Hetherington, Victoria
Entry updated 31 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1989- ) Canadian editor and author, active from around 2010; her first novel, Mooncalves (2019), recruits a range of story devices from nonfantastic sources and the toolkit of Fantastika to give contour to the story of a violent outbreak of cult Religious frenzy in rural Quebec. She is of sf interest for her second novel, Autonomy (2022), which is set in a dark Near Future ravaged by Climate Change and Pandemic; the specific venue, the American Protectorate of Canada, actualizes a long-held nightmare (see Dystopia; Paranoia; Politics) on the part of many Canadians as to what they think of as American Imperialism. In this patrolled environment, American strictures against abortion – echoes of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) can be detected – cause the imprisonment of one protagonist of the tale, who can only be succoured in her imprisonment south of the heavily guarded border (see Crime and Punishment; Prison) by an AI named Julian, who has come to consciousness and has embarked on a project to learn about his makers. [JC]
Victoria Hetherington
born Canada: 1989
works
- Mooncalves (Surrey, British Columbia: Now or Never Publishing Company, 2019) [pb/]
- Autonomy (Toronto, Ontario: Dundurn Press/Rare Machines, 2022) [pb/Sophie Paas-Lang]
links
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