Aurealis #89

by Dirk Strasser (Editor), David Versace, Adrik Kemp

Aurealis #89 opens with a haunting image of ghosts reburying their dead at low tide from David Versace ‘The Lighthouse at Cape Defeat’, then moves through the gentle organic world-building of Adrik Kemp’s ‘Blossom Fall’ and finally onto Heidi Kneale’s intriguing steampunkish ‘How He Wound Up’. This issue also features two bonus stories: the winners of the Contact2016 short story competition, ‘The Ants Go Marching’ by Jeffrey Paul and ‘Synthetic Corruption’ by Sam Johnson. Dirk Strasser looks at the uncomfortable truth about how much fiction writers earn. Chris Large interviews John Flanagan, the Australian author of the New York Times bestselling Ranger’s Apprentice and Brotherband books. Lachlan Walter dissects postcolonial science fiction and Peter Docker’s The Waterboys set in an apocalyptic drought-stricken future Australia. The Secret History of Australia continues with the story of Adeline Strife’s strident pursuit of greatness, and the issue closes with the usual reviews of the latest speculative fiction releases.

ebook

Published April 2, 2016

About the author

Dirk Strasser has won multiple Australian Publisher Association Awards and a Ditmar for Best Professional Achievement. His mythic fantasy series, The Books of Ascension, has been republished by Macmillan Momentum, this time including Eclipse – The Lost Book of Ascension for the first time in English. His novels and short stories have been translated into a number of languages. He also founded the Aurealis Awards and has co-edited and co-published Aurealis magazine for over twenty years.

Reviews

[Chris Fellows · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit that I only bought this because the first story in it is by my old mate Dave. I was pleased to find, however, that all the stories in it were agreeable.

I especially liked Adrik Kemp’s “Blossom Fall”: An action-free, violence-free tale that proceeds at the leisurely pace of communication between worlds in a universe that obeys the laws of physics. It has a lovely otherworldly atmosphere and is the perfect length to leave the reader wanting more.

The other two science-fiction stories in the volume, winners of a short story competition with the theme “Close Contact”, are both instances of the time-honoured ‘mankind meddling with things it ought not to have’ trope, but are both well done. Jeffrey Paul’s “The Ants Go Marching” is a grey-goo Apocalypse full of beautifully realised Australian social and physical landscapes, while in form and content Sam Johnson’s “Synthetic Corruption” is very like Cordwainer Smith (which I consider a good thing).

Heidi Kneale’s “How He Wound Up” is another ‘mankind meddling with things it ought not to have’ tale, set this time in a fantasy universe, and is in many ways the most interesting of the three storeis dealing with this trope, because of the subtle and non-judgmental way the author treats the meddling. The monstrousness of the protagonists’ means is dealt with brusquely in passing. The monstrousness of their ends is left as an exercise for the reader, to dawn on us slowly as we realise that what we were primed to think of as a happy ending is in fact nothing of the sort.

As for my old mate Dave’s story, “The Lighthouse at Cape Defeat”, it has a location that vividly impressed itself on my imagination and protagonists that seemed to come with whole novels of unspoken backstory: I should like to read other vignettes from their lives at some time. As a convert to monarchism relatively late in life, I read in it the congenial moral that throwing down kings only lets loose more primal and terrible tyrannies. Perhaps I am only thinking this way because it is May 2016 as I write this.

I have seen the “Rangers Apprentice” books kicking around the house, so found the interview with their author John Flanagan worthwhile. And... I only skimmed the book reviews, for none of them (the books reviewed, or the reviews themselves) seized my imagination; and I skipped the essay on postcolonial science fiction for fear it might annoy me. No, wait: I was actually intrigued by the narrative arc of J. B. Rockwell’s “Serengeti” as described in the review, and may look that book up.

[Matthew Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the strongest issue of Aurealis I've read in a while. I love the new three-stories-per-issue format - started this year, up from two per issue. And #89 came with bonus stories from Contact 2016 Competition winners.

David Versace's 'The Lighthouse at Cape Defeat' throws a couple of wonderfully obsessive characters together reluctantly to solve a possibly Ministry shattering puzzle. But I always enjoy the struggle of enlightenment against the might of enforced ignorance.

Adrik Kemp's 'Blossom Fall' is a beautiful, languid love story. The concept of an interstellar-distance love affair, via subluminal-speed correspondence, played out magnificently.

Heidi Kneale's 'How He Wound Up' was another battle between enlightened few and the oppressive status quo, but delivered up in a world where all living things are clockwork.

The two Contact 2016 Competition winners were great reads as well. Jeffrey Paul's 'The Ants Go Marching' struck a chord with me - a father trying to protect what's left of his family in the face of a seemingly inevitable apocalypse. And while Sam Johnson's 'Synthetic Corruption' didn't quite leave a lasting impression, I wish I could have written that well at age eighteen.

Five strong spec fiction stories for the price of three. What more could you ask for?

[Dave Versace · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Declaration of bias - I have a story in this one. But Adrik Kemp's story is beautiful, and the rest of the issue is to the usual high standard)

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the vivid imagery in Dave Versace's The Lighthouse at Cape Defeat.