Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

September 25, 2016

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 69: A Chat with Mark Shainblum

On this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, I invite Mark Shainblum back to talk about Canadian Superheroes. This time, we were able to do our interview at Ad Astra. You can listen to this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio at the link below. This audio file was originally broadcast on Trent Radio, and I would like...

Categories Interviews/On Air Comments: 0

September 11, 2016

Class Constraints

A review of Rebecca Diem’s “The Stowaway Debutante” (Woolf Like Me Publishing, 2014) By Derek Newman-Stille Rebecca Diem’s “The Stowaway Debutante” is a steampunk story of disruption, shaking up the class divides of the Victorian Era. Diem writes a tale of escape from the boundaries, barriers, and confinements placed on gender and class. This is a tale of change and...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

August 26, 2016

QueerCon During Capital Pride – A Retrospective

Most of the Pride Events that I have attended in the past have tended to privilege events of performance and dancing. Pride parades tend to construct queer bodies as spectacles for straight people to observe. There tend not to be a lot of events for the more geeky queer folk.   At the same time, most geeky events (fan conventions)...

Categories Other Reviews Comments: 0

August 14, 2016

Exciting News: Two Prix Aurora Awards for 2016

Exciting news Speculating Canada followers, the Speculating Canada website and the Speculating Canada on Trent Radio 92.7FM show each won a Prix Aurora Award this year at When Worlds Collide in Calgary.  The Speculating Canada website has now earned 3 Aurora Awards and the Speculating Canada on Trent Radio show has now earned 2 Aurora Awards. The success of Speculating...

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August 10, 2016

A Revolution Against Normalizing

A Revolution Against Normalizing A review of Tyler Keevil’s “The Weeds and the Wildness” in Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law (Laksa Media Group, 2016) By Derek Newman-Stille Tyler Keevil’s “The Weeds and the Wildness” is a tale of resistance to conformity, a revolution against the dangers of enforced...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

August 8, 2016

Reconnecting

Reconnecting A review of Ursula Pflug’s “Washing Lady’s Hair” in Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law (Laksa Media Groups Inc., 2016). By Derek Newman-Stille Ursula Pflug’s “Washing Lady’s Hair” explores a new drug or medication in a future market called Green. Taking the drug is referred to as diving...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

July 27, 2016

Resources

Resources A review of Kelley Armstrong’s “The Culling” in Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts (Laska Media Groups Inc., 2016) By Derek Newman-Stille Kelley Armstrong’s near future fiction story “The Culling” examines the relationship between resources and disabilities. Her story is set in a future where there is resource scarcity and a general lack of water and...

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July 26, 2016

Aw Nuts!!

Aw Nuts! A review of Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume 1: Squirrel Power (Marvel Comics, 2015) By Derek Newman-Stille Rather than creating an origin story for Squirrel Girl in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume 1: Squirrel Power, Ryan North and Erica Henderson create a story of Squirrel Girl seeking to create a civilian identity for...

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July 9, 2016

Tales of Her Own

Tales of Her Own A review of Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins (Joanna Cotler Books, 1997). By Derek Newman-Stille In Kissing the Witch, Emma Donoghue casts a web around traditional fairy tales, drawing them together into one narrative thread by having a character from each tale introduce the next tale as her own. Characters both...

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July 6, 2016

Beyond the Masks

Beyond the Masks A review of “Tesseracts Nineteen: Superhero Universe” Edited by Mark Shainblum and Claude Lalumiere (Edge, 2016). By Derek Newman-Stille So often the superhero genre is treated as infantile, low brow, and therefore as un-valuable. Yet, the superhero has become our modern fairy tale, a transposition of the magical into the urban, replacing fairy godmothers with scientific experiments...

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