Aurealis #84

By Stephen Higgins (Editor)

Aurealis is Australia's premier speculative fiction magazine. Over the years it has published the best new fiction from established and new writers. Each issue is packed with great stories, articles, interviews and reviews. This issue features new fiction from D.J. Daniels and Tracie McBride. Aurealis is the best place to read the best speculative fiction. There are ten issues every year and it is easy to subscribe. Visit us at aurealis.com.au for more information.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chimaera Publications
• Release date: Sep 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781922031402

Book preview

AUREALIS #84

Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction

Edited by Stephen Higgins

Published by Chimaera Publications at Smashwords

Copyright of this compilation Chimaera Publications 2015

Copyright on each story remains with the contributor.

EPUB version ISBN 978-1-922031-40-2

ISSN 2200-307X (electronic)

CHIMAERA PUBLICATIONS

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Hard copy back issues of Aurealis can be obtained from the Aurealis website:

www.aurealis.com.au

Contents

From the Cloud—Stephen Higgins

Suburban Canticle—DJ Daniels

Breaking Windows—Tracie McBride

Dissecting SF—Super Without the Hero—Lachlan Walter

Secret History of Australia—Annabelle Ritter—Researched by Stephen Higgins

Interview: Thoraiya Dyer—Chris Large

Reviews

Next Issue

Credits

From the Cloud

Stephen Higgins

I just got a new car.

‘So what?’ you might ask.

Well if you let me get to the point I will tell you. Honestly, some people. Anyway, I got a new car. I bought a Jeep. No I didn’t really, but that is a hell of an advertising campaign. My three-year-old niece keeps telling everyone that she bought a Jeep. I did look at Jeeps, but I ended up with something else altogether. Where was I… Oh yeah, new car. Anyway it has all this stuff which a year or two ago was pretty impressive, but these days is just standard; rear view camera, satellite navigation with voice recognition, Bluetooth connectivity and all that. How did I come to choose this car? I used the internet. I browsed new cars on my ipad and once I had put my details on a couple of sites I discovered I had tons of new friends who were very keen to message and phone me.

Anyway, to get to the point of all this, at around the same time as I was researching cars, I wanted something to read and I grabbed an old Philip K. Dick novel. I went through a ‘Phildickian’ phase a few years ago and got everything he put out. Lots of great stuff and a few duds, but that’s prolific authors for you. The main character read the news electronically on his homeopape and they had all sorts of wonderful gadgets and instruments on their fantastic cars. Now I know it is a bit of an old chestnut to discuss speculative fiction and all of the wonderful things it has predicted, but I still get a buzz out of how much things have changed in just the last few years. I have mentioned the fact that I am a teacher here before and my job has changed incredibly in ten years. Kids are still kids of course, but how we deliver content in class is changing and how the students socialise is changing. I guess the thing that intrigues me is, where to from here? If speculative fiction encourages some writers to theorise about future technologies, what is on the cards for ten years from now? Or twenty? Once I would have wondered what things would be like a hundred years hence but now I think twenty is plenty.

Might be a good idea for one of Aurealis’ ‘Specials.’

Back to Contents

Suburban Canticle

DJ Daniels

The woman in the school office made me fill out a late form. We were only ten minutes late. It’d be twenty minutes before all the drama was over. I added a squiggle to the end of my signature just to spite her: the form would be lost in the course of the morning.

I watched my daughter run to her classroom with the all-important late note. Lily’s bag banged on her back and her hat fell off before she was half way there. Her ponytail was already coming undone. She turned and gave me a wave as if she had all the time in the world. She was right of course.

Some of the mothers,