A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is the inaugural title from John Rose’s Bakka Books imprint. The book, which has been out of print for years, is widely regarded as Canada’s first work of speculative fiction. Bakka’s edition comes with a new foreword by Ed Greenwood (of Forgotten Realms fame), the original 1888 text, and illustrations from both the original American and British editions.

The story begins with four bored Englishmen on a yacht who find a floating copper cylinder containing handwritten sheets of papyrus. They discover that the manuscript was written by Adam More, a sailor shipwrecked on an island at the South Pole. The island is peopled by a race called the Kosekin, who give him everything he could ever want, including a beautiful consort. She too is an outsider on the island, and from her Adam learns the sinister truth behind the Kosekin’s limitless generosity and the real reason they’re not afraid to die.

Much swashbuckling adventure ensues – fantastic creatures, daring escapes, a love triangle, and some very pointed commentary on the social values of the Victorian era. The four Englishmen add their interpretations at selected points in the narrative, adding further layers of narrative depth to de Mille’s tale. Not for collectors only, A Strange Manuscript is a campy adventure story in the Jules Verne/Edgar Rice Burroughs mode, but with a pleasantly sharp satiric flair. All in all, a stellar debut for the Bakka imprint.