Winter Is Coming

I've been on a bit of an epic fantasy kick lately. And I've begun to notice that nearly all of these books start in late Fall and reach their conclusion in early Spring. This probably has more than a little to do with the symbolism of these seasons. The ending of the year helps make the coming danger that much scarier. All of the really dire stuff happens in the dead of winter. Then Spring comes and with it, new hope.

George RR Martin draw this out in his series. Seasons can last for years in his world, which helps keep us on the bring of winter for five whole books. But many other authors are guilty of using this device to create maximum emotional impact in their stories. Here are the books I've read recently (or not so recently) that follow this pattern (so far, at least)

• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
• The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
• Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind
• Goodkind manages to do this two books in a row by manipulating certain facts. In the first book, the bad guy must be stopped by the first day of winter. In the second book (The Stone of Tears), the bad stuff is all going to happen on the Winter Solstice of the same year. Somehow there is a month or two between these two dates, which are traditionally the same day.
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• The framing story does this, not the flashbacks to Kvothe's life

Can anyone else think of other stories that follow this pattern? Now that I've noticed it, I'm having a hard time unseeing it.