Skip to content

SFF Works Linked by One Canadian University

25
Share

SFF Works Linked by One Canadian University

Home / SFF Works Linked by One Canadian University
Blog Canada

SFF Works Linked by One Canadian University

By

Published on September 6, 2019

Photo: Hermes Rivera [via Unsplash]
25
Share
Photo: Hermes Rivera [via Unsplash]

You might not immediately identify Ontario’s University of Waterloo as a hotbed of speculative fiction writing. The establishment is far better known for its STEM programs, baffled-looking first-year students, the horrifying things in the tunnels, and vast flocks of velociraptor-like geese1. So you may be surprised to learn that the University has produced a number of science fiction and fantasy authors over the years. For example….2

 

The earliest UW work of which I am aware is Thomas J. Ryan’s 1977 The Adolescence of P-1. In this vintage text, University of Waterloo student Gregory Burgess writes P-1 (what we would now call a virus) to covertly commandeer computer resources for Burgess. Its spread isn’t covert enough; Burgess is outed and expelled. His creation lives on, however, spreading across the rudimentary computer networks of the late Disco Era and eventually achieving self-awareness and intelligence.

P-1 is determined to survive at any cost. In an era when computer resources were far rarer than they are now, the computers of the American military-industrial complex were an obvious source of computing cycles. Alas, like its creator, P-1 is not as subtle as it might be, something that sets it on a direct course for conflict with the largest military power on the planet.

Rather frustratingly, while UW was aware of the novel (it got a review in one of the on-campus papers) and while it was enough of a hit to get a movie adaptation, nobody at UW knows anything about Ryan beyond his name, which (and I mean no insult) is far too general for Google to be of much use. ISFDB lists only the bare essentials. While the novel is very much of its period, it holds up surprisingly well. Also, it was the first work I ever encountered that is set at UW. Until P-1, I would not have considered such a thing possible.


 

Jon Evans may be best known as that tween who wandered into my game store in the 1980s…. wait, no. I’ve just been informed that he earned an engineering degree at UW, is inexplicably now in his forties, and is best known as an award-winning journalist, traveller, and novelist. Although most of his novels are not speculative fiction, a number of them are, including ForeWord Medal of the Year winner Beasts of New York. In it, stalwart Patch, son of Silver, of the Seeker clan, of the Treetops tribe, of the Center Kingdom, and all of his people face calamity. An overlong winter means Patch and company have eaten all their stores before new food can be gathered. Famine looms.

Famine is a disaster for most but an opportunity for a few. For the King Beneath and those who serve him, food shortages are a tool to transform New York, to gather some of the inhabitants under the rule of the King Beneath while exterminating those who resist. The fate of his people and the other beasts of New York rests on the shoulders of Patch. Who is a squirrel; Patch’s friends and enemies are also talking animals, and his great foe is something of which it is best not to speak. Although talking animals are often relegated to children’s fare, Evans’ model here is the thrillers for which he is known; don’t read this to your kids at bedtime unless you want them to have insomnia and an entirely justified fear of faceless sewer dwellers.


 

Julie Czerneda studied biology at the University of Waterloo. Since her debut novel A Thousand Words for Stranger appeared in 1997, twenty further novels, eighteen anthologies and about thirty shorter pieces have seen print, earning her no less than six Aurora wins, a Golden Duck special award, and staggering number of nominations for various prizes. Most recent among her books is 2019’s The Gossamer Mage, in which the Deathless Goddess offers the people of Tananen magic, but at a dreadful cost. Cast magic long enough and you will die. Resisting the lure of magic is difficult. One sorcerer sets out to free Tananen from its dread mistress. There are, however, much worse things in this world than the Deathless Goddess; freedom may only be the freedom to be consumed.


 

James Alan Gardner has a B.Math and M.Math in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo. His first novel, Expendable, appeared in 1997. Over the course of his career3, he has placed on his mantelpiece two Aurora Awards and a Sturgeon; he has earned nine Aurora nominations and two Hugo nominations.

Like P1, Gardner’s The Dark and the Spark series (2017’s All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault and 2018’s They Promised Me The Gun Wasn’t Loaded) is set on the University of Waterloo campus4. The UW depicted in P1 was comparatively mundane (rampaging AIs aside); Gardner’s version of UW features not just one but two varieties of super-powered beings. The Dark derive their abilities from infernal sources. The Light draw on a different source and manifest as superheroes. In Explosions, a mad scientist’s lab accident imbues University of Waterloo students Jools, K2, Miranda, and Shar with powers beyond mortal ken. Superpowers do nothing to make life easier. Nor does the young students’ discovery that dark is not always evil and light is most definitely not good.


 

UW circa 1961 from the perspective of our home, taken by my father.

The odd thing about UWaterloo and its writers (which also includes poet and author Sarah Tolmie, whose work I’ve covered separately here) is that as far as I know there isn’t a community linking them all. Perhaps it’s a side effect of it being a university: people arrive, get their degrees (or don’t), and leave. There’s an educational connection, but it may not translate into a personal one. The SF club that might have fostered such a campus community seems to be on hiatus. It’s a pity. So if you’re somewhere with its own collection of authors, and there is a community, cherish it.

In the words of Wikipedia editor TexasAndroid, prolific book reviewer and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll is of “questionable notability.” His work has appeared in Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews and Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis). He was a finalist for the 2019 Best Fan Writer Hugo Award, and is surprisingly flammable.

[1]Contrary to myth, the Dana Porter Arts Library is not sinking. It was not built on quicksand and the architect did in fact take into account the weight of the books. The rumour started because the construction paused briefly (for funding reasons) at the fifth floor. Well, and because for some reasons people really want to believe their particular university has a sinking library. (Sinking buildings are fun: enjoy a sinking building in Bujold’s “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.”) There is (or at least once was) quicksand on campus but it was far, far from Dana Porter. It was located near the V1 student residences, a locale with which I was intimately familiar. Humane experiments conducted in the 1960s with the assistance of a younger sibling suggests the “quick” in quicksand is a gross overstatement.

[2]To be honest, I am not sure how many local authors are connected specifically to UW (not to mention Wilfrid Laurier University, a delightful celebration of compact architectural Jenga just down the road from UW). I do know the local region has produced at least sixty speculative fiction authors because I counted them: https://bit.ly/2m14Amq

[3]I am being vague regarding the span of James Alan Gardner’s career, because he published a number of short stories before his first novel appeared. He was also active as a spec-fic creator in other media, including radio and plays. In fact, one of the inspirations for “Expendable” was a redshirt he played in a locally written play. UW has a long history of on campus theatre groups, some of which venture into speculative fiction. Some, like Armon Kishen Kohli’s Winter 2016 UW Cabaret Club’s production “Shadow of a Musical,” are locally written. Others import works and stage them with local talent. The Department of Communication Arts November 2018 production staged Rosamund Small’s 2016 “TomorrowLove,” with a cast of UW drama students. As it happens, I ushered six of their shows; I might have been bored if the show hadn’t been so enjoyable.

[4]When the plot’s not dashing off to flatten well-known local landmarks.

About the Author

James Davis Nicoll

Author

In the words of fanfiction author Musty181, current CSFFA Hall of Fame nominee, five-time Hugo finalist, prolific book reviewer, and perennial Darwin Award nominee James Davis Nicoll “looks like a default mii with glasses.” His work has appeared in Interzone, Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times as well as on his own websites, James Nicoll Reviews (where he is assisted by editor Karen Lofstrom and web person Adrienne L. Travis) and the 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 Aurora Award finalist Young People Read Old SFF (where he is assisted by web person Adrienne L. Travis). His Patreon can be found here.
Learn More About James
Subscribe
Notify of
Avatar


25 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments