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    Aurealis #107
    Aurealis #107
    Aurealis #107
    Ebook98 pages2 hours

    Aurealis #107

    By Stephen Higgins (Editor)

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    About this ebook

    Aurealis is a showcase for the latest science fiction and fantasy from around the globe. Each issue features new fiction from emerging and established writers as well as news and reviews, and up to the minute non fiction related to the speculative fiction genre.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChimaera Publications
    Release dateFeb 7, 2018
    ISBN9781922031648
    Aurealis #107

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      Book preview

      Aurealis #107 - Stephen Higgins (Editor)

      AUREALIS #107

      Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction

      Edited by Stephen Higgins

      Published by Chimaera Publications at Smashwords

      Copyright of this compilation Chimaera Publications 2018

      Copyright on each story remains with the contributor

      EPUB version ISBN 978-1-922031-64-8

      ISSN 2200-307X (electronic)

      CHIMAERA PUBLICATIONS

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors, editors and artists.

      Hard copy back issues of Aurealis can be obtained from the Aurealis website: www.aurealis.com.au

      Contents

      From the Cloud—Stephen Higgins

      Duende—J M Donellan

      Traces—Joanne Anderton

      Sea Change—Jordan Taylor

      The Development of a Ghost: John Fisher and Australia’s Ghost Stories—Gillian Polack

      Top Five Misconceptions About Interstellar Warfare—Daniel Thompson

      Reviews

      Next Issue

      Credits

      From the Cloud

      Stephen Higgins

      I’m afraid I have reached that point where I am getting very hard to please when it comes to reading speculative fiction. Short fiction isn’t a problem I hasten to add. I get plenty of reading pleasure just looking at stories for Aurealis, however, I have been going through a phase where I have been searching for new authors to add to my novels reading list and there is not a lot that excites me. I’m not sure if this is down to me and that diminishing ‘sense of wonder’ one experiences as one ages or if the novels being published lately are just not doing it for me for some other reason. I fear it might be the former. And the only reason I say this is because I do still get a lot of pleasure from re-reading old favourites. Now, it could be argued that I am actually enjoying the nostalgic element of re-reading old favourites instead of simply experiencing that sense of wonder that comes with a good read. I am not so sure however. Over the Christmas holiday period I was desperate for a good solid read. I had a look through the new release lists and nothing tempted me. I had a look through the books in my ‘to read but not just yet’ pile and, again, nothing caught my eye. I resisted the return to a book I had read previously. I am in a Science Fiction frame of mind at present and nothing really got me excited.

      Anyway, I forced myself to read a shortish novel by an author I hadn’t read before and it was ok. Just ok. I tried a new work by an author I like and, left it after about a third of the way through. To my surprise, and I really don’t know where this came from, I picked up my old box set of Lord of the Rings. I recalled the many happy hours I had spent reading it. I imagined that, after having read it at least four times, and having seen the film version a few times, it would hold no interest for me.

      I flicked through the first chapter. I was hooked. I was totally immersed in the story just as I had been numerous times before. One aspect of this reading experience that did surprise me was how much the Peter Jackson version of Lord of the Rings had installed itself into my mind. I’m not talking about the big ticket plot changes but more the attribution of dialogue. Things I was certain one character said were uttered by another, in a different scene. All in all it was a really enjoyable experience. I have no doubt that in another ten years or so I will reread it again. Tom Bombadil still sucks though.

      Well here we go for another year of Aurealis. We have some great stories lined up so far for the few months and no doubt we will be adding to them as we go. We hope you enjoy them.

      All the best from the cloud.

      Stephen Higgins

      Back to Contents

      Duende

      J M Donellan

      You are dead, which is a problem because you had rather a lot to do today. There was the dentist’s appointment at four, although now that you think about it you’re rather glad to be able to skip out on that one. You’ve always found the idea of a human being prodding fingers in your mouth to be thoroughly medieval. Shouldn’t robots be doing that sort of thing by now? You were supposed to go grocery shopping this morning, although this too is now no longer required. The package waiting for you at the post office will be left uncollected. Gertrude—the irate septuagenarian who has served you countless times over the years and yet never remembers you and always insists on seeing ID—will eventually pick up your box of environmentally friendly toothbrushes and murmur, ‘another bloody no-show. How hard is it to walk into a post office?’ Quite hard, actually, when you’re very much deceased.

      You resolutely avoid looking down at the physical vessel that you inhabited for many years—some good, some bad, some awful—for as long as possible but eventually can’t help yourself. You’ve died a lot sooner than you’d like, but then who doesn’t really? You’re well past the prime of your youth but comfortably not yet in major physical decline. Not quite ‘die young and leave a beautiful corpse,’ perhaps more ‘die before your twilight years and leave a body that’s a little rough around the edges but overall not too shabby.’ Of course, the manner of your death isn’t exactly the ‘jumping naked out of a plane’ you’d always arrogantly insisted would be your end. Falling off a step-ladder whilst replacing a lightbulb is one of the most prosaic deaths imaginable. You feel a little embarrassed to have suffered mortal defeat at the hands of an 89-cent light bulb but honestly, you share this fate with a surprisingly large number of people so don’t beat yourself up.

      It takes you a few minutes of mentally sifting through

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