Cirrus@Austlit

Australia's longest-running and most successful science-fiction/fantasy magazine, Aurealis was founded in 1990 by Stephen Higgins and Dirk Strasser. Undaunted by the continued failure of similar magazines leading up to the end of the 1980s, Higgins and Strasser aimed to provide writers in those genres with the opportunity to have their works published and to help expand the readership of Australian fantasy and science fiction. Aurealis was also established as a vehicle for identifying and promoting emerging talent. The pair were able to get the magazine off the ground through the assistance of grants from the Victorian government, thus enabling them to offer payment to contributors.

Contributors to Aurealis over the years have included significant and influential Australian writers such as George Turner, Michael Pryor, Terry Dowling, Sean Williams, Greg Egan, Sean McMullen, Lucy Sussex, and Stephen Dedman (qq.v.). The reputation of the magazine was consolidated in 1995 with the inaugural Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction for Writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Higgins and Stresser announced their intention to sell Aurealis in 2001 so that they could concentrate on Chimaera Publications (the company they set up to publish Aurealis) and other projects. However, the sale was postponed indefinitely when Keith Stevenson offered to take over their editorial duties. Since 2005, the magazine has been edited by a various of editorial teams, including the pairings of Ben Payne and Robert Hoge, and of Stephen Higgins and Stuart Mayne.

In October 2011 Dirk Strasser announced in the Editorial for No.45 that Aurealis had become an epublication.

'What happens if after the winter solstice, the days keep getting shorter?

And shorter?

'Until there is an eternal night?

'What happens as the darkness grows?

'And the creatures of dusk take control of the Mountain?

'And the quest for the third Book is the only hope?

'The Mountain is in its death throes as the Nazir send their wraiths to finish what the dusk-rats and grale had begun. Soon there will be no daylight to protect the Maelir and Faemir, and with each twilight there are fewer places to hide. Will the Mountain finally collapse under its own instability or will Atreu and Verlinden's descent find the words of salvation in the Lost Book of Ascension?' (Publication summary)

'With money in his pocket after making his fortune in the South Seas, Richard Hatteras has London at his feet. Running afoul of the deadly Dr Nikola, however, was the worst thing he could do. Soon, young Dick is swept up into a maelstrom of blackmail, hypnotism, deceit and murder, where his betrothed is in danger, his potential father-in-law’s reputation is on the brink of ruination, and his very sanity is at stake. What can a two-fisted adventurer do against the vast and cold intellect that is Dr Nikola?'

Source: Publisher's blurb, Chimaera edition.

'When two amateur archaeologists in Australia uncover a hidden high-tech tomb they inadvertently awaken a millennia-old superhuman. Does the beautiful Earani mean to save humanity or destroy it?

'A country farmer uncovers remnants of an advanced civilization that contain a woman, asleep in suspended animation for two thousand years. Upon awakening the woman Earani teleports herself into the office of the Australian Prime Minister and reveals her plans to take over the world – through mind control.

'An advanced civilization from the impossibly distant past is about to be resurrected in rural Australia. What dark secrets does it hold? Is it possible for a man to deny the requests of the world's most beautiful and intelligent woman? To fight a relentless and appealing logic no matter how horrific the consequences?

'It's rare that a novel captures a country's soul. How is it possible that a novel written almost a hundred years ago can speak to us so deeply of things that disturb and torment Australians even today? Out of the Silence is the most perplexing of novels, where during the course of the story your expectations and assumptions are turned 180 degrees.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Emily Bethal is dying. The doctors give her two years at best. It will be two years of increasing pain and dependence. It is probably the dependence that Emily fears the most. She is independent, spirited and wilful. She has strong opinions and she knows the way the world works ... but she also knows how it should work. Is the deal worth it? Yes, she will avoid the two years of suffering and has traded it for for one week of living in the future. And the future she will see? The bright shiny wonderful and miraculous world of 1988. Yes 100 years into her own future takes her back to our recent past. See the wonders that Emily sees as she experiences a world that she just knows must exist for the betterment of all man ... and womankind.'

Source: 2010 Chimaera edition

Aurealis Online was created in 2004 by Stephen Higgins and Dirk Strasser (Chimera Publications) as an adjunct to Aurealis magazine and in recognition of the global nature of science fiction and fantasy fandom. The site itself was designed by the magazine's long-time art director Andrew J. McKiernan.

The website's stated mission is to provide an opportunity to promote Australian writers within the worldwide speculative fiction community, while also offering a portal for news, links, and events and an archival repository.

This darkly comic story takes place in 1894, 'and tells of a Hungarian bank clerk, Basil Smorta, who falls hopelessly in lust with Volusia, aka 'the Australian Songbird'. He follows her across Europe in company with a group of Fundamental Darwinists led by Lord Malicide Sain. They pursue their 'Black Crusade' at first by cart and carriage, then in Ingel Brankel's Mobilator. One bizarre and gruesome adventure follows another. The Ordeal of the Five Senses in the monks' lavabo, the excruciating apotheosis of Brother Dragorian, the doting love of the Love-Vampires, the bomb-throwing police force of Orblast, the sleep-tranced villagers in Morbol Villica and the sarcophagus of the Great One, the legendary marquis himself.'

Source: Author website http://www.richardharland.net/ (Sighted 07/01/2010)