring them! The games get sillier as the evening wears on, and this is the ideal way to finish the term, and a good preparation for a long train journey home. Warning: RoboRally will occur! If you have not previously heard of this game, prepare for the experience of a lifetime. | ||
Last recorded update: 13 June 2007, by Simeon Bird
Please send comments and queries to
soc-cusfs at lists dot cam dot ac dot uk
Back to CUSFS home page