HopeStreetby Bel TerrillPublished by Pete’s PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $24.99 ISBN 9781997713029 If you’re into dystopian stories with a tech twist, HopeStreet needs to be on your radar. HopeStreet centres around a city named Toivo – picture a futuristic, grim version of Toronto. It is a bleak city ruled by AI that has stripped its residents of autonomy and joy. Enter HopeStreet, a total-immersion virtual reality game where users plug into gamer pods and all their senses are replaced. Players design a world they want to live in and everything they see, touch, feel, and taste is real. The main character, Tycho, is a Basic, a term referring to people who aren’t Plugged. Plugged people wear a Piece behind their ear, a device that allows for seamless communication but also allows others to see what they are thinking and feeling. Those who wear a Piece are safe but also easily controlled by governing bodies. The Plugged/Basic divide is an interesting concept. Sadly, the the number of free-thinking Basic people in Toivo are dwindling by the day.  The intrigue keeps ramping up as Tycho and his group of rebel friends infiltrate HopeStreet in an attempt to keep AI from taking over…

Gods of a New Worldby Ryan MelsomPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Michelle Shaw$26.99 ISBN 9781998273379 A mind-bending thriller set in a dystopian future is not something I usually read, but Ryan Melsom’s immersive world and powerful writing in Gods of a New World kept me turning the pages. All 336 of them! What initially drew me to the book was its premise. A thriller set in a world controlled and reshaped by trillionaires using superpowered AIs – “a world where miracles are engineered and secret technology is wired into the very air”. It sounded frighteningly almost relatable. Within this world we are introduced to the two central characters: James Kessler – a childhood survivor of the “Bad Times” (when the world as we know it crumbled), who is now living a very pleasant life as a cog in the new social structure; and Maree Shell – a privileged executive living the high life in the controlling hierarchy of the new society. These two unlikely collaborators are confronted with a frightening conspiracy by the gods of this new world to seize control of reality itself, by encoding their consciousness into the world — stripping away the free will of the world’s…

March Forthby Dale Botting, Richard Jankowski, and Alan WallacePublished by Benchmark PressReview by Sally Meadows$25.00 ISBN 9781927352533 March Forth is a bold undertaking by three seasoned Saskatchewan businessmen to help guide and strengthen business and government leadership during our current tumultuous economic and political climate. Drawing from decades of real-life experience in multiple, diverse industries, the authors challenge leaders to take decisive action by putting forward-thinking economic policies into place immediately and in the coming years to mitigate the negative impact of volatile trade wars and other geopolitical hazards on socio-economic growth in Saskatchewan and beyond. Effective transformational change starts with a vision, and the book opens with the authors’ passionate visualization for a stronger Saskatchewan (and Canada) by 2040. Having a vision is only part of the story; the remainder of the book includes specific strategies to help business and government leaders get from where we are to where we could be. Included are detailed, practical policy recommendations that address such topics as improved trade strategies, leveraging grassroots efforts, alternative global import sourcing, improved supply chain management, regulatory reform, strategic trade and energy infrastructure, Indigenous engagement, tax reform for global competitiveness, modernizing municipal assessment and finance systems, investing in…

Waiting for the Piano Tuner to Dieby Harriet RichardsPublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Toby A. Welch  $24.99 ISBN 9781998273317 This compact collection of ten short stories delivers a nonstop emotional rollercoaster. Richards explores heavy themes – death and dying, family dynamics, sibling relationships, love, loss – but what stands out is how hope runs through it. It packs a punch by taking raw situations and humanizing them.  While I enjoyed all ten tales (not something I can usually say in a short story collection), my favorite was Andrea’s Kitchen. It comes in at just under seven pages but it leaves a lasting impact. It tells the story of a woman blessed and burdened by her beauty and how that has played out in her life, for better or worse. A close second was Marine and Jonathan, Plus Carmalita’s Journal, the longest story at thirty pages. The layout of the tale was cool as parts of it were journal entries, hence the title. It follows the story of the three people in the title from adolescence into adulthood and the complications that arise. Most of the stories quietly linger, resurfacing hours or even days later.  I know a book is special when I’m…

Wîhtamawik/Tell Them: On a Life of Inspirationby Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky DancerPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$27.95 ISBN 9781779400840 Award-winning Saskatchewan writer Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer is renowned for her candid, Cree-infused poetry and presentations. Her latest book, Wîhtamawik/Tell Them: On a Life of Inspiration, braids memoir, poetry and essays to reveal where the author’s found inspiration and, I would say, contentment, after a tumultuous early start. In the eloquent introduction by the author’s daughter, Omeasoo Wahpasiw, the latter writes: “My mom dances with both her bones and the bones of our people, and when they poke and punch her with their insistent rattling, she does us all a favour, as painful as it is, and leaves them naked in the wind.” Until age seven, Halfe lived with her family in a log cabin on the Saddle Lake Reserve and practiced traditional Cree ways of life. She doesn’t pretend that it was perfect. Her father drank and was emotionally volatile (“His heart was a cave of stalactites.”). Her parents “stooked hay, picked rocks/in white farmers’ fields”. Halfe “learned to hunt, skin, and butcher game through non-verbal methods. [She] also watched [her] grandparents work…

Twice Cursed: An Ever After Tales Collectionby Robyn TockerPublished by Pete’s PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $24.99 ISBN 9781069345998 Twice Cursed, the fifth installment of Robyn Tocker’s Ever After Tales series, takes a beloved fairy tale and gives it a fresh twist. Tocker began developing this series when she was just twelve-years-old and what a great idea for a book collection it is! She takes classic fairy tales and reworks them, putting a creative and entertaining spin on them. Tocker plans for the series to eventually span sixteen books. Each tale is set in a different country and in a different time period, adding to the literary punch. Twice Cursed is a spin-off from the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. It takes place in the 1700s, a hundred years after Brier Rose woke from her century-long sleep. Now married to Tsar Leo and living on the outskirts of the haunted forest, she falls into a second cursed sleep. Her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Eliza, must uncover the cause and break the spell, aided by a cast of ragtag characters. (I did struggle to keep all the characters straight at first, but once I made a quick list to tuck inside the book it was much easier to follow.)   As…

Blue thinks itself within meby Kim TrainorPublished by University of Regina PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$27.95 ISBN 9781779401205 I knew I was in for a different kind of book when I read the author’s dedication, which begins: “For the flying beings, the ones with sharp teeth,/the ones who swim, the fire stones, the trees, the rain.” By the end of prize-winning Vancouver writer Kim Trainor’s text, Blue thinks itself within me, I can affirm that her dedication tracks. Trainor sees, hears, experiences and questions with the intensity of a scientist and the detail of an artist as she draws readers both into the forest at the two-year Fairy Creek blockade near Vancouver Island’s Port Renfrew—where she joined other protestors to protect old growth logging—and through her elegiac and philosophical quandary re: how best to approach writing a long lyric poem about the oldgrowth specklebelly lichen (a rare and threatened species found on yellow cedar in ancient forests) in a kind of respectful co-making with this oldgrowth resident. Trainor describes artist Natasha Lavdovsky’s discovery of “over sixty trees draped in glittering specklebelly,” and explains that “The finding of such a large community of oldgrowth specklebelly was evidence of the age of…

The Laundrymanby Dwayne BrennaPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Brandon Fick$26.99 ISBN 9781998273522 If you’re looking for a fast-paced historical crime novel, presenting a cross-section of frontier life and a region on the brink of massive changes, then The Laundryman is for you. What Dwayne Brenna achieves in his third novel is twofold: a mystery with twists and turns and two protagonists of differing but complementary personalities; plus, like most worthwhile historical fiction, he touches on issues we still deal with today, including racism, corruption, and the nature of justice. This might sound like a heavy story, and while solving murders is at the heart of The Laundryman, Brenna’s work is more along the lines of Agatha Christie than the ruthless westerns of Cormac McCarthy. The Laundryman focuses on two North-West Mounted Police Officers: Corporal Belvedere, a hard-drinking, laudanum-using officer with five years of experience, and Surgeon Virgil Montgomery, a strait-laced recruit haunted by mistakes in his previous medical practice. They are sent from Battleford to investigate the murder of a Chinese laundryman in Prince Albert in the fall of 1883. But what initially seems to be a one-off murder over a disagreement or racial prejudice expands into a wider conspiracy…

Thatcher versus Douglas: The CCF, the Liberals, and the Mossbank Debate of 1957by M. G. BucholtzPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$21.99 ISBN 9781990863349 Saskatchewan never fails to amaze me! Its political history is richer and deeper than many of us realize,and Thatcher versus Douglas captures one of its defining moments. Ross Thatcher and Tommy Douglas both played integral roles in shaping modern Saskatchewan and this book explores how their ideas – and their rivalries – helped define our political identity. Before reading Thatcher versus Douglas, I had never heard of the Great Debate that happened in 1957, apparently a pivotal point in Saskatchewan politics. At a time when politicians relied on speeches, door knocking, and newspaper coverage, Thatcher and Douglas debated face-to-face with a moderator between them, with reporters covering it for newspapers and the discussion broadcast over radio. What feels commonplace now was groundbreaking then, foreshadowing the future of media-driven politics. As the chapters unfolded, I found myself wondering which of the men I would’ve aligned with had I been alive seventy-five years ago. Both men are fascinating and Bucholtz dives deep into their lives so we can see what shaped their political views and careers. Even readers who…

Kisēwātisi: Be Kindby Elizabeth Merasty, Illustrations by Brie Phillips, Woodland Cree Translations by Edie VennePublished by Your Nickle’s Worth Publishing (YNWP)Review by Michelle Shaw$19.95 ISBN 9781778690624 The simplest stories and actions sometimes have the deepest effect. Elizabeth Merasty’s new, beautifully illustrated children’s book, about simple acts of kindness, belie the deeper narrative of her mother’s stay at a residential school. As a child Merasty’s late mother, Catherine Conner (née Merasty), made the long journey, with her siblings, by boat from Pelican Narrows to the Sturgeon Landing Residential School in northern Saskatchewan. The book opens with an encounter told through the eyes of a child – Elizabeth – who is at the grocery store with her mother. Suddenly a woman appears, recognises her mother and hugs her with tears in her eyes. They begin to laugh and talk in Cree. Later, Elizabeth’s mother explains that they went to boarding school together and shared many experiences. She says it’s been almost 40 years since they went to school, but the woman was happy to see her because she remembers the kindness she experienced. “Be kind,” she tells her daughter. “You will never be sorry you were kind.” The soft-cover book is illustrated…