Aurealis #156

In this bumper end-of-year Aurealis issue, Dirk Strasser muses on the failed takeover of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House and the role of chance in the publishing industry. Visit the exotic and surprising fictional worlds in this issue. Scott Steensma’s ‘One Man Army’ is a laugh-out-loud blend of sardonic, melancholic and hopeful world-building; James Rowland’s ‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’ is a bold story with a fable-style opening and shifts of perspective set in a wonderfully rendered world sprinkled with grounded moments of humanity; while Andrew T Sayre’s ‘The Ambassadors’ engaging first contact story ends with a moral dilemma punch. As usual, each story features a piece of artwork from some of the best SF artists in the field. Lynne Lumsden Green continues her Pioneering SF Women series with Joan D Vinge. Gillian Polack looks at the worldbuilding in Ernest Favenc’s The Secret of the Australian Desert. In a genre where cityscapes reign supreme, Lachlan Walter looks at Science Fiction in the Suburbs. The Aurealis reviewers provide a reading list for all of us as they pick their 2022 Best Speculative Fiction Books as well as providing a cornucopia of new reviews.