(This post is the second in a series about Canadian Science Fiction. Here's a link to the first post)
Its taken decades, but the Science Fiction genre has finally proven that its got a legitimate place in the world of high literature. The contributions of a small but incredibly talented group of Canadian writers have contributed to Sci Fi's nefound literary legitimacy.
In the last post, I talked a little about the authors that broke ground for a Canuck sci-fi rennaisance. In this post, I want to introduce y'all to some of the most innovative, exciting, creative and downright cool Speculative Fiction writers out there, who just happen to also hail from the Great White North.
If you happened to be at the Parkdale Library a few weeks ago, you might have noticed an author reading some particularly irreverant, hilarious and strange passages from her latest book. That author was
Nalo Hopkinson, her book is
The Chaos, and she's widely recognized as one of the most exciting science fiction writers out there today. Nalo's pretty cool because she not only makes Toronto her home, but she also writes about it as if it were a character in one of her books. She's also abandoned a lot of the conventions of science fiction writing (at the Parkdale event, she noted that her genre was particularly full of heroes, and that "she was getting sick of heroes"), opting for darker, grittier tales with unexpected protagonists.
Science Fiction is also becoming a place to explore explicitly social and political issues, in the hands of writers like Cory Doctorow (who amongst other things, is one of the founders of the unabashedly nerdy and amazing BoingBoing). In books like Little Brother or For The Win, Doctorow unpacks the relationships between technology and government surveillance, sweatshop labour, and radical activism, all in fast-paced, incredibly engaging writing style that makes his books pretty much impossible to put down. I mean, how cool is it that he's written a whole book about a global revolution of MMORPGers? Pretty cool, say I.
And for all you Hunger Game fans out there, it would be criminal to overlook Canada's own master of the postapocalyptic disaster-world, Carrie Mac. A resident of Vancouver, Carrie has created the thrilling Droughtlanders series, in which the world has been radically reshaped b
y environmental collapse, and drinking water has become the most important resource, jealously guarded by an evil hyper-elite minority.
The community of Science Fiction writers in Canada has continued to grow, and new exciting talent is pitching in all the time (case in point, Word Out featured author Leah Bobet, who published her first full novel Above this year). What's most exciting for science fiction nerds like me is that not only are these books really really good, but they're also totally redefining what science fiction can be. No longer does it have to be about Star Trek-esque voyages to distant galaxies or alien babes in silver bikinis. These authors are exploring whole new worlds (pardon the pun), sometimes in our own back yards.
And so I maintain, Canadians write the best Science fiction. I challenge you to prove me wrong.
Have you read any of the books I'm talking about? Or any other really great Science Fiction by a Canadian writer that I've totally neglected to mention? Then join the conversation!
