Review: Canadian Dreams
Canadian Dreams. Edo van Belkom. Northern Dreamers: Interviews with Famous Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writers. Out of This World Series #4. Ontario: Quarry, 1998. 254 pp. $19.95 CDA; $14.95 USA paper. Dist. in USA by InBook (800-243-0138). This collection of 22 interviews with Canadian sf, fantasy, and horror writers is the first of its kind, and as such it is a valuable guide to the genre in Canada. Edo van Belkom is a professional editor, author of horror fiction, and a Canadian Regional Director of the Science Fiction Writers of America. His familiarity with his interview subjects and the field in Canada is immediately evident. He can be forgiven, then, for the effusive claims he makes for these authors in his introduction. While not all of these writers are "pioneers, leaders, and supreme masters of their realms" of speculative fiction (8), as he suggests, they do represent the leading voices in Canadian speculative fiction. Indeed, most of those included have received international awards, critical and reader acclaim, and some commercial success