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Etherea Magazine #5

Ten wonderful pieces of speculative fiction!

Hear from Independent Author, Melanie Harding-Shaw, winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

Enjoy the amazing artwork supplied by highly talented artist Serena Malyon

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh  is reviewed by Katie McIvor

THE STORIES:

“You can try again Mr. Bridges, I know you can.” She dared a glance at his left arm, and her skin came alive with goosebumps. The limb had been severed below the elbow, and a hardened stump poked out of his shirtsleeve… – The Tolling of the Bell, by Zachary Torres

“I found this book in an antiquarian bookshop in London while I was on holiday. The bookseller said he didn’t have any book with that title on inventory. He thought I brought it in on my own. He couldn’t charge me for it, so I left with a free book along with a first edition Agatha Christie…” – The Latest Reviews of The Best Walking Tours of Faerie on ElusiveBooks.com, by Amanda Cook

“You can’t outrun the Kothaki hunters, they are mindless killing beasts, and the whole planet is covered with them.” Pek had explained this to Aaron multiple times… – Rite of Passage, by O.M. Kindel

Her new face was grown in a lab. The product was created using patented TrueYou PlasmaSkin, designed using an app on Elsie’s phone. To design a new face, the app only required a three-dimensional upload of her current face and an interactive sculpting stylus, which she’d needed to order… – TrueYou, by Tee Linden

“Lost something? Like your tongue?” Apparently unaffected by his dimples, she gave him no opportunity to wriggle out of a conversation that could lead to an unpleasant interview with a guardsman. Vasi’s mind began to swim with panic… – The Talisman Plant, by Bronwyn Venter

When Hikaru reached the gate of her city, the hummingbird bid her farewell and flew away. As she walked along the once-familiar street, charred structures razed to the ground greeted her… – Moon Over Her Realm, by Toshiya Kamei

The noise throughout the Bucket stilled again, and again all eyes were on him. And they lingered for a longer period this time, for Harbin had just conspicuously ordered the signature drink of the very class of criminal that, an hour previously, he’d been determined to make a career out of fighting… – What We’re Looking For, by Eric Lewis

…the years since Da and Mum had gone out on their boat to collect a certain type of bottom-dweller that only surfaced during storms. Bits of their boat had washed up the next morning, battered to splinters by the storm and the waves and the hidden rocks that rimmed the edge of the cove… – The Cirein-cròin, by Wendy Nikel

“It is a living thing,” he said, with ancient authority. “And it wants to go with you. It will awaken when you do good things. Please, it’s asking me to give it to you.” – The Key of Thó Alfagar by Laura J. Campbell

They decide to keep Ien’s younger sister, Nelly, and toss Ien into the ocean. They say it’s because Ien has breast cancer that has grown too large to remove and too risky to radiate. She’s going to die anyway, might as well be for a good cause… – Panacea, by Lucy Zhang