Capitán Cristóbal de Varga's drive for glory and gold in 1538 Peru leads him and his army of conquistadors into a New World that refuses to be conquered. He is a man torn by life-long obsessions and knows this is his last campaign. What he doesn't know is that his Incan allies led by the princess Sarpay have their own furtive plans to make sure he never finds the golden city of Vilcabamba. He also doesn't know that Héctor Valiente, the freed African slave he appointed as his lieutenant, ha...

This issue of the Australian magazine of fantasy, science fiction and horror, edited by Dirk Strasser, is our first special Aurealis Award Winners issue. 'Rains of la Strange' by Robert N Stephenson, an action-packed story set in a richly-realised milieu, won Best Science Fiction Short Story. Lisa L Hannett's 'The Short Go' was the joint winner in the Best Horror Short Story category.

Welcome aboard the good ship Aurealis on its second speculative voyage for this year. In his Editorial, Dirk Strasser road-tests two AIs—one text-to-image and one text-to-text—that have exploded into the public consciousness in recent months. On the fiction front we discover the bizarre ways in which societies can react to threats in Robinne Weiss' 'Section 7.3', a novel concept of Death in Patrick Axford's 'Buttons', and the Shakespearean subversion of the idea of the evil corporation in ...

In his Editorial in Aurealis #159, Dirk Strasser asks the question: 'Does the wave of AIs with natural language capabilities herald the end of fiction?'—and provides some intriguing answers. Three human-created stories follow. In 'A Dead World Wakens', Amy Dawn Buchan has a unique take on a post-apocalyptic Earth, combining the concept with alien colonisation and the ethical conundrum of reviving an extinct species. J R Dunbar's 'The Bridge from the City Midst' is a thoughtful tale of the ...

We have lift off for 2023. Aurealis has once again blasted through the exosphere and is exploring new worlds of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Join us for Madeline Byrne's 'Song of the Spear', a tightly braided historical fantasy inspired by Norse and Celtic mythologies. Stay for 'The Momentum of a Library Card Between Spaces' where Anthony Sweet explores the human cost of faster-than-light technology and asks the question, 'What could an individual agree to or suffer through to enab...

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 render...

Join us for our August issue Aurealis #193 where Kaaron Warren curses the darkness as she dissects why she loves horror in her guest editorial. Jocasta Suzanne and Maddison Stoff combine to give you 'The Map and Territory', an intriguing alien-contact story with a clever take on philosophy's role in science fiction. Reunite with Kaaron Warren to see how the horror cruise story idea in her editorial comes to life (or is it death?) in 'Song of the Stormy Petrel'. Neurocleric's 'Treasure Moon...

What's the longest SF novel ever written? You may be surprised by the answer in Dirk Strasser's Editorial in Aurealis #155. Take a deep dive into the speculative depths of the latest issue. Baden M Chant's ethereal, and elegiac 'The Winding-Sheet' asks, does it matter if we can upload our memories if we must die anyway? Greg Foyster's 'Shitmining' is a futuristic reimagining of the 'Guano Age' mashed with Peruvian legend. Jared Millet's 'Bigger Fish' is a story that will hook you with its ...

Aurealis #146 rounds off another year of fine speculative fiction and non-fiction by the Aurealis team. Kick off your fiction reading with the nightmarish, toothy horror of Verity Borthwick's 'The Tannfé'. Then move onto Maria Lewis' 'The House That Hungers', a part haunted house story, part revenge fantasy, part omigod-when-are-we-ever-gonna-get-out-of-this-shit wish fulfilment spawned from so many of us forced to do battle with the confines of the walls around us. And finally taste Caitl...

Aurealis #145 kicks off with Dirk Strasser looking at the phenomenon of the mega-seller in speculative fiction with a focus on Stephen King. West Australian writer Carol Ryles' opening story 'She Who Played for Morrocks' explores the relationships and misunderstandings between different species of human. John Higgins serves up a tense, creepy tale in 'The List', while Clark Lewis' classy and engaging 'The Corner of Seventh and Marino' riffs on the strange and unbelievable things that can h...

Aurealis 144 is bursting at the seams with speculative fiction wonders, from the mysterious encounters in Devil-May-Care by Michael Gardner, the quirky and ingenious Ask Bernard by Greg Foyster to the subtle and well-crafted worldbuilding of Pygmalion by J D Moyer. Our compelling non-fiction includes an interview with writer G R Matthews plus Lachlan Walter's timely investigation of Indigenous Australian Science Fiction. Of course, we always have a huge Reviews section and our internal art...

In this issue of Australia's iconic Aurealis magazine, Nick Marone explores the themes longevity, self-determination, and the issue of disposable commodities in his poignant 'The House of Time'. Chris Catlin's does a clever science fictional rewrite of the classic Sisyphus myth in 'CSFS', while Grant Longstaff creeps us all out with the granddaddy of haunted forest stories, 'The Forest Abyss'.