Aurealis“Mirrorsong” by Leon D. Furze
“Enough Builders” by Jennie Del Mastro
“Channeling Ernest” by Ian Pohl
Reviewed by Kevin P Hallett
The 148th issue of Aurealis has three original short stories.
“Mirrorsong” by Leon D. Furze
After the climatic disaster, she’s all that’s left of her family in this short SF. Everything is too much effort as she battles with the water pump each day. But no matter what she does, the water only gets browner, and the pile of spam cans gets smaller.
She should risk the angels and try to get to town. But the heat wears her down and convinces her she’ll never make it past the mailbox. Still, she should try, shouldn’t she?
The author found a way to get into the protagonist’s head to make a chilling story out of too hot a climate.
“Enough Builders” by Jennie Del Mastro
Madeleine mourns her lost husband, Caleb, in this character-centric short fantasy. Caleb was a Breaker who accidentally broke himself, and Madeleine is a Builder who was too far away to rebuild Caleb in time. But now, she has become a Breaker too.
Soon she is a danger to everything around her, even to herself. Things quickly come to a head when she destroys part of her house as she sleeps, dreaming of Caleb.
This story held the reader’s attention as the author slowly revealed its mysteries, trapping the reader in Madeleine’s dilemma from the beginning.
“Channeling Ernest” by Ian Pohl
“Channeling Ernest” is a short science fiction story that follows Sean Shackleton’s efforts to survive a catastrophe on Europa’s ice-bound surface. Sean channels his famous ancestor and explorer as he escapes from his lander when an ice avalanche traps it.
With no radio, it’s up to him to find a way to break from the grip of the icy moon’s weak gravity to be rescued. But it seems that everything he tries can only get him partway to safety. He must pull on his family’s motto to keep enduring regardless.
The author dove deep into the mechanisms of how to cobble together things to have a chance at rescue. However, these excruciating details don’t always make for a compelling read.
You can follow Kevin P Hallett’s writing on www.kevinphallett.com