Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 137 (October 2021)

LIGHTSPEED is a digital science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF-and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales. Welcome to issue 137 of LIGHTSPEED! We're starting off the month with a memo-a science fictional memo, and lucky for all of you, it's by the hilarious Gene Doucette. Not everyone can make an apocalypse funny, but we think "Memoranda from the End of the World" will have you chuckling to the bitter end. Our other original SF short comes from Yang-Yang Wang, whose story "Every Single Brian" digs into the painful and personal realm of human cloning. E. Catherine Tobler brings us a riveting SF flash piece in "Those Who Went." Our reprint is "Tidings" by Rich Larson, from Grist Magazine's recent Imagine 2200 climate fiction publication. On the fantasy side of the magazine, we're taking you all back to P H Lee's the Great Sweet Sea for their new novelette "The Ash-Girl and the Salmon Prince." This fairy tale of family, love, and loss is so much fun we're serializing it over the course of two weeks. Our fantasy flash piece is the tremendously affecting story "The Right Dragon," from Coral Alejandra Moore. Our reprint is Endria Isa Richardson's "The Black Menagerie. Our nonfiction team has put together a great selection of author spotlights and book reviews. We also have an excerpt from Ryka Aoki's new novel, LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS. It's another terrific issue-thanks for reading!