Caribbean Canadian Science Fiction takes off

                          Contessa of Brampton

By Stephen Weir

Life for people who might still be able to trace their Caribbean heritage thousands of years from now won’t have much to look forward to. But wait, if spaceship pilot Virika Sameroo takes that famous Bob Marley quote—“The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?”—to heart, she might be able to emancipate many people who carry Carib DNA in a universe far, far away, where people of color are treated like dogs by a white-dominated empire.

It has been over a week since young Trinidadian-Canadian Suzan Palumbo’s literary spaceship docked in Canadian bookstores. Her new science fiction novel is not only a dark story about life on other planets but also carries hope for life, liberty, and sexual freedom for everyone!

Countess is a sci-fi adventure story that, according to the Brampton author, was inspired by the classic adventure tale The Count of Monte Cristo. Palumbo wanted to give the adventure story a modern, anti-colonial spin. She says that the 1844 book provides a good foundation on which to build a story about freedom, decolonization, and rebellion—issues that are important to her as someone from the Caribbean.

Virika Sameroo lives in colonized space under the Æcerbot Empire, much like her ancestors before her in the British West Indies. After years of hard work, she’s finally become first lieutenant on an interstellar cargo vessel. When her captain dies under suspicious circumstances, Virika is arrested for murder and charged with treason, despite her lifelong loyalty to the empire. Her conviction and subsequent imprisonment set her on a path of revenge, determined to take down the evil empire that wronged her—all while the fate of her people hangs in the balance.

Suzan Palumbo

The future hasn’t been kind to Caribbean people. For the past couple of thousand years (or so we guess), people left Earth either willingly or on slave ships to work in mines, factories, and farms on planets that somehow all had breathable air, with names like Orinoco, the planet Bequia, and the Exterran Antilles.

Racism has survived—indeed, it has thrived. People of color are called dogs and forced to work long hours. Not to criticize the author, but what seems far-fetched is that speaking English and local patois haven’t evolved much over the centuries. Example? An old crone sells fruit in a street market on Bequia, called the Baroness, who likes to say her fresh fruits are “sweeta den anything yuh eva had.”

Virika Sameroo is despised by a white male rival who frames the gay female lieutenant for murder and treason. Like Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo, she is jailed for a decade in solitary confinement. She escapes and joins a group of space pirates to seek revenge for her treatment and to free the ancestral planets that are under the thumb of the empire.

Now called the Contessa, she is brave, cunning, and much feared. Does she succeed? The answer is written in the stars.

Suzan Palumbo is a Trinidadian-Canadian dark speculative fiction writer and editor. Her short stories have been nominated for several sci-fi awards. Countess, published by ECW Press, is now available in stores and online.