I leaned toward fantasy reads this month — the weirder the better. And there were some real weird reads in this edition of the Bibliofiles.

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Fiction

Sycamore by Ian Rogers

I’ve always loved Ian Rogers’ tales of The Black Lands, an eerie and deadly realm that intersects with our own and provides PI Felix Renn with supernatural creatures to investigate. So I was delighted to read Sycamore, which follows Renn to small-town Ontario and a mystery involving a string of murders, a missing man, a mysterious librarian, an eerie child — and a hidden portal to the Black Lands. Weird lit at its finest. You’ll be afraid of the dark all over again.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220978924-sycamore

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We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle

What happens when the bad guys win in a fantasy novel and take over the world? The resistance fights back, of course. This is the premise of We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle. The land of Jia is overrun by the Egril hordes, which have united under a mysterious leader with powerful magic. Jia falls instantly to the Egril forces, which rule the land through a puppet government. But not everyone is willing to accept their rule. Brutal, bloody and action-packed, this is a nice twist of the blade for the fantasy genre.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42602296-we-are-the-dead

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Kaiju Agonistes by Scott Lynch

A well-meaning but increasingly monstrous kaiju goes head to head with politicians in this blackly comic and delightful tale.

Link: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/kaiju-agonistes/

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Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett presents one of the most original worlds to ever hit the fantasy genre. The city of Tevanne is ruled by merchant houses that use a hybrid of magic and technology to maintain their power and live a near godlike existence. The entire society is built upon the practice of scriving — altering reality by inscribing objects with enchanted sigils to convince them to act in ways contrary to their nature. Scrived pieces of wood can be hard as stone, swords can hit much harder than they should be capable of, lights can burn forever and so on.

The only problem is no one truly understands how it works. The technology comes from an ancient race long gone who had attained the power of godhood, and the people of Tevanne are trying to understand it as they slowly piece the remains together.

But Foundryside is not just an impressive piece of worldbuilding. It’s also a clever heist tale, as the thief Sancia steals an artifact that turns out to be from that ancient race — and is itself sentient. Sancia is a unique character herself, as she is a scrived human being that can essentially hear the thoughts of inanimate objects — the result of unthinkable experiments by the rulers of Tevanne.

It’s also very much a political novel as it depicts deep divides between the wealthy and the poor, between those who aspire to godhood and those who are trapped in the worst gutters of humanity. There are more than a few parallels to our own society here.

There’s even a philosophical element, as Foundryside explores what is to be human — and what it is to be a god. And there’s an interesting angle in our AI age of what it means to be a sentient object.

All of these things come together over the course of the book, as the secrets of the dead race are discovered and the story shifts from being a clever fantasy novel to a near existential horror. If you’re looking for a truly different reading experience unlike anything else in the genre, then Foundryside is the book for you.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37173847-foundryside

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The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant by Jeffery Ford

The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant is one of the weirdest and best collections I’ve ever experienced. Humans on a strange planet dress as old movie stars for celebrity-obsessed aliens. An interviewer has tea with a very odd Jules Verne. A writer obsessed with a mysterious Kafka story finds himself at odds with the writer Jeffrey Ford. And many more tales straight out of Twilight Zone episodes written by Borges. 

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39748.The_Fantasy_Writer_s_Assistant_and_Other_Stories

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The Wish Doctor by Arlen Feldman

A charming tale about an expert in contracts for binding djinn who finds himself summoned to the royal palace to study the most important contract of his life and find the hidden trap. 

Link: https://www.baen.com/wish_doctor

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Non-fiction

The Big Five Publishers Have Killed Literary Fiction by Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings

Is consolidation among the big publishers slowly killing off literary fiction? And can the small presses save it?

Link: https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-big-five-publishers-have-killed

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New Star Pushed Over the Ledge

The world of CanLit was shocked and puzzled when publisher New Star suddenly announced it was shutting down. Now it seems a dispute with the BC Arts Council may have led to the closure. 

Link: https://shush.substack.com/p/new-star-pushed-over-the-ledge