Canadian sci-fi and fantasy novels under 300 pages to read this summer
10 speculative fiction books for the reluctant fantasy reader
The world of speculative fiction — stories that stray from everyday reality — can feel daunting for readers of contemporary novels.
What often comes to mind are multiple-book fantasy series like Game of Thrones or an epic space odyssey like Frank Herbert's Dune. But what if you don't have time to read 500-page-plus tomes?
If you are looking to dip your toes into otherworldly realms filled with magic, intrigue and suspense this season but can't commit to a longer series, we've got you covered.
Here are some of our favourite sci-fi, fantasy and horror novels and novellas by Canadian authors that you can easily bring with you on all your summer adventures!
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar
Page count: 144
In The River Has Roots, a mysterious family known as the Hawthorns live in an enchanted world. The family care for mystical willows and honour an ancient and magical compact. But when a daughter of the family decides to seek her own path to find love and happiness, the fate of the entire world just might be at risk.
Amal El-Mohtar is a Ottawa-based author, editor and critic. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, NPR Books, among others. El-Mohtar's short stories Seasons of Glass and Iron won Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. Her novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, co-written with Max Gladstone, has been translated into more than 10 languages.
We Speak Through the Mountain by Premee Mohamed
Page count: 143
We Speak Through the Mountain is a sequel novella to the post-apocalyptic Albertan book The Annual Migration of Clouds. Reid Graham is 19 years old and fighting against both the climate crisis-affected Rocky Mountains and her own chronic illness to make her way to Howse University, a supposed safe haven.
When she arrives, she finds it more and more difficult to forge connections and leave behind the guilt she has of leaving her community. When she is sent word from home, Reid is faced with an impossible decision and a crumbling reality.
The next book in the series, The First Thousand Trees will be published in September 2025.
Premee Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction writer based in Edmonton. Her series Beneath the Rising received nominations for the Crawford Award, British Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards and Aurora Awards.
Her book The Annual Migration of Clouds won the 2022 Aurora Award for best novella. Her other books include The Butcher of the Forest and No One Will Come Back for Us.
Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
Page count: 144
Coup de Grâce is a horror novella about a morose man who wanders into a Montreal subway station and realizes there is no way out. Trapped in a nightmare of endless corridors and gothic rooms, Vicken is determined to find his way out, only to realize he might not be alone.
Sofia Arjam is a Montreal writer, editor and metalsmith. Coup de Grâce is his first novella and won the 2024 Bram Stoker Award for long fiction, was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Awards and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer prize. They are the editor of Bury Your Gays: An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror.
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Page count: 179
In a world ravaged by a risen Atlantic ocean off the West African coast, survivors live in five towers that sit partially submerged in the sea. Lost Ark Dreaming draws together three characters at various tower levels: Yeneki, a mid-level analyst; Tuoyo, a mechanic beneath the water level; and Ngozi, a bureaucrat at the peak. They must work together to save their world, especially from those who perished in the Atlantic and have been reawakened by a mystical power in search of revenge.
Suyi Davies Okungbowa is a Nigerian writer of African speculative fiction, now living in Ottawa. His other work includes the novels David Mogo Godhunter and Son of the Storm. He was a contributing writer for Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda.
Zegaajimo edited by Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler and Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Page count: 230
Zegaajimo: Indigenous Horror Fiction brings together 11 Indigenous writers to tell macabre stories of the monsters already in our midst, and more. This horror anthology features stories by Karen McBride, Waubgeshig Rice, David. A Robertson, Drew Hayden Taylor and Richard Van Camp, among others.
Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler is the writer of the short story mystery and horror collections Ghost Lake, which won a 2021 Indigenous Voices Award and Wrist. He co-edited Bawaajigan and is an artist and filmmaker. He is two-spirit, Jewish, Anishinaabe and a member of Lac Des Mille Lacs First Nation. He lives in Vancouver.
Bird Suit by Sydney Hegele
Page count: 272
Unbeknownst to the tourists who flock to Port Peter every summer for peaches and sun, the bird women live in a meadow beneath the lake and offer their children to the Birds on the cliffs. Strangely, the Birds do not take Georgia Jackson. Twenty years pass to find Georgia entangled with a man named Arlo, who turns out to be her mother's ex. So begins a complicated matrix between Georgia, Arlo, his wife, Felicity and their son, Isaiah. Bird Suit probes issues of grief, faith, sex and love in the sticky, peach-filled heat of summer.
Sydney Hegele is a writer living in Toronto. Their story The Bottom was shortlisted for The Malahat Review's 2020 Open Season Awards. They have been published in American Chordata, Thorn Literary Magazine and other literary journals. Their debut book The Pump won the 2022 ReLit Award for short fiction.
Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction edited by Sonia Sulaiman
Page count: 160
Thyme Travellers is an anthology of speculative fiction that brings together voices from the Palestinian diaspora, both new and veteran, from all around the world, to tell stories that venture into history and folklore.
Sonia Sulaiman is a writer and editor based in Ontario. Her writing has been published in Arab Lit Quarterly, Beladi, FANTASY, FIYAH Magazine, Xenocultivars: Stories of Queer Growth, Seize the Press, Lackington's Magazine and Ask the Night for a Dream. Her stories have been nominated for Pushcart, Lammy and Best New Weird awards. She also edited the collection Muneera and the Moon: Stories Inspired by Palestinian Folklore.
A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang
Page count: 192
In the first science-fantasy novella of the Natural Engines series, the threat of human intervention is a constant worry for the Feng family. A Palace Near the Wind follows Liu Lufeng, the eldest daughter of the Feng people, who live alongside creatures with faces and limbs that look more like trees. Destined to be married off to a human king in keeping with a tradition of arranged marriages, Lufeng devises a plan to kill him, only to discover her people's true history. Faced with the reality of loss and oppression, Lufeng must rebel against the human forces that seek to eradicate her.
Ai Jiang is a Chinese Canadian writer of speculative fiction and a 2022 finalist of the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Her other short novels include Linghun and I Am Ai. She is currently based in Toronto.
Countess by Suzan Palumbo
Page count: 168
In Countess, Virika Sameroo is the first lieutenant on an interstellar cargo vessel serving the Æerbot Empire. When her captain dies, she is charged for murder and treason, even though she's always been loyal. This sets her on a quest for revenge against the empire.
Suzan Palumbo is a Trinidadian-Canadian author based in Brampton, Ont. She is also the author of short story collection Skin Thief. Her stories have been nominated for the Nebula, Aurora and World Fantasy Awards.
Naniki by Oonya Kempadoo
Page count: 200
In the novel Naniki, shape-shifting sea beings Amana and Skelele travel the Caribbean toward a strange, dreamed future. Devastation sends the pair back through time in this historical, magical realist novel in order to save their islands, seas and each other. Oonya Kempadoo is a Grenadian English Guyanese author who lives in Montreal.
