North of Infinity: Futurity Visions, edited by Michael Magnini, Mosaic, 1998, 215 pp.

Reviewed by James Schellenberg.

In Challenging Destiny magazine. April 10, 2001.

North of Infinity is an anthology of Canadian science fiction. I can't quite make sense of the title -- if Canada is north of infinity, it literally follows that the United States is infinity, and just what does that mean? It's a title that sounds nice, but loses its effectiveness upon reflection. Similarly, I couldn't quite parse the meaning of Magnini's introduction. He first tries to supply a definition of science fiction, which is a wild goose chase especially in the span of one short sentence. He then generalizes about Canadian science fiction, and posits this anthology as an answer to criticisms of the introspective nature of Canadian science fiction. Even more smugly, Magnini seems to see this anthology standing alone in the genre: "Then, when looking for a purely Canadian Science Fiction anthology I found virtually none, only dated reprints" (iii). I'm not sure what time frame Magnini is referring to, because North of Infinity is part and parcel of a tremendous flourishing of Canadian anthologies, a trend which brings both weak and strong anthologies to publication. I don't mean to sound harsh, but Magnini's comments took me aback, losing some of my goodwill before I had encountered any of the stories.

The book opens with "The Killing Way" by David Nickle, which is a story about a writer's colony in Antarctica. The first person narrator is suffering from writers' block, and is jealous of Trevek, an engineered killing machine whose first book has taken the artistic world by storm. But what sort of muse would suffice for a cyborg like Trevek, who only understands killing? Nickle's story is frightening in its evocation of the unleashing of unstoppable forces.

Colleen Anderson's "All My Family" is a nitty-gritty detailing of life in Vancouver after an alien invasion. It's an effective story, and unfortunately Anderson is the only woman whose writing is presented in this anthology.

Edo van Belkom's "Roadkill" can be found in his 1998 collection Death Drives a Semi. However, in the absence of any copyright information in this book, it's impossible to tell which is the reprint.

Dale L. Sproule contributes "The Roots of the Soul." It's an unusual postapocalypse story; yes, there is a group of religious fanatics who have taken over society, as seems to happen, but there are also less typical events and characters. The story has an interesting ending, and one that segues nicely into the next story.

Robert J. Sawyer's "Where the Heart Is" is a reprint from an anthology titled Ark of Ice (which I know only from Sawyer's website). It uses the old idea of an astronaut -- in this case, a starprober -- returning from a relativistic journey to the stars, only to find that human society has changed beyond recognition.

"Freedom Is a Running Man" by Dat Pham is a deliberate and not entirely successful pastiche of cyberpunk and geek culture. Max Up has been infected with some sort of virus that is destroying the virtual reality around him. The story is presented in typical cyberpunk terms of the individual vs. the system, and so the ending caught me by surprise.

Leslie Lupien's "The Malthusian Code" is a riff on the same idea as William Laughlin's story in the TransVersions anthology: attempts to suppress sexuality. I didn't find either story particularly credible.

"To the Last Man" by A. J. Onia tells of an evacuation of Earth in order for the environment to be cleaned up. There are stragglers who do not want to leave, and their legacy will continue.

"Rainy Season" by Robert Beer and "The Reef" by Ray Deonandan are my two favourite stories in this anthology. They both deal with the exploration and discovery of new life forms and new planets. Both are sensitively written, and both convey a sense of wonder without overtones of the imperialistic expansion of humanity. Beer's story deals overtly with the difficulties humans face in overcoming their own worst urges, while Deonandan's story is a lovely and calm journey to a place where such things have already been overcome.

"The Rapture of the Moonflower" is by Magnini himself, listed under the pseudonym of Giovanni Serafini.

The anthology closes with an ornately written story called "Poisson Distribution" by Leonid Spektor. The end of the universe as a setting seems to attract science fiction writers, but the humans that Spektor supplies for that era seem indistinguishable from us.

North of Infinity has a few strong stories, which is as much as could be asked of any anthology. There's some rhetoric in the Introduction that bothered me, but the stories speak on their own. As a showcase for more Canadian science fiction, this collection fulfils its duties well.