State of the Ark stares into Atlantic Canada’s deep future
If you reliably reach for non-fiction and fiction, it may be time to shake things up and reach instead for a volume of “futurefiction,” also known by its older name, science fiction/fantasy. And if you want to read a sampler of the genre, you’ll be glad to know there’s a bold new anthology, State of the Ark: Canadian Futurefiction, recently published by Pottersfield Press, and edited by Lesley Choyce.
In his introduction, writer and publisher Choyce writes, “Science fiction writers are good at writing about where things might go next, often creating stories based on ideas about what might go wrong in the near or distant future. This anthology, comprised of fiction by some of Canada’s finest literary visionaries, provides a kaleidoscopic view of the future and will offer readers some most unusual and unexpected insights.”
The contributor list is indeed a fine one, fourteen in all, and includes such distinguished voices as Spider Robinson, Jean-Luis Trudel, Katherine Govier, Candas Jane Dorsey, and Robert J. Sawyer (all of whom were included in the first Pottersfield Press science fiction anthology, Ark of Ice, published in 1992). New to this follow-up anthology are Greg Bechtel, Elizabeth Vonarburg, Tim Wynne-Jones, John Park, C. J. Lavigne, Jeremy Hull, Hugh A. D. Spencer, Julian Mortimer Smith, Terry Favro, Casey June Wolf and Julie E. Czerneda.
The variety of the subject matter, along with the markedly different styles, makes this anthology a stand-out. Some stories are notable for the freshness of their ideas, others for their imagery, or settings.
C. J. Lavigne’s “Side Effects May Include” will make you relieved that artificial intelligence doesn’t rule your life, or offer you treatment for an inactive disease that may include “side-effects, including but not limited to, nausea, fever, diarrhea, heart palpitations, kidney stones, kidney failure, liver failure, bone fragmentation, cell malignancy, dementia, gastronomic distress, and death.” The hardscrabble protagonist’s only hope for a better life is to say yes to experimental treatments. Her only solace in life is her “personal assistant” Andy, whom she is certain saves his warmest AI smiles for her alone.
Another resonant tale, “Hammerhead,” served up by John Park, has a central character “tangled in other branches” of his lives, repeating one scenario over and over to arrive at a hard truth, which will enable him to find the “different here” he needs to journey on.
A personal favourite for this reader was Julian Mortimer Smith’s “Read-Only Memory,” which begins with the protagonist saying, “The first time I tried a ROM was on my first date with Trish.” The ROM, for which each person has a receptacle at the back of their heads, turns out to be a first-hand experience of someone else’s brain experiencing something. It is, says girlfriend Trish cheerfully, “less invasive than getting a tattoo.” She adds, “It’s just like those [school] vaccines. It tells your brain how to respond to specific stimuli.”
The main character rapidly progresses from wine tasting with the sophisticated palate of a sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Strasbourg, to, among other things, absorbing other people’s experiences and understandings of sex, music, and love.
Eventually, their very own love, marketed as “Michael and Stephanie,” is made into a ROM for others to buy and try out, even, bizarrely, the couple themselves, the man experiencing her love for him, and the woman experiencing his love for her. The result surprises them both. BTW, no reading ROM is required to find out the ending, but in all likelihood, your heart will be affected when you do.
“Vixen, Swan, Emu, Bear,” by Katherine Govier entertains not only with powerful writing but with a generous emotional palette. Then there’s Terri Favro’s “Winter Pilgrimmage of the Storytellers,” a tale about wandering storytellers “one thousand worlds” away from Earth, and, ultimately, the enduring magic of the phrase, “Once upon a time …”.
Other readers will prefer meatier stories such as “The Last Three Books of Diophantos.” Author Jean-Luis Trudel, who holds degrees in physics, astronomy, and the history and philosophy of science, writes with the muscularity of the lifelong learner, who also happens to have a crackling imagination.
Anchoring the anthology are stories by Spider Robinson, beloved by many as a singular, delightful voice in science fiction since the 1970s, and the prolific Lesley Choyce, whose Nova Scotian-set-story glimpses into a future that is both unsettling and hopeful.
You can read an excerpt from newcomer Jeremy Hull’s story on page 40 of Atlantic Books Today #98, fall 2023.
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