Haisla and Heiltsuk author Eden Robinson returns to fantasy with a new world and no shortage of monsters

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Haisla and Heiltsuk author Eden Robinson admits she didn’t make life easy for the editor of her new novel, Sorceress of Sky Serpents.

The book, the first in a planned trilogy, is a full-on, lush, intricate fantasy adventure set on a planet where non-human beings haunt and hunt the survivors of a devastating sorcerers’ war. Building that world meant Kitimat’s Robinson, the author behind the award-winning novels Monkey Beach and the Trickster Trilogy, had to be ruthless when it came to choosing what stays and what goes in the story.

“I think my editor was just ready to strangle me at some point … Because this world is all in my head. The main thing that me and my editor struggled with was getting what was in my head onto the paper,” Robinson said about her work with Anne Collins, the recently retired Random House Canada executive editor. “The first draft was a complete mess because I stuffed every single idea I ever wanted to play with into that book.”

Faced with too much pace-slowing exposition, Robinson said she cut back on sci-fi elements for the second draft.

Robinson’s editor wasn’t the only one who got a little lost when she was first laying out the story.

“I explained it to mom and dad and they were looking at me the way I look at my little cousins when they are explaining Pokémon to me,” said the award-winning Robinson about sharing her fantasy story with her parents Winnie and John in 2014. “Dad said, after a pause, ‘Can’t you just write Monkey Beach 2 but with more Sasquatches?’ ”

Robinson will be one of the 150 local and international authors taking part in the 39th-annual Vancouver Writers Fest running Oct. 18 to 25. Robinson will be at the Waterfront Theatre stage on Granville Island Oct. 23 at 5 p.m. for a conversation with fellow author Monique Gray Smith. She will also join Anita Rau Badami, Patricia Finn, Melissa Harrison, Nazanine Hozar and Damien Wilkins at the Bill Richardson-hosted Afternoon Tea event on Oct. 25, at 3:30 p.m., at Performance Works. Get tickets HERE.

“I’m very excited, but mostly because I get to gossip with my friends,” said Robinson, offering a big laugh, something she does throughout the conversation.

Vancouver Writers Fest artistic director Leslie Hurtig said Robinson has appeared at the festival many times and remains one of its most sought-after guests. Whenever Robinson releases a book, Hurtig said, longtime fans and new readers alike bring it into book clubs and share it with friends.

“Eden is an infectious personality,” Hurtig said. “She exudes not only joy but also a deep love for storytelling when she is onstage.”

At the centre of the Sorceress of Sky Serpents is Yuala, a 20-year-old outsider whose community can share thoughts while she can’t. Distrusted because others don’t know what she is thinking, Yuala finds connections with giant octopuses, cave worms and other beings her people consider dangerous.

“Her greatest superpower is being able to see the world through non-human eyes,” Robinson said. “She’s kind of a non-human diplomat.”

Yuala’s curiosity can look reckless in a hostile world, but her ability to reject fear of the unfamiliar and see beyond the parameters and assumptions of her community is what gives the fantasy story a contemporary feel. Yuala is willing to take risks to make connections. She’s bold.

Despite her efforts to expand her world, her mother thinks she isn’t that strong, and her powerful shaman grandfather barely notices her. And when Yuala discovers that she may have the abilities she has long wanted, she worries that the opportunity will be taken away because of who she is and her perceived place in the community.

When asked if this new book is a feminist story, Robinson pauses and says she isn’t sure but maybe it’s “in that the character is being very authentic despite cultural norms.”

Those cultural norms referenced here come from the rich history of the potlatch, something Robinson has a lot of experience with.

“I thought everyone grew up potlatching,” says Robinson. “Potlatching is a social, economic, religious system of government and it’s all centred on ceremony, and there’s like a heavy ranking going on, so you’re born into your rank. You can’t change that, but you can change your reputation. You can make your reputation go up and down.”

Robinson comes by storytelling honestly through her culture and late father.

Robinson lets out a big laugh when asked about her late father’s tall-tale tendencies. John Robinson would sometimes wake early and quietly vacuum (“if that’s possible,” said Robinson) until his daughter stirred and then he would settle into a chair and tell stories about fishing and supernatural creatures.

“I really miss those stories,” Robinson said, adding that some of those tales, including a favourite, about the Clam Clan, didn’t always fall under the traditional banner. “I was asking elders who does this story belong to? They were like, ‘I’ve never heard that story before, so that may have been just like a John Robinson story.’ ”

Whatever the genesis of those stories, they helped shape a career that has made Eden Robinson one of Canada’s most acclaimed writers. Her novel Monkey Beach was made into an award-winning film in 2020 and The Trickster Trilogy got a TV adaptation that resulted in one season, but CBC cancelled it after that when it was discovered in 2021 that the Indigenous identity of the show’s co-creator and showrunner, Michelle Latimer, came under scrutiny.

“That was heartbreaking. That was kind of shattering,” said Robinson. “The discourse online, like I’ve never been the recipient of so much hate.”

While the Trickster events left a negative mark on Robinson, she would love to see The Sorceress of Serpents getting a cinematic treatment. But, as for the person to pay Yuala, she doesn’t have a particular person in mind.

“There’s a lot of great young Indigenous actors … The field is so wide open now. It’s fantastic,” said Robinson.

As for her upcoming work, she has the rest of this trilogy to do but admits: “I’ve been promising a trashy band council romance forever.”