Author: Holly Schofield

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Rebecca Diem discusses thoughtful science fiction at Tor.com

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SF Canada member Rebecca Diem recently had an article appear on Tor.com. The 1983 Book Ian McEwan (and Everyone Else Who Craves Thoughtful SciFi) Should Be Reading is a thoughtful and smart response to Ian McEwan’s April 2019 controversial interview in The Guardian.

Rebecca discusses Vonda McIntyre’s masterful 1983 novel, Superluminal, along with contemporary cyborg-infused fiction in which “tensions between human and machine, the organic and inorganic, are front and centre.” She emphasizes that “our collective desire and anxiety over technological advancement form the foundation of so many of the most interesting and complex conversations happening in the genre—past, present, and future.”

Rebecca writes:

The concept of the cyborg asks that we re-evaluate our conception of humans and technology as being distinct and separate…The cyborg offers the possibility of radically reconfiguring the tensions between the organic and inorganic. As a metaphor for boundary disruption, authors like McIntyre use the cyborg to complicate our understanding of constructed dichotomies of what is human (and valued), and what is artificial (and exploited).

…The cyborg identity…is not limited to the individual body; it is best encompassed in the relationship of the body to other bodies and other technologies, in a way that complicates the apparent divisions between the self/other. Its radical potential is retained in these relationships as a means to subvert traditional paradigms.

<These cyborg identities offer> a way of reconciling tensions by refusing to (re)colonize them into a homogenized identity muddied by historical preconceptions. McIntyre’s fusion of classic sci-fi with these emergent dialogues is part of an important legacy of boundary transgression in science fiction, from the work of Margaret Cavendish and Mary Shelley to 20th-century icons like Le Guin and Octavia Butler. And the conversation continues as contemporary authors present their own take on the cyborg.

Rebecca is the author of smart, hopeful speculative fiction and poetry. Her work includes the indie steampunk series Tales of the Captain Duke, following the adventures of a defiant young aristocrat who saves a band of airship pirates from certain peril and talks her way into joining their crew. Find her at https://rebeccadiem.com/.

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Candas Jane Dorsey inducted to Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame!

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SF Canada member Candas Jane Dorsey was recently inducted into Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was established in 1986 to honour individuals and groups whose body of work in arts and culture have brought recognition to Edmonton through their artistic achievements. Candas was one of only four recipients honored this year.

Ursula K. Le Guin has described Candas as “brilliant as William Gibson, as complex as Gene Wolfe, with a humanity and passion all her own.” Quill & Quire contributor Greg Boyd remarked that “the best of her fictions are emotionally grounded in the Alberta landscape: its pure blue arch of sky is too expansive to enclose the imaginative spirit.”

A video profile of Candas by the Hall of Fame is on youtube here.

Candas is the author of several novels, collections of short fiction, and books of poetry, and her work has won the Crawford, Tiptree and Aurora Awards and several WGA awards. She is the founding president of SF Canada and a founding partner of Wooden Door and Associates, a professional communications company. She co-founded the publishing company The Books Collective, which released more than one hundred titles in fourteen years. She has been an active member of the literary community and other arts communities in Alberta for more than forty years. Her work as a creative writing teacher, writer in residence, and mentor has influenced many students and emerging writers. She has been a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta for many years and previously served on the organization’s Board of Directors. She has won a number of awards for her writing and community advocacy work, including the WGA’s Golden Pen in 2017, and she was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2018. Her most recent book is ICE and other stories, published by PS Publishing, England, in fall 2018, and she recently signed a three-book deal with ECW Press.

Congratulations, Candas!

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Dark Corridor by Jennifer Rahn now out!

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SF Canada member Jennifer Rahn’s new release from Bundoran Press is a science fiction law enforcement adventure and the second, stand-alone novel set in the Sphairan Universe. Dark Corridor follows the career of Special Investigator Adynn Sheffield as she pushes back against the crime lords who have destroyed the last of her family. After being pulled from a case, she’s assigned to discover the route through which tech, unlike anything anyone has seen before, is suddenly coming through the black markets. Having grown up on a rough world, she’s savvy to the workings of the drug and pirate trades, however political machinations and her own recklessness force her to go rogue and join forces with corporations of dubious repute and space Vikings.

“Dark Corridor’s fast prose delivers an imaginative and evocative look at an invasive cyberpunk world.”   –Derek Künsken, author of The Quantum Magician

Jennifer is also happy to announce that the first two novels in the Legends of Temlocht fantasy series have been re-released by Dragon Moon Press.

Wicked Initiations begins the series with the tale of Vladdir, King of the underground Temlochti State, when he is cast out into the Desert as his kingdom is invaded by Aragoths — strange soldiers controlled by the Sorcerer Ilet, who has made no demands and is destroying everything without reason. On the brink of losing everything, Vladdir gives in to a curse that fills him with cannibalistic desires, and gains him access to the capricious, dark magic of the Desert. With his new powers, he overwhelms the nearly indestructible Aragoths — but finds that Ilet was not the Aragoth commander at all. His true enemy is the mysterious Desert Priest, who taps into Vladdir’s curse to ensure the King will never know peace, and to make him pay for the near obliteration of the Aragoths with all he holds dear.

In the second volume, The Longevity Thesis, Desert orphan Antronos is subjected to dark magic that force-merges him with reptiles. Considered exotic by some, repulsive by others, he finds acceptance and respect in the underground civilization of the Temlochti State when he earns the right to practise medicine. Wishing to further his achievement, he enters a graduate program studying longevity.

Duped into an act of murder, Antronos must fight to prevent more harm to his rich and powerful clientele—some of whom he feels connected to, perhaps from a previous life. Desperate to prevent losing the family he never knew he had, Antronos must outsmart Sen Vernus, the most devious and evil professor in the University’s history and unravel a curse that has spanned generations.

Jennifer Rahn is a scientist and author living in Calgary. She is on Twitter (@jennrahn), Instagram (jjrahn70) and Facebook (@rahnbooks).

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Sarah Tolmie’s The Little Animals

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SF Canada member Sarah Tolmie has recently released a new novel, The Little Animals.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, a quiet linen draper in Delft, has discovered a new world: the world of the little animals, or animalcules, that he sees through his simple microscopes. These tiny creatures are everywhere, even inside us. But who will believe him? Not his wife, not his neighbours, not his fellow merchants—only his friend Reinier De Graaf, a medical doctor. Then he meets an itinerant goose girl at the market who lives surrounded by tiny, invisible voices. Are these the animalcules also? Leeuwenhoek and the girl form a curious alliance, and gradually the lives of the little animals infiltrate everything around them: Leeuwenhoek’s cloth business, the art of his friend Johannes Vermeer, the nascent sex trade, and people’s religious certainties. But Leeuwenhoek also needs to cement his reputation as a natural philosopher, and for that he needs the Royal Society of London—a daunting challenge, indeed, for a Dutch draper who can’t communicate in Latin.

Publishers Weekly’s starred review says:

Tolmie intricately weaves together the best of historical and weird fiction in this delicate tale of science and miracles…Tolmie balances careful characterization with rich historical detail, subtle humor, and energetic prose. Her central characters are suffused with color, and her prose captures the joys and uncertainties of life-changing discoveries. This delightful novel is not to be missed.

The Little Animals is available in trade paperback and ebook from
•Aqueduct Press and its partner bookstores and distributors
•amazon.com/amazon.ca
•Barnes & Noble

And Sarah has more exciting news! She was recently one of seven finalists for Canada’s Griffin Poetry Prize, one of Canada’s most prestigious literary awards. Sarah’s The Art of Dying, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press, was praised by the jury as a “multifaceted meditation on mortality beneath its deceptively simple lyric surface.” The author herself was singled out as an “irreverent feminist” in the tradition of Dorothy Parker and Stevie Smith. “The Art of Dying” is available through McGill-Queen’s University Press , Indigo, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

And even more news! Sarah’s poem, “Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld” (On Spec issue 107 vol 28.4) is nominated for the Aurora Award in the Best Poem/Song category. Find out how to vote here.

Sarah is an Associate Professor in the English Department of the University of Waterloo. She received her PhD at Cambridge. Her work with virtual reality and dance explores links between movement and proprioception the body’s sense of itself and its limits in space and narrative and poetic structures and pathways.

Find more of Sarah’s poetry and fiction at her website.

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A Magical Inheritance by Krista D. Ball

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SF Canada member Krista D. Ball’s 22nd published book is a historical fantasy. “A Magical Inheritance” is the first in the Ladies’ Occult Society series. Miss Elizabeth Knight received an unexpected legacy upon her uncle’s death: a collection of occult books. However, when one of the books begins talking to her, she discovers an entire world of female occultist history opened to her—a legacy the Royal Occult Society had purposely hidden from the world.

However, the magic allowing the book to speak to Miss Knight is fading and she must gather a group of female acquaintances of various talents. Together, they’ll need to work to overcome social pressures, ambitious men, and tyrannical parents, all to bring Mrs. Egerton, the book ghost, back.

“If you like fantasy of manners, books featuring friendships between women, or books about sorting books, this is a book you’re going to want to check out.”                – https://waytoofantasy.com/

Krista is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy author. She was born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada where she learned how to use a chainsaw, chop wood,and make raspberry jam. After obtaining a B.A. in British History from Mount Allison University, Krista moved to Alberta, Canada where she currently lives.

Like any good writer, Krista has had an eclectic array of jobs throughout her life, including strawberry picker, pub bathroom cleaner, oil spill cleaner upper, and soup kitchen coordinator. These days, when Krista isn’t software testing, she writes in her messy office. She loves company! Come visit at http://kristadball.com or follow her on Twitter .

Purchase “A Magical Inheritance” at on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo, and support Krista’s Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/kristadb1.

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Tesseracts 22: Alchemy and Artifacts now out!

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SF Canada member Lorina Stephens (along with co-editor Susan MacGregor) has edited the latest edition of the Tesseracts series: Alchemy and Artifacts. The ebook is available now; the print version will follow in September 2019.

The 22nd issue of this iconic Canadian speculative fiction anthology is a collection of twenty-three amazing stories based on historical artifacts combined with fantastic historical fiction. The stories meld culture, concept and incident into a rich collection of ‘what if’ speculations that provide warnings yet revel in the cultural celebrations we continue to observe today. They are the touchstones that resonate with all who listen to and learn from the past.

It includes the following stories by SF Canada members:

Order Alchemy and Artifacts (Tesseracts Twenty-Two) from Edge Publishing today!