In this issue Dirk Strasser looks at the recent Genre Effect study which exposes a self-fulfilling bias among literary readers against science fiction. Sarah Napier's story, 'Fail', is an uncompromising near future examination of how we might deal with virtual infidelity in the face of ever-evolving technologies. In 'A Figure in the Haze', Rebecca Boyle explores the horror of ordinary people being lured into corruption and how they rationalise their actions, while James Rowland's 'The Glassblower's Peace' conjures some unusual magic in Renaissance Venice. In our non-fiction Gillian Polack walks the Australian Gothic trail, Lachlan Walter explores psychological science fiction and our fascination with inner space, and the usual reviews of recently-released speculative fiction books round off this issue.
