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Pejorative: Echoes of a Nation cover

Pejorative:
Echoes of a Nation

What if the erasure of your country didn’t begin with war, but with paperwork, pipelines, and polite silence?

If you are reading it, they didn't win.

A near-future Canada is quietly annexed under the banner of continental "unity". Through a recovered archive of testimonies, smuggled documents, and corrupted broadcasts, one archivist tries to remember out loud. What emerges is not just a history - it's a warning.

Bold, chilling, and heartbreakingly relevant."

The Speculative Shelf

About the book

Pejorative: Echoes of a Nation is a hauntingly plausible speculative novel told through a fractured archive of testimonies, smuggled documents, corrupted broadcasts, and the reflections of a vanished resistance archivist. Set in a near-future Canada quietly annexed under the banner of continental “unity,” the story unfolds through recovered files curated by the last person who tried to remember out loud—Jason Butterfield.

What begins as a logistical deployment after Alberta’s secession vote becomes something far darker: a euphemistic occupation, a nation rebranded, and a culture erased not through violence, but through narrative control. As Jason, a reservist turned memory hoarder, descends into the underground, he compiles stories from those silenced, displaced, or disappeared by the Unity regime. From blacklisted teachers and Indigenous resistance leaders to smuggled radio poets and burned librarians, their voices form a mosaic of truth that was nearly lost.

Years later, long after Jason’s final signal flickers out in the north, Dr. Isabel Sanz of the North American Truth and Documentation Initiative reconstructs his archive. What emerges is not just a history, it’s a warning.

For fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, and World War Z*, Pejorative is a genre-blending novel of resistance, memory, and the quiet brutality of forgetting.

Connected conversation

Discussion

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SourceBluesky5 replies
Fireside Trent@dogstar23.bsky.socialMay 2026

I ordered Perjorative a couple weeks ago, just picked it up from the indie book store I haunt when I'm in town so I haven't started to read it yet. Looks good in a disturbing sort of way. Do Thomas Lukaszuk and Nate Pike know about it?

Jason G. Butterfield@jasonbu.onlineMay 2026

Oh, that's awesome! Thanks for going through the Indie book store too. Really, really appreciate it. If Thomas and Nate don't know about it I wish someone could let them know ;-) ... good example if we let up on the separatists. Let me know what you think. Again thanks for picking it up.

Fireside Trent@dogstar23.bsky.socialMay 2026

I sent a note to them both, and our librarian in town is looking into procuring a copy. Interesting approach... been awhile since I read anything like this. I'm getting vibes of Roger Zelazny and Edward Whittemore, but then I'm only on about page 5. :-)

Jason G. Butterfield@jasonbu.onlineMay 2026

That's great... I was aiming for a 'found-files', 'diary' type feel. I get a lot of my alt-history(alt-timeline) inspiration form Harry Turtledove. I will admit that I have yet to read Zelazny or Whittemore, but am very intrigued. Some vacation coming up - my 'to read' is getting long.

J. Butterfield@jgbutterfield.eurosky.socialJun 2026

Finished What line stayed with you? This is an example of a Reader companion post from my site. As a reader I would highly recommend this book. Especially given what we have see around the foreign interferance within Alberta. This book is a future where that wins. Read it now.

Jason G. Butterfield@jasonbu.onlineJan 2026

Pick it up at your convenience jasonbutterfield.ca/book/pejorat...

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Book record provenanceThis book metadata is published on my PDS and readable across the AT Protocol.View raw record details
PDS
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Collection
online.jasonbu.book
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DID
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bskyPostRef
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First published
June 15, 2026
Edition metadata
Paperback / ISBN 979-8293335978 / 473 pages / Black& White, 6x9 in | Hardcover / ISBN 979-8297260962 / 473 pages / Dust Jacket, 6x9 in | eBook / 14 pages / ePub, PDF, mobi
Record URI
at://did:plc:72bi...io4v/online.jasonbu.book/3moeanitz6t2u
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