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8 Alberta Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels

Read Alberta is kicking-off the new year with a feature on Alberta-published science fiction and fantasy books and showcasing the Alberta publishers who champion these genres. 

Alberta is home to Calgary-based publishers who specialize in science fiction and fantasy books, including EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing and Tyche Books. Both publishers release a variety of novels each year, and we are focusing on some of their wins from last year! Calgary is also home to Laksa Media Groups and University of Calgary Press, both of which contributed fantasy novels to this list. For fantasy and science fiction graphic novels, check out nearby Canmore publisher, Renegade Arts Entertainment.

Below are some of our top recommendations from these publishers! We’ve selected a split of science fiction and fantasy books—  you can find fantasy titles in the left column, and science fiction in the right.

ALICE OF SPADES
Created by Chase Kantor, Tiffany Tate, Christopher Peterson, and Lucas Gattoni

Alice of Spades continues the story of a kingdom on the brink of revolution. Alice, now the sole heir to the Spade throne, is the target of a group of religious zealots bent on twisting her to their cause. With only her lazy cat and the clothes on her back, Alice must flee her privileged life and embark on a journey where any turn could be her last. This graphic novel brings back fan-favourite characters from The Saga of the Jack of Spades and thrusts them into a perilous ordeal with dangerous new enemies, jaw-dropping scenery, and devastating emotional revelations.

Alice of Spades

Chase Kantor (CA)

Published: Sep 06, 2023 by Renegade Arts Entertainment
ISBN: 9781989754283

GATHERING OF GHOSTS
By Susan Forest

Gathering of Ghosts completes the award-winning Addicted to Heaven series of three sisters and their continuing family saga of addictions, survival, revenge, and redemption in an empire where magic is forbidden. In this installment, highborn magiel Rennika Falkyn is forced to use her magic once again—this time to track down a mysterious child—leading her to a tangle of mystifying puzzles in the high court and endangering her own family.

Book cover of The Gathering of GHosts

Gathering of Ghosts
Susan Forest (CA)

Published: 2023 by Laksa Media Group
ISBN: 9781988140520

 

FLICKER
By Lori Hahnel

Cass Reisender doesn’t enjoy her psychic abilities. They appeared after her parents were killed in a tragic accident and led her to Madame Freyja, a travelling fortune teller and all-round terrible person. Swearing to leave both her psychic sensitivity and Madame Freyja behind, Cass starts again in Calgary, Alberta, a city with nothing supernatural about it at all. Then Cass touches a strange antique device and her new life is blown apart. Flicker is a playful, fast-paced romp through the golden age of invention, mythology, and the supernatural.

Flicker

Lori Hahnel (CA)

Published: Sep 15, 2023 by University of Calgary Press
ISBN: 9781773854687

Accessible icon: a stick person inside a circle. Available as an accessible eBook

PISHTACO
By Mark Patton

A previously institutionalized mathematician, Penelope Augusta Gertrude Farquhar, who suffers from schizophrenia, sets out on a quest to find the lost city of Paititi and destroy the evil shaman, Pishtaco, who has amassed the lost Inca gold of Atahualpa. Throughout her quest she interacts with the tribal people of the Amazon rain forest, as well as the pantheon of Inca gods and goddesses. Pishtaco: Lord of the Lost Inca Gold is a thrilling historical fantasy novel that takes the reader on a mystical and mysterious journey.

Book cover of Pishtaco

Pishtaco
Mark Patton

Published: 2023 by EDGE Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing
ISBN: 9781770532250

SUPER-EARTH MOTHER
By Guy Immega

Mother-9, a ruthless AI, seizes control of a dying tycoon’s lunar mining operation. Now free, she orchestrates humanity’s most audacious endeavor — to make a 20,000-year interstellar journey to Lalande 21185 carrying humanity’s DNA libraries and artificial wombs — a new way to colonize an exoplanet. While drifting in space, a gamma ray burst wipes out life on Earth and Mother-9’s mission becomes humanity’s only hope for survival in a hostile universe. Super-Earth Mother: The AI that Engineered a Brave New World is a journey into the heart of humanity, artificial intelligence, and the uncharted realms of life beyond our home planet.

Book cover of Super-Earth Mother

Super-Earth Mother
Guy Immega (CA)

Published: 2023 by EDGE Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing
ISBN: 9781770532274

THE PASSION OF IVAN RODRIGUEZ
By Hayden Trenholm

After decades of stability, climate stresses are bringing droughts, crop failures, and massive storms. The world’s end, avoided once, seems likely to succeed the second time. Scientist Sarah Nahanni has a possible solution, but the number of mathematicians willing or even able to solve the equations is very small. Far to the south, Ivan Rodriguez is on the run from death squads, his head full of fears for his family and mathematical dreams of a better future. He holds the key to Sarah Nahanni’s problem and would help—if only he knew she existed and he could reach her in time.

The book cover of The Passion of Ivan Rodriguez

The Passion of Ivan Rodriguez
Hayden Trenholm (CA)

Published: 2023 by Tyche Books
ISBN: 9781989407530

 

THE MACHINES THAT MAKE US
Edited by Chris Patrick Carolan

The word “robot” was coined a little over a century ago, but humankind has always told stories of constructed lifeforms. From the earliest myths to the latest blockbuster, stories of artificial life have always held our attention. But what do the stories we tell about the machines we make reveal about how we see ourselves? Join the writers of the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association on a journey through worlds both familiar and unknown as they explore humanity’s drive to create life (or something like it) in their own image.

Book cover of The Machines That Make Us

The Machines That Make Us
Chris Patrick Carolan (CA)

Published: 2023 by Tyche Books
ISBN: 9781989407592

GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED FUTURE
Edited by S.M Beiko

With stories spanning time, galaxies, and spirits, Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures features 17 original stories, casting the indelible themes of gothic romance forward in time, to imagined futures and tomorrow’s afterlives.

Book cover of Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures

Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures
S.M Beiko (CA)

Published: 2020 by Renegade Arts Entertainment
ISBN: 9781989754030

Accessible icon: a stick person inside a circle. Available as an accessible eBook