BK-BESTOF2023-BOOKS_SCI FI_WEB2 TORONTO STAR ILLUSTRATION USING DREAMSTIME AND SUPPLIED PHOTOS bk-bestof2023-books_sci fi_WEB2 toronto star illustration using dreamstime and supplied photos Uploaded by: kao, susan
BK-BESTOF2023-BOOKS_SCI FI_WEB2 TORONTO STAR ILLUSTRATION USING DREAMSTIME AND SUPPLIED PHOTOS bk-bestof2023-books_sci fi_WEB2 toronto star illustration using dreamstime and supplied photos Uploaded by: kao, susan
The best science fiction of 2023 included a lot of interesting work happening on the fringes of the genre, from the literary to the weird to the retro. These books show how SF continues to evolve, expressing the concerns of life in the twenty-first century — family, politics, the environment — in fresh and speculative ways.
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
“Orbital,” by Samantha Harvey. (Grove/TNS)
Grove
A team of astronauts in a space station orbiting Earth reflect on the human condition in a short, lyrical novel that offers a meditation on how we connect to the planet and each other.
A Tidy Armageddon, by BH Panhuyzen Â
A Tidy Armageddon, by BH Panhuyzen, (ECW, $26.95, 408 pages)Â
ECW Press
The alien apocalypse arrives and turns Canada’s prairies into a giant Costco. A squad of soldiers explore its maze of canyon aisles while looking for a way out of the prison-house of product that the twenty-first century has become.
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I’d Really Prefer Not To Be Here With You, by Julianna Baggott
I’d Really Prefer Not to Be Here with You and Other Stories, by Julianna Baggott, (Blackstone, $35.95, 287 pages)
Blackstone
The genre of Weird fiction is brought home in Julianna Baggott’s stories about the disruptive intrusion of technology and fantasy into familiar domestic settings.
Julia, by Sandra Newman
Julia, by Sandra Newman, Mariner BooksÂ
Mariner Books via AP
A retelling of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” from the point of view of Julia, Winston Smith’s lover in that novel. Sandra Newman does a great job recreating the oppressive atmosphere of Orwell’s dystopic world, while adding some surprising new twists to the classic tale.
Why Don’t You Love Me?, by Paul B. Rainey
Why Don’t You Love Me?, by Paul B. Rainey, Drawn & Quarterly, 214 pages, $29.95Â
Drawn and Quarterly
A serial graphic novel about a middle-class married couple haunted by a sense that something is not quite right in their lives. It turns out these feelings aren’t just the expression of a mid-life crisis but are the result of a wrinkle in the fabric of space and time. Â
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