Scott Mackay—one of the collection's only familiar names—kicks off the proceedings with "Threshold of Perception." This story provides a brilliant, low-key melding of alternative history, disaster story and evocation of the lives of scientists. Mackay takes us back to the early days of modern astronomy, at the beginning of the 20th century, including the seminal astronomer of the day, Percival Lowell, and his infamous canals of Mars. In this alternate reality, Halley's Comet follows a slightly different course and Lowell plays a different role in the history of science. Mackay seamlessly folds classic science-fictional thought experiments in with sophisticated, subtle, thoughtful storytelling.

In "Buttons," author Victoria Fisher finds a compelling twist on the idea of becoming unstuck in time. A young French girl, in 18th-century revolution-era Paris, is the one to become unstuck, wandering through events, witnessing the fate of family and friends like a ghost while meeting other travelers through time. Fisher does a wonderful job of bringing the revolution to life by sticking to small details and emotional truth while leaving the big ideas of time travel and history in the background to expand off the page in readers' imaginations.

Matthew Johnson spins a remarkable fantasy ghost tale in "Closing Time." In the world of the story, ghosts of the dead remain to entertain mourners at the wake, with food and entertainment provided for as long as the ghost remains on this plane. Nep Gao, the restaurant-owner protagonist, fears he will be forced into bankruptcy when his father's shade stays on too long, entertaining guests who are all to happy to come every day to enjoy the excellent free food. The story shows both a light, charming sense of humor and a deeper understanding of tradition and its role in family relationships.

Subtleties and unusual perspectives

As can be seen from my descriptions of the stories above, most of the work in this anthology approaches fantasy and science-fiction ideas in a low-key, subtle fashion. Does this mean that quieter storytelling is a characteristic part of Canadian science fiction? Or does this merely tell us something about the tastes of the editors of this particular volume? If I were searching for generalities in the book, which might reflect the authors' "Canadian-ness," I could also point out the greater connection to other cultures shown in this group of tales. Europe and Asia are at least as likely as North America to be used as settings. I might also point out that exactly 50 percent of the stories in the collection are by women—which is highly unusual in science fiction, where we're generally lucky if 30 percent of the work comes from female authors. Does this mean that Canadian SF is more egalitarian? More open to women? Or is it just these editors? Or is this statistic just a one-time fluke?

In the end, I don't see any point in worrying about what might characterize Canadian science fiction—instead I am glad that Canadian writers have a sense of community, a gathering place, a place where they can show off their talents without worrying whether they fit in with the trends in U.S. fantasy and science fiction. It's also always great that newer authors have a place to show off their voices and be heard.

Unfortunately, while many of the writers in Tesseracts do a great job, the collection is dragged down a bit by too many moments of beginning-writer storytelling mistakes. Too many of the writers here go on too long building up the details of their imaginary worlds before digging into the real hearts of their stories, or they use obscure points of view that leave the reader mystified, making guesses about what is important in the narrative. It takes a while to dig out the good stories from among these amateurish ones. But the gems are well worth digging out.

Another of the standouts is "The Undoing," a disturbing look at near-future crime and punishment from Sarah Totton. It works as a horror story, a Kafkaesque fable and a science-fictional meditation on the idea of just punishment. Try "Summer Silk" by Rhea Rose, an all-too-effective horror story, which also evokes Kafka, just a little bit. And don't miss "Go Tell the Phoenicians" by Matthew Hughes (the collection's only other recognizable name), which reads very much like a classic Golden Age first-contact story, with a little anticapitalist spin thrown in for good measure.