Aurealis #115

In this issue Dirk Strasser looks at the intensely private portal books that opened up reading for each of us. Clive McAlpin’s ‘The Spoils’ transports us to a truly alien yet strangely recognisable Australia. In the hard science fiction story with heart, ‘The Empty Quarter’, Jai Baidell takes us to a planet evacuated by humans after indigenous life forms have reasserted themselves, while Pierce Skinner’s ‘Sacrifice’ drags us kicking and screaming to place where the only choice is between two sorts of devils: ones we know are real, and ones we would rather not think about. David F Ellrod looks at the disturbing parallels in H P Lovecraft’s life and fiction, and Gillian Polack explores ‘What We Take for Granted: the Australian Fantastical Imagination and Ida Rentoul Outhwaite’. We review A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White, Time Was by Ian McDonald, Tree Spirit and Other Stories by Michael Eisele, The Biggerers by Amy Lilwall, War Cry by Brian McClellan, What the Woods Keep by Katya de Becerra, The Queen of Crows by Myke Cole, and Thylacines by Deborah Sheldon.