Speculative

O Man of Clay, Eliza Mood (Review)

O Man of Clay by Eliza Mood ISBN: 978-1939269959 Publisher: Stairwell Books Publication date: December 2, 2019 Review by Mary Woodbury Ursula K. Le Guin once said that speculative fiction was more about the real world than we usually imagine, and that’s true when it comes to authors writing about […]

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Ark of the Apocalypse, Tobin Marks (Review)

Ark of the Apocalypse by Tobin Marks ISBN: 978-1-63337-237-5 Publisher: Boyle & Dalton Publication date: March 14, 2021 Review by Mary Woodbury Review Tobin Marks’ Ark of the Apocalypse is, in part, a thrilling, page-turning journey into a fictionalized history of our world, with a look-back at some of our […]

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Terminal Boredom: Stories, Izumi Suzuki, et al.

In a future where men are contained in ghettoized isolation, women enjoy the fruits of a queer matriarchal utopia – until a boy escapes and a young woman’s perception of the world is violently interrupted. Thanks to Booknet Canada for the BiblioShare plugin.    

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The Ones We’re Meant to Find, Joan He

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least […]

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Popisho, Leone Ross

A sensual novel, Popisho conjures a world where magic is everywhere, food is fate, politics are broken, and love awaits. Everyone in Popisho was born with a little something… The local name for it was cors. Magic, but more than magic. A gift, nah? Yes. From the gods: a thing […]

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And Lately, The Sun, Calyx et al.

Bushland is burning. The Arctic is shedding ice. And around the world, people are imagining futures which function. Gritty, graceful, commonsense or whimsical, these twenty tales probe at how we could build a working world using the resources available to us – the natural, the social, the political, and the […]

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Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere […]

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Road Out of Winter, Alison Stine

Urgent and poignant, Road Out of Winter is a glimpse of an all-too-possible near future, with a chosen family forged in the face of dystopian collapse. With the gripping suspense of The Road and the lyricism of Station Eleven, Stine’s vision is of a changing world where an unexpected hero […]

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Dreamtime, Venetia Welby

Venetia Welby’s exquisite and hallucinogenic Dreamtime (Quartet, April) is set in a near future in which we have lost the battle against climate change. –The Guardian To mend their broken past Sol and her lovelorn friend Kit must journey across poisoned oceans to the furthest reaches of the Japanese archipelago, […]

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Beyond What Separates Us, R. A. Morris

Four strangers from distant parts of the world struggle to survive on a planet torn apart by war, greed and disease. Living under drastically different circumstances, they are each presented with an opportunity to choose what type of world they want to live in. Beyond What Separates Us follows these […]

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Water Must Fall, Nick Wood

This is the story of people struggling with a climate situation that is out of their control. It’s a situation that soon may become universal, so there’s an extra edge to this novel that makes it especially compelling. -Kim Stanley Robinson Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads

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The Island Will Sink, Briohny Doyle

In a not-too-distant future perpetually on the brink of collapse, catastrophe is our most popular entertainment. The energy crisis has come and gone. EcoLaw is enforced by insidious cartoon panda bears and their armies of viral-marketing children. The world watches as Pitcairn Island sinks into the Pacific, wondering if this, […]

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A Diary in the Age of Water, Nina Munteanu

Reviewed by Mary Woodbury Nina Munteanu’s newest novel, A Diary in the Age of Water, deftly follows four generations of women fighting for—and exploring scientifically, spiritually, poetically, and philosophically—water. Lynna’s mother Una and daughter Hilde understand water scientifically, but Hilde, influenced by her love-of-life Hanna, often dips into pseudoscience, which […]

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