From: aaron@atlantis.uucp
Subject: Re: New Year Pizza Party
Organization: Atlantis Communications, Edmonton, AB, Canada
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 05:15:17 GMT

Henry Polard (henry@netcom.com) wrote:
: I used to live in Trawna, and was a member of OSFiC. I have the
: pleasure and priviledge of knowing Esther Rochon, and have translated a 
: couple of her short stories into English.  I've tried to market them, but to
: no avail. A few stories of hers have been published in English; I
: don't know which, unfortunately. 

In RL(which Callahaners can see briefly)Alfvaen rushes to his bookshelves,
pulling a few books off.  He flips through the first pages of the first, then
puts it back.  Then he checks the second, says, "Aha."  He spends a few minutes
reading in that book, then says, "'Canadola' by Esther Rochon, translated by
John Greene, in Tesseracts3."  He walks to another shelf and pulls out another
book, a trade paperback this time.  Again, he flips through the book and reads
for a few minutes.  "'Xils', by Esther Rochon, translated by Lucille
Nelson, from Tesseracts2," he says when he finishes that one.

"Now, I must admit that thinking of Esther Rochon does not immediately bring
those two stories to mind, but I remember them when I read them, and maybe
I'll remember them now.  So she does have a few published in English, at that."

: I noticed that a book (The City something) 
: by Elisabeth Vornarberg, another Montreal author,
: has gotten very good reviews in Anglophonia.

"I've read 'The Silence of The City', and 'In The Mothers' Land' is on my list
of books to be read Real Soon Now, since it's eligible for an Aurora this year,
and the Aurora-eligible list forms a sizeable part of my shopping list.  I went
out and bought twelve of them just a few days ago."

: Could you recommend a couple of Canadian authors that write
: distincly Canadian science fiction? (As if I didn't
: have an Everest of books in my house to read...) 

"Well, you've come to the right place.  I'm your local expert on Canadian SF,
and probably one of the best-informed on the Net.  I'm not sure on what
'distinctly Canadian SF' is, except that it's usually not science fiction per
se as much as speculative fiction.  But I can indeed recommend a few.

"Candas Jane Dorsey(president of SF Canada, and also a friend of mine)has a
book called 'Machine Sex & Other Stories' from Tesseract/Beach Holme books,
and a novel that may be coming out soon.

"Charles de Lint writes a lot of interesting stuff, the majority of which is
modern faery fiction.  I'd recommend 'Jack The Giant-Killer' for that genre,
and a lot of his short fiction, which hasn't really been collected yet.  Also
good are 'Svaha', which is Native American meets Cyberpunk; 'Yarrow', another
modern fantasy; and 'Wolf Moon', a fairly straight fantasy with a bit of a
twist.  I've also heard that 'Moonheart' is good, especially if 'Svaha' doesn't
grab you.  And he also writes horror under the name Samuel M. Key.

"Apart from that, nothing 'distinctly Canadian' comes to mind.  I can think of
a lot of good Canadian authors, like Dave Duncan, Spider Robinson, Michael
Coney, Tanya Huff, Robert Sawyer, Antony Swithin, Pauline Gedge, Guy Gavriel
Kay, etc.  Pick up the Tesseracts anthology series, if you haven't already.
Try H.A. Hargreaves' 'North by 2000'.  Try 'Other Canadas', or 'Ark of Ice'.

"I know about having an Everest of books...but the Canadian stuff gets priority
in my reading lists.  I hope that you find something that grabs you.

"I'm interested in reading some Esther Rochon stuff, by the way.  Email me and
maybe I can buy some..."

-- 
---Alfvaen(Still looking for "October's Baby")
"Give me your mirth.  It bores me when you weep.                                 My loves you cannot touch.  They're buried deep."  ---Don Marquis
Current Album--Janet Jackson:Control
Current Read--Tesseracts4