SF: Inventing the Future

Robert J. Sawyer is a Toronto-based free-lance writer.

SF: Inventing the Future is a mixed Canadian-and-foreign anthology-textbook, containing eleven stories, five poems, and a selection of futurology newspaper clippings. Editor Appleford is a high school English teacher. This is a reprint of a work originally published by Bellhaven House in 1972, and therein lies part of the book’s weakness. In a field evolving as rapidly as science fiction, a decade-old anthology is already obsolete, especially as regards Canadian fantastic literature. True, it contains a story by Phyllis Gotlieb, still the reigning champion of the genre in this country. But where are the works of Donald Kingsbury, Spider Robinson, and Andrew Weiner? Where are the critical articles by John Robert Colombo, John Bell, and Terence M. Green? Any Canadian SF collection of the eighties would be bound to have those names in its table of contents. Instead, Appleford gives us a story from his own hand. This bit of self-indulgence serves only as an example of how not to write SF: “‘A bit of background might help.’ He cleared his throat in the manner of a public lecturer. ‘During the last third of the twentieth century ...’” There are some excellent stories in the collection: Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Sentinel” (upon which the film 2001 was based) and Daniel Keyes’ tear-jerker, “Flowers for Algernon” (source for the film Charlie). Too many of the others, however, are trivial. Colombo’s Other Canadas (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1979) is light-years beyond as a retrospective of this country’s contributions to science fiction. The field needs a good teaching collection. Inventing the Future isn’t it.