IIRC, the Gun (it was always capitalized) was a revolver; the different things it did were because each chamber held a different kind of cartridge. It’s been decades since I read the novel, but I think I remember Logan spending a fairish amount of time looking for new ammo packs. Once a particular round was fired, it was gone and the Sandmen apparently didn’t have ammo put up in packs with only one kind of round.
Yep, slightly inefficient I’ll admit. But it wasn’t just any revolver. It was modeled as a replica of the classic Colt. 45 Peacemaker ;).
Favourite weapon? The Mig-31 Firefox of Craig Brown book and Clint Eastwood movie fame.
Bingo. No one can use their shiny, exotic toy if it’s snatched out of their hands from 50 feet away. And if they shoot a projectile your way just grab it and return it to them.
But even the linked article describes it as “man-portable” i.e. deployable, not a hand weapon. Maybe if you’re six foot four and 300 pounds you could try firing one from a sling; but I doubt it. Even less likely are the games (Wolfenstein?) that depict an enemy firing two of them, one in each hand(!)
Sounds functionally a lot like the Sentinal Spheres from the Phantasm series of movies
Oh, my second choice of favorite fictional weapon: a mind-controlled bionic gorilla.
Well I did say it wasn’t entirely fictional. Anyway, if you’re not built like Jesse “The Body” Ventura circa 1987, whose fault is that? A poor craftsman blames his tools.
I nominate the electrolaser, because of its high coolness-to-realism factor. I mean, seriously – a real life, if short-ranged lightning gun? Count me in!
From comics: The Shocker’s suit and gauntlets. Yeah it’s brown and yellow, but it protects you from physical harm, the weapons can be used long and melee range, and they have 5 settings, from nasty jolt to liquify stuff.
Video Game:
Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device.
Zero-Point/Dark Energy Field Manipulator.
Movie:
USCM M41A Pulse Rifle.
Book:
No Channel weaponry from, I think, Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear.
Good suggestions in this thread, but I’m gonna have to go with the Witchblade.
Bit of overkill, actually. I’ve read the calculations of a 10-kilo cannonball chucked Earthward at .99c It came yo about the equivalent of a 500-megaton bomb.
I’d like Sgt. Schlock’s weapon of choice, the Strohl Munitions BH-209 Plasgun. It was introduced in the very first strip, and is fired for the first time here.
What about the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator? It creates an earth-shattering KA-BOOM!
Or at least, it’s supposed to.
You kids and your “doomsday” weapons and “killing everyone”. I’ll take the anti-life equation, please, and then I’ll be just one Rickroll away from controlling the universe.
If I had basically unlimited power to play with and I was fighting for the survival of the human race I’d probably go with a bit of overkill myself. 500lbs of iron is a block 2 feet on a side, pretty small…In the stories they are still dealing with the residual climate change years after that strike.
That’s actually very cool.
I’d like the Neuralyser from Men In Black.
George R.R. Martin, in Tuf Voyaging, wrote about an alien critter that’s kind of like that: the walking-web. The walking-web waits in one place for its prey, and then once touched, closes around it. “A thousand mono-molecular silicon arms” can cut through even the hardest armor, and then it eats whatever organic material is left.
The Nude Bomb
I knew I wouldn’t have been the first. I’m kinda glad I didn’t read this book, I was afraid it might have been something I had read about, forgotten, and then thought I made up myself. I embarassed myself doing something similar musically when I wrote “Iron Man” when I first started playing guitar. I thought I had invented a really killer riff until I played it for a friend who was a Black Sabbath fan.
I’m surprised no one mentioned the Orgazmorator, a device that forcefully triggers climax in its victims. From the movie orgazmo.
An elegant weapon, from a more humorous age. Would be great crowd control, and much fun at parties.