My short story, "Murgatroyd and the AI" is up at Reimagined AI. https://www.reimaginedai.org/stories
The story is reprinted from the “Heavens to Murgatroyd” anthology, Shawn Bird (ed.) Lintusen Press, March 2024.
The cover photo is Pepper, an actual emotional support robot from Aldebaran Robotics.
My review of Thomas Trofimuk's Saudade is available at the Ottawa Review of Books
I really, really liked this surreal, cinematic, mystery about the nature or memory and the need to attend to everything all the time because this moment is all we have.
I particularly liked the surprise ending, which I didn't see coming until the last few chapters. But then I forced the book on my daughter, who literally read only the first page before saying, "Does it end with ___". Yes, yes it did. So your mileage may vary re "surprise", but the writing here is quite exceptional, so still highly recommended.
Editor Terese Mason Pierre has collected ten fabulous (in both senses of the word) stories by Black Canadians into what has instantly become one of my all-time favourite anthologies.
The opening story, Chimedum Ohaegbu’s, “Ravenous, Called Iffy”, sets the tone. There is a dream-like quality to the writing: each individual moment is clear and meaningful and relatable, but subject to absurdist segways: “After my mother’s third death . . .”. Wait, what? But of course, the purpose of such intrusions is to shake the reader loose from the literal context to connect the reader to the universal experience of family. The story is ostensibly about the ambivalent identities and life experiences of second-generation immigrants, but using magic realism as the canvas, Ohaegbu is able to integrate those specific understandings into the broader human condition. This story may not be about you or your family—even though it very much feels like that time your cousin explained to you, yet again, how they were related; or that time your bestie got married and you couldn’t just go over all the time anymore; or when your mom made you feel like she was disappointed in you because she did something perfectly reasonable, but unexpected—but Ohaegbu makes you feel all the feels as if it were your life and your family. That sort of specific representation and universal relatability is a lot to ask of a short story, but Ohaegbu pulls it off perfectly.
Several other stories use speculative elements to deeply explore this theme of family. Whitney French’s “Deh Ah Market” invokes the rhythms of language, culture, and genetics to reveal how the family’s origins in the islands of the 1840s connect with their relations in contemporary island-like neighbourhoods in Toronto, cousins entangled across time and space. Instead of going backwards to explore roots, Francesca Ekwuyas, “Hallelujah Here and Elsewhere” goes sideways into a parallel world. Ekwuyas posits that even when the details differ across timelines, the fundamentals of one’s relationships don’t change. Trynne Delaney’s “Playing Dead” takes the opposite approach, depicting what happens when families become disconnected from their histories and each other. In a future shaped by billionaires and pandemics, Delany’s nanny observes how her employers’ narcistic obsession with immortality has literally drained the life out of their family. (Given the current news cycle, this story feels less like futuristic SF and more like exposé.) Lue Palmer’s interrogates the shadows that actively haunt a family dynamic in “Mother, Father, Baby”.
Chinelo Onwualu’s “The Hole in the Middle of the World” widens the lens to explore the historical experience of vulnerable populations by projecting them into the future. The viewpoint character is a refugee finding ways to endure while her application for status wends its way through the bureaucracy. The SF element is subtle and chilling, but the moment you realize what’s actually happening is the moment you think, “that’s what it must have been like for the Indigenous”. It is a moment of sudden clarity, because stripped of its original eugenics and 60s Scoop background, the story bypasses the reader’s automatic defensiveness to tap directly into empathy. As a bonus, Onwualu provides an optimistic ending that suggests it is not too late to do better. The rest of the anthology is balanced by somewhat lighter fare. Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s “Peak Day” is a wincingly funny satire of Prime Day, consumerism, and worker exploitation. Zalika Reid-Benta’s “Paroxysm” may have been inspired by the Covid pandemic, but takes a sharp left turn into the surreal to illustrate the psychological costs of lockdown. “Just say Garuka” by Aline-mwezi NiyonSenga is an absolute delight, as queer teens develop a friendship over . . . let’s say, driving lessons. Editor Terese Mason Pierre’s own entry, “A Fair Assessment” starts from the intriguing premise of summoning the ghosts of the former owners of various antiques so their stories can be added to the sales pitch. Pierre then throws in the additional curve ball of accidentally calling up one’s own ancestor.
As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, then, is a brilliant example of how modern Canadian speculative fiction can be used as a canvas to interrogate identity, culture, and the meaning of life from formerly excluded perspectives. The infusion of these diverse voices also demonstrates how different sound, diction, cadence, grammar, syntax, metaphor, allusion, and so on allows authors to explore the structure and implications of language and culture—without resorting to Klingon. As the Earth Dreams is published by Anansi Press.
This review originally appeared in the Ottawa Review of Books
Borderlanz: Tales from the Edges by Douglas Smith
[review originally appeared in the April 2026 Ottawa Review of Books]
A four-time winner of the Aurora Award (for Canadian speculative fiction and fantasy) and shortlisted for the Sunburst Award (a more literary, juried Canadian Speculative Fiction Award), Douglas Smith is one of Canada’s most successful speculative fiction writers. I favourably reviewed his Dream Rider Saga in previous issues of ORB, and his stories have been widely reprinted, including internationally in dozens of other languages. Smith has literally written the book on marketing short stories: Playing the Short Game: How to Market & Sell Short Fiction. If you’re a writer, it’s a must have guide.
This is Smith’s third short fiction collection and gives a good cross section not merely of his career, but of the range of speculative fiction. Zombies, werewolves, wizards, ghosts, dragons, spacebar-tall-tales, alien encounters, parallel universes, hard-boiled detectives, and straight-up horror are all represented in one or more of the 15 stories included. With the possible exception of the spacebar story, however, none of them is what you might expect from those labels. Smith always has an original take that elevates his stories above the regular clichés of any of those subgenres. I have almost no interest in zombies, for example, but damn if Smith didn’t come up something completely new, timely, and genuinely disturbing in “Gypsy Bikers Coming Home”.
I had read several of these stories before, when they originally appeared in On Spec, Pulp Literature, Tesseract6, F&SF Magazine, and so on, and I was surprised how well they have stood up over time and re-reading. It’s not unusual for different readers to each take something different from a story, but only a truly brilliant author can write something where the same reader can discover a new level or a new relevance when re-reading it at different point in their life. My least favourite story is probably the title story, “Walker of the Shifting Borderland”, in which a god-like being keeps shifting realities. It’s a solid enough short, just not to my particular taste—and I am clearly in the minority because it won that year’s Aurora for short fiction.
My favourite story is . . . a tough call. “If I Should Fall Behind”, about a couple of kids escaping across parallel universes, is filled with inventive word play and emotional depth, even if it left me totally creeped out. Similarly, “Radio Nowhere” is an eerie masterpiece of setting and a haunting story of love and obsession. “Doorways” is a chilling tale of a house controlled by a deceased madman. “Fiddleheads” is about a young boy’s longing for his missing brother and is the most disturbing of them all. I usually stay away from horror, but Smith’s stories are deeply memorable because they always have something more to say about life and love.
“The Stopover” is a short-short everyone can relate to. That’s all I can say because: no spoilers. But it’s perfect.
“The Balance” is the one story in the collection that is not SF, Smith’s personal story of the terror of becoming a new father. That’s probably the story to which I related the most, so another favourite.
It’s not all dark or moody fiction, though. “Murphy’s Law”, the spacebar story, is an explicitly comic piece; “What’s in a Name?” is essentially a satire of the Sword & Sorcery genre; and “Oregon Shooters” is a similarly entertaining mixture of detective noir and alien abduction. These lighter pieces provide a nice break between the more intense stories, while the three shapeshifter stories (parts of a series) provide engaging adventures while still retaining the best of Smith’s lyrical style.
Each story comes with an individual afterword, which adds a nice element. I strongly dislike collections where the author introduces each story, prejudicing one’s perceptions when the story should speak for itself. Afterwords are great, though. I would not have gotten the many musical (Springfield) references, for example, without Smith telling us, and it’s often fascinating knowing where a story comes from.
Novels tend to be an easier sell than short fiction collections, but I’ve never really understood why. The short, sharp punch of a perfectly constructed piece seems like something perfect for a commute, a waiting room, or before bed. Smith’s collection is a good one, guaranteed to take your mind off things while still saying something important about life, the world, and our place in it.
My flash fiction, "Kill Switch Override", was published in the first issue of Infocalypse January, 15, 2026.
My review of Emily Weedon's Hemo Sapien from Dundurn Press is up at Ottawa Review of Books.
https://www.ottawareviewofbooks.com/single-post/hemo-sapiens-by-emily-a-weedon
My short story, "Schrodenger's Train," has been reprinted in Metastellar Speculative Fiction & Beyond and is availabe to read free.
My short story, "Split Decision" appears in Twin Flame Literary. The story originally appeared in Tesseracts 15 in 2011, was reprinted in Imaginarium: The Year's Best Canadian SF, 2012, and twice since, but this is the first time it's been available for free online.
I also had my 50-word micro-fiction, "The Experimental Writer" published on Sudden Flash Sept 17, 2025. It is also available online for free.
"Iceberg" in Polar Borealis #35, July 2025. Reprinted from Miramichi Flash Miramichi Reader Dec 24, 2021 and originally published in Karen Schauber, ed. The Group of Seven Reimagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings, pp. 22-23. Surrey, BC: Heritage Press, Oct. 2019.
"Third Shift", in Sorry, Not Sorry: An Unapologetic Celebration of Canadian Life Through Story, Shawn Bird, ed. Lintusen Press, June, 2025. (Originally published by First Line Literary Vol 22 #1, Spring, 2020.)
"Perfect Storm", Flash Flood National Flash Fiction Day, June 15, 2025. Originally published by Fatal Flaw, Nov 19, 2020 and reprinted ScribesMicro April, 2022.
This is the fourth release of this flash piece, previously published in Antipodean SF #315, January 2025, reprinted from Polar Borealis #26, Sept, 2023, pp. 42-44; originally appeared on Ripples in Space, Spring 2020.
This is also the thirteenth appearence of Fami and his Watch (though that includes one Fami story without Watch, and Watch one story without Fami).
Thanks to narrator Ed Errington and editor Ian Necolmb for this audio version.
My review of Matthew Hughes' "Muscle and Other Stories" is up at the Ottawa Review of Books.
https://www.ottawareviewofbooks.com/single-post/muscle-and-other-stories-by-matthew-hughes
I have two stories, "Murgatroyd and the Clerk" and "Murgatroyd and the AI" in the Lintusen Press anthology, Heavens to Murgatroyd. My entries are "Murgatroyd and the Clerk" and "Murgatroyd and the AI".
I also reviewed the collection (not including my own stories, of course) for the Ottawa Review of Books.
My mainstream short story, "The Missing Elephant" is up today in CommuterLit. (Free to read)
It was originally published in They Have to Take You In anthology, Ursula Pflug, ed., Hidden Brook Press, 2014 and reprinted in Costal Shelf Issue #1, Nov 20, 2020.
This is an "Alan" story from my series about life in the 1960s, this one about things one did not talk about and the overwhelming power of denial.
Two of my drabbles, "Pillow Talk" and "Pepermints", have been reprinted in Siren's Call #66 Copies of the magazine are free to download at http://www.sirenscallpublications.com/pdfs/SirensCallEZine_Summer2024.pdf
May 7, 2024 was the official launch of the late great Dave Duncan's novel, The Traitor's Son, which I edited and shepherded through to publication on his behalf.
The Traitor’s Son is one of Dave’s few science fiction novels, and his most political. It’s about a narcissistic leadership that knows the (distant colony) world is dying but hopes not in their lifetimes and continues to ignore the problem for their personal enrichment. It’s a pretty obvious allegory, but wrapped in a daring-do adventure novel.
It’s also about people’s assumptions about inherited identities and how that can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The launch was held in Calgary in the 300+ seat Patricia A. Whelan Performance Hall in the main branch of the public library.
I reviewed The Downloaded for The Ottawa Review of Books. Given I was the editor on The Traitor's Son I can't really review it for ORB but can say here I thought it up to Duncan's usual high standards.
Duncan's next book, Corridor to Nightmare will launch Saturday, August 17, at Calgary's When Words Collide convention.
Sawyer writes the purest form of science fiction in which he either takes current trends and extrapolates their long-term implications, or comes up with completely unique, sometimes jaw-dropping ideas and then works through their most subtle ramifications. His novel and subsequent TV series, Flashforward, for example, presents the premise that everyone on Earth simultaneously gets a two-minute glimpse of what they are doing in the near future. What do you do to comprehend, embrace, or avoid the future you just saw? Can the future be changed, or is knowing what happens what creates that future? Flashforward is every time travel paradox story ever, but inverted, so instead of risking changes by some meddling explorer going back in time, everyone is moving forward together. Sawyer's analysis is both deeply philosophical and character-driven. Told through the personal journeys of its characters, the novel is a fast-action read, but leaves you with questions about destiny and self-determination for years after.
Or, take my personal favourites, The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, in which Sawyer examines the sociological impacts of Galileo, Darwin, Freud by following their equivalent breakthroughs in the evolution of an alien civilization. It is a thought experiment of extraordinary subtly that allows us to acknowledge the role of great thinkers and key paradigm shifts within our own culture. One of Sawyer's earliest series, I still highly recommend it.
And if you enjoyed the Oppenheimer movie, reading Sawyer's The Oppenheimer Alternative, is a must-read.
His latest release, The Downloaded, is similarly thought-provoking as Sawyer combines a bunch of unrelated future scenarios,
The initial premise is that astronauts have been uploaded to separate virtual worlds while their bodies remain in cryonic suspension for years as their starship travels the immense distance to another star. Downloaded back into their bodies, they discover that things have not gone exactly as planned. That's only the first of a half dozen major twists, but my "no spoiler" policy means I can say no more. As with Flashforward, the book has an array of character studies, philosophical and moral issues to grapple with, and the underlying theme of what choices one would make in the characters' shoes.
Almost as fascinating are the implications of Sawyer's choices for the publication of The Downloaded. Sawyer has always been in demand on TV and radio as a commentator on any and all future trends. He is a popular keynote speaker at writing conventions as an industry insider and a master of social media and marketing. Where he leads, many authors follow. So it was with special interest that we saw The Downloaded first released as an audiobook exclusive from Audible.
Audiobooks have been steadily increasing in popularity and market share, so it's no surprise that Audible (the largest player in the industry) approaches some of the top commercial authors, not just for their books, but to bring them out first and as full play productions. Audible's The Downloaded stars some top Canadian talent—Brendan Fraser, Luke Kirby, Vanessa Sears, Colm Feore, Andrew Phung—and is a compelling drama. I like to listen to audiobooks as I do household chores; The Downloaded was so edge-of-the-seat, I found myself actively looking for chores to take on, so I could keep listening.
Further, while many authors would sell their souls for a contract with one of the Big Five publishers, Sawyer—and increasingly other big-name authors—have been turning their back on these corporate publishers for smaller regional presses for their print editions, and self-publishing their own e-book editions. The print version of The Downloaded is therefore being released this May by Shadowpaw Press, a relatively new regional press from Saskatchewan founded by SF author, Edward Willett.
I confess, I haven't actually read the print version, but base this review on the audiobook. I understand there are minor adaptations in the audio version to make the story workable in play format, though the story is obviously fundamentally the same, and I have no hesitation recommending them both on that basis. If you have chores to do, check out the audiobook; if you want the authentic reading experience, The Downloaded is available now for pre-order from the usual outlets. Then, well, there are 25 other Robert J. Sawyer books to enjoy in e-book, print, or audiobook.
