Keep

And yes, this really is the best I can do for K. I’ve spent ages trying to come up with a theme, and besides talking about Klingons or Kyptonite, I didn’t see what else I could talk about.

So, a keep, according to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is the scifi equivalent of a fantasy novel’s ediface (although I often see the term ‘keep’ used in fantasy) and is a ‘walled, gated or segregated community(source), a little like a compound I suppose.

compound

This image is of a science fiction themed compound/keep designed by Cull_the_Cool for one of the Sims game (I’m not sure which one, but it gives you the general idea).

Keeps’ can be made of whichever material is available, they may contain a small society of survivors wishing to live in peace, a heavily fortified military unit, or perhaps a mix of the two, with military personnel protecting vulnerable citizens.

Quite often keeps will be found in remote locations, and will often involve a life and death journey to reach them.

Keeps’ are popular in science fiction, but I’m clearly not as well read on science fiction as I thought I was, because I can only think of one independent book featuring a keep and that appears to have been withdrawn from sale.

I shall return to this post at a later date with some book recommendations. If you know of any that you believe would complement this post, please do let me know. This is definitely the most challenging letter of the alphabet yet for science fiction themes.