Category: Science Fiction

Essays by Shalon Sims on education, creative writing and literacy

Canadian Indigenous Speculations

IntroductionIndigenous Speculations In this essay, I explore various Canadian Indigenous speculations, including the artwork of Sonny Assu, and science fiction of Cherie Dimaline, and Drew Hayden Taylor. Before I get into it, I’d like to acknowledge that…. I’m very grateful to live and work on the traditional, unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam I’ve…
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Fear & horror in children’s literature – Review of truly terrifying kids & YA books

Part 1: Lost in the Woods I am fascinated by the special kind of horror that can only be found in stories about and for children. Since the very first children’s books by Perrault and the Grimm brothers, and before that, in folktales and oral traditions, stories about children have so often been gruesome and…
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When You Reach Me – a writing craft review

This review of When You Reach Me, a Newberry Award-winning novel by Rebecca Stead, is hopefully the first of a series on writing craft in middle grade science fiction. I’ll explore issues of writing craft, such as theme, tone, voice, plot, characterization, etc. in a few of my new favourite books. My aim is for…
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25 reasons to read William Gibson’s Neuromancer

  For the writers (and readers) who have not read (or who have not finished reading) William Gibson’s Neuromancer NEUROMANCER! Well, I don’t want to come across as a book snob, but I do have to ask: How can you call yourself a well-read fictionado without having read Neuromancer? In classic Lily-(from How I Met…
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Profound Insights: Out of the Silent Planet by C.S Lewis

The best book I read in 2010 was Out of the Silent Planet, by C.S Lewis.  It is a very small book and inconspicuous.  This was the copy I picked up: