Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Fiction Dystopian

The Wintermen

by (author) Brit Griffin

Publisher
Latitude 46 Publishing
Initial publish date
Sep 2018
Category
Dystopian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780995823556
    Publish Date
    Sep 2018
    List Price
    $20.00

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

The Wintermen is a near-future western, with snow machines riding into town and a showdown in the snow. Johnny Slaught and his Algonquin buddy Chumboy Commando didn't set out to lead one of the most notorious bands of rebels in recent history. But after the world descended into climate change chaos, the government did some serious triage, forcing wide-scale evacuations and abandoning rural areas to the non-stop snow. Soon enough, Slaught is forced by circumstance to stand up the the muscle of TALOS Security Corporation, setting in motion a rebellion of average folks fighting to rebuild their lives in the abandoned snowscape of the northland. Can a mixture of scrap snow-machines, gasoline and the military wisdom of subcommander Marcos be enough to let them rebuild their lives?

About the author

Brit Griffin co-authored a non-fiction history (We Lived A Life And Then Some: the life, death and life of a mining town, Between the Lines, 1996 ) that was listed as a must-read on the 2011 CBC Cross-Country Check-up Summer Reading list. For ten years she ran an independent magazine (Highgrader Magazine )on rural and resource-based communities. She was the recipient of two American Catholic press awards for her writing on family life, and has worked as a free-lancer in print, video and radio. Griffin currently works as a researcher for Timiskaming First Nation, an Algonquin community in northern Quebec. She lives in the town of Cobalt and is the mother of three daughters. The Wintermen is her first novel.

Brit Griffin's profile page

Excerpt: The Wintermen (by (author) Brit Griffin)

THE INCIDENT

"JOHNNY SLAUGHT LOOKED UP when he heard the kid say, "Putthem back? You gotta be kidding."

He'd noticed the young guy earlier, the kid maybe eighteen orso, wearing a green and black skidoo jacket. It had the head of a bigcat on the back. A classic. He remembered maybe selling that jacketto the kid's dad a few years back. Slaught was pretty sure the oldman's name had been Cooper. Had a short fuse, that Cooper. Guesshis kid did too. The security guy and the kid were eye to eye now.

"Sir, I am going to ask you one more time. Return the gloves,they're the property of Talos."

"Don't be an asshole," the kid said. "I've been freezing out herewith these crappy things." He said it like the conversation was over,holding up both his hands to show the thin work gloves they'd allbeen given. A few of the guys had been complaining about themover coffee break.

Slaught thought maybe the kid was handling it wrong, sound-ing a bit too cheeky, the security guy starting to look seriouslypissed, sort of leaning into the kid, "Those are standard issue workgloves you have, like all the workers. So quit whining. The sooneryou're back to work, the sooner you're done."

The kid rolled his eyes. "I've been loading truck after truck ofyour shit for the past two months, all for a lousy food voucher andheating allowance. And as far as I can see, you and your buddies arejust fucking the dog. So tell you what, I'll keep the gloves, and youcan have this job, okay?"

Slaught could see the back of the security guy's head and thekid's face. The kid's face was red. Slaught figured it could be the coldor the kid might just be ready to blow a gasket. The security guy waswearing the dark green Talos uniform with an army style parka andthe yellow happy face badge on the sleeve. Christ, those badges.

"No. I'll tell you what, you little shit," the security guy said, notraising his voice but quickly sounding nasty, surprising Slaught, "putthe gloves back in the box or I'll have you arrested. Then you'll bedoing the same thing without the three squares a day plus that fuel."

Slaught put down his wrench and moved forward so he couldhear better. He looked down the platform to where most of theguys were loading crates onto a waiting truck. The truck wasrunning, coughing out a greasy trail of grey onto the snow, sendingthe stink of diesel up along the cement platform. Arrested? Slaughtfigured the guy must be bluffing. Slaught wasn't even sure Talosactually owned any of the shit they were taking out anyway, alsonot really sure whether they were a private company or some kindof government agency. What the fuck was Talos anyway? Lastmonth the guy who owned the hardware store in town had toldhim that Talos had come along with official looking requisitionforms, said they had the right to take what they needed and thenhad proceeded to empty the store. When Slaught heard that he'dmoved his snowmachines out of his showroom to his hunt camp,hiding them under tarps and brush. He'd already sold off most ofhis stock, there'd only been a dozen or so snowmachines left, butsure as shit Talos wasn't getting them."

Editorial Reviews

"A taut thriller set in a post-apocalyptic Northern Ontario darkened by permanent winter. Enjoy the chills!"
--Hal Niedzviecki, AUTHOR OF TRESS ON MARS: OUR OBSESSION WITH THE FUTURE AND CO-FOUNDER OF BROKEN PENCIL

"Brit Griffin's The Wintermen is crazy fun. Terrific hard boiled flow to the prose and solid northern elements added to a classic genre. Griffin's got it pitch perfect."
--Tony Burgess, AUTHOR AND SCREENWRITER AT PONTYPOOL

Other titles by Brit Griffin