Category: fiction

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Lost Souls by Noah Chinn now out!

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SF Canada member Noah Chinn recently released his first SF novel, expanding beyond his fantasy and mystery oeuvre!

Lost Souls is a fun adventure/comedy involving a cranky pilot, a snarky ship computer, and a stowaway with a memory like swiss cheese.

Maurice “Moss” Foote used to be somebody. Then nobody. Then somebody again, for a while. Now he’s back to square one, using his last hundred credits to try and get back his old ship and start over. Again.

Hel doesn’t have a last name. Or maybe she does. She was born a slave. Or maybe she wasn’t. It’s all rather confusing to her, just like the strange compulsion that has her trying to build… something out of spare ship parts in the junkyard she calls home.

When she sees an opportunity to escape on board a rebuilt transport, she takes it, not realizing what she’s getting herself into. All she knows is the answers she’s looking for are on board that ship. Or maybe they’re inside her head.

Roy “Hellno” Herzog left the Silver Legion in favour of becoming a pirate, only they didn’t like his attitude any more than the Legion did. Now he’s got a lead on a prize so big it could set him up for life, if he can stomach working with other people.

All he’s got to do is track down one runaway slave.

Find Lost Souls here and find Noah Chinn at noahchinnbooks.com.

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New series by Arlene Marks!

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Brain Lag has just announced the release date of The Earthborn, the first novel of SF Canada member Arlene Marks’ new series about the space alien immigrant experience on Earth! Cover art and the preordering period will be available in January, with publication scheduled for May 2023, according to the press release.

“This is the “Alien Vampires in the Toronto Film Industry” novel you were waiting for!” – James Alan Gardner, author of They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded

“THE EARTHBORN moves fast, but not so fast that the humor ever departs, nor the very vivid characters ever grow thin. And the wildly ridiculous feels so darned real. And dangerous. This is a delightful romp, masterfully told by a veteran storyteller who should be on everyone’s reading shelf.” – Ed Greenwood, bestselling and award-winning creator of The Forgotten Realms

Arlene is the creator of the ongoing Sic Transit Terra space opera series, among other current and upcoming novels. Her short fiction has appeared in various publications, including H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, Polar Borealis, and Daily Science Fiction, and has most recently been gathered into a collection titled Imaginary Friends (May 2022, Brain Lag). Her website is thewritersnest.ca.

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Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People is now out!

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SFC member Andrea D. Lobel is co-editor of the SFF anthology, Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People, along with Mark Shainblum. The book, from Ben Yehuda Press, was released December 12, 2022!

In Other Covenants, you’ll meet Israeli astronauts trying to save a doomed space shuttle, a Jewish community’s faith challenged by the unstoppable return of their own undead, a Jewish science fiction writer in a world of Zeppelins and magic, an adult Anne Frank, an entire genre of Jewish martial arts movies, a Nazi dystopia where Judaism refuses to die, and many more.

SFC member Allan Weiss’ story, “A Tartan of Many Colors”, joins 30 other stories and poems in this hefty 150,000-word anthology which also includes work by Robert Silverberg, Harry Turtledove, Lavie Tidhar, Bogi Takács, and Canadians Eric Choi, Claude Lalumiere, and Seymour Mayne.

Andrea D. Lobel is an ordained rabbi with a Ph.D. in Religion. She teaches Religion and Humanities at Carleton University and serves as a Jewish Studies teacher and rabbinic mentor at Darshan Yeshiva. In addition to her academic teaching and research, she is an award-winning writer and editor. Her research and publications are focused on the history of religion, science, and magic, with an emphasis on astronomy, space exploration, and artificial intelligence in religion. She also researches scientific and mathematical knowledge transmission between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You can find her at andrealobel.com

Allan Weiss was born in Montreal and lives in Toronto, where he teaches English and Humanities at York University. He has published dozens of short stories, both mainstream and genre, in various periodicals and anthologies, including Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire, Windsor Review, On Spec, Tesseracts 4, 7, and 9, and the fantasy collection Making the Rounds (Edge 2016). Find him at allanweiss.com

You can find Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People at Ben Yehuda Press. Get a copy today!

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Great Reviews of The Hollow Boys by Douglas Smith!

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SF Canada member Douglas Smith‘s latest release, The Hollow Boys, has garnered glowing reviews from Blueink Review and The Ottawa Review of Books.

“Smith has created a dramatic, vivid fantasy world for his characters to inhabit. … The Hollow Boys is an assured, confident novel with strong world-building, sharp dialogue and the perfect balance between action and emotional growth for its main characters. Secondary characters … are equally well-rounded. And who can resist Will’s “Doogle” Brian, a fantastical dog that helps him search in the Dream world? In short, this is a must-read story for YA fantasy fans.” —Blueink Review (★ Starred review)

Fans of superhero comics will enjoy Smith’s Dream Rider Saga, but The Hollow Boys should also appeal to the general fantasy reader. Indeed, elements reminded me strongly of Gaiman’s Neverwhere. … I enjoyed The Hollow Boys a great deal, turning pages long after I should have been abed. Smith has produced the best Canadian superhero adventure since James Alan Gardner’s Dark vs. Spark novels. I trust we’ll see much more of the Dream Rider Saga . . . and I can’t wait for the movies.
—Reviewed by Robert Runté for Ottawa Review of Books

Find out more about this thrilling series and about Douglas at smithwriter.com .

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Iron Hearts and Dragon Magic by Day Leitao now out!

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SF Canada member Day Leitao’s Iron Hearts and Dragon Magic has just been released!

Romance, magic, mystery—and dragons!

In this thrilling sequel to Frozen Hearts and Death Magic, loyalties will be tested, relationships will be shaken, and secrets will be revealed.

This is the conclusion of the duology Of Fire & Fae, a YA romantic fantasy series for lovers of forbidden romance, enemies to lovers, family secrets, and drama.

Find Iron Hearts and Dragon Magic at various booksellers and find Day Leitao at their website.

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“Maximum Efficiency” by Holly Schofield now out in Analog!

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SF Canada member Holly Schofield’s fourth story for Analog, “Maximum Efficiency”, is now out in the Nov/Dec issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine! The story involves a robot trying to make sense of the world:

Servos whining, K3RA crouches behind the brambles and examines the farmyard. The burnt remains of a house, not unusual post-Devastation. A handpump next to a rotting well cover, scattered trash, and, jutting above some flowering bushes, a small auxiliary building.

There is nothing overtly dangerous about the scene but better to run all functioning scans before approaching: even seven-foot androids trained to fight renegades can’t be too careful. Not out here, miles from the barricades, badly damaged, and armed with only a broken tree branch.

This issue also contains a “Biolog” of Holly, a one-page interview by Richard A. Lovett.

You can find the print version of the Nov/Dec 2022 issue of Analog in most bookstores that carry science fiction, and you can start a subscription in digital or print at analogsf.com.

Over one hundred of Holly’s short stories appear in publications throughout the world including Lightspeed and Escape Pod, are used in university curricula, and have been translated into multiple languages. She is currently a fiction editor at Solarpunk Magazine and hopes to save the world through science fiction and homegrown heritage tomatoes. Find her at hollyschofield.wordpress.com.