| Book Review First Word on the Subject
by R Hadji
Until quite recently, the suggestion that a peculiarly Canadian science fiction and fantasy exists would have met with a response similar to that of the apocryphal Portuguese navigator who first overlooked these shores: 'ca nada' (nothing here).
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| Book Review The Old Order Crumbles
by John Doyle
Anyone unamused by lusher styles of fantasy-writing will find the clarity in Duncan's work refreshing. In this book, for instance, when one of the ballyhooed warlocks makes his first appearance, his first words are "You nearly screwed up!"
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| Book Review Swords and Sorceries
by C Ellis
Inside and outside, from the typographical errors to the Nancy Drewmeets-Frank Frazetta cover, this swordand-sorcery epic is in most respects conventional and superficial.
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 | The Harvest
by Robert C. Wilson,
Bantam Books
408 pages $23 TC
ISBN: 0553091239
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Book Review More Than Human
by Douglas Barbour
One of the major differences between reading science fiction in the '50s and reading SF in the '90s has to do with a complex rearrangement of genre expectations and attendant formalities.
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| Book Review Dark Fantasies
by Lynne Luven
These two publications offer lovers of the macabre the chance to imbibe their thrills in little sips or, in the case of Samuel Key's latest novel, in one big gulp.
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| Book Review Words Taking Root
by Shirley Brady
Both books are set in societies that are products of an unspecified catastrophe that occurred hundreds of years earlier; both feature independent female protagonists who are on a quest; and both deal with sexual politics and gender relations.
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| Book Review Canadian Specific
by Eric McCormack
It appears that mainstream fiction is the truly "escapist" genre. It clings to its comforting delusions that certain things are "perennial," "universal," "unchanging"; it insists, "thus has it been, thus will it ever be" (or words to that effect).
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| Book Review Leaving Genre Behind
by George Kaufman
One of the stories is so emotionally and politically powerful that it alone is worth the price of the book.
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| Book Review Wars with the World
by Robin Britt
Biographies are competitive creatures, always delighted to unearth some tidbit of information overlooked in previous lives of their subjects, and positively ecstatic when developing a brand-new slant on an entrenched reputation.
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| Book Review Nothing Short of Chilling
by Joel Yanofsky
While this sort of vandalism is rare in this province and this country, it's hardly unheard of. What is unheard of is the fact that all of these acts took place on the same day. They weren't random; they were carefully planned.
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| Book Review City Life
by Cary Fagan
As I read these two books I couldn't help imagining their authors sitting together in a restaurant: Mr Jones well-groomed and wearing a conservatively cut suit, and Guy in a leather jacket smelling of cigarettes and stale beer.
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| Book Review All in the Family
by Donald Swainson
Since the rise to power of jean Lesage and his Liberals in 1960, Quebec has been an economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and political cauldron. We have had to adjust to the Quiet Revolution.
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| Book Review Others in Our Lives
by Merna Summers
When he is at his best, Henighan is a writer who respects his material, and offers us close and convincing observation.
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| Book Review Mistress of Tart Remarks
by Elisabeth Harvor
The chunky shadow of the traveller's notebook falls across the novel as well, and it's also clear that Thomas often can't resist the temptation to collage even this fractured material, jazz it up.
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| Courage in the Air Canada's Military Heritage
by Arthur Bishop, F. R. Sutherland,
pages $29.99 OT
ISBN: 0075513765
| | Evaders
by Lavender,
pages $7.98 OT
ISBN: 0075514664
| | Dictionary of Canadian Military History
by David J. Bercuson, J. L. Granatstein,
228 pages $16.95 TP
ISBN: 0195411072
| |  | Shadows of War, Faces of Peace
by GRANATSTEIN , LAVENDER , Spremo,
pages $29.95 CT
ISBN: 1550134361
| | Silent Battle Canadian Prisoners of War in Germany, 1914-1919
by Desmond Morton,
232 pages $26.95 CT
ISBN: 1895555175
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Book Review Passages at Arms
by Robert Stamp
Five new titles about Canada's experiences in war and peace.
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| Interviews Plotting Prolifically
by Pat Barclay
I get really tired of people judging things by the lowest common denominator. You get people saying, "Science fiction is just all ray guns and 'Star Trek' and it's garbage."
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| Essays Madly into the Future
by Dale Sproule
Canadian speculative fiction is entering the new wilderness at light speed.
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| Prose/Poetry Three Happy Families
by Heather Spears
The boy just looked about, almost as if he were deciding which baby I'd like best, and then picked Maho up and put her in my arms.
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| Profiles Profile - Getting Respect
by Andrew Weiner
Robert J. Sawyer is set to plunge into the strange alien galaxy of the CanLit mainstream.
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| Opinion Opinion - Professionally Pulped
by Terence Green
Fast-food fiction + retro reviewing = literary indigestion.
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| First Novels First Novels - Trusting Laughter
by Douglas Hill
ERIC ZWEIG's Hockey Night in the Dominion of Canada (Lester, 339 pages, $17-95 paper) combines a lightly fictionalized, heavily detailed history of the game's early days with a hokey terrorist subplot. The book will be of interest chiefly to hockey fans. Whatever Happened to Snuffy Quinn? (Jesperson, 169 pages, $11.50 paper), by Derek Yetman, is a complicated, mechanical, and not very enthralling political thriller set in Africa; the plot mixes illegal ivory and a military coup. The writing is u
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| Field Notes Field Notes - Finding your voice
by Gloria Hildebrandt
I must represent a large proportion of 'Books in Canada' readers in my dreams of writing a book and getting it published. Another large chunk of readers must be Those Who Got There Before Me...
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| Field Notes Field Notes - Cultural Representations
by Debra Martens
What hasn't changed is that the Canada Council is still a corporation, and "not an agent of Her Majesty." Nor are its employees part of the public service. This is in keeping with the Canada Council's arm's-length relationship with the government.
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| George Fetherling Last Words - Testing the Waters
by Alec McEwen
In an issue of the Writers' Union of Canada's newsletter, an author remarked that when it comes to film rights, "Somehow we book writers fall between the cracks."
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| Three by Three Short Stories
by Anne Dandurand, Claire De, Helene Rioux, Luise Von Flotow, Luise Von Flotow,
122 pages $12 TP
ISBN: 0920717691
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Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Becky Liddell
For many readers outside Quebec, feminist writing in French is likely associated with the challenging, non-linear work of authors such as Nicole Brossard.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Roger Mason
We've already encountered this character in many novels and television comedies, of course, but Cameron manages to individuate her nonetheless.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Allan Casey
Rohinton Mistry's depiction of a Goan Catholic who works as a servant of rich Bombay Parsis is warm and quaintly funny - but her way of life, in the end, seems spiritually suffocating.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Non-Fiction
by John Doyle
Wickwire has successfully retained the engaging tone and rhythm of Robinson's delivery by presenting the stories as long prose-poems. These stories also establish Robinson as a cultural icon whose gift, fortunately, was recorded forever.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Non-Fiction
by Stanley Fogel
Although geared to the academic "pomo" mill (one of the few non-recessionary industries at the moment), the volume is a readable one, as is usually the case with a work written or edited by Linda Hutcheon.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Poetry
by Charlene Diehl-Jones
A book of poetry is the perfect cafe companion: engaging, provocative, available wherever you are. So here's some of the company I've enjoyed with my cafe au lait in Montreal cafes these past months.
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| Brief Reviews Breif Reviews - Fiction
by Roger Mason
Helwigs' annual collection shines one of those spotlights, and this is one writer and reader who - sometimes agreeing and sometimes disagreeing with their focus - hopes they will continue to do so for years to come.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Anne Denoon
Gough keeps the plot thickening by the time-honoured but still effective device of alternating chapters that track the activities of the police, the perpetrator, and, eventually, a couple of other players who also have something to hide.
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| Brief Reviews Brief Reviews - Fiction
by Louise Fabiani
A collection such as this gives a large number of women the opportunity to vent their spleen or open their hearts; in more respects than one, food is like religion.
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| How to Make Great Stuff for Your Room
by Mary Wallace, Mary Wallace,
88 pages $8.95 TP
ISBN: 0920775853
| | Manny's Many Questions
by Louise Framst,
24 pages $0 TP
ISBN: 096955382X
| | Kelly's Garden
by Louis Framst,
24 pages $0 TP
ISBN: 0969553838
| | | Desdemona Saves the Day
by Eileen Pettigrew,
pages $7.95 TP
ISBN: 1550410237
| | Why Seals Blow Their Noses Canadian Wildlife in Fact & Fiction
by Diane Swanson, Douglas Penhale,
80 pages $12.95 TP
ISBN: 155110038X
| | Eat Up!
by Candace C. Savage, Gary Clement,
Firefly Books, Limited
56 pages $9.95 TP
ISBN: 1895565138
| | | Real Live Science Top Scientists Present Amazing Activities Any Kid Can Do
by Jay Ingram, Jay Ingram,
48 pages $16.95 CT
ISBN: 1895688000
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Children's Books Children's Books - Active Information
by Janet McNaughton
Presses such as Kids Can, Groundwood, and Greey de Pencier (which also publishes 'Owl' and 'Chickadee' magazines) produce activity books that give kids a chance to experience science at home using only kitchen-sink equipment.
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| At Large At Large - The Colony Strikes Back
by Michael Coren
There is no doubt that colonialism is indeed an egregious thing and that Canada, and its arts community, is still suffering as a result of British ravages.
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| Douglas Fetherling Douglas Fetherling - Diplomatic Presence
by Douglas Fetherling
I write this at the time of President Bill Clinton's inauguration, when people have begun to wonder which former cowboy, bootlegger, or political bagman he might appoint as American ambassador to Canada.
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| First Novel Award The Short List
What was the best first novel of 1992? We're not telling until the next issue, but we can confide that the following have been selected as finalists for the 1992 Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
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