An extensive anthology of 'the best Canadian speculative writing of 2014.' If you want to get caught up with recent short work from Canada - this book is for you!

Contents:

Introduction - Margaret Atwood
In Which Atwood sort-of apologizes about the Atwood-LeGuin Genre Kerfuffle. And stresses that she LIKES speculative fiction, dammit.

*** The Exorcist: A Love Story - David Nickle
The exorcist in question specializes in freeing infants from demonic possession. But when the infant in question is the child of his unrequited high-school crush, his supernatural nemesis may have found a weak spot.
I very much liked how this was set up, and where it was going... but I wanted just a little more from the ending.

*** Túshūguăn - Eric Choi
Nice set-up, with a bit of an original perspective on life after the zombie apocalypse and the fall of civilization. The title means 'library,' and that's (sort of) what two boys born into a harsh and violent world find. However, the 'shock' ending felt a bit like it was trying too hard.

The Lark, The Peat The Star, and Our Time - Neile Graham
A poem.

*** Bamboozled - Kelley Armstrong
I got the feeling from this one that I was probably already supposed to be familiar with these characters. Paranormal Old West action, with a dash of romance and a few twists. Those who are already fans of Armstrong's werewolves will undoubtedly appreciate this one.

**** From Stone and Bone, From Earth and Sky - A.C. Wise
A Coyote creation myth meets a magical carnival... Beauty with a disturbing undercurrent. The atmosphere reminded me a bit of Genevieve Valentine's Circus Tresaulti, but I loved this story more, for perfectly capturing the amoral trickster nature that's common to many myths of this type (and that so many modern perceptions get so very wrong).

*** Left Foot, Right - Nalo Hopkinson
Previously read in Kelly Link's 'Monstrous Affections.'
A young woman enters a store to buy a very specific pair of cheap shoes... Clearly, something dire has occurred, but we are not yet sure what... The gradual reveal is well-done, but this would have been rated higher, except for when it gets to the point where, in addition to the death of her sister, the story adds in her miscarriage. Maybe it's just that I'm not much for the ghosts of fetuses, politically, but I really feel that the story would have been stronger if it focused on the single tragedy instead of making it a double. The Caribbean setting and the elements of folklore are vivid and nicely-done.

Self-Portrait as Bilbo Baggins - Ada Hoffmann
A poem. I could relate.

*** The Inn of the Seven Blessings - Matthew Hughes
Classic adventure-fantasy. A thief encounters a small god, is forced to rescue a couple of unlucky individuals from the stewpots of orc-like warriors, and ends up with a change in luck. Highly enjoyable.

*** The Full Lazenby - Jeremy Butler
Humorous piece about a near future where status is based on how genetically similar you might be to past celebrities... and the usual conflation of a celebrity's real life and their persona is made. When one college student is found to 'match' an actor who once played James Bond, he's pulled from obscurity into a strange, 'reality-show' type life.

The God of Lost Things - Neile Graham
A poem

**** The Beat that Billie Bore - Lisa L. Hannett
The most genuinely disconcerting 'mermaid' story I've read in quite some time. In a Caribbean setting, a team of drummers protects their island from invasion by the monsters of the sea, as they have done for generations. As his wife watches, one aging drummer basks in the celebrity he earned years in the past, a survivor of one such violent attack. Or was his celebrity earned? Why did he become a hero? As the tale unfolds, secrets are gradually revealed, and the story becomes more about the grimy depths of human relationships, than about what's found in the depths of the sea. Authentic-feeling, subtle - and horrific.

*** Outside Heavenly - Rio Youers
Out in a middle-of-nowhere small town, a man is found strung up and killed in the remains of his smoldering home. A woman is missing, and all a survivor will say, at first, is that the Devil did it. A cop is forced to look at the hellish abuse that's been going on as he easily looked the other way... but his delayed efforts to do the right thing will lead him into a strange realm.

Brains, Brains, Brains - Puneet Dutt
A poem

**** The Colour of Paradox - A.M. Dellamonica
Clearly an homage to Connie Willis' time travel works (it even features a character named Constance Wills - coincidence? I think not.) It's also quite excellent, although it lack the humour of much of Willis' work, going instead for bleak, bleak, bleak. Yes, bleaker than The Domesday Book. An agent, circa WWII, is sent back in time to receive details on a mission that will help stave off the impending end of the world. Those details, when he receives them - as well as several other revelations - are upsetting, to say the least. However, the piece leaves us with quite a few unanswered questions - I think it'd make a great first chapter of a novel.

**** A Wish from a Bone - Gemma Files
Previously read - twice - in two of Ellen Datlow’s anthologies, ‘Fearful Symmetries' and 'The Monstrous.'
‘A fine entry into the ‘cursed tomb’ subgenre. A TV show crew gets more than they bargained for when they enter an ancient Middle Eastern crypt in search of some good documentary fodder.’

A Spell for Rebuilding Your Lover Out of Snow - Peter Chiykowski
A poem

*****Man in Blue Overcoat - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A young woman has been sheltered to the point of oppression by her widowed mother. He head has been filled with stories of the dangers awaiting girls, and tales of the Devil. When she unexpectedly catches a glimpse of a handsome stranger at the train station... well, this is exactly what she would do.
It's hard to express how very much I loved this story. The ambiguity, the undercurrent of possible menace - and the joy of it - were all just perfect. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is undoubtedly one of our most talented new authors.

*** What You Couldn’t Leave Behind - Matthew Johnson
Paranormal investigation. A postmortem investigator looks into what earthly attachments are keeping the dead from moving on. There's a smattering of Buddhist and Egyptian mythology, but mostly this goes for the 'hardboiled-noir' feel.

Return to Bear Creek - Louisa Howerow
A poem.

**** The Lonely Sea in the Sky - Amal El-Mohtar
A new substance has been discovered on Neptune. Akin to liquid diamond, and dubbed 'Lucyite,' it may be the key to instantaneous transportation. It also captures the poetic imagination of humanity. Unfortunately, close proximity to it may have consequences for human mental health.
Told through a series of documents, many relating to one researcher affected by this substance, the story revealed is beautiful, disturbing, and thought-provoking.

** Jelly and the D-Machine - Suzanne Church
YA coming-out story, with dead parents and a dimensional portal. A bit too sappy for me, and the resolution was total wishful-thinking.

We Be Naked - Zsuzsi Gartner
I'm putting this one into the 'poem' category.

The Parable of the Supervillain - Ada Hoffmann
A poem.

*** The Tun - Trevor Shikaze
While going through the pockets of an old jacket, one her boyfriend hadn't worn in years, a woman finds a strange homunculus. The piece brings up questions of identity: who we are and what we show to others. However, it doesn't really come to any conclusions about the answers.

Aversions - Helen Marshall
A poem.

*** Wendigo Nights - Siobhan Carroll
Previously read in one of Ellen Datlow's horror anthologies.
An arctic research team discovers evidence of the remains of a previous expedition... and the expedition members proceed to go crazy in various ways. A solid entry into the 'doomed expedition' subgenre.

*** The Smut Story - Greg Bechtel
Inspired by an essay by Candas Jane Dorsey on 'Being One's Own Pornographer' and, clearly, by attending an 'erotic' coffeehouse reading which might not've lived up to expectations. This piece describes one such reading where a mysterious author shows up and tells a story that is all things sexy to all people - and explores the aftermath of that event. There are some interesting ideas here, but I felt that it went on for too long, and the faux-academic format wore a bit thin.

Witch I - Courtney Bates-Hardy
A poem.

*** Hollywood North - Michael Libling
Horror-inflected take on a Hardy Boys-style tale. Up in the sleepy town of Trenton, Ontario, the narrator makes friends with a schoolmate called Jack the Finder. Jack's located a few lost things, in incidents which made the local news and lent him a modest amount of celebrity that the narrator envies. But the next thing Jack finds relates to Trenton's movie-making history, a chapter from the 1920s which has been all but forgotten. And it seems that some of the locals want to keep it forgotten. But why? What about a seemingly innocuous and interesting past as 'Hollywood North' warrants threats being made against children?

Witch II - Courtney Bates-Hardy
A poem

**** Sideshow - Catherine MacLeod
Now THIS is what urban fantasy ought to be... an intrusion of myth and legend into the modern world, without any lessening of the danger and power of those elements. Here, King Minos and his Labyrinth have been transposed into our time; Minos now a nightclub owner, advertising video feed of his son, the Minotaur, as entertainment. But now, a woman comes to confront him - and what she demands is not what he expects.

** The Marotte - Tony Pi
This one wasn't for me. I found the first-person narration annoying, the humor forced, and the action a bit muddled. A sorcerer, after death, finds himself transposed into the body of a jester's marionette, and tries to work to protect his secret lover's well-being. The Russian-tinged setting was only name-deep.

*** The Snows of Yesteryear - Jean-Louis Trudel
A re-read - previously seen in 'Carbide-Tipped Pens.'
'A couple of scientists doing climate-change-related investigations in Greenland accidentally uncover a corporate-terrorist plot. OK, but not particularly memorable.'

The Mermaid at Seaworld - Ada Hoffmann
A poem.

** The Trial of the Beekeeper - Shivaun Hoad
Shortly after breaking up with his girlfriend, a man finds her dead body, covered with bees from his hives. Her spirit seems to have possessed the bees, and now they're following him around, spelling out curse words.
I felt like this story was trying to be both more meaningful and more humorous than it was.

*** The Man Who Sold the Moon - Cory Doctorow
This long story is full of passion and sincerity. It's written to be convincing, but while it's well-crafted, I remain unconvinced.
Our narrator is a tech-y nerd. While recovering from a cancer scare, he meets a kindred spirit who introduces him to the culture and philosophies of Burning Man - which are described here with a wide-eyed enthusiasm that I just do not share - I found it rather naïve-seeming. Up to this point, the piece reads almost like a personal essay by Doctorow. (I would've believe that everything has happened IRL, as depicted.) However, then it takes a jump into the sci-fi realm. We fast-forward a few years into the future. A medical crisis spurs a jumping-off point from the two men's original Burning Man tech project into a bigger concept - one involving the Moon.
Unfortunately (?) I am one of those people mentioned within the piece who would think that this project not only fails to be inspiring or important, it's really quite a terrible idea.
I also felt that, while the piece in many places felt almost like an 'argumentative essay,' throwing in the medical stuff (dying wishes and such) felt like shoehorning in an appeal to base emotions in the service of the argument - which is a very poor debating technique.
However, as a whole, the novella is still well-crafted, keeps the reader's interest, and contains quite a few interesting and thought-provoking concepts & ideas - even if I don't agree with all of them.

Hereditary Delusions - Rhonda Parrish
A poem.

*** Demoted - Kate Story
Attempting to leave home for the big city, a gay teen encounters a string of strange characters who all share certain characteristics...
The story takes a little while to find its bearings, I thought, but once it does, it works up to something quite spooky.

** You’re A Winner! - Matt Moore
Brief piece about a junkie contemplating holding up a gas station convenience store. The 'speculative' elements are more easily explained as mental delusions.

Chant for Summer Darkness in Northwest Climes - Neile Graham
A poem.

*** Charlemagne and Florent - Ranylt Richildis
Two orphans go to great lengths to stay by each others' sides - going to unprecedented measures to maintain their bond. I liked the mix of mystic elements and realism. The story felt like a good opening chapter of a novel.

* Standard Deviant - Holly Schofield
Boring, outdated trope about how looking like a punk and dying your hair blue clearly means that you've suffered child abuse and are willing to put up with more abuse. In addition, the 'twist' ending was hackneyed and trite.

Kafka’s Notebooks - Jocko Benoit
A poem

**** Giants - Peter Watts
Interesting story involving a crisis during a deep-space mission. A little slow to start, but ended up with some unexpected and original content, especially regarding the nature of human/A.I. interactions. Nicely captures the isolation and uncertainty of space.

*** Death and the Girl from Pi Delta Zeta - Helen Marshall
Sorority girl meets Death at a frat party - and falls in love. Weird, but surprisingly successful.

The Perfect Library - David Clink
A poem.


Many thanks to ChiZine and NetGalley for the opportunity to read. As always, my opinions are solely my my own. ( )