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ASFFQ : 1988

The year's production brought to our attention authors who have not always received the credit they deserved in the past, because of the imposing presence of the main authors of SF and fantasy. As it happens, the latter were much quieter this year, whether because their production slowed (Esther Rochon, Jean-Pierre April, Daniel Sernine, Gilles Pellerin, André Carpentier) or because they were completely absent (Élisabeth Vonarburg, Marie José Thériault, Agnès Guitard).
This lack of production by the first-rank authors thus allowed less prolific writers, like Jean Dion, Marc Sévigny, Joël Champetier, Michel Lamontagne, Guy Bouchard, Charles Montpetit and Marie-Claire Lemaire, sometimes underestimated but nonetheless important, to occupy the place they deserve. The situation also benefited recent or new authors, such as Stanley Péan, Jean-Michel Lienhardt and Évelyne Bernard, allowing them to rapidly make their mark. The community thus continues to rejuvenate itself, since about forty authors published their first science fiction or fantasy text again this year.
Statistically speaking, the output breaks down into 21 novels or novellas, 172 short stories, of which 88 were published in magazines and 84 in 15 collections and 2 anthologies. A total of 96 writers contributed, compared to 104 in 1987. For the first time since 1984, there has been as many short stories in collections as in magazines. However, this symmetry did not happen to the detriment of the specialized magazines, since these maintain 57% of the periodicals market, having published 50 stories off a total of 88. This result, similar to that of last year (58%), is all the more remarkable because the magazines, imagine... and Solaris both were short an issue and Carfax, which had published 19 Quebec stories last year, ceased publication. It is therefore not surprising that SF mostly appears in the specialized magazines, while fantasy mostly appears in the literary magazines (XYZ, Moebius, L'Écrit primal), since magazines specializing in fantasy no longer exist.
Less spectacular than in 1987, the reprints and translations sector is still active. 92 short stories were reprinted, either in collections or anthologies. Only 10 stories were reprints from magazines. This benefited science fiction as much as fantasy: 45 stories for the former, 51 for the latter. SF mostly benefited from Michel Lord's and Jean-Marc Gouanvic's anthologies, but fantasy owes its performance to the reprinting of collections by André Carpentier (Rue St-Denis) and Pierre Chatillon (L'Île aux fantômes), as well as the Archipel anthology.
Moreover, four short stories and one novel were published in English, but three of the stories were first published in 1985. A quiet year, finally, were it not for the translation of Élisabeth Vonarburg's novel, Le Silence de la cité, which constitutes the first serious attempt at penetrating the immense English-speaking market. This commercial experiment will be followed with interest.

Claude Janelle

Original Production	Science Fiction	Fantasy & Horror	Total
Novels	17	4	21
Short stories in...	73	99	172
a) collections & anthologies	25	59	84
b) specialized magazines	37	13	50
c) non-specialized magazines	11	27	38

Reissues and/or translations	Science Fiction	Fantasy & Horror	Total
Novels	3	1	4
Short stories in...	45	51	96
a) collections & anthologies	43	43	86
b) specialized magazines	2	5	7
c) non-specialized magazines	0	3	3

Combined production	Science Fiction	Fantasy & Horror	Total
Novels	20	5	25
Short stories in...	118	150	268
a) collections & anthologies	68	102	170
b) specialized magazines	39	18	57
c) non-specialized magazines	11	30	41