'This is the first epublication of Aurealis magazine. It's been 21 years, almost to the day, since Stephen Higgins and I published the very first issue. For over 20 years Aurealis has been trapped inside the physical world of hard copy. Up until issue #44, the magazine has been confined by paper pages and the three dimensions of the book format. Now we've escaped. And there's no going back. We believe a publication devoted to fantasy and science fiction should be at the forefront of change. So here we are...With this first issue of the new world Aurealis, we are merging AurealisXpress and Aurealis magazine with what will become a monthly emag that combines the quality new fiction and non-fiction of Aurealis with the up-to-date reviews and information of AurealisXpress.'

• Editorial 'From the Cloud' by Dirk Strasser