Chimerascope on Canadian Science Fiction Review

"Reading Smith’s stories is like taking a series of guided tours through strange places — you don’t expect any bombshells to be dropped on you but you do expect to see something new and memorable. Chimerascope delivers that in spades and is well worth the price of admission." - Helen Michaud, The Canadian Science Fiction Review

Read the review here.

Learn more about Chimerascope here.

CHIMERASCOPE nominated for a Sunburst Award!

We are pleased to announce that Douglas Smith's collection Chimerascope has made the shortlist for the Sunburst Awards. These awards are presented annually to recognize Canadian writers of speculative fiction.
The jury says: "This collection contains a beautifully diverse selection of short tales that runs the full spectrum of the speculative genres. The tales are well-crafted, easily digestible; several of the stories are incredibly moving and stick with the reader long after. The wide range of stylistic approaches works well together."
Good luck, Douglas!

Click here to see the shortlist.

Click here to learn more about Chimerascope.

Interview with Douglas Smith!

Douglas Smith, author of CHIMERASCOPE, talks about Bruce Springsteen, seeing his work adapted into film, and why now is the best and worst time to be a writer.

Read the interview!

Click here for more info on Chimerascope!

CBC Bookies: Vote!

The CBC Bookie nominees are up, and CZP has two books shortlisted for prizes.

A Book of Tongues, by Gemma Files is shortlisted in the Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel category. You can vote for this category and others here.

Chimerascope, by Douglas Smith is shortlisted in the Best Short Story Collection category. You can vote for this category and others here.

Voting ends Feb 13th and 15th respectively!

"In Awe": Review of Chimerascope

"I recommend Chimerascope to fans of the fantastic. Smith’s original takes on familiar genres will give you much to enjoy and much to consider and, if one story does not appeal to you, several others will."

Read the rest of the review.

Buy a copy here!

Doug Smith Interviewed

Doug Smith, author of Chimerascope, is interviewed at PlanetShifter Magazine.

Here's an excerpt:

Do you understand what some writers and artists are calling "new mythologies"?

Actually, no. But the ancient myths were the way that humans tried to explain the unexplainable, and writers and artists are still trying to explain the universe and our place in it. Our myths simply change as we learn more. Science replaces myth, but each answer leads to another area of which we know nothing. Myths rush in to fill the void. We are story tellers and will always be story tellers.

"Collection Succeeds so Powerfully"

Ideomancer has this to say about Chimerascope:

"Smith’s greatest talent lies in creating and then exploring worlds fashioned by posing a deceptively simple question. If a man awoke each morning and died each night, each time waking in someone else’s body, as in “A Taste Sweet and Salty,” would he be able to escape? What if, as in the book’s opening story, “Scream Angel,” an alien species secreted a chemical substance that warped humans’ emotional responses—changing extreme lows into torrid, wonderful highs? His aliens are fully-fleshed, complicated beings with tangible challenges."

Read the rest of the review here!

Get your own copy!

Broken Pencil Reviews Chimerascope

Broken Pencil reviews Chimerascope by Douglas Smith. One thing to note is that Chimerascope is a collection of short stories, and not a novel.


"Douglas Smith takes some of his (for the most part award-winning) stories and presents them to us in the form of the novel Chimerascope. Before or after each story, Smith gives personal commentary on his inspiration or what he was trying to achieve and although interesting, it is sometimes nice to be able to deduce for yourself the hidden significance in a story. That said, Smith is obviously a gifted writer in the genre of science-fiction. From the ancient deities and their centaur and nymph friends hanging out at a bar on Toronto island and mingling with the locals, to an autistic child finding solace on an alien world where colours in the sky speak to him in a way that no human can, to a massive house that holds the remnants of humanity -- Smith paints his worlds so well that you are transported within a paragraph or two and remain in transit until the short story ends -- a challenging feat to be sure... "

Read the rest here.

Buy the book here.