Dirk Strasser’s historical fantasy novel Conquist (Roundfire Books) was published on 1 September 2024. See what all the fuss is about.
This time they invaded a new world that refused to be conquered.
In this issue
Aurealis #185 - rich, rare and exhilarating!
Read extracts
Edited by
Michael Pryor
From the Cloud
The Moon in SF
With the recent eclipse, Aurealis has been turning its mind to the great lunar-related SF novels. Here’s a selection.
1. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Robert A Heinlein. Heinlein’s libertarian dream, revolutions and liberty, aided by an AI that just wants to be a real boy.
2. The First Men in the Moon. HG Wells. The first men in the moon are stranded, get lost in the wilds of a lunar jungle, and meet intelligent, cave dwelling beings. Wow.
3. Sea of Tranquility. Emily St John Mandel. In the end, a colony on the moon is a dark place to be.
4. A Fall of Moondust. Arthur C Clarke. Lunar tourism goes bad, rescue is launched, things go wrong in a hostile environment. Almost writes itself.
5. Red Moon. Kim Stanley Robinson. A cross-cultural lunar murder mystery. What’s not to like?
Read any or all of these by the light of the full moon and a wonderful time is guaranteed for all.
All the best from the cloud!
Michael Pryor
From Birdie
Somewhere between the end and the new beginning, Jesse golfed through the ruined streets of Naarm.
He took no notice of the steel coffins towering over him and focused on hitting the ball with his bent driver. The ball bounced off destroyed cars, gutters and walls. Each hit reverberated a hollow sound that shimmered an echo through the broken monuments of a bygone era.
From Catch and Consume
I was twenty-six when my boyfriend stood up from a dead sleep and left for the nearest body of water. In the early days, it was unnerving the way they’d grab their rods and bait and blindly grapple for door handles and steering wheels, deaf to the questions of ‘Where are you going? Why now?’ Then, spotlights, blinding white across beaches and lakes, illuminating a new normal.
From Hooked
“Do you want to touch it?”
I did not want to touch it. I knew it would be hard and unyielding, like a polished bone clamped to the wrong side of her body.
From Frankenstein in Pop Culture: From 1910 to Now (part 3)
Although the depiction of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s Monster had been an iconic pop culture reference for over a century, between the 1950s and 1980s, the image of the bolt-headed Monster moved away from Universal Pictures and into mainstream pop culture.
From Unholy union: Inchoate rage drives biomechanical change in Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
How many films have captured the quality of nightmare?
From Exceptions to Reality – An Interview with Alan Dean Foster Part 2
Alan Dean Foster is first and foremost a storyteller.