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Eight Speculative Fiction Books to Add to Your TBR Shelf

All books can help you escape reality for a little bit, but these titles will pull you into another world entirely! Add them to your TBR Shelf— or better yet, head out to your local independent bookstore, pick-up a copy, and spend your long weekend curled up with a book!

KING WARRIOR
Jay Bulckaert, Erika Nyyssonen, Jay Lucas

A story spanning the globe both imaginary and real, King Warrior celebrates the turbulent glory of childhood while encouraging the reader to reconnect with that rich inner palace of youthful imagination that ultimately holds the key to our freedom. In this graphic novel, a father and son try to stay connected through the power of imagination as their distanced lives pull them further apart.

King Warrior

Jay Bulckaert (CA), Erika Nyyssonen

Published: Sep 14, 2022 by Renegade Arts Entertainment
ISBN: 9781989754146

BOUNDARY PROBLEMS
Greg Bechtel

Boundary Problems vibrates on the edge of meaning, as carjackers, accidental gunrunners, small-town cabbies, and confused physics students struggle to wring meaning from the strange events that overtake them. Bechtel’s worlds of mystery, physics, and magic constantly challenge his characters’ pursuit of logical explanations. These compelling tales blur lines and push boundaries—into the surreal, into the playful, into the irresistibility of uncertainty.

Boundary Problems

Greg Bechtel (CA)

Published: Mar 18, 2014 by Freehand Books
ISBN: 9781554811861

EZRA’S GHOSTS
Darcy Tamayose

Award-winning author Darcy Tamayose returns with Ezra’s Ghosts, a collection of fantastical stories linked by a complex mingling of language and culture, as well as a deep understanding of grief and what it makes of us. Shortlisted for the 2022 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, Ezra’s Ghosts is a delectable collection of short stories. 

Ezra's Ghosts: Stories

Darcy Tamayose (CA)

Published: Apr 15, 2022 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781774390474

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

AGNES, MURDERESS
Sarah Leavitt

Agnes, Murderess is a graphic novel inspired by the bloody legend of Agnes McVee, a roadhouse owner, madam and serial killer in the Cariboo region of British Columbia in the late nineteenth century. Fascinated by this legend—which originated in a 1970s guide to buried treasure in BC, and has never been verified—Sarah Leavitt has imagined an entirely new story for the mysterious Agnes: her immigration to Canada from an isolated Scottish Island; her complex entanglement with shiny things; and her terrifying grandmother, Gormul, who haunts Agnes’s dreams and waking life.

Agnes, Murderess

Sarah Leavitt (CA)

Published: Sep 07, 2019 by Freehand Books
ISBN: 9781988298474

MIDNIGHT STORM, MOONLESS SKY
Alex Soop

Blackfoot storyteller Alexander Soop plunges us into a shocking well of imagination in his debut collection of short stories, Midnight Storm Moonless Sky. From hauntings on the Highway of Tears to fearful gatherings of ghosts and the sorrows of racism, Soop combines the social anxieties of Indigenous life with spellbinding flights and frights of speculative fiction. 

Midnight Storm Moonless Sky: Indigenous Horror Stories

Alex Soop (CA)

Published: Oct 31, 2022 by Durvile Publications
ISBN: 9781990735127

REFUGIA
Patrick Horner

Relic species extinct everywhere else on the planet thrive on a remote archipelago. Evolution requires isolation, and these islands offer the perfect environment for genetic variation to take place, fostering new and unique forms of flora and fauna. Evolutionary biologists Emily and Roland have come on an extended field expedition to this secluded world, eager to expose its unique biosphere. Refugia is a hallucinatory journey through scientific exploration and discovery that challenges the ways we conceptualize the environment and ourselves.

Refugia

Patrick Horner (CA)

Published: Oct 15, 2022 by University of Calgary Press
ISBN: 9781773853727

SECRETS OF JARROW
Bill Slavin

The secrets of the past have been lost. Knowledge is forbidden, the climate has run wild, and civilization has devolved into post-technological anarchy. In the midst of this wasteland, Mordecai Crow, a drifter in search of his long-lost parents, becomes embroiled in a murderous conspiracy when he seeks refuge in a fortress committed to preserving ancient knowledge. 

Secrets of Jarrow

Bill Slavin (CA)

Published: May 17, 2023 by Renegade Arts Entertainment
ISBN: 9781989754269

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

IN VERITAS
C.J. Lavigne

In this fantastic and fantastical debut, Lavigne concocts a wondrous realm overlaying a city that brims with civic workers and pigeons. Led by her synesthesia, Verity Richards discovers a hidden world inside an old Ottawa theatre. Within the timeworn walls live people who should not exist—people whose very survival is threatened by science, technology, and natural law. Verity must submerge herself in this impossible reality to help save the last traces of their broken community. 

In Veritas

C.J. Lavigne (CA)

Published: May 01, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781988732831

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