fantasy in this issue top fiction from emilie collyer matthew r ward and jen white . great non fiction from lachlan walter and gillian polack . quality all round . read extracts edited by michael pryor buy this issue or subscribe from the cloud editorial danger to society by emilie collyer about emilie collyer emilie collyer has a lifelong obsession with creating imagined worlds . she splits her writing time between fiction and theatre . her stories have been published in dimension6 allegory cosmic vegetable torpedo and thirteen stories among others . she has two collections published with clan destine press and has twice won the cross genre category in the scarlett stilettos . her sci fi play the good surfing time by matthew r ward about matthew r ward matthew r ward is a yorkshireman who moved to australia when he discovered that sunshine feels nice . he has written magazine articles songs a self published web comic and a number of critically acclaimed shopping lists but this is his first professionally published short story . matthew has never attempted to surf and doesn t think it would be a good idea to start now . the least of things by jen white about jen white jen greatest desire growing up was to become an astronaut and eventually owning her own spaceship . somehow she became a writer instead . jen lived for some time in the northern territory and now lives in country victoria finding inspiration in the vibrancy and mystery of the australian environment . jen s stories have appeared in magazines such as andromeda spaceways inflight magazine and dimension apocalypse soon ish is climate fiction the new black by lachlan walter about lachlan walter lachlan walter is a writer and nursery hand the garden kind not the baby kind and has completed a phd that critically and creatively explored the relationship between australian post apocalyptic fiction and australian notions of national identity . he writes science fiction criticism for both aurealis magazine and its offshoot blog reviews for the independent weird music website cyclic defro brumby adventures in space the science fiction of mary elwyn patchett by gillian polack about gillian polack gillian polack is a writer editor and historian . she had four novels currently published and her second novel ms cellophane momentum was shortlisted for a ditmar . she has edited two anthologies and has seventeen short stories published some to very mild fanfare some not . she teaches writing at the anu at various writers centres and to members of other professional writers organisations a from the cloudmichael pryor in past editorials we ve discussed the sorts of stories that we ve seen too much of . time now to give potential authors a line on the sorts of stories aurealis hasn t seen enough of over twenty five years . pets in space . self explanatory really . the importance of sewage and water treatment in fantasy cities . alien invasions where the aliens turn out to be performance artists . steampunk that really focusses on kettles . in both fantasy and science fiction . some out there cross genre stuff . horror cookbook for instance . or self help fantasy . instead of the hero s journey what about the hero stays at home and does much needed maintenance around the house join the dots but in a mature adult fantasy sf way . lesser known crafts being part of magic . lace making for instance . or tie dying . heroic editors editing an independent speculative magazine for more than two decades . could definitely enjoy one of those . all the best from the cloud . michael pryor from danger to societyemilie collyer this is cat zenith about to step outside for my very own moon landing . one small step for woman . one giant leap in these awesome red boots check these babies out cat moved her palm camera down to capture her boots then back up to her face . she did a quick thumbs up before securing her helmet . there was no need to land on the actual surface of course . they could have docked at the gaf landing bay . but cat knew what made good television . her suit was by gaultier galactic and looked fabulous . they touched down at the sea of tranquillity not far from where the first manned moon landing had taken place the previous century . from surfing timematthew r ward i spotted baz sitting on the low wall that separated the beach from the real world . he was gazing out over the ocean into the remains of the sunset . the sky was a slowly darkening pink spattered with clouds turning a deep shade of gold . hey bazza baz what happened to you i waved as i called out but baz didn t respond . i slid down onto the wall next to him and studied the golden sea for a moment listening to the waves sliding softly up and down the sand and enjoying the taste of the salty air on my lips . baz where were you you missed the surfing final from the least of thingsjen white april had not meant to say much at all not about anything personal at any rate . she had only gone in for blood pressure tablets something she did every few months . but it had all spilled out embarrassingly with merely one questioning look from irene her doctor as if somewhere within she had been awaiting an opportunity any opportunity for it to pour out of her . unable to find the motivation to buy food to cook april had hardly eaten for days . when she wasn t working she slept . could barely concentrate enough to read one page . she who had easily managed two books a day in her prime . or perhaps it had been the photographs in the surgery of irene s son and daughter two primary school aged children in their uniforms gazing out at the world with an eagerness that was heartbreaking . such hope such belief shining in their eyes . how was that possible had she ever felt that and out it had all come . from apocalypse soon ish is climate fiction the new black lachlan walter it is unarguable that science fiction is intimately connected to the real world . now this may seem like a contradiction one of the defining features of the genre is that its worlds are expressly disconnected from our own be they via futuristic settings uber advanced technology or a combination of the two but as the renowned science fiction critic heather urbanski said science fiction is the literature of the reality we live in . however this reality we live in isn t always merely connected to the work of science fiction at hand but can also be commented on in a process similar to that of realist fiction think of joseph conrad s heart of darkness and colonialism ; or jack kerouac s on the road and the beat generation ; or christos tsoilkas the slap and 21st century australian life . from brumby adventures in space the science fiction of mary elwyn patchettgillian polack one of the most prolific of the professional australian science fiction writers before 1970 is better known for novels about bush adventures than for her science fiction . her brumby books like those of elyne mitchell still have an international following . typical of these books are the brumby 1958 come home brumby 1961 which was my own introduction to her novels and ajax and the haunted mountain 1969 . yet of mary elwyn patchett s fifty four novels at least seven were science fiction . from the archives story monday child by c s mcmullen story abode patty jansen review the books of ascension trilogy by dirk strasser alex stevenson review a week in the future by catherine helen spence russell blackford story rolling for fetch jason fischer feature e publishing an hour with greig beck crisetta macleod review the extinction gambit by michael pryor carissa thorp review the shrieking pit by arthur j. rees russell blackford feature trilogies and more why one fantasy book is never enough crisetta macleod story love death andrew j mckiernan view all closing of submissionsseptember 16 2016 due to a large number of submissions aurealis will be closing to short story submissions from 1 october 2016 and will be opening again on 1 february 2017 . march 31 2016 by dirk strasser leave a comment apocalypse soon ish a fresh look at godzilla 2014 by lachlan walter hype can be a terrible thing . too much of it can induce familiarity and fatigue so that by the time the product arrives the best of a bad word the film tv show book whatever we re already a bit over it and hence our desire to see or read it is diminished ; too little can consign the product to obscurity forcing it to live in the margins and reach only a cult audience . and then there is hype s symbiotic twin expectation . too much hype can raise our expectations so high that they can t possibly be met ; too little means that our faith in the filmmaker or writer can be lessened . if they don t believe in their product enough to thoroughly raise our expectations and make us excited to experience their story then why should we bother with it nowhere is the fomenting and creation of expectation more fraught than when a filmmaker or writer approaches a bygone fiction with the intention of re presenting it for contemporary audiences and there can be no more volatile bygone fictions than those that have transcended their genres to become pop culture staples . in terms of science fiction think of star wars and star trek dr who king kong and so on . these are fictions whose characters and ideas have become ingrained in our collective pop culture consciousness think of the fact that people around the world declare their religion as jedi or that the suffix zilla has been adopted to describe anything monstrous and unstoppable most notoriously in the derogatory bridezilla . all of this brings us in a roundabout way to godzilla 2014 . expectations were immediately heightened when it was announced that gareth edwards the director of the serious and thoughtful giant monster movie monsters 2010 would be making an american version of this pop culture icon . there was a feeling that this version would be faithful and that it wouldn t be a mockery unlike the americans first attempt back in the 1990s . these expectations were raised higher as its release date drew closer and the hype grew set photos and teasers and trailers hinted at the potential of greatness of a sense of scale and menace hitherto unseen . but godzilla himself is quite a contradictory character ranging from a destructive and vengeful symbol of humanity s nuclear folly to a child friendly defender of the earth whose high kicks wrestling grapples and karate chops would be the envy of any mma master . and so expectations weren t just high but were also scattered unfocussed and ultimately self defeating . there is no one godzilla and so there can be no one godzilla movie . it s no wonder then that godzilla 2014 polarised general audiences fans and critics . which is a bit of a shame because looking back at it now that the hype has died down edwards take on this icon is insightful subtle serious and truly respectful of the character s sombre origins . there are three distinct factors that i believe make godzilla 2014 this way . the first of these is in the subtle insinuation that the appearance of both the mutos