Aurealis #63

By Dirk Strasser (Editor)

Aurealis, the premier Australian magazine of speculative fiction, has been exploring new worlds for almost 25 years. It is published 10 times a year and contains new, provocative fiction and non-fiction in every issue. This month's issue brings on the aliens with Gerry Huntman's 'The Pillar of the Small God', an alien contact story featuring communication problems with an intriguing race, and a translating device that doesn't work perfectly. And Liam Pieper’s 'Prophet' provides the sort of world-within-a-world-within-a-world immersion that you may never disentangle yourself from.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chimaera Publications
• Release date: Aug 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781922031174

Dirk Strasser (Editor)

Dirk Strasser has written over 30 books for major publishers in Australia and has been editing magazines and anthologies since 1990. He won a Ditmar for Best Professional Achievement and has been short-listed for the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards a number of times. His fantasy novels – including Zenith and Equinox – were originally published by Pan Macmillan in Australia and Heyne Verlag in Germany. His children’s horror/fantasy novel, Graffiti, was published by Scholastic. His short fiction has been translated into a number of languages, and his most recent publications are “The Jesus Particle” in Cosmos magazine, “Stories of the Sand” in Realms of Fantasy and “The Vigilant” in Fantasy magazine. He founded the Aurealis Awards and has co-published Aurealis magazine for over 20 years.

Book preview

AUREALIS #63

Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction

Edited by Dirk Strasser

Published by Chimaera Publications at Smashwords

Copyright of this compilation Chimaera Publications 2013

Copyright on each story remains with the contributor.

EPUB version ISBN 978-1-922031-17-4

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 – Dirk Strasser

The Pillar of the Small God – Gerry Huntman

Prophet – Liam Pieper

From the Archives: The SF Hall of Fame – E Freeport Rickenbacker

Second-hand Reality: Philip K. Dick and Bookstores on a Budget in San Francisco – Ben O'Mara

Reviews

Next Issue

Credits

From the Cloud

Dirk Strasser

Have you ever wondered what would happen if Earth was threatened by an alien race? Would all the petty emphasis on differences between us suddenly melt into solidarity for the human race? Would our unease with the otherness of tribes outside our own tribe lessen, while we focus on the aliens, and would our recognition of our sameness with all members of humanity magnify?

I suspect it would.

Not so good for the aliens, but a good outcome for us, I think.

A couple of recent events prompted me to think about this.

The first was the social media abuse at the first Muslim Minister in Australia's Federal Parliament, Ed Husic, swearing his oath of office on the Koran.

Some of the posts included: 'Labor you are disgusting, undermining our culture and country and constitution in this way', and 'I am totally disgusted!! Sharia Law next on your agenda is it?' Ed's response was dignified and measured, saying, 'There are people that are definitely extreme inside my faith and outside it and they will always seek ways to try and divide people. But it is important to not jump because of harsh words in dark corners.'

Why do we still have these 'harsh words in dark corners' filtering through our world and trying to divide us?

The second event that prompted me to think about the benefits of an alien threat was an unsettling Guest of Honour speech by the American SF novelist N K Jemisin at the recent Continuum in Melbourne. It began with the words 'My father was afraid for me to come to Australia.' Her father, she said, 'grew up in Alabama… dodging dogs and fire hoses turned on him and other Civil Rights protesters by infamous police Chief Bull Connor.' Her speech was far-ranging and more nuanced than I can do justice to here (the full transcript of her speech is on her blog), but the context for her father's fear was his studies of civil rights struggles around the world. She said, 'He understood that a nation which classified its indigenous people as animals less than fifty years ago might not be the safest place for a woman like me… with brown skin and a big nose and a tendency to tell people to fuck off when they get on my nerves.'

The vast majority of Australians would be mortified by anyone being fearful of coming to Australia. The White Australia policy and the treatment of Aborigines is an embarrassment of our history, isn’t it?. Can't we just leave it behind and forget about it? It doesn't have any bearing on modern Australia. If N K Jemisin could just spend some time here she'll see what we're really like.

And yet she was still fearful, only offering the qualification: 'This is not a safe country for people of colour. It's better than it was, certainly, but… well. Still got a ways to go… Now, before you tar and feather me, let me tell you something else I've come to understand in the past three days: Australia may not be the safest place for someone who looks like me… but it's trying to become safer.'

So, even in the 21st century, in what must be one of the most multi-cultural countries on Earth, the evidence of Ed Husic and N K Jemisin suggests there are still disturbing elements in Australia that are hostile to what they