Ghosts, talking rats and teleporting couches - the speculative fiction of Suzanne Church
Elements: A Collection of Speculative Fiction — Suzanne Church
Unlike the previous two Kitchener-Waterloo (KW) Science Fiction and Fantasy authors, I have not to my knowledge met Suzanne Church – yet - but I did encounter her “Synch Me, Kiss Me, Drop”, during my failed attempt to listen to every audio piece at Clarkesworld1. Church was first published almost a decade ago but she is not especially prolific and this is her first collection. Elements collects twenty-one stories by Church, which is actually eight more stories than are credited to her over at isfdb. I would like to say that the gaps in her isfdb entry are because seven of the stories in Elements are original to Elements itself - which is true - but Elements itself is mentioned in that entry.
“My name is Festina Ramos, and I take great pride in my personal appearance.”
Expendable —
James Alan Gardner
League of Peoples, book 1
Given that the University of Waterloo has been a hotbed of innovation since its founding it is not surprising that there have been science fiction authors connected with it at least as far back as the 1970s, but despite the fact that I have lived on campus on and off since 1961 I’ve met fewer of them than seems reasonable in retrospect.
It may be that at some point during his years at UW, I crossed paths with Thomas J. Ryan (The Adolescence of P1) but that would only have been in the literal sense, two strangers passing on some particular bit of campus. It’s not impossible that at some engineering mixer thrown by my parents I met the late Edward Llewellyn-Thomas (The Douglas Convolution as well as other books) but if I did I certainly never connected him with his pen name Edward Llewellyn. The first science fiction author connected with the University of Waterloo I know for a fact I met is James Alan Gardner, whose work I heard first on radio in the 1970s, who I met in person thanks to FASS, the University of Waterloo’s longest-operating amateur theatre group, and who gives me a ride to gaming every week.
Quietly addictive: The Stone Boatmen
The Stone Boatmen — Sarah Tolmie
It is a sad truth that a life spent reviewing books, particularly genre fiction, particularly fantasy, involves reading a lot of terrible books. Worse, reading variations of the same terrible book, over and over. There is a benefit, which is that a gem of the first water like Sarah Tolmie’s The Stone Boatmen stands out against the rest that much more.
Review Categories
- Rediscovery Tuesday (42)
- Translation (99)
- Because My Tears Are Delicious To You (172)
- 50 Nortons in 50 Weeks (50)
- The Great Heinlein Juveniles (Plus The Other Two) Reread (14)
- KW Science Fiction and Fantasy (3)
- Special Requests (176)
- Miscellaneous Reviews (165)
- Women of Wonder (6)
- Leigh Brackett's Solar System (7)
- Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck (30)
- Graveyard Orbits (4)
- James Tiptree, Jr. Award (7)
- A Year of Tanith Lee (61)
- Not Actually A Review (1)
- Space Opera That Doesn't Suck (3)
- A Year of Waterloo Region Speculative Fiction (36)
- The 2017 Prometheus Award Finalists (4)
- Reds Under The Bed (4)
By Author/Editor
- Aaronovitch, Ben (1)
- Abbas, Ibraheem (1)
- Abrahams, Kyria (1)
- Achebe, Chinua (1)
- Addison, Katherine (1)
- Aldiss, Brian (1)
- Amano, Kozue (14)
- Anderson, Chester (1)
- Anderson, Poul (6)
- Anderson, R. J. (2)
- Andrews, Ilona (1)
- Anthony, Patricia (1)
- Anthony, Piers (2)
- Arakawa, Hiromu (4)
- Archer, Katrina (1)
- Arnason, Eleanor (1)
- Ashby, Madeline (2)
- Ashinano, Hitoshi (20)
- Ashwin, Kate (2)
- Asimov, Isaac (5)
- Atwood, Margaret (1)
- Bahjatt, Yasser (1)
- Bailey, Charles W. (1)
- Bailley, Samantha (1)
- Baker, Mishell (1)
- Banks, Iain M. (1)
- Barnes, Steven (3)
- Barnett, Lisa A. (1)
- Bayley, Barrington J. (1)
- Bear, Elizabeth (1)
- Benford, Gregory (2)
- Bester, Alfred (1)
- Beukes, Lauren (1)
- Binder, Eando (1)
- Blair, Kate (1)
- Blish, James (1)
- Bobet, Leah (1)
- Bois, Jon (1)
- Boucher, Anthony (1)
- Bova, Ben (1)
- Bow, Erin (2)
- Bow, James (2)
- Brackett, Leigh (9)
- Bradbury, Ray (1)
- Bray, Libba (1)
- Brennan, Marie (1)
- Brennan, Sarah Ree (1)
- Bretnor, Reginald (1)
- Brissett, Jennifer Marie (1)
- Broaddus, Maurice (1)
- Brookmyre, Christopher (1)
- Brown, Rosel George (1)
- Brunner, John (5)
- Brust, Steven (2)
- Buckell, Tobias (2)
- Buckley, Bob (1)
- Bujold, Lois McMaster (5)
- Burgess, Anthony (1)
- Busby, F. M. (2)
- Butler, Octavia E. (7)
- Campbell, John W. (1)
- Čapek, Karel (1)
- Capon, Paul (1)
- Card, Melanie (1)
- Card, Orson Scott (1)
- Carey, Jacqueline (2)
- Carr, John F. (1)
- Carter, Raphael (1)
- Castellucci, Cecil (1)
- Chambers, Becky (2)
- Chandler, A. Bertram (1)
- Charnas, Suzy McKee (1)
- Chen, Curtis C. (1)
- Cherryh, C.J. (7)
- Cho, Zen (4)
- Christie, Agatha (1)
- Chu, Wesley (1)
- Church, Suzanne (2)
- Clarke, Arthur C. (2)
- Clarke, Cassandra Rose (1)
- Clarke, Neil (1)
- Clayton, Jo (5)
- Clee, Mona (1)
- Clement, Hal (1)
- Clement, Jermaine (1)
- Cole, Dandridge M. (1)
- Comité Colbert (1)
- Coney, Michael G. (1)
- Connolly, Harry (3)
- Consell, Ryan (1)
- Cook, Glen (1)
- Corey, James S. A. (1)
- Cox, Donald W (1)
- Crain William (1)
- Crewe, Megan (1)
- Ctein (1)
- Czerneda, Julia E. (2)
- Daniel, Tony (1)
- Daniels, April (2)
- Darnay, Arsen (1)
- Daven, Kit (2)
- Davin, Eric Leif (1)
- de Bodard, Aliette (7)
- de Camp, L. Sprague (2)
- Dean, Paul (1)
- Deighton, Len (1)
- Delany, Samuel R. (4)
- Dentinger, Jane (1)
- Dickson, Gordon R. (1)
- Dillon, Diane (1)
- Dillon, Leo (1)
- Doctorow, Corey (1)
- Downum, Amanda (1)
- Doyle, Debra (1)
- Drake, David (1)
- Draper, Terry (1)
- Drye, Paul (1)
- Duane, Diane (1)
- Due, Tananarive (1)
- Dumas, Alexandre (1)
- Dunlop, Eileen (1)
- Dunyach, Jean-Claude (1)
- Duyvis, Corinne (1)
- Dyson, George (1)
- Editor, A.N. (1)
- Edmondson, G.C. (2)
- Eisenstein, Phyllis (2)
- Elliott, Kate (1)
- Engdahl, Sylvia Louise (1)
- Engel, Marian (1)
- Ernst, Paul (1)
- Estes, Eleanor (1)
- Fakhouri, Anne (1)
- Faust, Minister (1)
- Ford, John M. (2)
- Forstchen, William R. (1)
- Foster, Alan Dean (2)
- Foster, M.A. (1)
- Frank, Pat (1)
- Frankel, Jen (1)
- Frey, J. M. (2)
- Frezza, Robert (1)
- Fujii, Taiyo (2)
- Gardner, James Alan (2)
- Gentle, Mary (2)
- Gerrold, David (3)
- Gilliland, Alexis A. (1)
- Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1)
- Gilman, Felix (1)
- Gilman, Laura Anne (1)
- Gladstone, Max (4)
- Goldenberg, Alisse Lee (1)
- Gorodischer, Angélica (1)
- Goto, Hiromi (1)
- Gould, Steven (2)
- Graham, Jo (5)
- Grant, Mira (1)
- Greenberg, Martin H. (1)
- Griffin, Kate (1)
- Griffith, Nicola (5)
- Grossman, Austin (1)
- Ha, Il-Kwon (1)
- Haldeman, Joe (2)
- Hamilton, Virginia (2)
- Hansen, Karl (1)
- Hardinge, Frances (1)
- Harris, Geraldine (1)
- Hawkins, Scott (1)
- Healy, Raymond J. (1)
- Heinlein, Robert A. (20)
- Helgadóttir, Margrét (1)
- Henderson, Zenna (1)
- Heppenheimer, T. A. (1)
- Herbert, Frank (1)
- Hernandez, Jaime (2)
- Hewitt, John (1)
- Heydt, Dorothy (1)
- Higgins, C.A. (1)
- Hiroe, Rei (1)
- Hogan, James P. (1)
- Hogarth, M. C. A. (1)
- Holmqvist, Ninni (1)
- Hoover, H.M. (1)
- Hopkinson, Nalo (1)
- Höst, Andrea K. (1)
- Howard, Kat (1)
- Howe, Grant (1)
- Hoyle, Fred (1)
- Hoyt, Richard (1)
- Huang, S.L. (4)
- Huff, Tanya (2)
- Hughes, Matthew (5)
- Hughes, Monica (1)
- Humphrey, Claire (1)
- Hurley, Kameron (2)
- Ibuse, Masuji (1)
- Ing, Dean (2)
- Ishiguro, Kazuo (1)
- Itäranta, Emmi (1)
- Jablokov, Alexander (1)
- Jackson, Shirley (2)
- Jacobs, Jane (1)
- Jacques, Jeph (1)
- Jemisin, N. K. (5)
- Johnson, Alaya Dawn (3)
- Johnson, Annabel (1)
- Johnson, Edgar (1)
- Johnson, Kij (1)
- Jones, Diana Wynne (2)
- Jones, Gwyneth (1)
- Jones, Heather Rose (2)
- Jones, Raymond F. (1)
- Juster, Norton (1)
- K.B. Wagers (1)
- Kahn, Herman (1)
- Kahn, Sherman (1)
- Kamachi, Kazuma (1)
- Kaplan, Fred (1)
- Kawahara, Reki (1)
- Kerr, Katharine (1)
- Key, Alexander (1)
- Keyes, Daniel (1)
- Khaw, Cassandra (1)
- Kidd, Virginia (1)
- Kiernan, Denise (1)
- Killough, Lee (3)
- King, Jasper MacDonald (1)
- King, Stephen (1)
- Kingfisher, T. (3)
- Kingsbury, Donald (1)
- Kinzie, Becka (2)
- Kirstein, Rosemary (4)
- Kishi, Yusuke (3)
- Knebel, Fletcher (1)
- Kohli, Armon Kishen (1)
- Kooiker, Leonie (1)
- Kornbluth, Cyril (2)
- Kotlan, C. M. (1)
- Krasnostein, Alisa (1)
- Kreider, Anna (2)
- Kuhn, Sarah (2)
- Kurland, Michael (1)
- Kushner, Ellen (1)
- L'Engle, Madeleine (1)
- Lafferty, Mur (1)
- Lagerlöf, Selma (1)
- Lake, David J. (1)
- Larbalestier, Justine (1)
- Laumer, Keith (2)
- Le Guin, Ursula K. (3)
- Leckie, Ann (1)
- Lee, Fonda (1)
- Lee, Sharon (2)
- Lee, Tanith (61)
- Lee, Yoon Ha (2)
- Leiber, Fritz (3)
- Lepore, Jill (1)
- Liang, William Tham Wai (1)
- Lindqvist, John Ajvide (1)
- Liu, Cixin (2)
- Liu, Ken (1)
- Llewellyn, Edward (1)
- Locke, M. J (1)
- Long, Dee (1)
- Lord, Karen (1)
- Lumpkin, John J. (1)
- Lynn, Elizabeth A. (3)
- MacAvoy, R.A. (1)
- MacDonald, James D. (1)
- MacDonald, John D. (1)
- MacGregor, Blair (1)
- MacLean, Katherine (2)
- MacLeod, Ken (1)
- Mahr, Kurt (1)
- Malan, Violette (1)
- Mamatas, Nick (1)
- Mandel, Emily St. John (1)
- Mankell, Henning (1)
- Mardoll, Ana (1)
- Marks, Laurie J (3)
- Martin, George R.R. (1)
- Martinson, Harry (1)
- Matronic, Ana (1)
- Mauméjean, Xavier (1)
- McCaffrey, Anne (1)
- McComas, J. Francis (1)
- McDonald, Ian (1)
- McDuffie, Dwayne (1)
- McGuire, Seanan (1)
- McHugh, Maureen F. (1)
- McIntyre, Vonda N. (3)
- McKillip, Patricia A. (2)
- McLachlan, J. A. (1)
- McMullen, Sean (1)
- McPhee, John (1)
- Meredith, Richard C. (1)
- Merle, Robert (1)
- Merril, Judith (2)
- Mighton, John (1)
- Miller, Mark (1)
- Miller, Steve (2)
- Miller, Walter M., Jr. (1)
- Mitchison, Naomi (1)
- Miyabe, Miyuki (1)
- Moffitt, Donald (1)
- Mohanraj, Mary Anne (1)
- Moon, Elizabeth (1)
- Moorcock, Michael (1)
- Moore, C.L. (5)
- Moore, Moira J (1)
- Moran, Daniel Keyes (3)
- Moreno-Garcia, Silvia (5)
- Morganfield, T.L. (1)
- Mori, Kaoru (5)
- Morinaga, Milk (1)
- Morressy, John (1)
- Mulholland, Tony (1)
- Murphy, Pat (2)
- Nagata, Linda (7)
- Nakazato, Yuka (1)
- Nakazawa, Keiji (1)
- Narita, Ryogho (1)
- Neil Randall (1)
- Newhall, Scott (1)
- Newman, Emma (4)
- Nicholson, Sam (1)
- Nickle, David (1)
- Niven, Larry (8)
- North, Claire (1)
- Norton, Andre (50)
- Nourse, Alan E. (1)
- Novik, Naomi (1)
- O'Donnell, Kevin (1)
- O'Malley, Daniel (1)
- O'Neal, Kathleen M. (1)
- Ogawa, Yoko (1)
- Ohno, Kaoru (1)
- Okorafor, Nnedi (2)
- Ōkouchi, Ichirō (1)
- Ono, Fuyumi (2)
- Ore, Rebecca (1)
- Orwell, George (1)
- Otsuichi (1)
- Palwick, Susan (2)
- Pangborn, Edgar (1)
- Panshin, Alexei (1)
- Paquet, Olivier (1)
- Parker, K.J. (4)
- Patel, Carrie (1)
- Penn, Richard (2)
- Pérez-Reverte, Arturo (1)
- Perrin, Steve (1)
- Phillips, Julie (1)
- Phondke, Bal (1)
- Pierce, Alexandra (1)
- Piper, H. Beam (4)
- Piserchia, Doris (1)
- Pohl-Weary, Emily (1)
- Pohl, Carol (1)
- Pohl, Frederik (5)
- Posey, Jay (1)
- Pournelle, Jerry (4)
- Powers, Tim (1)
- Rakunas, Adam (2)
- Rasmussen, Alis A. (1)
- Rey, Alain (1)
- Reynolds, Alastair (2)
- Rhodes, Richard (1)
- Ricci-Thode, Vanessa (1)
- Rivas, Roque (1)
- Roberts, Adam (1)
- Robinett, Stephen (1)
- Robinson, Frank M. (1)
- Robinson, Kim Stanley (1)
- Rowland, Diana (6)
- Ruff, Matt (1)
- Russ, Joanna (1)
- Russell, Eric Frank (2)
- Ryan, Thomas J. (1)
- Sagan, Carl (1)
- Saito, Chiho (2)
- Sakai, Stan (2)
- Sakuraba, Kazuki (2)
- Samatar, Sofia (1)
- Sanders, B.R. (1)
- Sandford, John (1)
- Sargent, Pamela (9)
- Satifka, Erika L. (1)
- Saunders, Charles R. (1)
- Saunders, Graydon (3)
- Sawyer, Robert J. (1)
- Scalzi, John (3)
- Schoen, Lawrence M. (1)
- Scortia, Thomas N. (1)
- Scott, Melissa (11)
- Shaw, Bob (2)
- Shawl, Nisi (1)
- Sheckley, Robert (1)
- Sheffield, Charles (1)
- Shelby, L. (3)
- Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1)
- Shinkai, Makoto (1)
- Shiras, Wilmar H. (1)
- Shirow, Masamune (2)
- Shriver, Lionel (1)
- Shunn, William (1)
- Shusterman, Neal (1)
- Shute, Nevil (1)
- Silverberg, Robert (1)
- Simak, Clifford D. (2)
- Simukka, Salla (3)
- Sinisalo, Johanna (1)
- Slonczewski, Joan (1)
- Smith, E.E. (1)
- Smith, Evelyn E. (1)
- Smith, George O. (1)
- Smith, Kristine (3)
- Smith, L. Neil (3)
- Smith, Sherwood (2)
- Smith, Thorne (1)
- Snyder, Zilpha Keatley (1)
- Solnit, Rebecca (1)
- Spangler, K.B. (6)
- Spencer, Wen (2)
- Spinrad, Norman (1)
- Sprange, Matthew (1)
- Springer, Nancy (1)
- St. Clair, Margaret (2)
- Steinmetz, Ferrett (3)
- Stephenson, Neal (1)
- Sterzinger, Ann (1)
- Stiles, Paula R. (1)
- Stine, G. Harry (1)
- Strugatsky, Arkady (2)
- Strugatsky, Boris (2)
- Sucharitkul, Somtow (1)
- Sullivan, Tricia (2)
- Sutcliff, Rosemary (1)
- Tan, Charles (1)
- Tanaka, Yoshiki (3)
- Tanigawa, Nagaru (3)
- Taniguchi, Gorō (1)
- Tanzer, Molly (1)
- Tarr, Judith (1)
- Tchaikovsky, Adrian (1)
- Teitel, Amy Shira (1)
- Tepper, Sheri S. (1)
- Thomas, Jo (1)
- Thomas, Sheree R. (1)
- Thompson, Tade (1)
- Tiptree, James (3)
- Tolmie, Sarah (3)
- Touno, Mamare (1)
- Trowbridge, Dave (1)
- Turner, Megan Whalen (5)
- Turney, Ray (1)
- Valentine, Genevieve (1)
- van de Wetering, Janwillem (1)
- Varley, John (2)
- Vaughn, Carrie (2)
- Vinge, Joan D. (5)
- Vinge, Vernor (1)
- Volsky, Paula (3)
- Vonarburg, Élisabeth (1)
- Wachowski, Andy (1)
- Wachowski, Lana (1)
- Wagers, K. B. (1)
- Waititi, Taika (1)
- Waldrop, Howard (1)
- Wallis, James (1)
- Walton, Jo (1)
- Warren, Adam (1)
- Washington, Masumi (1)
- Watkins, Peter (1)
- Wayne, Jeff (1)
- Weir, Andy (1)
- Wells, Alex (1)
- Wells, Jeffrey (1)
- Wells, Martha (9)
- White, James (4)
- Wilde, Fran (1)
- Wilhelm, Kate (1)
- Williams, Kass (1)
- Williams, Liz (2)
- Williams, Walter Jon (1)
- Williamson, Jack (2)
- Willis. Connie (1)
- Wilson, F. Paul (1)
- WIlson, Kai Ashante (2)
- Wintrebert, Joëlle (1)
- Wolfrom, Regan (1)
- Wollheim, Donald A. (1)
- Woloschuk, John (1)
- Wren, M.K. (3)
- Yakimura, Makoto (1)
- Yang, JY (3)
- Yatsuhashi, Keith (1)
- Yoshiura, Yasuhiro (1)
- Yuki, Hiroshi (1)
- Zelazny, Roger (3)
Reviews by Date
2017
- September 2017 (17)
- August 2017 (23)
- July 2017 (21)
- June 2017 (21)
- May 2017 (22)
- April 2017 (21)
- March 2017 (21)
- February 2017 (19)
- January 2017 (23)
2016
- December 2016 (21)
- November 2016 (21)
- October 2016 (22)
- September 2016 (22)
- August 2016 (22)
- July 2016 (22)
- June 2016 (20)
- May 2016 (23)
- April 2016 (21)
- March 2016 (21)
- February 2016 (18)
- January 2016 (22)
2015
- December 2015 (28)
- November 2015 (29)
- October 2015 (29)
- September 2015 (29)
- August 2015 (28)
- July 2015 (28)
- June 2015 (28)
- May 2015 (28)
- April 2015 (26)
- March 2015 (29)
- February 2015 (24)
- January 2015 (25)
2014
- December 2014 (25)
- November 2014 (26)
- October 2014 (27)
- September 2014 (24)
- August 2014 (23)
- July 2014 (11)
- June 2014 (8)
- May 2014 (4)
- April 2014 (2)