Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts

Each year Tesseract Books chooses a team of editors from among the best of Canada's writers, publishers and critics to select innovative and futuristic fiction and poetry from the leaders and emerging voices in Canadian speculative fiction. There is nothing new in the world except the history we do not know. Fasten your reading seatbelts, and get ready for a wild ride. Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts is a collection of twenty-three amazing stories based on historical artifacts combined with fantastic historical fiction. The stories meld culture, concept and incident into a rich collection of 'what if' speculations that provide warnings yet revel in the cultural celebrations we continue to observe today. They are the touchstones that resonate with all who listen to and learn from the past. For, once the instigators are dead, the wars ended, and the political machines decayed, only artifacts remain. And it's through these cultural artifacts that we glimpse the possibility of what may have occurred in the past and may yet occur in the future. You are invited to delve into the motivations behind the events of the past, the quests for power, the fights against repression, and the sacrifices to a greater cause--human dramas that reflect the worst and best of who we are--to see what satisfaction comes from sudden insight and awe. Contents: * Foreword (Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts) (2019) • essay by Lorina Stephens * Foreword (Tesseracts Twenty-Two: Alchemy and Artifacts) (2019) • essay by Susan MacGregor * Cleaning House in Ithaca (2019) / short fiction by Leslie Brown * Caligula's Eagle (2019) / short fiction by Tony Pi * Blood, Lead, and Torchlight (2019) / short fiction by Cat McDonald * The Guardian of Wisdom (2019) / short fiction by Mary-Jean Harris * By a Thread (2019) / short fiction by Geoff Gander, Fiona Plunkett * Mirror of Alchemy (2019) / short fiction by Katherine Cameron * The Inland Beacon (2019) / short fiction by Kate Heartfield * The Witch of Glencoe (2019) / short fiction by Bev Geddes * Winged (2019) / short fiction by Michal Wojcik * Saddle and Snake (2019) / short fiction by R. W. Hodgson * Joint-Eaters (2019) / short fiction by Halli Lilburn * Lady Jordan (2019) / short fiction by Bianca Sayan * Things Better Left Buried (2019) / short fiction by Chris Patrick Carolan * Phlogiston's Rainbow (2019) / short fiction by Erik Jon Spigel * The Horn of Winter (2019) / short story by Jason Lane * Uki Dreams (2019) / short fiction by Colleen Anderson * Intentions (2019) / short fiction by Lara Apps * Darkness Peering (2019) / short fiction by Kurt Kirchmeier * The First Pillar of Wisdom (2019) / short fiction by Mike Rimar * The Berlin Golem (2019) / short fiction by Geoffrey Hart * Khrushchev's Shoes (2019) / short fiction by Liz Westbrook-Trenholm * If There's a Goal (2019) / short fiction by Michael Skeet * Holding Our Own (2019) / short fiction by Holly Schofield .