Imagine you’ve wanted to kill someone your entire life but both you and your mortal enemy are immortal. K.R. Wilson’s dramatic and emotionally compelling new novel vividly evokes the very human but very long lives of two such ancient enemies and the vibrant times they experience. From classical Troy to modern-day Toronto, Stan on Guard is a truly epic, keenly observed and witty chase through history.
— Gary Barwin, Leacock Award winner and Giller & Governor-General’s Literary Award Finalist; author of Yiddish for Pirates and Scandal at the Alphorn Factory.
Stan on Guard is a gorgeous read. As a protagonist, Stan is an unforgettable combination of calloused irreverence and heart. Throughout the millennia, through Stan’s sprawling life, Wilson explores touchstones of human experience, tenderness, and struggle. To my mind, Stan is one of the most thrilling and masterfully created antiheroes in literature.
— Hollay Ghadery, award-winning author of Fuse
K.R. Wilson’s Stan On Guard is a genre-bending, time-warping triumph that hurls immortal wisecracker Stan—formerly Ishtanu—through 3,000 years of civilization, from Troy to Toronto, armed with biting wit and zero tolerance for human nonsense. But when a vengeful Trojan princess resurfaces, ancient heartbreak and mythic justice come crashing into the present. Fiendishly clever, razor-sharp, and fiercely original, this is a daring tale of historical vengeance, speculative science, and the absurdity of living forever.
— Wayne Ng, author of Johnny Delivers
Stan on Guard is a gripping double helix, braiding through time from Bronze Age Greece to modern-day Toronto. Two immortal beings tell their stories, one driven by revenge, the other by a healthy talent for self-preservation. Through the tapestry of their adventures, we can stroll with Nietzsche, dupe Odysseus, and inspire the art of Rodin. History has never felt more alive.
— Matthew Sullivan, author of The Garden of Flowers and Weeds
Stan On Guard ... is a welcome sequel to the Leacock nominated Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millennia. Wilson has once again revisited a breadth of historical events and characters, combining them with wit and irreverence to formulate a compelling and entertaining narrative. ... Following Stan on his adventures is to breeze through history not only as an intimate observer but also from vantage points that provide perspectives and voices other than the canonical. This is an extraordinary work by a tantalizingly gifted writer.
— Lucy E.M. Black, author The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks, Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth, and A Quilting of Scars
With what must be Wilson’s characteristic intelligent historical humour, he’s given us a sequel to CALL ME STAN that is somehow funnier – how is that possible? When we get the asides describing the first book as Stan’s big mistake – that in allowing K.R. Wilson to write his story from a police interview, [vengeful fellow immortal] Tróán learns all she needs to find him and kill him once and for all, it just feels as though there can’t be any other way to perfectly blend these two sagas. Capturing unique moments in history that make the reader feel as though they’re walking the streets of Paris or trudging along the unpaved roads of ancient times, Wilson has given us (once again) an epic historical novel that is a thoroughly enjoyable read.
— Alison Gadsby, author of Breathing is How Some People Stay Alive (read the full review here)
Wise-cracking Stan is back in K.R. Wilson’s new novel STAN ON GUARD (sequel to Call Me Stan), on a century-spanning, outrageous odyssey.
Stan is immortal and while that may sound like a dream life, it’s a far murkier and lonelier proposition, especially when you’re being hunted by your nemesis, an immortal Trojan princess named Tróán, whose vengeance will stop at nothing. Living forever has its challenges.
...
STAN ON GUARD is meticulously well-researched, but Wilson never lets historical fact get in the way of a wildly inventive, absurdist romp — each period pitstop is a novella unto itself. Highly recommended.
— Rod Carley, award-winning author of RUFF (read the full review here)
An “invention,” as it appears in the title of K. R. Wilson’s new novel Stan on Guard: A Two-Part Invention (Guernica Editions, 2026), can pertain to a piece of music usually made up of two-part counterpoint, as well as to a work of the imagination. Both definitions apply to Wilson’s highly compelling book.
...
It’s always been my opinion that the driving force behind literature isn’t so much the what as it is the why. The why, without a doubt, is a personal passion for science, the arts and for history that K. R. Wilson has invested in Stan on Guard: A Two-Part Invention. But most of all he brings a determination to expose how our impulses – those that are destructive and those that are uplifting – mesh, if not seamlessly, then relentlessly to inspire both hope and despair in equal measure.
— Steven Mayoff, author of The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief and Swinging Between Water and Stone (read the full review here)
Stan on Guard: A Two-Part Invention by K.R. Wilson is the anticipated sequel to the Leacock nominated Call Me Stan: A Tragedy in Three Millennia. Wilson has once again revisited a breadth of historical events and characters, combining them with wit and irreverence to formulate a compelling and entertaining narrative. In a very clever twist, Stan is a chatty narrator who is upset with K.R. Wilson and proceeds to explain why.
...
Wilson’s text is both witty and funny, with many inside jokes and asides for readers who are familiar with history. The narrative is shared between Stan and [his nemesis] Tróán, each chronicling their story in alternating chapters.
The strength of Wilson’s research is that it is both disparate and impeccable, while many of the wry asides are informative.
Following Stan on his adventures is to be carried through time and events not only as an intimate observer but also from vantage points that provide perspectives and voices other than the canonical. As we are privy to the protagonist’s inner thoughts, one is challenged to consider Wilson’s messaging about identity and personhood. This is an extraordinary work by a tantalizingly gifted writer.
— Lucy E.M. Black, author The Marzipan Fruit Basket, Eleanor Courtown, Stella’s Carpet, The Brickworks, Class Lessons: Stories of Vulnerable Youth, and A Quilting of Scars (read the full review here)