Category Archives: Anthologies

Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction is now available

The inaugural volume of Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction edited by Stephen Kotowych is now available in trade paperback and ebook. The collection features 37 stories and poems including my Aurora Award nominated story “A New Brave World”.

Richard Graeme Cameron has written in Amazing Stories online a glowing review of the collection:

There is a lot of excellent genre fiction being written in Canada. May this series become the definitive annual sample. If all are good as this one, I can see them becoming textbooks for high schools and universities...You owe it to yourself to purchase it for your bookshelf.”

The praise for the collection is richly deserved, but what he said about “A New Brave World” put a lump in my throat:

Proof that the hard science genre is still capable of enjoyable originality, especially in the capable hands of excellent writers such as Eric Choi. I found the story exhilarating. It reminds me why I fell in love with science fiction in the first place.”

[Kobo] [Amazon Canada] [Amazon U.S.]

Life Beyond Us is no longer beyond us!

Life Beyond Us, the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, has arrived on planet Earth! Edited by Julie Novakova, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest, Life Beyond Us features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. My new story “Hemlock on Mars” opens the collection with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Also check out the latest post on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog in which Julie, Lucas, and Susan explore The Big Idea behind the anthology and discuss my story “Hemlock on Mars”.

Thank you Julie, Lucas, and Susan for the honour of being included in this ambitious and beautiful anthology!

Contributor copies of Life Beyond Us and Extraordinary Visions

My contributor copies of the anthologies Life Beyond Us and Extraordinary Visions, under the watchful visage of an extraordinary terrestrial lifeform.

Life Beyond Us is the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest. The book features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. Opening the collection is my new story “Hemlock on Mars” with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Life Beyond Us will be arriving to our planet on Earth Day (April 22).

Extraordinary Visions is the first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society, edited by Steven R. Southard and Matthew Hardesty. The book featuring thirteen stories inspired by the writings of Jules Verne including my story “Raise the Nautilus” which closes the collection. Extraordinary Visions is available now in paperback and hardcover. Check out the review on the Nerds of a Feather website.

While their themes are different, these books have much in common. Both are beautiful, with gorgeous cover art by Dan O’Driscoll and Amanda Bergloff respectively, and vividly illustrated interior designs. Both are ambitious, with terrific stories brought together by visionary editors who are passionate about the respective themes of their books. I am grateful and proud to be a part of these anthologies.

Holiday Reading

For your reading pleasure this Holiday season.

Just Like Being There
My first collection of short fiction featuring fifteen of my hard SF and alternate history stories including the Aurora Award winning “Crimson Sky”.

Brave New Worlds
Edited by S.C. Butler and Joshua B. Palmatier featuring fifteen original stories that follow humanity’s long dream of travelling to the stars including my story “A New Brave World”. [Reading Copy (for SFWA members)]

Extraordinary Visions
The first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society featuring thirteen stories inspired by Verne’s work including my story “Raise the Nautilus”.

Other Covenants
Edited by A.D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum, this alternate history collection features stories and poems by thirty authors and includes my novelette “A Sky and a Heaven”. [Reading Copy (for SFWA members)]

20% Discount on Orders of Just Like Being There

Until October 20th, use the promo code CHOI2022 and get a 20% discount when you order my short story collection Just Like Being There from the Springer Nature website:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978–3‑030–91605‑3

The collection features fifteen of my hard SF and alternate history stories including the Aurora Award winning “Crimson Sky” and the new novelette “A Sky and a Heaven”. Story topics include space exploration, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cryptography, quantum computing, online privacy, mathematics (statistics), neuroscience, psychology, space medicine, extraterrestrial intelligence, undersea exploration, commercial aviation, and the history of science. Each story is followed by an afterword that explains the underlying engineering or science.

For more information, please visit the Just Like Being There page or download the brochure. Also check out my author Q&A on the Edelweiss blog, the review on AmazingStories.com, my interviews in Space.com and OverDrive: In the Know, or my conversation on the official podcast of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. 

Raise the Nautilus” to appear in Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne

I am pleased to announced that my story “Raise the Nautilus”, which was first published in 20,000 Leagues Remembered edited by Steven Southard and Kelly A. Harmon, will be reprinted in the upcoming anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne from the North American Jules Verne Society. This will be the first collection of short fiction ever sponsored by the Society.

Raise the Nautilus” describes an attempt by the Royal Navy to salvage Captain Nemo’s submarine and retrieve an artefact that could turn the tide of the First World War. You can read an abridged excerpt from the story here.

Seasons Between Us

I am delighted to have received my contributor copy of the new anthology Seasons Between Us edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law and published by Laksa Media Groups Inc. featuring new stories by Maurice Broaddus, Vanessa Cardui, C.J. Cheung, Joyce Chng, Divya Srinivasan Breed, Alan Dean Foster, Bev Geddes, Maria Haskins, Tyler Keevil, Rich Larson, Karin Lowachee, Brent Nichols, Heather Osborne, Y.M. Pang, Karina Sumner-Smyth, Amanda Sun, Patrick Swenson, Bogi Takács, Hayden Trenholm, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm, Jane Yolen, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, and yours truly.

This picture is of course totally posed. The cat cared less for the book than the box it came in.

We Shall Be Monsters

My co-author Joseph McGinty and I are delighted to have received our contributors copies of the new anthology We Shall Be Monsters, pictured below with its original inspiration. Edited by multiple Aurora Award winner Derek Newman-Stille and published by Renaissance Press, We Shall Be Monsters commemorates the bicentennial and legacy of the ground-breaking and genre-changing novel Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. The anthology features 24 stories and poems by diverse authors from around the world, ranging from direct interpretations of Shelley’s text to innovative explorations of stitched, assembled body, and narrative experiments in monstrous creations.

Our story “F. – A Post-Modern Prometheus” is a satirical tale about a hapless modern day Victor Frankenstein struggling to raise funding for his monstrous research. Check out the bonus material related to and inspired by our story including a teaser preview, deleted scenes, and even Frankenstein’s PowerPoint presentation!

Contributor Copies

A Post-Modern Prometheus is ALIIIIIVE!!!

The New Year is kicked-off with the publication of our new story “F. — A Post-Modern Prometheus” by yours truly and Joseph McGinty, about a hapless modern day Victor Frankenstein struggling to raise funding for his monstrous research. The story appears in the new anthology We Shall Be Monsters, edited by multiple Aurora Award winner Derek Newman-Stille and published by Renaissance Press, which commemorates the bicentennial and legacy of Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking novel. We Shall Be Monsters is available in paperback and ebook.

We Shall Be Monsters Cover

Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders

Shades Within Us

Laksa Media has released the cover art and table of contents for its upcoming anthology Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders edited by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law. Release date is September 8th, 2018. A portion of Laksa’s net revenue from this book with support the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario and the Alex Community Food Centre in Calgary.

Foreword by Lucas K. Law
Introduction by Eric Choi and Gillian Clinton
“Porque el girasol se llama el girasol” by Rich Larson
“Inkskinned” by Jeremy Szal
“Defender of Mogadun” by Alex Shvartsman
“Gilbert Tong’s Life List” by Kate Heartfield
“The Marsh of Camarina” by Matthew Kressel
“Invasio” by Karin Lowachee
“Habitat” by Christie Yant
“The Travellers” by Amanda Sun
“Critical Mass” by Liz Westbrook-Trenholm
“Screen in Silver, Love in Colour, Mirror in Black-and-White” by Julie Nováková
“How My Life Will End” by Vanessa Cardui
“From the Shoals of Broken Cities” by Heather Osborne
“In a Bar by the Ocean, the World Waits” by Hayden Trenholm
“Imago” by Elsie Chapman
“Shades of Void” by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
“Superfreak” by Tonya Liburd
“The Vagabond of Trudeau High” by Sarah Raughley
“The Swordmaster of Ravenpeak” by Brent Nichols
“Remember the Green” by Seanan McGuire
“Devouring Tongues” by S.L. Huang
“Voices” by Tyler Keevil
Afterword by Susan Forest