Science Fiction Writer
ROBERT J. SAWYER
Hugo and Nebula Winner

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I wrote this 1,500-word article 1985 for a nascent entity called The Canadian Cultural News Service run by journalist Barry Brown. It's an interesting peek at the state of Canadian science fiction and fantasy all those years ago.

Canadian Science Fiction? Never heard of any, eh? Well, if you saw the American movie Alien, you've had a taste. Canadian author A.E. Van Vogt won an out-of-court settlement against the producers of that film because of glaring similarities between it and his 1939 classic The Black Destroyer.

Van Vogt's alien menace, the wolf-like coeurl, appears in statuette form on the annual Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards, of which he was the first recipient. Perhaps the most famous of all Canadian SF novels is Van Vogt's Slan (1940). This story of mutant humans struggling to go undetected in the far future was penned in a modest house in the suburbs of Toronto.

John Robert Colombo, Canada's most active SF anthologist says, "Van Vogt's sense of the infinity of space is derived from his childhood vision of the Canadian Prairies. He was born in Saskatchewan. When he left Canada in 1944, he had already written the 600,000 words of SF that mark his golden age." Van Vogt, now semi-retired, lives in California.

Colombo's Other Canadas (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1979) was the first anthology of Canadian SF. "Science fiction is not an international literature but is very strongly nationalistic," he says. "I was astonished to discover that there were 600 publications that could be defined as Canadian fantastic literature."

Canadian SF has had a unique history, according to Colombo. "Genres did not develop here. Except for a brief period during the second World War, we lacked pulp magazines of our own. Therefore, we never developed a pulp readership as distinct from a mainstream readership. The bulk of our serious SF is by mainstream writers, for instance Voices in Time by Hugh McLennan."

Colombo cites two characteristic types of Canadian SF. "One is the national disaster scenario, in which Quebec is seceding. We fear the loss of Quebec more than we do an invasion from Alpha Centauri. The other is the polar world. A fair number of works have been set in the mysterious north. There's a marvelous story by Vancouver's Michael Coney about a man who joins a muskoxen herd and lives with them through an atomic disaster, becoming akin to them."

Other Canadas remains the definitive Canadian collection. "But I was disappointed in the sales," says Colombo. "They printed 7500 copies of which they sold 4500. I don't know what went wrong."

Colombo's book contains much historical material. Press Porcépic of Victoria is preparing an anthology of contemporary Canadian SF. The editor? Toronto's Judith Merril, a former New Yorker, once the world's most important SF anthologist. In the 1950s and early 1960s, she edited 14 "Best of the Year" anthologies.

In addition to Merril, Canada has gained many SF writers through immigration, including Donald Kingsbury and Spider Robinson from the United States and Michael Coney, H.A. Hargreaves, and Andrew Weiner from England.

Kingsbury is typical of the writers who have moved to Canada. He is the author of Courtship Rite (Simon & Schuster, 1982), a sweeping saga of an energy-poor planet where multiple marriages are the norm and cannibalism is a sacred ritual. He came to Montreal in 1948 from his native San Francisco, and now teaches math at McGill University. "I've lived three-fifths of my life in Canada," he says, "so it couldn't have helped but influence me. I never really thought of myself as a nationalist, though. I take the long view: both ancient Rome and the U.S. are parts of my past."

Canada's enduring superstar of SF is Phyllis Gotlieb, born in 1926 and still living in her native Toronto. Of her, Colombo says, "If Phyllis didn't exist no one would have thought to predict her existence. She grew up watching movies in her father's theatre, so Lon Chaney had more influence on her than Ernest Hemmingway."

Gotlieb's first SF novel, Sunburst, about mutant telepathic children, appeared in 1964, and has sold 300,000 copies worldwide. Her second novel, O Master Caliban, appeared in 1976. A Judgement of Dragons followed in 1980. Next came Emperor, Swords, Pentacles in 1982. Most recent is Kingdom of the Cats, 1985. Her later books are set in the GalFed, a galactic federation containing her famed StarCats, the telepathic natives of the planet Ungruwarkh.

Leading light among the immigrant authors is Spider Robinson, 36, whose three novels and five short-story collections have won him a trio of Hugos, the Oscars of SF. Most of his short stories are set in a bar were humans and aliens share drinks together. They're collected in the whimsically-titled Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and Time Travelers Strictly Cash.

In the States, SF is more popular than fantasy. "But in Canada," says Colombo, "it's two to one in favour of fantasy." His Canadian Literary Landmarks, (Hounslow, 1984) cites Ottawa as the Fantasy Capital of Canada. Among those practicing the arcane trade of the fantasist there are Charles Saunders and Charles de Lint.

Saunders' five novels of Imaro, the Black Tarzan, are published by New York's DAW books. De Lint's first two fantasy novels appeared in 1984, both as American paperback originals from Ace. The cover blurb for his massive Moonheart sets the tone for the book: "From ancient Wales to modern Canada ... an enchanted tale of romance and magic."

The Science Fiction Writers of America, despite its name, is the international SF writers organization. There are 693 members in the United States. Canada, which has one-tenth the population, should therefore have around 70 professional SF authors. In fact there are just 18 Canadian members of SFWA. Still, according to Terence M. Green of Toronto, "There are more people active in Canadian SF than ever before. But the activity is on a minor scale, because of the nature of Canadian life. We make livings here. We don't dream as much."

One reason for the rareness of Canadian SF writers is the lack of Canadian markets. McClelland and Stewart bills itself as "The Canadian Publisher." Each year, they present a $50,000 prize for the best first novel by a Canadian. But ask Jack McClelland, M&S's maverick president, if a science fiction novel has any chance of winning and he'll say, "Do you want an honest answer? No."

Green, a high-school English teacher, is one of Canada's best SF short-story writers — and he had to go to Australia for his first SF publication. According to Green, the Canadian SF market is insignificant. "Canada with its 25 million is tied to the 250 million bellow the boarder and, no matter how you cut it, New York is the publishing centre. To make a career move you have to work with the States, not in spite of the States."

Green's agent, the American Sharon Jarvis, is currently trying to sell his first SF novel, Barking Dogs, a futuristic police thriller set in Toronto. Says Green: "There may come a point in the marketing of Barking Dogs where Sharon will say to me `I can't sell this down here.' That's when you try to salvage it in the Canadian market. You get it published as opposed to putting it in the drawer."

Currently, Green's angst-filled short works grace the pages of such American SF digests as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. "It's still a commercial genre," he says. "The Canadian science fiction scene will always ride on the American market."

Periodically, a Canadian SF magazine will appear, but none of them can compete head-to-head with their American counterparts. The longest-lived in recent years was Stardust, published by Forrest Fusco of Toronto. It suffered from idiosyncratic editorial tastes and low budget. Its final issue, Spring 1981, was its most lavish: typeset, all of 72 pages, with a two-colour cover. The lead story was a reprint of a 1959 Phyllis Gotlieb yarn.

Stunning graphics distinguished Miriad (1980-1982), a Toronto quarterly largely devoted to Science Fiction movies. Although contributors went unpaid, the magazine obtainedsignificant newsstand distribution and served as proving ground for new talents, including Toronto's S.M. Stirling. His first novel, Snow Brother (Signet, 1985), was serialized in its pages.

The most impressive attempt to date is R.S. Hadji's Borderland, a dark fantasy quarterly from Toronto which is attracting writers from all over North America. Borderland had its debut at the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa.

Perhaps a more likely hope for northern futures is Penguin Canada. The first world publication of Spider Robinson's latest collection, Melancholy Elephants, was as a 1984 Penguin trade paperback. Says Cynthia Good, Penguin Editor and formerly Canadian director of the Science Fiction Book Club: "I'm glad to have published Spider. And I'm committed to doing more Canadian SF."

Robinson is a champion of his adopted country's science fiction. He dedicated Melancholy Elephants to "all Canadian SF writers, past, present, and future."

More Good Reading

More about Canadian SF

Encyclopedia Galactica entries on:

• Canadian Science Fiction
• John Robert Colombo
• Terence M. Green
• Donald Kingsbury
• Andrew Weiner

Three short-short Canadian SF Stories by Terence M. Green, Robert J. Sawyer, and Andrew Weiner, introduced by John Robert Colombo

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