Aurealis #175

In his Editorial in Aurealis #175, Dirk Strasser explores how the interaction between the Familiarity and Novelty Effects plays a crucial role in book choices, where readers simultaneously crave the comfort of the familiar and the frisson of the new. Fiction in this issue includes Conor Scanlan’s tense Kaiju-inspired ‘Sui Generis’ (illustrated by Lynette Watters) which opens a fascinating window into another culture. Rodney J Smith’s ‘The Black Rain of Cerebor’ (illustrated by Andrew Saltmarsh) explores non-linear time through the narrative structure of a circling drain around a fixed event. Nigel Brown’s concise, impactful ‘The Rescue’ (illustrated by Simon Walpole ) is inspired by the extraordinary Cassini mission to Saturn. In this issue’s first non-fiction piece, Gillian Polack examines genre elements of Ivan Southall’s Simon Black series. Claire Fitzpatrick looks at ‘Dystopian Novels That Came True’, while Ani White explores ‘Chucky and the Ethics of Queer Transgression’. Rounding off the issue are fifteen reviews of speculative fiction, ranging from Nosferatu Unbound edited by Steven Paulsen and Christopher Sequeira (IFWG Publishing International) reviewed by Chris Foster and ending with Dave Jeffery’s collection Mood Swings (Black Shuck Books) reviewed by Eugen Bacon.