Steve Stanton

WELCOME!   

You have reached the webspace of Canadian author Steve Stanton. 
I live in the Muskoka Lakes area of Ontario, just north of the Casino Rama First Nation, and currently serve as the President of SF Canada.
 

Books Currently in Print:

The Bloodlight Chronicles: Retribution, is now available from ECW Press in Canada and internationally via major online retailers. “Set in a future where economic transactions are tied into virtual gaming, this elegantly written sf series features believable characters and powerful situations.” (Library Journal, USA, 2011. Reviewed by Teresa L. Jacobsen)

The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation, is in stock from ECW Press in Canada and internationally via major online retailers. “ECW’s first sf title revitalizes the cyber-fiction genre with its vivid prose and believable characters. Stylistically streamlined, this vibrant series opener should appeal to fans of Bruce Sterling and William Gibson.” (Library Journal, USA, 2010. Reviewed by Jackie Cassada)

Stories Currently in Print:

“Messenger” is upcoming in Kasma Science Fiction Magazine.

“Timestealer” is upcoming in White Cat Magazine.

“Eternal Virus” is now available online at Ray Gun Revival and in translation at Algernon (Estonia).

“Hedge of Protection” is now available in On Spec #85, the Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic.

“White World” is now available online at Ray Gun Revival and in translation in Evvéa (Greece).

“Gathering Glory” is now available online at DailyScienceFiction.com, in translation at Axxón (Argentina), Algernon (Estonia), and is upcoming at Nova Fantasia (Galicia).

“Mark of the Beast” is now available online at InterNova and in translation at Algernon (Estonia).

“Perfect Match” is now available online at Kasma Science Fiction Magazine and in translation at Axxón (Argentina), Evvéa (Greece), Spin (Finland) and SFMag (Hungary). This dystopian tale first appeared in 1992 in On Spec, Issue #9 (Canada).

“Stanton’s writing is dark, his vision seems to be one of pointing to humanity’s need for a savior by showing a stark, barren world without Jesus. In his strange futuristic creations, Stanton works with the language of science and technology to present men and women as beings on a sort of conveyor belt to doom. The most striking aspect of these stories is their incredible lack of sentiment. The reader is required to inject his or her own emotional reactions, and the effect is weighty. In ‘Perfect Match,’ Stanton portrays a future so uncaring that body parts are bought and sold by living recipients and donors. It is a world common to Stanton’s vision, where money is tight and people remain in tight family units because no one else will offer any help at all. There is a sliver of hope in this story, as the family love shared among a husband, wife and their child is powerful enough to warrant the selling of an eye. It is apparent, however, that the whole world is in trouble, because this familial love does not hold the promise of eventual triumph over adversity. Rather, this family is staving off destruction.” (Reviewed by Blaine Howard, USA, 1994) (Artwork by Pedro Belushi, Madrid, 2010)
 

“Timestealer” is now available in translation in Pevnost (Czech), Alfa Eridiani (Spain), Nova Fantasia (Portugal), Axxón (Argentina), Bli-Panika (Israel), Catarsi (Catalonia), Chaos Theory: Tales Askew (USA), Intercom Science Fiction Station (Italy), Sci-Fi Magazin (Romania), Evvéa (Greece), and Hub in the United Kingdom. The authentic Canadian print version is available in the Premiere Issue of Neo-opsis, first published in 1990 in Rampike, 10th Anniversary, Part One, (cover by William Burroughs.)

“Perhaps the best story is ‘Timestealer’, by Steve Stanton, about a man who records short experiences from other people, at the cost of their memory of the experience, and his search for truly novel material.” (Locus Magazine, USA, 2004, Reviewed by Richard Horton)

“In four short pages, he takes the reader into the character of a man who makes his living stealing experiences, memories, from people, and selling them to others. It is a huge comment on humanity, and no doubt, if we possessed the technology to steal and package memories, there would be shops in malls from coast-to-coast. Stanton takes virtual reality a step further and makes the point that people want to escape to something more exciting, and in this future world, nothing is sacred. No doubt the tabloid press has been driven out of business by this new industry—who needs pictures when you can live the memory.” (Kamikaze Magazine, Reviewed by Blaine Howard)

“This reminded me a bit of Philip K. Dick’s “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” the inspiration for the movie “Total Recall.” (Dark Wolf’s Fantasy Reviews, 2008)

“Trickster” is available in On Spec #72. “My favourite story in this issue was ‘Trickster’ by Steve Stanton, about Union graffiti artists in a shipyard on the moon tagging colony ships just before they set off for the stars. Derek Thundersky is one of the artists and is madly in love with Susan Quiznichuk, who procures things for the Union. Derek is half-Navaho, half-Cree, an exotic mix. Meanwhile, Colonel Woodsworth Dunfield, late of Windermere-on-Avon and pilot of the latest departing colony ship, is a rather stodgy Englishman who is madly in love with Linda Evans but has rather fluffed their sexual compatibility test. She is a yank and he thinks perhaps he should stay Earthside and marry one of the ‘noble and predictable gentlewomen of his homeland’.”(SF Crowsnest, UK, 2008, Reviewed by Eamonn Murphy)

“The Writing on the Wall” is available in the anthology Tesseracts Nine; New Canadian Speculative Fiction, Aurora Award Winner 2006, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Geoff Ryman. “‘The Writing on the Wall,’ by Steve Stanton, tells the tragic tale of the unexceptional midlife crisis of an exceptional man…on a Kafkaesque note.” (Quill & Quire, 2005, Reviewed by Tracey Thomas) “I was also impressed by Steve Stanton’s ‘The Writing on the Wall,’—in which good characterization carries an otherwise simple tale of a mathematician determined to prove the possibility of time travel.” (SF Site, 2005, Reviewed by Donna McMahon) “Steve Stanton contributes a time-travel story about a child who becomes a mathematical genius after meeting his future self.” (Booklist, American Library Association, 2005, Reviewed by Carl Hays) “‘The Writing on the Wall’ by Steve Stanton, unlike many of the other stories in this genre, does provide a moment of hope for humanity…yet it isn’t technology that offers hope, but emotion.” (The Harrow, 2005, Reviewed by Dru Pagliassotti)