Review: Through the Portal: Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia, edited by N

Cover of Through the Portal: Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia Through the Portal: Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia
Nina Munteanu, Lynn Hutchinson Lee, editors
354 pages
Release: December 31, 2024
ISBN 9781990773341
Publisher: Exile Editions

For some time, Exile Editions has been putting out a Book of series of anthologies all of which are some of the finest literary and speculative fiction being written in Canada. Through the Portal follows in that tradition, being the 20th edition.

First, the marketing blurb:

Hopeful dystopias are so much more than an apparent oxymoron: they are in some fundamental way the spearhead of the future – and ironically often a celebration of human spirit by shining a light through the darkness of disaster. In Through the Portal: Tales from a Hopeful Dystopia, award-winning authors of speculative fiction Lynn Hutchinson Lee and Nina Munteanu present a collection that explores strange new terrains and startling social constructs, quiet morphing landscapes, dark and terrifying warnings, lush newly-told folk and fairy tales.

What unfolds in these 35 stories is a quintessentially Canadian perspective on climate change, the probable dystopia of our own making, and how we as not only humans, but Canadians, may deal with the breakdown of environment and society, of how we construct mythology to interpret our experience. While I wouldn’t call these stories exactly hopeful — what can be hopeful about the destruction of all we depend upon for survival, know and cherish? — they are filled with that remarkable pragmatism and resilience, little say a reverence for the land, which seems to be hardwired into a people who deal with constant change, and sometimes extremes, dictated by climate and geography.

Paradigms and cultural inclinations aside, the quality of the writing from this enclave of writers is quite remarkable. That’s saying something coming from someone like me who tends toward harsh criticism and a bit of a dismissive attitude — shortcomings all. Having given that caveat, I am steadfast in my praise of the skill of these writers, and the stories they’ve crafted, collected into this remarkable voice of many. Whether it was a conversation taking place between an unreliable narrator and the reader (“Imagine”, by Karen Schauber, a devasting, beautifully written flash fiction), or Anneliese Schultz’s “Water & Oil”, a story of not only the dissolution of society, but of communication, which ends with this:

Because, as sun refracts gently through the softest of rain, in the whispered breaking voices, in the giving and the receiving, in the soul still recognizing soul, there is a small explosion. A kind of thunderflash of hope.

…the stories manage that most adroit of transformations from genre fiction meant as escapism and consumable, to that other dimension which is provoking, illuminating, and exactly what good literary fiction should engender.

So, yes, good job all. And you, dear reader, might very well find yourself diving Through the Portal. It’s a journey well-worth your time and attention.