Indigenous science fiction horror from...
BogiReads brings you the daily speculative reading recommendation of editor Bogi Takács.
Today's recommendation -
A near-future science fiction horror story set on an Arctic research station where the horror elements are genuinely creepy, yet there is both a lightheartedness to the storytelling (with a robot like a cartoon pirate’s parrot) and also deep feeling.
Author: Sean and Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley
Title: “Lounge”
Venue: Taaqtumi – An Anthology of Arctic Horror Stories, edited by Neil Christopher.
Type: Novella (I think. It’s very long, but I read the book in print, so I don’t have a word count.)
Themes: Horror, science fiction, Arctic, Indigeneity, robots, virtual reality
Where to read: Buy on Amazon US / Buy on Bookshop (my affiliate links)
My first paid recommendation, and I wanted to pick something less known – I hope I succeeded.
Taaqtumi is a 2020 anthology, but I completely missed that it came out – I found it recently on the horror shelves of my public library. This novella, by a Indigenous author couple (of Inuit, Cree, Mohawk backgrounds), was one of the highlights of the volume for me. It’s a near-future science fiction horror story set on an Arctic research station where the horror elements are genuinely creepy, yet there is both a lightheartedness to the storytelling (with a robot like a cartoon pirate’s parrot) and also deep feeling. This is an odd mashup, but it works, and also allows the authors to reflect on broader questions of belonging in the land.
Wishing you a great weekend,
Bogi.