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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ne 16 ,2 02 2 | 36 Cut out paying more Your only destination for more coupons, more flyers, more savings. #SavingWithSave save.ca/mlnaturalsmokedsausage Save $2.00 onMaple Leaf® Natural Smoked Sausage 750gScan to get coupons more coupons,more flyers,more savings. Find the Rexall flyer and more on Save.ca Disclaimer: flyers pictured are for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the current flyers. View the flyer on Save.ca for the current flyer for your location. save.ca/flyers more coupons,more flyers,more savings. THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY BY JOHN SCALZI When one of the frothi- est SF writers going de- cides to write a self-de- scribed "pop song" of a nov- el that's only "meant to be light and catchy" it's hard not to hum along. "The Kaiju Preservation Society" is nothing more than an amusement-park ride, but if you're looking for that kind of a diversion then grab your popcorn and climb aboard. The fairground in this case is Jurassic Park. A di- mensional doorway has opened between Earth and a parallel Earth where the apex predators are nuclear- powered kaiju (the Japa- nese name for giant mon- sters like Godzilla). By a series of coinci- dences Jamie Gray, a food delivery driver, gets a job at one of the extra-dimension- al bases (in the steamy jun- gles of a parallel Labrador), which is where things start to go south in the best CGI- blockbuster style when an evil corporation tries to get into the kaiju business. You're not meant to take any of this seriously, or wor- ry about the sketchy science. This is the fiction equivalent of ear candy. It's hard to imagine a book as driven by dialogue, and the back-and- forth never lets up its relent- less stream of snappy pop- culture references and fast- paced wisecracks. IMAGINARY FRIENDS BY ARLENE F. MARKS It's always a treat to open a debut collection of short stories from an author who has been publishing them for years. That's the case again here with "Imaginary Friends," where the con- tents are a mix of old and new, and range from fanta- sy to horror to science fic- tion, and from quick sketches to a novella about pioneers on another planet. Underlying all of it is Marks's fascination with storytelling itself. Without becoming overly meta she presents characters who feel aware in different ways of the genre they find them- selves performing in, con- scious of being a part of sto- ries that they both shape and are shaped by. Exam- ples include a vampire, a neighbourhood witch, a su- perhero and even the devil himself, all transposed to new surroundings (Old Scratch is at a computer store looking to buy a new office networking system). The results take us on unexpected diversions into new fictional territory, but with some familiar charac- ters as our guides. VOICES FROM THE RADIUM AGE EDITED BY JOSHUA GLENN Defining genres and lit- erary periods can be a tricky business. As an ex- ample, in this new series from MIT Press, Joshua Glenn looks to brand the science fiction written be- tween 1900 and 1935 as the Radium Age, which he sees as an interregnum between the scientific romances of the 19th century and the golden age of the American SF pulps that took off in the 1930s. Whatever you think of the Radium Age as a label, this first volume is a great launch, containing a good mix of stories from some big names (E.M. Forster, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, W.E.B. Du Bois) and a few that should be better known (Rokeya Sak- hawat Hossain, William Hope Hodgson and Neil R. Jones). The nature of the Radi- um Age, and whether these works can or should be read as proto-SF or some- thing else, is a matter fans can debate. But even if you're just looking for old- school adventure mixed with still trenchant social allegory this is a lineup full of winners. The rest of the series promises to be a just as big a treat and, with cover de- signs by Guelph artist Seth, they're nice to look at too. THE SISTERS SPUTNIK BY TERRI FAVRO It's hard to know where to begin describing a book like "The Sisters Sputnik." The titular heroines are comic-book characters whose real lives are strang- er than that of the comics they inspire. The original Sputnik Girl is Debbie Reynolds Biondi, who is one of those people who have come unstuck in time. The way this works is that beginning with the Trinity atomic test in New Mexico in 1945, a different alternate universe has been formed every time there's been a nuclear explosion in what's known as Earth Standard Time. Debbie now skips be- tween these various reali- ties, not always willingly. It's a condition that's more of a disease than a super- power, though it's also what gives her a chance to save the world. Or worlds, as the case may be. Summarizing the plot is impossible. There are many crazy adventures, mostly centred in alternate Torontos. Underlying it all is a message about the power of stories to mould reality in a variety of eccentric direc- tions. Evolution and histor- ical change, especially when we attempt to direct it, can be a messy business indeed. 4 SCI-FI BOOKS TAKE YOU TO NEW DIMENSION The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi. Torstar file photo ALEX GOOD BOOKS