I am fervent reader of Ellen Datlow and Stephen Jones’
annual collections of best horror stories, but lately two more such annual
anthologies gain a special place in my preferences, Paula Guran’s “The Year’s
Best Dark Fantasy & Horror”, at its third edition this year, and Liz Grzyb
and Talie Helene’s “The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror”, which will
see its second edition released soon. These proved to be excellent sources of quality
fiction and always gave me a chance to discover one or two voices that were a
mystery to me until that point. Chizine Publications together with Tightrope
Books propose a new such annual collection, but not only with the sole chance of
reading very good speculative fiction, but also to explore a year’s best from
the Canadian point of view. I said that I enjoy Ellen Datlow, Stephen Jones and
Paula Guran’s collection, but one feature that brought Liz Grzyb and Talie
Helene’s anthology together with those three collections was the chance to make
an annual journey in the Australian speculative fiction. The opportunity to do
a similar journey in the Canadian speculative fiction brought Sandra Kasturi
and Halli Villegas’ “Imaginarium 2012” to my attention. “Imaginarium” gives me
a great chance to make Canada an annual destination of my fiction travels, to
meet some of the authors I enjoy, such as Amal El-Mohtar, Gemma Files, Lisa L.
Hannett and David Nickle, and to discover new ones. And since it seems that “Imaginarium”
already promises a few very interesting things I hope this is the first journey
of many.
Edited by Sandra
Kasturi and Halli Villegas, Tightrope Books and ChiZine Publications have
united in a joint venture to produce a yearly anthology of speculative short
fiction and poetry (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and magic realism).
Canadian speculative
fiction has been increasingly recognized internationally for the calibre of its
authors and their insight into the nature of social and religious identities,
the implications of new technologies, and the relationship between humankind
and its environments.
At their best, these
stories disrupt habits, overcome barriers of cultural perception to make the
familiar strange through the use of speculative elements such as magic and
technology. They provide glimpses of alternate realities and possible futures
and pasts that provoke an ethical, social, political, environmental and
biological inquiry into what it means to be human.
“Introduction” by Steven
Erikson
“Looker” by David Nickle
“The List” by Kelley Armstrong
“Biting Tongues” by Amal
El-Mohtar
“Bleaker Collegiate Presents
an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot” by Claire Humphrey
“Split Decision” by Robert
Runté
“The Cinder Girl” by Peter
Chiykowski
“The Candle” by Ian Rogers
“Through the Door” by Susan
Ioannu
“Signal to Noise” by Gemma
Files
“The Ones Outside Your Door”
by Neile Graham
“Down Where the Best Lilies
Grow” by Camille Alexa
“Hide” by Rebecca M. Senese
“What We Found” by Geoff Ryman
“Lie-Father” by Gemma Files
“Centipede Girl” by Ada
Hoffmann
“Clockwork Fagin” by Cory
Doctorow
“Selected Haiku” by George
Swede
“Pure” by Rio Youers
“10 things to know about
staplers” by Carolyn Clink
“Laikas I” by Kathryn
Kuitenbrouwer
“On the Many Uses of Cedar” by
Geoffrey W. Cole
“Obscured” by Rhonda Parrish
“Hawkwood’s Folly” by Timothy
Reynolds
“Razor Voices” by Kelly Rose
Pflug-Back
“The Bean-Sidhe Calls in
Owl-Light” by Neile Graham
“Fur and Feathers” by Lisa L.
Hannett
“Breathing Bones” by Peter
Chiykowski
“The Education of Junior
Number 12” by Madeline Ashby
“One Quarter Gorgon” by Helen
Marshall
“A Puddle of Blood” by Silvia
Moreno-Garcia
“Nothing but sky overhead” by
David Livingstone Clink
“The Kiss of the Blood-Red
Pomegranate” by Kristin Janz
“Charm” by Anna Mioduchowska
“Final Girl Theory” by A.C.
Wise
“To Live and Die in
Gibbontown” by Derek Künsken
“Beautiful Monster” by Helen
Marshall
“Malak” by Peter Watts
On Chizine Publications’ website we can also find the
list of honourable mentions for this edition.
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