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Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two
“Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction belongs on every Canadian reader’s bookshelf.” - Amazing Stories
The Aurora Award-winning and World Fantasy Award-nominated series returns with a new volume!
Venture into extraordinary realms of imagination with the essential collection of the year’s best Canadian fantasy and science fiction.
Discover the magic woven by more than three dozen of Canada’s most celebrated authors and rising stars in fantasy and science fiction, including Cory Doctorow, Amal El-Mohtar, Nalo Hopkinson, Rich Larson, Premee Mohamed, and Kelly Robson, amongst others.
From alien worlds to magical realms, these stories explore the wonderous, the contemporary, the futuristic, and what it means to be human—all through the unique lens of Canadian speculative fiction.
Curated by award-winning author and anthologist Stephen Kotowych and selected from top markets like Asimov’s, Augur, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Fantasy Magazine, On Spec, PodCastle, and Tor.com, prepare to be captivated, challenged, and utterly transported by the very best fantastical fiction written by Canadians today.
Featuring stories and poems that were winners and finalists for the Aurora Award, BSFA Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, Shirley Jackson Award, Prix Aurora-Boréal, Prix Solaris, World Fantasy Award, the Rhysling Award, and many more.
The Aurora Award-winning and World Fantasy Award-nominated series returns with a new volume!
Venture into extraordinary realms of imagination with the essential collection of the year’s best Canadian fantasy and science fiction.
Discover the magic woven by more than three dozen of Canada’s most celebrated authors and rising stars in fantasy and science fiction, including Cory Doctorow, Amal El-Mohtar, Nalo Hopkinson, Rich Larson, Premee Mohamed, and Kelly Robson, amongst others.
From alien worlds to magical realms, these stories explore the wonderous, the contemporary, the futuristic, and what it means to be human—all through the unique lens of Canadian speculative fiction.
Curated by award-winning author and anthologist Stephen Kotowych and selected from top markets like Asimov’s, Augur, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Fantasy Magazine, On Spec, PodCastle, and Tor.com, prepare to be captivated, challenged, and utterly transported by the very best fantastical fiction written by Canadians today.
Featuring stories and poems that were winners and finalists for the Aurora Award, BSFA Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, Shirley Jackson Award, Prix Aurora-Boréal, Prix Solaris, World Fantasy Award, the Rhysling Award, and many more.
510 pages, Paperback
Published November 12, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 4, 2025
Ok this was “a romp”! It’s always extra fun to read big names in SF—names like Nalo Hopkinson, Amal El-Mohtar, Premee Mohammed, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, and more. This multi-author anthology opens with a review of the year that was in Canadian publishing and SFF: *The Year in Review 2023* (the big story being the rise of generative “AI”). If you usually skip intros, don’t skip this one.
There are many really good stories (and poems) in this collection. Like Amal El-Mohtar’s *John Hollowback and the Witch*, an absorbing fairytale with a touch of horror (so, basically, Brothers Grimm); and so is the also excellent *The Lover* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. *The Girl Who Cried Diamonds* by Rebecca Hirsch Garcia is about exploitation; I thought it was particularly clever/apt to use mineral extraction from a girl’s body to tell the story. I loved Derek Künsen’s super imaginative *Six Incidents of Evolution Using Time Travel* because of the “trantus worm” which is “a behavior-altering parasite that infects many intelligent species of the galaxy” and enables time travel (kind of)—reminiscent of Star Trek Discovery’s Stamets plotline (so now I must make time to watch it again).
The *Manic Pixie Girl* in A. C. Wise’s story is probably not one you want to get tangled up with. *The Distance Between Us* is an intriguing poem by Rati Mehrotra, about love and other great forces. Premee Mohammed’s *At Every Door a Ghost* is a thoughtul “What If?” about government surveillance and science in the wake of terrorism. Douglas Smith’s entry, *If I Should Fall Behind*, is a cool love story about the many-worlds theory. Kelsey Hutton gives us a welcome alt-version to the many Western-oriented stories about Victoria (a 19th c. queen) in *Your Great Mother Across the Salt Sea* (bonus: magical dresses!!). Also loved Grace P. Fong’s Medusa-themed revenge tale, *The Toll of the Snake*, and Manuela Amiony’s time travel story, *The Long Way Home From Gaia BH1* (particularly because the central relationship is not your standard romantic one).
There’s looooads more. A story about a violinist with a haunted (?) prosthesis, by Aleksandra Hill. From Chandra Fisher: women who sink their sorrows into a particular part of the sea. I’m yet to decipher J.D. Dresner’s poem *For the Robots* (it’s in hexadecimal). There’s a very cool story about human-pseudo-octopus co-operation by Isabelle Piette and Margaret Sankey. A “holiday suit” forms a protective (maybe too protective) barrier against the world in a story by Rich Larson. There’s a cleverly circular story by Justin Dill. More out-of-time-ness, in a building this time, from P. A. Cornell. An excellent post-apocalyptic story featuring the best protagonist and a robot by Fiona Moore. On Mars, there’s a smart (and/or haunted) truck and reimagined imprisonment in Phoebe Barton’s *And Prison On My Back*. And that’s only about half the pieces in this fantastic collection, which closes with Nalo Hopkinson’s powerful *The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World*.
As you can see, more than worth your time and money. If you’re a SFF fan, this will be an excellent addition to your library.
So very many thanks to NetGalley and Ansible Press for DRC access.
There are many really good stories (and poems) in this collection. Like Amal El-Mohtar’s *John Hollowback and the Witch*, an absorbing fairytale with a touch of horror (so, basically, Brothers Grimm); and so is the also excellent *The Lover* by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. *The Girl Who Cried Diamonds* by Rebecca Hirsch Garcia is about exploitation; I thought it was particularly clever/apt to use mineral extraction from a girl’s body to tell the story. I loved Derek Künsen’s super imaginative *Six Incidents of Evolution Using Time Travel* because of the “trantus worm” which is “a behavior-altering parasite that infects many intelligent species of the galaxy” and enables time travel (kind of)—reminiscent of Star Trek Discovery’s Stamets plotline (so now I must make time to watch it again).
The *Manic Pixie Girl* in A. C. Wise’s story is probably not one you want to get tangled up with. *The Distance Between Us* is an intriguing poem by Rati Mehrotra, about love and other great forces. Premee Mohammed’s *At Every Door a Ghost* is a thoughtul “What If?” about government surveillance and science in the wake of terrorism. Douglas Smith’s entry, *If I Should Fall Behind*, is a cool love story about the many-worlds theory. Kelsey Hutton gives us a welcome alt-version to the many Western-oriented stories about Victoria (a 19th c. queen) in *Your Great Mother Across the Salt Sea* (bonus: magical dresses!!). Also loved Grace P. Fong’s Medusa-themed revenge tale, *The Toll of the Snake*, and Manuela Amiony’s time travel story, *The Long Way Home From Gaia BH1* (particularly because the central relationship is not your standard romantic one).
There’s looooads more. A story about a violinist with a haunted (?) prosthesis, by Aleksandra Hill. From Chandra Fisher: women who sink their sorrows into a particular part of the sea. I’m yet to decipher J.D. Dresner’s poem *For the Robots* (it’s in hexadecimal). There’s a very cool story about human-pseudo-octopus co-operation by Isabelle Piette and Margaret Sankey. A “holiday suit” forms a protective (maybe too protective) barrier against the world in a story by Rich Larson. There’s a cleverly circular story by Justin Dill. More out-of-time-ness, in a building this time, from P. A. Cornell. An excellent post-apocalyptic story featuring the best protagonist and a robot by Fiona Moore. On Mars, there’s a smart (and/or haunted) truck and reimagined imprisonment in Phoebe Barton’s *And Prison On My Back*. And that’s only about half the pieces in this fantastic collection, which closes with Nalo Hopkinson’s powerful *The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World*.
As you can see, more than worth your time and money. If you’re a SFF fan, this will be an excellent addition to your library.
So very many thanks to NetGalley and Ansible Press for DRC access.
March 11, 2025
This was a fascinating reading to me. The idea is to be a sample of what's best in fantasy and Science Fiction in Canada, and as I am always looking for new voices, different styles and stories within those genres, I found many interesting fiction writing here.
It's 700-plus pages long and packed with good stuff that will be stuck in your head for a while. To me, J.D. Dresner’s 'For the Robots' and Kelsey Hutton's 'Your Great Mother Across the Salt Sea' are good examples of literature that I did not know I liked until I read this collection.
I was happy to see some poetry in here as well, which is a genre I don't usually read much and like, but I really enjoyed them in this collection.
Thank you NetGalley and Ansible Press for a copy in exchange for an honest review. I had a lot of fun getting to know so many new authors.
It's 700-plus pages long and packed with good stuff that will be stuck in your head for a while. To me, J.D. Dresner’s 'For the Robots' and Kelsey Hutton's 'Your Great Mother Across the Salt Sea' are good examples of literature that I did not know I liked until I read this collection.
I was happy to see some poetry in here as well, which is a genre I don't usually read much and like, but I really enjoyed them in this collection.
Thank you NetGalley and Ansible Press for a copy in exchange for an honest review. I had a lot of fun getting to know so many new authors.
September 30, 2025
Stephen Kotowych brings together varied short stories from many Canadian writers in the "Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction: Volume Two." There's a bit of everything in here from poems, to hard science fiction, historical fantasy, and more. I read the anthology gradually over a period of months, which is one of the advantages of such a varied collection.
A few favourite stories include:
“The Canadian Miracle” — Cory Doctorow
“Six Incidents of Evolution Using Time Travel” — Derek Künsken
“The Spoil Heap” — Fiona Moore
“Seeds for Titanium” — Brandon Crilly
A few favourite stories include:
“The Canadian Miracle” — Cory Doctorow
“Six Incidents of Evolution Using Time Travel” — Derek Künsken
“The Spoil Heap” — Fiona Moore
“Seeds for Titanium” — Brandon Crilly
December 27, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and Ansible Press for an ARC of this book. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I usually love Anthologies, but sadly this one was a bit of a miss for me. There were a handful of stories that were really good, but also some that I deeply disliked. Getting a few stories in and then reading about the brutal r@pe and torture of a young innocent girl, really set the tone for the rest of the book for me. (The story was The Girl Who Cried Diamonds)
The length of the stories was excellent, and they generally took about 10-15 minutes to read. None of them felt like they dragged on too long, which was really nice.
I appreciate that there was a lot of poetry in this anthology! That is very rare to find in anthologies, and I loved all the poems. They were the highlight of the book, and what kept me reading to the end.
I wish I had loved this anthology more, but it just wasn't the book for me. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to read it, and I hope it will be a better choice for someone else.
I usually love Anthologies, but sadly this one was a bit of a miss for me. There were a handful of stories that were really good, but also some that I deeply disliked. Getting a few stories in and then reading about the brutal r@pe and torture of a young innocent girl, really set the tone for the rest of the book for me. (The story was The Girl Who Cried Diamonds)
The length of the stories was excellent, and they generally took about 10-15 minutes to read. None of them felt like they dragged on too long, which was really nice.
I appreciate that there was a lot of poetry in this anthology! That is very rare to find in anthologies, and I loved all the poems. They were the highlight of the book, and what kept me reading to the end.
I wish I had loved this anthology more, but it just wasn't the book for me. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to read it, and I hope it will be a better choice for someone else.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews