I Think We’ve Been Here Beforeby Suzy KrausePublished by Radiant PressReview by Brandon Fick$25.00 ISBN 9781998926220 The biggest compliment I can give to Suzy Krause’s I Think We’ve Been Here Before is that it is a comforting, fuzzy-sweater-type book about the bleakest topic imaginable: the end of all life on Earth. Spanning three months, mostly in southwestern Saskatchewan, partially in Berlin, the novel follows Marlen and Hilda Jorgensen and their daughter Nora, along with Hilda’s sister Irene and her husband and son, Hank and Ole, and Hilda and Irene’s father, Iver, as they grapple with news of an impending cosmic blast. Those expecting an apocalyptic, sci-fi disaster narrative will be disappointed. I Think We’ve Been Here Before is about love, family, and community, the fundamental things that matter to all of us. It is about forgiveness, acceptance, and making the best use of a finite – or perhaps not so finite – life. Krause also injects some high-concept physics that are eventually tied to the characters’ recurring sense of déjà vu. What grounds this potentially baffling story that raises concepts like quantum entanglement is the family unit. Marlen, already diagnosed with terminal cancer, has written a book that mirrors the…

The Good Soldierby Nir YanivPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Kelli Worton$24.99 ISBN 9781989398821 People always say that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but it was the cover that first drew me to The Good Soldier. An obvious mockery of war propaganda posters that boldly proclaim unstoppable military power and the imminent defeat of all enemies while also featuring images of ideal soldiers (I’m looking at you, North Korea), The Good Soldier’s cover instead shows a jubilant, chubby soldier riding a missile while holding a grinning, fluffy white dog. It’s a pretty good indication of what you’ll find inside: an absurd, yet blistering satire of military culture and war. The meaning of the dog is revealed in due course. The jubilant soldier in question is the book’s extremely unlikely hero, Pre-Private Fux (yes, really), a recent recruit to the United Planets’ Imperial Navy, stationed aboard the spacecraft UPS Spitz. He’s an idiot, second-class, a fact confirmed by the police on his home planet Bohemia IV, and noted on his ID. As he causes one incident after another on the UPS Spitz, he’s quickly labelled a menace; in the first five chapters alone, medical devices are broken, officers are…

Debut: An Anthology of Emerging Canadian Writers and ArtistsEdited by Diane FickeriaPublished by Spud PublishingReview by Toby A. Welch  $28.00 ISBN 9781738025503 I love trying out new writers. Their enthusiasm often reaches through their words and grabs me in a way I can’t always find with seasoned writers. After all, your next favourite writer could be one you haven’t read yet. So when Debut crossed my path, I eagerly dove in, excited to experience the works of emerging Canadian writers.  Debut is a collection of five stories by five different writers. Each of the stories is quite different, something I appreciate as it keeps things interesting. Gnomey Birthday is about cryptozoology, the study of things that don’t exist. Think Bigfoot, living garden gnomes, and gremlins. It’s a wacky premise for a short story but it works! Silverbird: A Halfway Home Story involves creatures from folktales, things like wizards, fairies, and daemons (not demons.) Throw in a car chase, a touch of magic, and a detective and you have the makings of an intriguing story. Silver Consequences takes place in the year 4620 when life is different yet also similar. There are still people who drink too much. Archery and swords remain a way to defend yourself. But the world is filled…

The Downloadedby Robert J. SawyerPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781989398999 Robert J. Sawyer is well-known in the science fiction realm. He’s written over two dozen novels and won the sci-fi world’s Big Three: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. His novel, FlashForward, inspired a same-named ABC TV series, and he also scripted the finale of the web series Star Trek Continues. Sawyer’s also a member of the Order of Canada. I don’t ordinarily read science fiction, but I am indeed aware of Robert J. Sawyer. I heard him present at a Saskatchewan Writers Guild conference decades ago, and remember thinking that his brand of sci-fi was something this fan of realistic literary fiction just might enjoy. Fast-forward to the present: I recently read his 2024 novel, The Downloaded, and appreciated how this talented author has created a reality where humans are still basically the same as the ones who currently walk the earth: they have complicated feelings, they make mistakes, they crack jokes. And, in the case of the twenty-four astronauts and thirty-five ex-cons who populate The Downloaded, they also make frequent movie references. The story is relayed through a series…

Quest for Black Beachby Neil ChildPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch  $17.99 ISBN 9781990863288 This quick read takes a riveting look into the future for those with an interest in fantastical worlds and times.  I call a book like this a pocket read. It’s small enough that you can slip it into a pocket and finish it within a day or two. Visiting a futuristic place for a brief time is a pleasure.  One thing I love about books that take place in the future is that they are as varied as an author’s mind allows. Thanks to writers with limitless imagination, readers can get pulled into whole new worlds that are intriguing places to visit. And this is what happens in Quest for Black Beach – we take a journey into an extraordinary time.  Quest for Black Beach takes place 89 years from now, just far enough that we can only guess what life will be like. (Do you think anyone in 1934 could even remotely have guessed the realities of the world we are living in today? I don’t think so either!) You’ll find four groups roaming the planet, many of them created when ‘blasts’ occurred. …

The Beech Forestby Marlis WesselerPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Brandon Fick$24.95 ISBN 9781771872546 The Beech Forest by Marlis Wesseler is a novel that combines day-to-day life in rural Saskatchewan with a gradual reckoning with the Holocaust on the part of its protagonist, Lisa Braun. Lisa is a middle-aged retiree, a wife and a mother – with all the attendant regrets and worries – who is mostly separate from her German husband, Gerhardt, throughout the course of the novel. This causes her to reflect upon her marriage and far-flung children, induces general restlessness, and transforms a semi-detached understanding of the Holocaust into a morbid, all-consuming fascination. The latter is incited by meeting Ben Meisner, an elderly Jewish man who was interned at Buchenwald. Meisner’s harrowing recollection of life under Nazi Germany, coming at the novel’s midpoint, is the hinge that pulls all the story’s disparate threads together. Wesseler’s writing is clear and understated. Much like the pristine German beech forest Lisa walks through in the opening scene, there is no “excess of any kind.” But while there are no rhetorical fireworks, secrets and ironies – familial, cultural, interpersonal – abound. The largest irony being that Buchenwald means “beech forest” in German….

Jawboneby Meghan GreeleyPublished by Radiant PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$20.00 ISBN 9781998926008 Original. Startling. Candid. Jawbone is a quick-read novella by Newfoundland writer, performer and director Meghan Greeley that encompasses the inherent joy and terror of being alive and being in love. It’s outrageous that a book this polished is the author’s debut title. I initially wondered what I was getting into. Greeley writes: “I was wired shut, and then a man put his latex fingers in my mouth and cut out the wires with gardening shears”. What? Plotwise, the narrator—a concertina-playing actor—is recuperating in a small cabin (she told the Airbnb owner that she was “looking for the loneliest place in the world”) after an accident left her both physically and emotionally shattered. We know her boyfriend had moved to California months earlier, and his letters are scattered throughout the text. The red-haired costumer designer the actor’d been sharing an apartment with was tantalizingly bizarre, ie: they created a list of tasks that take approximately a minute to complete, like “Microwaving a small portion of leftovers”. And the roommate—she of the “smoothest skin”—is difficult to read. Just friends? More than friends? Then there’s the climactic aquarium incident, among a…

Hauntedby Ruth ChorneyPublished by 7SpringsBooksReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$25.00 ISBN 9780993975790 Ruth Chorney’s Saskatchewan-set novel, Haunted, transports readers to interesting places—geographical and otherwise—and it’s just the kind of book that makes me wish more Saskatchewan people would read the good literature that’s being produced within their own province. This engaging story’s set in the rural community of “Deer Creek, population 1242” in the northeastern part of the province, where moose roam, a hoodie is called a “bunnyhug,” and the local Co-op’s where you’ll meet neighbours, friends and the resident hermit/bootlegger. It’s a book about starting over, and accepting the kindness of neighbours. It’s also about generations of family, guilt, and doing what needs to be done. And it’s Saskatchewan, so the weather also gets its share of ink. There are elements of the supernatural in this mostly realistic story, and like that other writer (Stephen King) who also combines realism and the supernatural to great effect, Chorney scores the right balance between making her characters and situations appear credible—ie: protagonist Marny’s husband needs work, so it’s off to the potash mine he goes—and also preparing us for the suspension of disbelief that’s required when Marny’s four-year-old sees auras and entities,…

Half-Wild and Other Stories of Encounterby Emily PaskevicsPublished by Thistledown PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$24.95 ISBN 9781771872485 It’s entirely rare that a first book packs a punch like Emily Paskevics’ Half-Wild and Other Stories of Encounter. The Ontario writer’s auspicious debut is multi-layered, engrossing, and technically well-wrought (Paskevics is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers), and it credibly features the no-nonsense, hunting-and-fishing folks who populate Ontario’s hardy wilderness communities. If you love gothic literature, you’ll devour these dozen stories. Think taxidermy. Animal fetuses in jars. Hitting a strange creature with your car on a dark, lonely road. Think “mobile home with its porch light swinging … The blue painted door is all scratched up from when a bear tried to get in”. Often characters are fleeing, or someone close to them has recently died, and the remote landscapes—rife with bears, wolves, coyotes, harsh climate and dangerous waters—brilliantly parallel the characters’ dire situations, their psychological turmoil, and the endangered ecosystem. “Bear Bones” is set in Sadowa, where “deer-crossing signs [are] half-battered with buckshot,” a snowstorm’s afoot, and Louisa’s gone missing in a “man’s oilskin coat”. There’s a touch of magic realism at play, but the next story—also featuring loner…

The Three Heirsby Monique DesrosiersPublished by Wood Dragon BooksReview by Toby A. Welch$26.99 ISBN 9781990863219 Over a year ago I read an amazing book by Monique Desrosiers, The Cartwright Men Marry. I devoured the book and wanted more from Desrosiers. I was disappointed to find that the book I had just finished was her first novel; there were no others in her repertoire to enjoy. I was bummed but such is life. But recently I learned about The Three Heirs – Monique Desrosiers finally published her second novel! My universe tilted back into alignment. I couldn’t wait to dive back into a world created by Desrosiers’ imagination.  This is the story of a woman who dies and brings three strangers together for the reading of her will. None of them know the recently deceased Delilah but they are all connected. What takes place leading up to the will reveal as well as the fallout afterward will keep you rapidly turning the pages.  The Three Heirs will be a hit with readers of period fiction. The book starts in the 1860s before flashing back to the 1790s and then covers the seven decades in between. Desrosiers clearly researched those decades as she does a great job of making…