Back in the aughts I reviewed (mainly) speculative fiction for print and online publications including the Peterborough Examiner, Strange Horizons, the Internet Review of Science Fiction and others. My feeling was that these publications provided higher quality exposure for authors than Amazon. Most of the reviews I wrote for The Examiner were reprinted in David Hartwell’s New York Review of Science Fiction and in this way I did my bit to raise the profile of Canadian speculative fiction south of the border. Authors I reviewed include Phyllis Gotlieb, Emily Pohl-Weary, Nalo Hopkinson, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Paula Johanson, Brett Savory, Mark Frutkin, Cory Doctorow, Karl Schroeder, Daniel A. Rabuzzi, Dave Nickle, Kate Story and others.
Below are links to more recent reviews of Canadian Fiction at The Ottawa Review of Books and Herizons Magazine. It’s nice to be back at Herizons. They published my short fiction decades ago, a literary story titled “The Secret Apartment” that I also illustrated, and a wonderful review of my first novel, Green Music, by Marguerite Andersen.
A Harsh and Private Beauty by Kate Kelly
This fascinating novel includes much in the way of insight into Capone’s Chicago and the ways in which young men may become involved in gangs when there is little else on the table. A fine book, hopping back and forth through time, showing us how even loving tightly knit families both coddle and thwart us, sometimes both at once.
My review of Sokol’s literary sophomore novel appears in the print edition of Herizons Magazine. (Summer 2020, Vol. 34, No. 2)
So often in a profit-driven entertainment industry, whether film or literature, the impetus of the story is unravelment, but it’s clear Sokol wants to show us people who are doing their best, no matter what the odds.
A new review of Nina Munteanu’s latest science fiction novel, A Diary In The Age of Water will appear in Herizon’s summer issue. I’ll post more info about that soon.
