Charles R. Saunders joins CSFFA Hall of Fame as a new Imaro enters the world

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π‘Ύπ’“π’Šπ’•π’† π‘΅π’π’˜! π‘Ύπ’Šπ’•π’‰ 𝑱𝒐𝒏 π‘»π’‚π’•π’•π’“π’Šπ’† π’Šπ’” π’…π’π’π’‚π’•π’Šπ’π’ˆ $πŸ“πŸŽ 𝒂 π’Žπ’π’π’•π’‰ 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝑭𝑡𝑺’𝒔 π‘ͺ𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝑹. 𝑺𝒂𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 π‘·π’“π’Šπ’›π’†. 𝑭𝒐𝒓 πŸπŸŽπŸπŸ“, π’˜π’†β€™π’π’ 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 π’šπ’π’– 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 the π’„π’“π’Šπ’•π’Šπ’„π’‚π’ π’ƒπ’π’π’Œπ’” π‘ͺ𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒔 π’‘π’–π’ƒπ’π’Šπ’”π’‰π’†π’… π’Šπ’ π’‰π’Šπ’” π’π’Šπ’‡π’†π’•π’Šπ’Žπ’†.Β 

IMARO

Charles R. Saunders has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame! They announced it on Canada Day, saying Charles’s “impact as a writer continues to grow after his death, as new generations discover his work and find it to be life-changing.”

His estate asked me to accept the award on his behalf. I spoke to CBC’s Information Morning about it last week and hope toΒ spread the word this summer.

And Imaro has been reborn this year, for the third time, with the UK publisher Gollancz, who has so far published Imaro and Imaro 2: Quest for Cush. This has his estate’s blessing and hope that the full six-book series gets into print this time.

Which brings us to Charles’s next big book, which was also his first: Imaro. An editor at Night Shade, a publisher in San Francisco and Portland, had heard about the Imaro series from the 1980s and searched out the first three – and was devastated when he closed the book on The Trail of Bohu and realized there were no more Imaro stories. The editor tracked down Charles and emailed him with the suggestion that Night Shade republish the first three Imaros – in hardcover no less – and then complete the series by publishing four and five.

Charles said no, he couldn’t republish the three novels. A key story in the first novel, β€œSlaves of the Giant Kings,” had become unprintable. In the 1980s, the story had been pure fantasy set in Nyumbani’s Ruanda, pitting the enslaved Kahutu against the imperious Mwambututsi, with Imaro leading the Kahutu on a bloody revolt. Imaro meets and falls in love with a Kahutu woman – Tanisha. β€œAt the end of the story, the Mwambututsi are massacred,” Charles wrote. The horrific 1994 Rwanda genocide had made the story obscene. He ruled out an author’s note as too glib, and didn’t want to change a few details to try and hide the story’s African origins. But just removing it would render the novels incomprehensible, as Imaro otherwise never meets Tanisha.

β€œMy fingers were poised on the keyboard,” about to say no to Night Shade, he wrote. β€œAt that moment, a stray neuron fired in my brain. I had not written a word of new Imaro material in eighteen years, and I had become resigned to the probability that I would never write about him again. I had buried him in my subconscious, and I wasn’t certain that I could bring him back to life. However, my Ilyassai friend proved to be tenacious. … Imaro had not lain totally fallow all those years, and it turned out I had more to say about him.”

Charles brought Imaro back to life and was delighted with the Night Shade edition, seen in the top left of the above photo. But Night Shade killed the series after book 2.Β After Charles’s death, his estate worked with Gollancz to give Imaro another shot at life, and the first two books were published posthumously this year. They are tricky to get in Canada, but not impossible.

Source: To Leave A Warrior Behind: The Life and Stories of Charles R. Saunders, the Man Who Rewrote Fantasy.Β 

PS: we have a cover for Charles’s biography, and it is sensational. Still behind closed doors for now, but it’s coming closer all the time. Publication date is January 2026 with McClelland & Stewart.