Tag: Speculative fiction
With the sudden appearance of silent, prismatic alien orbs (that have transdimensional capabilities), humans react to yet another crisis. “Despite the narrative scope, and the frequently metatextual, multilingual nature of the story it weaves, The Coffin of Honey remains staunchly humanist, entertaining. It begs for a read, and then another,” exclaims our reviewer. —Kenna Clifford reviews The Coffin of Honey, by Geoffrey D. Morrison (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2026) $24.95 / 9781552455180
Written “in blank verse that swings between paragraphs of near-prose and short stanzas dominated by blank space,” a novel-in-verse traces lovers O and Z, survivors in a war-torn world. The moving, pensive novel “asks us to reflect on how our long legacies of memory and forgetfulness (both purposeful and unintentional) allow us to recreate harmful systems that have endured for hundreds of years and may well persist into the distant future.” —Zoe McKenna reviews Syncopation, by Whitney French (Hamilton: Wolsak & Wynn, 2026) $24.00 / 9781998408283
Darkly clairvoyant, a novel envisions Vancouver in the upcoming midcentury: “It is a thought-provoking, frightening picture of the world along the Corridor, where AI assistants are the norm, where wealth is everywhere, where the Canadian health system is broken and in great jeopardy, and where a social divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is apparent everywhere.” —Valerie Green reviews Broadway Corridor: The Great Social Divide, by John D’Eathe (Vancouver: Adagio Media, 2025) $21.99 / 9780991993079
Stylish novel, filled with “viscerally descriptive” as well as “beautiful and morose” writing, also struggles to effectively realize some of its conceits. —Kenna Clifford reviews Horsefly, by Mirielle Gagńe (translated by Pablo Strauss) (Toronto: Coach House, 2025) $24.95 / 9781552454992
Phantasmagorical speculative fiction that spans centuries and jumps between dimensions, a novel unfolds as “a bold, evocative exploration of what it means to awaken to one’s purpose in a world shaped by both ancient forces and uncertain futures.” —Raeshelle Pascual reviews A Dream Wants Waking, by Lydia Kwa (Hamilton: Wolsak & Wynn, 2023) $22.00 / 9781989496756
Ruminative and speculative, a debut story collection is diverse in subject, time, and character as it ponders “the limits of personal agency to reconcile with landscapes that are altered or altering beyond the capacity of any individual to influence.” —Dana McFarland reviews The Other Shore, by Rebecca Campbell (Hamilton: Stelliform Press, 2025) $21.00 / 9781998466016
What follows after an epic coastal earthquake, with a staggering body count and collapsed infrastructure? A sophomore novel with magic realist elements explores the question in a way that’s “that’s well-told, and in an unconventional manner as it whips us from one timeframe to another without ever leaving us behind.” —Heidi Greco reviews Ladder to Heaven, by Katie Welch (Hamilton: Wolsak & Wynn, 2025) $26.00 / 9781998408276
In “an excitement-packed novel” with a “fascinating premise,” a loose group of family and friends plots an escape from a Canada that has been occupied by the American military. The group faces peril, bad weather, and a fate that’s not revealed until the final pages. —Valerie Green reviews Fleeing the 51st State: A Voyage of Resistance and Hope, by Peter Freeman (Vancouver: Tablet Publications, 2025) $35.00 / 9781069460813
“We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine demonstrates Béchard’s skill for thoughtful, purposeful prose in full force. Though the subject matter is challenging, and the structure is purposefully complex, elegant writing and earnest character development propel the story forward.” —Zoe McKenna reviews We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine, by Deni Ellis Béchard (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2025) $25.99 / 9781487013356
Novelist sets out to “destroy it all … and start over with a handful of survivors, to see if they could build something better,” and then imagines the fraught next steps. —Dana McFarland reviews Post Civ, by Julianne Harvey (Surrey: Ruby Finch Books, 2024) $25.00 / 9780987797841
Sophomore YA novel offers “a beautiful, heartwarming story about memory and grief with a speculative twist and a sprinkling of romance that’s sure to delight teen readers.”—Greg Brown reviews The Space Between Here and Now, by Sarah Suk (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2023) $24.99 / 9780063255135
Debut eco-thriller is “controlled, crafted, deliberate—and, to boot, utterly purposeful.” —Theo Dombrowski reviews Adrift, by Lisa Brideau (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Landmark, 2023) $25.99 / 9781728265681
Cerebral and captivating literary debut is speculative fiction with a capital S. —Zoe McKenna reviews The Other Valley, by Scott Alexander Howard (Toronto: Scribner Canada, 2024) $24.99 / 9781668023563