Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts

Tesseracts Anthology #22

by Lorina Stephens (Editor), Susan MacGregor

Each year Tesseract Books chooses a team of editors from among the best of Canada's writers, publishers and critics to select innovative and futuristic fiction and poetry from the leaders and emerging voices in Canadian speculative fiction. There is nothing new in the world except the history we do not know. Fasten your reading seatbelts, and get ready for a wild ride.

Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts is a collection of twenty-three amazing stories based on historical artifacts combined with fantastic historical fiction. The stories meld culture, concept and incident into a rich collection of 'what if' speculations that provide warnings yet revel in the cultural celebrations we continue to observe today. They are the touchstones that resonate with all who listen to and learn from the past. For, once the instigators are dead, the wars ended, and the political machines decayed, only artifacts remain. And it's through these cultural artifacts that we glimpse the possibility of what may have occurred in the past and may yet occur in the future.

You are invited to delve into the motivations behind the events of the past, the quests for power, the fights against repression, and the sacrifices to a greater cause--human dramas that reflect the worst and best of who we are--to see what satisfaction comes from sudden insight and awe.

Contents:
* Foreword (Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts) (2019) • essay by Lorina Stephens
* Foreword (Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts) (2019) • essay by Susan MacGregor
* Cleaning House in Ithaca (2019) / short fiction by Leslie Brown
* Caligula's Eagle (2019) / short fiction by Tony Pi
* Blood, Lead, and Torchlight (2019) / short fiction by Cat McDonald
* The Guardian of Wisdom (2019) / short fiction by Mary-Jean Harris
* By a Thread (2019) / short fiction by Geoff Gander, Fiona Plunkett
* Mirror of Alchemy (2019) / short fiction by Katherine Cameron
* The Inland Beacon (2019) / short fiction by Kate Heartfield
* The Witch of Glencoe (2019) / short fiction by Bev Geddes
* Winged (2019) / short fiction by Michal Wojcik
* Saddle and Snake (2019) / short fiction by R. W. Hodgson
* Joint-Eaters (2019) / short fiction by Halli Lilburn
* Lady Jordan (2019) / short fiction by Bianca Sayan
* Things Better Left Buried (2019) / short fiction by Chris Patrick Carolan
* Phlogiston's Rainbow (2019) / short fiction by Erik Jon Spigel
* The Horn of Winter (2019) / short story by Jason Lane
* Uki Dreams (2019) / short fiction by Colleen Anderson
* Intentions (2019) / short fiction by Lara Apps
* Darkness Peering (2019) / short fiction by Kurt Kirchmeier
* The First Pillar of Wisdom (2019) / short fiction by Mike Rimar
* The Berlin Golem (2019) / short fiction by Geoffrey Hart
* Khrushchev's Shoes (2019) / short fiction by Liz Westbrook-Trenholm
* If There's a Goal (2019) / short fiction by Michael Skeet
* Holding Our Own (2019) / short fiction by Holly Schofield
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292 pages, Paperback

Published July 13, 2019

About the author

Lorina Stephens has worked as editor, freelance journalist for national and regional print media, been a festival organizer, publicist, lectures on many historical topics from textiles to domestic technologies, teaches, and continues to work as a writer and artist.

Her short fiction has appeared in Polar Borealis, On Spec, Strangers Among Us, Postscripts to Darkness, Neo-Opsis, Stories of the Deluge, and Sword & Sorceress X.

Book credits include:
Tesseracts 22: Alchemy and Artifacts, co-editor with Susan MacGregor, Edge Publishing, 2019
The Rose Guardian, Five Rivers Publishing, 2019
Caliban, Five Rivers Publishing, 2018
Stonehouse Cooks, Five Rivers Publishing, 2011,
From Mountains of Ice, Five Rivers Publishing, 2009,
And the Angels Sang, Five Rivers Publishing, 2008,
Shadow Song, Five Rivers Publishing, 2008,
Recipes of a Dumb Housewife, Lulu Publishing 2007,
Credit River Valley, Boston Mills Press 1994
Touring the Giant’s Rib: A Guide to the Niagara Escarpment; Boston Mills Press 1993

You can follow her at:
fiveriverspublishing.com
@LorinaStephens
https://www.facebook.com/LorinaStephen...

Reviews

[M.H. Thaung]

This is a collection of fantasy short stories which are based on historical (or legendary) events and situations, but as an added factor include a (usually physical) artifact.

The stories are ordered chronologically from the distant past (Greece of around 1100 BCE as depicted by Homer) to relatively recent times (America and Canada of the 1960s and 1970s). Unsurprisingly, they have different styles and flavours, from the rather functional prose of "Caligula's Eagle" by Tony Pi to the heavier descriptions of Bev Geddes in "The Witch of Glencoe". Nothing was overdone, however: despite my personal preference for lean text, the stories were all very readable.

What I enjoyed about all the stories was the sense of an underlying history that could have happened, as if there were hidden mystical influences on recorded events. If I had to pick favourites, they would be: "The Berlin Golem" by Geoffrey Hart, "Things Better Left Buried" by Chris Patrick Carolan and the first story in the collection, "Cleaning House in Ithaca" by Leslie Brown. Of course, an advantage of short story anthologies is that if one story doesn't appeal to you, you can move on to the next one.

If you enjoy historical fantasy/alternate history, I think there will be something for you in this collection.

I received a free copy of the book from the publisher. This is my honest review.