What do you think?
Rate this book
The Apparition Trail
Steampunk meets the supernatural in a Canada that might have been.... The year is 1884, and Corporal Marmaduke Grayburn of the North West Mounted Police always gets his man. But when he is assigned to the secretive Qdivision - an elite unit of paranormal investigators founded by legendary Mountie Sam Steele - Grayburn discovers that his own psychic powers might lead to more than he bargained for. With the aid of the eccentric paranormal researcher Arthur Chambers, Grayburn sets out in search of a missing minister and a magical Native artifact known only as the Manitou Stone. But in a land where perpetual motion machines and locomotives meet ancient sorcery, can Grayburn discover the secret of the stone and maintain the uneasy peace between the scattered Indian tribes and settlers? Or will his own buried secrets lead him towards the dark fate that waits at the end of the Apparition Trail?
266 pages, Paperback
First published May 20, 2004
17 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Smedman
79 books114 followersLisa was very much the tomboy growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia--playing in the woods behind her house, building tree forts, damming the creek, playing army with GI Joe dolls, swinging on ropes, playing flashlight tag, building models and go-carts (which she later rode down the street). She also liked reading science fiction novels from the 1940s, the Doc Savage series, and the Harriet the Spy books.
In 1984, she began her professional writing career, first as a journalist then as a fiction writer. She counts science fiction authors Connie Willis, Robert J. Sawyer, and H.G. Wells, and classic books such as Treasure Island, as influences.
Several of Lisa's short science fiction and fantasy stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies, and in 1993 she was named a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest for science fiction and fantasy writers. She has also had three of her one-act plays produced by a Vancouver theater group.
Lisa is the author of Extinction, one of several novels set in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game’s Forgotten Realms universe. Released in 2004, Extinction made the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction.
After authoring several science fiction and fantasy novels, Lisa recently turned her hand to children's books. From Boneshakers to Choppers (2007) explores the social history of motorcycles. Her interest in motorcycles goes way back--as a teenager, Lisa enjoyed trips up the British Columbia coast, riding pillion on friends' motorcycles. She later purchased her own bike, a 50cc machine, to get around town.
Lisa is one of the founders of Adventures Unlimited, a magazine providing scenarios and tips for role-playing games. She has written short fiction for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game's Ravenloft and Dark Sun lines. She has also designed a number of adventures and gaming products for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk, Immortal, Shatterzone, Millennium's End, and Deadlands. Her original games include Valhalla's Gate, a tabletop skirmish miniatures game drawn from Norse mythology and runic lore. An avid gamer, Lisa belongs to the Trumpeter Wargaming Club.
After working for more than 20 years as a journalist, Lisa now divides her time between writing fiction and contributing to the Vancouver Courier (she edits and writes the History's Lens column). Besides a diploma in journalism, she also has a degree in anthropology. She is fascinated by history and archaeology, particularly the Bronze Age. Her future plans include writing more historical fiction, alternative historical fantasy, and game tie-in novels. Lisa is also interested in building models and dioramas, and tabletop miniatures gaming.
She lives in Richmond, British Columbia, with her wife, their son, four cats, and two pugs.
In 1984, she began her professional writing career, first as a journalist then as a fiction writer. She counts science fiction authors Connie Willis, Robert J. Sawyer, and H.G. Wells, and classic books such as Treasure Island, as influences.
Several of Lisa's short science fiction and fantasy stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies, and in 1993 she was named a finalist in the Writers of the Future contest for science fiction and fantasy writers. She has also had three of her one-act plays produced by a Vancouver theater group.
Lisa is the author of Extinction, one of several novels set in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game’s Forgotten Realms universe. Released in 2004, Extinction made the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover fiction.
After authoring several science fiction and fantasy novels, Lisa recently turned her hand to children's books. From Boneshakers to Choppers (2007) explores the social history of motorcycles. Her interest in motorcycles goes way back--as a teenager, Lisa enjoyed trips up the British Columbia coast, riding pillion on friends' motorcycles. She later purchased her own bike, a 50cc machine, to get around town.
Lisa is one of the founders of Adventures Unlimited, a magazine providing scenarios and tips for role-playing games. She has written short fiction for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game's Ravenloft and Dark Sun lines. She has also designed a number of adventures and gaming products for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Cyberpunk, Immortal, Shatterzone, Millennium's End, and Deadlands. Her original games include Valhalla's Gate, a tabletop skirmish miniatures game drawn from Norse mythology and runic lore. An avid gamer, Lisa belongs to the Trumpeter Wargaming Club.
After working for more than 20 years as a journalist, Lisa now divides her time between writing fiction and contributing to the Vancouver Courier (she edits and writes the History's Lens column). Besides a diploma in journalism, she also has a degree in anthropology. She is fascinated by history and archaeology, particularly the Bronze Age. Her future plans include writing more historical fiction, alternative historical fantasy, and game tie-in novels. Lisa is also interested in building models and dioramas, and tabletop miniatures gaming.
She lives in Richmond, British Columbia, with her wife, their son, four cats, and two pugs.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 19, 2012
It’s always a pleasure to find a good piece of indigenous fiction, and to support the career of a Canadian author. This is especially true when the author actually writes science fiction or fantasy; Canada is severely under-represented in both genres. There are not nearly enough Canadian voices in science fiction, and the Canadian presence in fantasy is also sparse. Both the bright future and the rich past of this nation have been neglected for far too long by the voyageurs of the imagination.
Enter Lisa Smedman, a Vancouver-based writer with many other successful novels already under her belt. Smedman’s “The Apparition Trail” is a heady combination of historical fantasy and science fiction--steampunk with a Canadian twist.
The book offers us a wide array of real historical characters, in a setting which Canadian readers will find both familiar and strange. These are the North-West Territories of the 1880’s, which at the time included every scrap of land from the border of British Columbia to southern Ontario and Quebec. The action is set mostly in the area now known as Alberta and Saskatchewan, and those Prairies are full of their well-known turmoil and strife: all the traditional players are on the scene, from the newly formed North-West Mounted Police to the famous Native chiefs. The difference is that in this alternate universe, magic exists. The old mystical powers, long dormant and believed dead, have suddenly returned full force in the fateful year of 1877.
The cause of this event is somewhat hazy; we know only that a passing comet struck the moon a glancing blow and turned the “dark side” toward the earth, changing the face of the night sky forever. The implications of the change are many, however, and Smedman explores them deeply in her novel. From the very first pages, the author makes it clear that we are no longer trapped in the mundane world of our own history books. The technology of this world is powered not by steam and coal, but by perpetual motion devices. These wonderful engines make all sorts of fascinating new machines possible, from a flying bicycle to a mechanical homing pigeon, or an eerily silent train.
“The Apparition Trail” is the story of Marmaduke Grayburn, a Corporal in the North-West Mounted Police. The year is 1884, and Grayburn’s life is both difficult and dangerous. Tension increases daily between the displaced Native bands and the white settlers of the Territories. The Natives of the region are in dire straits. The buffalo have become scarce, and smallpox outbreaks are common. Three brutally hard winters have seen the people eating their own horses and dogs—sometimes even turning on each other. On the brink of extinction, their suffering has made them bold. More and more often they make sorties against the settlers and the builders of the railroad, defying the white man’s law and the men who are duty-bound to enforce it. Grayburn and his comrades in the NWMP have their hands full, trying to keep the peace.
Students of Canada’s history will be nodding their heads up to this point; in the real world, these were the events that once led up to a Metis uprising and the rebellion of the Cree. But the re-emergence of magic into this version of Canada’s past has spiced up the scenario quite a bit. The same mystical forces that allow white men to create a perpetual motion device have also given force to the ancient spells and ceremonies of a medicine man. A Native shaman has the power to kill with his coup stick, to walk unseen, or transform himself into a spirit animal. Given enough cooperation, the Cree and the Blackfoot might even have enough mojo at their disposal to bring about the legendary Day of Changes, which was to the Native believer what the long-awaited Rapture is to a modern-day Christian. With the use of tribal sorcery, they might make the fever dreams of a vanquished people come true--the white settlers could be magically banished from the North-West Territories forever, while the buffalo returned to darken the plain once more.
In other words, we have a conflict of epic scale on our hands, with many lives at stake, and all the ingredients for a truly ripping tale of adventure. The author walks the tight-rope between the two sides of this war with grace and sympathy, giving both the Mounties and their rebellious Native foes the humanity they deserve, and larding both sides with heroes and villains. In the meantime, she also serves up a fun, fast-paced yarn with several unexpected twists. “The Apparition Trail” is solid entertainment.
Enter Lisa Smedman, a Vancouver-based writer with many other successful novels already under her belt. Smedman’s “The Apparition Trail” is a heady combination of historical fantasy and science fiction--steampunk with a Canadian twist.
The book offers us a wide array of real historical characters, in a setting which Canadian readers will find both familiar and strange. These are the North-West Territories of the 1880’s, which at the time included every scrap of land from the border of British Columbia to southern Ontario and Quebec. The action is set mostly in the area now known as Alberta and Saskatchewan, and those Prairies are full of their well-known turmoil and strife: all the traditional players are on the scene, from the newly formed North-West Mounted Police to the famous Native chiefs. The difference is that in this alternate universe, magic exists. The old mystical powers, long dormant and believed dead, have suddenly returned full force in the fateful year of 1877.
The cause of this event is somewhat hazy; we know only that a passing comet struck the moon a glancing blow and turned the “dark side” toward the earth, changing the face of the night sky forever. The implications of the change are many, however, and Smedman explores them deeply in her novel. From the very first pages, the author makes it clear that we are no longer trapped in the mundane world of our own history books. The technology of this world is powered not by steam and coal, but by perpetual motion devices. These wonderful engines make all sorts of fascinating new machines possible, from a flying bicycle to a mechanical homing pigeon, or an eerily silent train.
“The Apparition Trail” is the story of Marmaduke Grayburn, a Corporal in the North-West Mounted Police. The year is 1884, and Grayburn’s life is both difficult and dangerous. Tension increases daily between the displaced Native bands and the white settlers of the Territories. The Natives of the region are in dire straits. The buffalo have become scarce, and smallpox outbreaks are common. Three brutally hard winters have seen the people eating their own horses and dogs—sometimes even turning on each other. On the brink of extinction, their suffering has made them bold. More and more often they make sorties against the settlers and the builders of the railroad, defying the white man’s law and the men who are duty-bound to enforce it. Grayburn and his comrades in the NWMP have their hands full, trying to keep the peace.
Students of Canada’s history will be nodding their heads up to this point; in the real world, these were the events that once led up to a Metis uprising and the rebellion of the Cree. But the re-emergence of magic into this version of Canada’s past has spiced up the scenario quite a bit. The same mystical forces that allow white men to create a perpetual motion device have also given force to the ancient spells and ceremonies of a medicine man. A Native shaman has the power to kill with his coup stick, to walk unseen, or transform himself into a spirit animal. Given enough cooperation, the Cree and the Blackfoot might even have enough mojo at their disposal to bring about the legendary Day of Changes, which was to the Native believer what the long-awaited Rapture is to a modern-day Christian. With the use of tribal sorcery, they might make the fever dreams of a vanquished people come true--the white settlers could be magically banished from the North-West Territories forever, while the buffalo returned to darken the plain once more.
In other words, we have a conflict of epic scale on our hands, with many lives at stake, and all the ingredients for a truly ripping tale of adventure. The author walks the tight-rope between the two sides of this war with grace and sympathy, giving both the Mounties and their rebellious Native foes the humanity they deserve, and larding both sides with heroes and villains. In the meantime, she also serves up a fun, fast-paced yarn with several unexpected twists. “The Apparition Trail” is solid entertainment.
July 27, 2008
This book is set in 1880s Canada, eh? But in this world, the moon has acquired a slow orbit on its axis, due to being struck by a comet several years previously. Also, the secret of perpetual motion machines and magnetic locomotives have been discovered and put to practical use.
Corporal Marmaduke Grayburn of the Northwest Mounted Police is one of those building the western frontier. For much of his life, he has been plagued by prophetic dreams and “hunches,” one of which saved his life. He is assigned to the new and secretive Q Division, a unit of paranormal investigators.
With help from an eccentric psychic researcher named Arthur Chambers, Grayburn investigates the sudden disappearance of a Methodist missionary and his family. Also gone is an Indian artifact of great power called the Manitou Stone.
These are tough times for the local Indian tribes. The buffalo, on which they depend, are almost gone. The Canadian Government is doing what it can to make things worse. A Cree sorcerer, Wandering Spirit, plans to use the power of the Stone to bring about the long-prophesied Day of Changes, where the natives of western Canada will reclaim their stolen lands. Also included in this story are underground tunnels where time and space work very differently than aboveground, and the spirit of a white buffalo forced into the body of a newborn child too early.
This novel is really good. Much of it is based on actual history. It’s just weird enough to be interesting, the characters are real people, and it’s very well done. It is well worth reading.
Corporal Marmaduke Grayburn of the Northwest Mounted Police is one of those building the western frontier. For much of his life, he has been plagued by prophetic dreams and “hunches,” one of which saved his life. He is assigned to the new and secretive Q Division, a unit of paranormal investigators.
With help from an eccentric psychic researcher named Arthur Chambers, Grayburn investigates the sudden disappearance of a Methodist missionary and his family. Also gone is an Indian artifact of great power called the Manitou Stone.
These are tough times for the local Indian tribes. The buffalo, on which they depend, are almost gone. The Canadian Government is doing what it can to make things worse. A Cree sorcerer, Wandering Spirit, plans to use the power of the Stone to bring about the long-prophesied Day of Changes, where the natives of western Canada will reclaim their stolen lands. Also included in this story are underground tunnels where time and space work very differently than aboveground, and the spirit of a white buffalo forced into the body of a newborn child too early.
This novel is really good. Much of it is based on actual history. It’s just weird enough to be interesting, the characters are real people, and it’s very well done. It is well worth reading.
April 18, 2019
Steampunk mounties investigating paranormal happenings on the Canadian frontier. What's not to like here? This was a fun read with some very memorable characters, drawing heavily on deeply-researched history. Great adventure!
May 18, 2009
This review appeared previously in The Peterborough Examiner and The New York Review of Science Fiction.
THE APPARITION TRAIL
by Lisa Smedman
Tesseract Books, 2004
266 pages
$19.95
641 words
Review by Ursula Pflug
Vancouver author Lisa Smedman’s The Apparition Trail takes place in The Northwest Territories, chiefly in what are now Alberta and Saskatchewan, in 1884. In Smedman’s alternate history, perpetual motion has been discovered, and PM devices run everything from electric lights to air bicycles to the aerograph, a nifty flying courier. Smedman has done her research: at the Chicago Exhibition of 1933 there were perpetual motion devices exhibited, later shown to be hoaxes. Likewise, spiritualism swept through society beginning in the late 1840's, invoking a craze of table tapping, contacting dead ancestors through séances and paranormal research; even local heroes, the Moodie/Traill bunch was part of this Victorian fad.
In Smedman’s story, scientific success has been found in a path that turned out, in actuality, to be a dead end. The other important difference in her world is that, due to a mysterious astronomical event, causing the moon’s other face to turn towards Earth, native ritual magic has been rendered far more powerful. Settlers begin to vanish, as well as an ancient artifact called the Manitou Stone. The novel’s hero/narrator, Marmaduke Grayburn, a psychic corporal in the Northwest Mounted Police, is asked by the legendary (and historical) Sam Steele to join elite Q division, a special force dedicated to investigating the disappearances. A spiritualist from New York is brought in to help.
Due to severe winters, the decimation of the herds, the ravages of smallpox and unscrupulous Indian agents, the tribes have been facing starvation. This is historically true, with major players Big Bear and Poundmaker appearing in the book. In Smedman’s version, they and other chiefs decide to invoke the Day of Changes, when White Buffalo Woman returns to purify the world and restore the herds. According to myth she is a holy being who long ago taught the Sioux their most important ceremonies, and gave them among other gifts a sacred pipe rich with symbolism. It is a bit startling to find this most important Lakota story transposed to Canadian tribes in the 1800's, including a mysterious little girl who can shape shift into a white buffalo calf.
While the natives, especially the sorcerer Wandering Spirit, function as the obligatory bad guys, Smedman is careful to present their point of view, including a detailed historical note at the back. Corporal Grayburn is not unsympathetic to their complaints, and so his adventures and troubleshooting endeavour to, and in the end, succeed in, giving them a far fairer shake than they actually received.
The narrative is entertaining and action packed, the comparison of the spiritualist concept of the astral plane with the spirt world of native culture is interesting and thought provoking, but all this occurs to the loss of character development. For instance, Grayburn discovers, very late in the game, important facts about his own relationship to the mysterious child, yet little is made of this.
Smedman is one of Canada’s most prolific writers of science fiction and fantasy. A great many of her novels are tie-ins to RPG properties Forgotten Realms, owned by Wizards Of The Coast, and Roc’s Shadowrun. She also has a great number of design credits in role playing games. Playing D and D is a bit like collectively creating an interactive fiction; no harm is done if the plot holds together well in some places and less well in others; there are always new magical powers to be gained or traded or lost by both the good guys and the bad; there’s loss of life and there’s love (but only a little); there’s battle after battle and in the end the world is saved from the forces of darkness once again.
Smedman’s impressive roster of gaming credits can be seen in her unique writing style, so while The Apparition Trail is a stand-alone book, it is likely to appeal most to readers of RPG tie-in novels.
THE APPARITION TRAIL
by Lisa Smedman
Tesseract Books, 2004
266 pages
$19.95
641 words
Review by Ursula Pflug
Vancouver author Lisa Smedman’s The Apparition Trail takes place in The Northwest Territories, chiefly in what are now Alberta and Saskatchewan, in 1884. In Smedman’s alternate history, perpetual motion has been discovered, and PM devices run everything from electric lights to air bicycles to the aerograph, a nifty flying courier. Smedman has done her research: at the Chicago Exhibition of 1933 there were perpetual motion devices exhibited, later shown to be hoaxes. Likewise, spiritualism swept through society beginning in the late 1840's, invoking a craze of table tapping, contacting dead ancestors through séances and paranormal research; even local heroes, the Moodie/Traill bunch was part of this Victorian fad.
In Smedman’s story, scientific success has been found in a path that turned out, in actuality, to be a dead end. The other important difference in her world is that, due to a mysterious astronomical event, causing the moon’s other face to turn towards Earth, native ritual magic has been rendered far more powerful. Settlers begin to vanish, as well as an ancient artifact called the Manitou Stone. The novel’s hero/narrator, Marmaduke Grayburn, a psychic corporal in the Northwest Mounted Police, is asked by the legendary (and historical) Sam Steele to join elite Q division, a special force dedicated to investigating the disappearances. A spiritualist from New York is brought in to help.
Due to severe winters, the decimation of the herds, the ravages of smallpox and unscrupulous Indian agents, the tribes have been facing starvation. This is historically true, with major players Big Bear and Poundmaker appearing in the book. In Smedman’s version, they and other chiefs decide to invoke the Day of Changes, when White Buffalo Woman returns to purify the world and restore the herds. According to myth she is a holy being who long ago taught the Sioux their most important ceremonies, and gave them among other gifts a sacred pipe rich with symbolism. It is a bit startling to find this most important Lakota story transposed to Canadian tribes in the 1800's, including a mysterious little girl who can shape shift into a white buffalo calf.
While the natives, especially the sorcerer Wandering Spirit, function as the obligatory bad guys, Smedman is careful to present their point of view, including a detailed historical note at the back. Corporal Grayburn is not unsympathetic to their complaints, and so his adventures and troubleshooting endeavour to, and in the end, succeed in, giving them a far fairer shake than they actually received.
The narrative is entertaining and action packed, the comparison of the spiritualist concept of the astral plane with the spirt world of native culture is interesting and thought provoking, but all this occurs to the loss of character development. For instance, Grayburn discovers, very late in the game, important facts about his own relationship to the mysterious child, yet little is made of this.
Smedman is one of Canada’s most prolific writers of science fiction and fantasy. A great many of her novels are tie-ins to RPG properties Forgotten Realms, owned by Wizards Of The Coast, and Roc’s Shadowrun. She also has a great number of design credits in role playing games. Playing D and D is a bit like collectively creating an interactive fiction; no harm is done if the plot holds together well in some places and less well in others; there are always new magical powers to be gained or traded or lost by both the good guys and the bad; there’s loss of life and there’s love (but only a little); there’s battle after battle and in the end the world is saved from the forces of darkness once again.
Smedman’s impressive roster of gaming credits can be seen in her unique writing style, so while The Apparition Trail is a stand-alone book, it is likely to appeal most to readers of RPG tie-in novels.
Read
September 13, 2018This is science fiction on the great plains. Although there are elements that capture the reader's attention, the story is bogged down with sidebars and parenthetical notes. Fewer twists and turns of plot would not diminish the story one iota. Once engaged, the reader will find the book hard to put down. The new technology (circa 1884) the Mounties use is imaginative. Likewise, the paranormal phenomena used by the Indian Chiefs are likewise intriguing and make the story work.
To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.
To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.
May 22, 2016
A fascinating merger of steam punk and urban fantasy with a uniquely Canadian twist, and, well, no steam.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews