Welcome to issue nineteen of Lightspeed!

Some big news this month: Lightspeed (and our sister magazine, Fantasy) has a new publisher—and it’s me, your humble editor, John Joseph Adams. Our founding publisher, Sean Wallace, decided that he needed to devote more time to his book publishing company, Prime Books, and since I already edit both magazines, I was the natural choice to be his successor. I’m excited to pick up where Sean left off, and I look forward to helming the magazines far into the future.

I officially begin my tenure as publisher with the January 2012 issue, so this is our last issue under the Prime Books banner. But rest assured: Under the new regime, we’ll still be bringing you the same quality science fiction that you’ve come to expect from Lightspeed.

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We do, however, have some fairly major changes in store:

First, we’ll be merging our sister magazine, Fantasy, into Lightspeed. But never fear: We won’t be doing away with any of Lightspeed’s fiction; each issue of the combined magazine will contain Lightspeed’s four science fiction stories and four fantasy stories from Fantasy. We won’t be reducing the number of stories, or replacing any Lightspeed content with Fantasy content; this will be a true merger.

Second, in order to focus more on the fiction side of the magazine, we’re going to cut down on our nonfiction. Going forward, we will cease publication of the related nonfiction articles accompanying each story and instead publish only two feature interviews per issue. We will, however, still have our usual assortment of author spotlights.

Third, since we’re doubling the amount of fiction in each issue, we’re going to raise the price of our ebooks—but not by double: We’ll be raising the price to just $3.99. So you’ll be getting twice as much fiction, for just a dollar more per issue.

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And lastly, because we’re in this time of transition, I thought now would be a good time to do a reader survey, to let us get a better idea of who you all are, what you enjoy most about our content, and how you tend to access it, along with general demographic information. If you’d like to participate—and enter for a chance to win a free subscription to Lightspeed from Weightless Books—go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/lightspeed-fantasy-2011-survey and fill it out. It should only take about five to ten minutes of your time. The survey ends December 15, 2011, so don’t delay—and thanks in advance!

So! Exciting times here at Lightspeed. Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

December 6

Vylar Kaftan returns to Lightspeed with "The Sighted Watchmaker," a story about a being coming face-to-face with her race’s long-dead creator, and the choice it must make as it guides its own creation to sentience.

In our feature interview this month, Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, joins us to discuss working with Dave McKean, being friends with Douglas Adams, and whether or not a human can mate with a chimp.

December 13

In "After the Days of Dead-eye 'Dee," author Pat Cadigan introduces us to a tough old woman who has been pushed aside one time too many, and the alien who dares to approach her.

Jeff Lester explores the science of telepathy in his article “Science (and Swindlers) Can Read Your Mind.”

December 20

Andrew Penn Romine makes his professional debut with "The Parting Glass," in which an aging Augment gets the chance of a lifetime--but the price might be more than advertised when he considers the source.

Nigel Wilson sets up a tournament for the ages, which pits famous cyborgs against each other, in “Cyborg vs. Cyborg.”

December 27

Arthur C. Clarke gives us the story of Captain Robert Singh, tasked with averting world-wide disaster from an asteroid strike in "The Hammer of God."

And finally, in “Armageddon Rock,” writer/astrophysicist Alan Smale explains what the odds are that the Earth will be destroyed by a giant rock from space.

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue eighteen of Lightspeed!

No news to report this month, but by the time this issue comes out, I will have already won (or lost) one (or two) World Fantasy Awards; at press time, however, my fate was still unknown. So until the end of October, think of them as Schrödinger's Awards—until one of you looks up the winners, I'm in a superposition: I've both won and lost the awards until you observe the results, thereby forcing the quantum waveform to collapse and my cat to huff some poisonous gas. Or something like that.

Finally, after months of teasing you with the forthcoming release date, the Lightspeed: Year One anthology, collecting all of the fiction we published in our first year (from June 2010-May 2011), is out this month (so order now!). And remember, all of our content will still be available on lightspeedmagazine.com; this will just be yet another way for readers to find and discover Lightspeed.

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

November 1

Martian folklore is brought to life in Lisa Nohealani Morton's powerful debut, "How Maartje and Uppinder Terraformed Mars (Marsmen Trad.)."

Then, writer/astrophysicist Alan Smale explains how to actually terraform Mars in his article "Planetary Alchemy."

November 8

Maureen McHugh brings us a story of an AI discovered in an unlikely place, by an unlikely heroine, in "The Kingdom of the Blind."

In our feature interview this month, China Miéville, author of Perdido Street Station and The City & The City, joins us to discuss Dungeons & Dragons, international relations, and his recent science fiction novel Embassytown.

November 15

New writer Mark Pantoja channels Ray Bradbury and Brian Aldiss as he examines what might happen to smart houses and machines after their inhabitants and operators are long gone in his first published story, "Houses."

Carol Ann Moletti explores the science of smart houses, robots, and artificial intelligence in her article, "Back to the Future."

November 22

In John Crowley's "Snow" we examine the grief, memory, and the memorials of the future.

And last, but not least, Graeme McMillan studies the science and history of corpse preservation, from mummification to cryonics, in his article "Keeping the Dead Among the Living."

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue seventeen of Lightspeed!

Alas! Lightspeed did not win any Hugo Awards this year (we were 0-3), but it truly was an honor to be nominated. (And hey, we did get some frickin’ sweet rocket pins for being nominees.) Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal, Clarkesworld, and Sheila Williams for defeating us in each respective category, and congratulations to all of the other winners as well. And thanks again to everyone who nominated us and voted for us.

In other, better news: While we didn’t win any Hugos, Lightspeed did win a Parsec Award! Presented at Dragoncon over Labor Day weekend, the Parsec Awards—which honor excellence in genre podcasting—presented the award for Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form) to “Saying the Names” by Maggie Clark, from the March 2011 issue of Lightspeed. So congratulations to Maggie Clark, to the story’s narrator, Emily Janice Card, to our audio editor Stefan Rudnicki, and to everyone else on the Lightspeed podcasting team.

That’s all the news there is to report this month, but don't forget: The Lightspeed: Year One anthology, collecting all of the fiction we published in our first year (from June 2010-May 2011), will be published by Prime Books in November (pre-order now!).

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

October 4

We welcome back author Adam-Troy Castro, who brings us a story of complicated human relationships, in which the people involved have to question what it is exactly that makes us human in "Her Husband's Hands."

In the related nonfiction, Lauren Davis explains the ins-and-outs of organ transplantation in “The Care and Feeding of Your Disembodied Lungs.”

October 11

Justina Robson gives the story of a family separated—definitely in space, but also possibly in time—in "The Little Bear."

Dr. Pamela Gay explains the coincidence of life and quantum mechanics in “The Physics of a Populated Universe.”

October 18

In "Against Eternity" author David Farland takes us through a far-future transformation in pursuit of immortality.

Jeff Hecht explores the possibilities and pitfalls of downloading yourself into a computer in his article “Saving Your Brain to a Disk.”

October 24

And in the last, but not least of our fiction offerings this month, we have, from Candlewick Press’s new Steampunk! Anthology, Cassandra Clare’s tale of a lonely girl and her clockwork dolls: “Some Fortunate Future Day.”

In our feature interview this month, Gwenda Bond talks with Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe, about writing YA and SF, and cryosleep and genetic-engineering.

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue sixteen of Lightspeed!

The big news at Lightspeed HQ this month is that two of our stories—"The Taste of Starlight" by John R. Fultz and "Saying the Names" by Maggie Clark—have been named finalists for the Parsec Awards, for excellence in podcasting. Congratulations to Maggie and John, and to our audio editor Stefan Rudnicki, and the entire audio team at Skyboat Road Company, Inc.

In other news, your humble editor has been nominated for two World Fantasy Awards! My anthology The Way of the Wizard is a finalist for best anthology, and I personally am nominated in the “special award (professional)” category. So, congratulations, to … well, me, I guess! And of course to all of the contributors to The Way of the Wizard, and everyone who I’ve worked with over the past year that made both nominations possible.

And don't forget: The Lightspeed: Year One anthology, collecting all of the fiction we published in our first year (from June 2010-May 2011), will be published by Prime Books in November (pre-order now!). But never fear—all of our content will still be available on lightspeedmagazine.com; this will just be yet another way for readers to find and discover Lightspeed.

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

September 6

In our first story this month, Liz Coleman's "Join," a man who has always felt alienated returns home to visit his family on Earth, and brings with him part of his new family—a newborn, parasitic alien.

Then, in the related article, our nonfiction editor Esther Inglis-Arkell explains how to "Vulcanize, Wookify, and Alienate Yourself" so you can better fit in when we welcome our alien overlords.

September 13

Most of the universe is the regions between galaxies, yet no stories are ever set in that vast emptiness. In "Bubbles" by David Brin, we get to know Serena, a lonely entity traveling the space between galaxies.

The cosmos is a vast, and largely empty, place. Astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay reveals its scope in "The Lonely Universe."

September 20

D. Thomas Minton's "Thief of Futures" follows Eshram Kingston through a future Kuala Lumpur, where he is hired for the dirty business of stealing the future of a child.

In our feature interview this month, Jeff Lester talks to Lois McMaster Bujold about Miles Vorkosigan, demanding readers, anime, webcomics, and more.

September 27

In Ursula K. Le Guin’s story, “The Island of the Immortals,” a traveler takes a vacation to an island where immortality might have been achieved. And it is—but at what price?

Living forever may not be all it's cracked up to be. Sure, there's everlasting life, but, just like anything else, there are going to be complications as well. Shaenon Garrity explores the downside of immortality in "Immortals That Show Us That Death Is The Best Option."

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue fifteen of Lightspeed!

Good news, everyone! “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed, August 2010) has won the Million Writers Award! So congratulations to Adam-Troy, and many thanks to everyone who voted for the story. (Earlier this year, Lightspeed itself was named the winner of the Million Writers Award for best new online magazine.)

One more quick announcement before we get to this month’s teasers, in case you missed the news last month: The Lightspeed: Year One anthology, collecting all of the fiction we published in our first year (from June 2010-May 2011), will be published by Prime Books in November (pre-order now!). But never fear—all of our content will still be available on lightspeedmagazine.com; this will just be yet another way for readers to find and discover Lightspeed.

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

August 2

"Defenders" by Will McIntosh explores an isolated nation and culture of created beings, who invite their creators for a visit twenty-eight years later.

Then, in the related nonfiction, Jeremiah Tolbert teaches us “Five Ways to End an Alien Invasion.”

August 9

In John Varley's "Just Another Perfect Day," Varley attempts to convince us that we’ll be just fine … despite the panic, the amnesia, and the Martians.

Neurotopia’s Evil Monkey is back to talk memory once again in “Forget Everything You Already Know About Amnesia.”

August 16

Genevieve Valentine returns to the fiction section of Lightspeed with "The Nearest Thing," a future in which emotional entanglement in the work place is even more complicated than we know it now.

Then, Graeme McMillan details the “Four Milestones in the Evolution of Artificial Intelligence” that lead artificial intelligence science to where it is today.

August 23

Connie Willis lets us tag along on a tour of possibility in "Non-Stop to Portales."

And in our feature interview this month, we interview actor and newly minted author Simon Pegg, about his memoir, his movies, and growing up as a nerd.

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue fourteen of Lightspeed!

A quick announcement before we get to this month’s teasers: The Lightspeed: Year One anthology, collecting all of the fiction we published in our first year (from June 2010 – May 2011), will be published by Prime Books in November. You can pre-order it here! But never fear—all of our content will still be available on lightspeedmagazine.com; this will just be yet another way for readers to find and discover Lightspeed.

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

July 5

Leading off this month, we have a classic hard SF story—perhaps the classic hard SF story—“The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin. In it, a deep space pilot discovers a stowaway on board while on a routine transport mission. But the fuel-to-mass ratio on deep space missions is calculated precisely, and what options are there when the cold equations allow for no variables?

SF author and astronomer Mike Brotherton takes a look at Godwin’s classic story and explores its lasting power and influence on the field in “The Cold Legacies.”

July 12

A space pilot on the first human flight to Gliese 581 d discovers that the journey he’s embarked upon is not the one that he or the wife he left behind expected, in Jake Kerr's astonishing debut "The Old Equations."

In “The First Step to Enlightenment is Abject Failure,” Jeff Hecht examines some famous examples of scientific theories that were once widely thought to be accurate only later to be proven false.

July 19

In "Sweet Sixteen" Kat Howard introduces us to a girl who, like every girl on her sixteenth birthday, gets to choose her own destiny (through gene therapy)—as long as it's the destiny that's needed most by everyone else.

Author and PhD scientist Ekaterina Sedia explains the real-life possibilities of genetic alterations in her article “The Superpowered Potential of Epigenetics.”

July 26

Karen Joy Fowler's "Face Value" brings us the story of the xenologist Taki, and his struggle to understand the alien nature of the mene, and the equally alien nature of his partner, Hester.

And, in our feature interview this month, Kat Howard talks with award-winning author Mary Doria Russell, about her SF novels The Sparrow and Children of God, and her latest book, Doc, an historical novel about Doc Holliday.

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue thirteen of Lightspeed!

Wow, has it really been a whole year already? It has! We launched back in June 2010, so this month’s issue is our anniversary issue. As mentioned previously, we’ve had a great first year—nine out of the sixteen original stories published in Lightspeed in 2010 have been reprinted in a best-of-the-year anthology, and we have two Nebula Award finalists and a Hugo Award finalist on the award ballots (plus I’m up for the Hugo Award for Best Editor and Lightspeed itself is finalist for Best Semiprozine). We’re hugely honored to have our stories so recognized, and we’d like to think that these accolades are only a sign of more great things to come. Many thanks to all of the readers and writers who have supported us and chosen us for these honors—we salute you!

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

June 7

K.C. Ball gives us an A.I.'s view of the complexities of love, space travel, and physics in "Snapshots I Brought Back from the Black Hole."

Keeping on the subject of black holes, astronomer/SF author Mike Brotherton delves into the science of singularities in his article “Dividing By Zero.”

June 14

"Frost Painting" by Carolyn Ives Gilman takes a poignant look at a relationship in the wake of a very different kind of alien invasion.

Science fiction fans have long known that art and science aren’t as deeply divided as they’re made out to be. In our next article, Graeme McMillan explores “Dissolving the Wall Between Art and Science.”

June 21

In Grady Hendrix's story "Transcript of Interaction Between Astronaut Mike Scudderman and the OnStar Hands-Free A.I. Crash Advisor" an A.I. gives the best advice it can, based on its analysis of human behavior.

Then, Genevieve Valentine is back with more trivia and snark as she ponders the “Six A.I. Types Who Annoy Us to Death.”

June 28

In our final story this month, Ian McDonald brings us "Recording Angel," the story of a journalist sent to report on the party at end of the world, and the first contact with the alien life that caused it.

And we wrap things up this month with an interview with acclaimed science writer Mary Roach, bestselling author of Stiff, Spook, Bonk, and Packing for Mars.

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue twelve of Lightspeed!

To quote the esteemed Professor Farnsworth: Good news, everyone! This year’s Hugo Award finalists have been named, and we’re immensely proud to announce that Lightspeed has three nominations!

(1) Best Short Story: Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn

(2) Best Semiprozine: Lightspeed Magazine

(3) Best Editor, Short Form: John Joseph Adams

I’d like to extend a huge thanks to all our readers and fans who have made this possible, and I hope everyone reading this will join us in congratulating Carrie for her achievement—it’s her first major SF award nomination! Thanks as well to all of Lightspeed’s staff, who don’t get named on the ballot but are as every bit as essential as I am—GO TEAM LIGHTSPEED!

It’s a tremendous honor to receive these award nominations, and frankly it’s kind of hard to believe. But we’ll be at Worldcon on the off chance that this is real and not some crazy dream, on hand to accept should we actually win this most coveted of science fiction’s prizes.

And speaking of winning, the results of our first annual reader’s poll are in! And here are the top three finishers:

1^st: Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn

2^nd: How to Become a Mars Overlord by Catherynne M. Valente

3^rd (tie): In-Fall by Ted Kosmatka

3^rd (tie): Standard Loneliness Package by Charles Yu

It looks like our readers agree with the Hugo voters, eh? So, another hearty congratulations to Carrie Vaughn. As the winner of the reader’s poll, Carrie will receive a box of Sjaak's Organic Chocolate Truffle Assortment, courtesy of Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe. Perhaps not as prestigious as a Hugo or Nebula Award, but much more tasty I’m sure!

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

May 3

In "The Harrowers," author Eric Gregory gives us the story of Ez, who believes far more in bullets than blessings in fighting the dead, but who agrees to take a preacher's kid outside the safety of the cities anyway—for a price.

Our feature interview this month is brought to us by Genevieve Valentine, who talks with SETI director Jill Tarter about the search for extraterrestrial life and being the inspiration for Jodi Foster’s character in Contact.

May 10

Having an exotic, desirable roommate can make any college freshman miserable, but when your roommate is from another planet it makes things even more complicated. Tessa Mellas tells us all about it in "Bibi From Jupiter."

Dr. Pamela Gay returns to Lightspeed to tell us about Bibi’s homeworld in “The Icy Ecosystem of Europa.”

May 17

Nancy Kress brings us a near-future story, "Eliot Wrote." Eliot's genius father sees a vision of ineffable truth in a toaster pastry, and refuses to have the memory erased, despite the damage it's done to them both.

In the related nonfiction, Neurotopia’s Evil Monkey explains the science behind what actually happens when a person sees a deity in an inanimate object.

May 24

"Scales" by Alastair Reynolds, master of space opera, takes his first foray into military SF…with stunning results.

Various military forces and governments (both real and fictional) throughout the years have been known to engage in the practice of brainwashing. Laura Waterstripe explores the science of this technique and provides some famous examples.

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So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue eleven of Lightspeed!

In case you missed it last month, we here at Lightspeed HQ have been buzzing about the exciting news that two of our stories—“I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan and “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro—have been named finalists for the Nebula Award. We are hugely honored that these two stories have been selected as finalists for one of our field’s most prestigious awards, so we would like to extend our most heartfelt congratulations to Vylar and Adam-Troy. (For the full list of nominees, visit sfwa.org.)

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

April 5

In "All That Touches the Air," author An Owomoyela explores the boundaries of differing moralities, as humanity tries to live alongside an unlikely ally—a parasitic being that believes only in natural law.

While alien parasites are fun to read about, there are plenty of real parasites right here on Earth. And Wendy Wagner will make your skin crawl when she tells you about them in “Parasitic Puppet-Masters.”

April 12

In "Maneki Neko" Bruce Sterling takes us to a networked Tokyo, where strangers offer anonymous gifts, and what is needed is freely given without question. (Reprint)

Then, Jeff Lester explores the idea of the “gift-economy” as it exists in the real world and in other fictions in “TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch.”

April 19

Tom Crosshill brings us a story of a boy, his dog, a lab, and many universes in "Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son."

In this universe, Brad Deutsch takes us on a guided tour of quantum mechanics and the multiple universes in “The Many Worlds Interpretation Theory: Having Your Cake and Eating it Two, and Three, and Four…”

April 26

"Velvet Fields," by Anne McCaffrey, is a tale of a newly-settled world, the consequence of ignorance and the price people of conscience might pay for it. (Reprint)

And in our feature interview this month, Erin Stocks talks with Hugo Award-winner Elizabeth Bear about genre boundaries, generation ships, and how to make ginger beer.

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That about does it for our fiction and nonfiction selections for April, but be sure to also look for our author and artist spotlights, and keep an ear out for our podcasts.

So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue ten of Lightspeed!

The big news here at Lightspeed HQ is that two of our stories—“I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan and “Arvies” by Adam-Troy Castro—have been named finalists for the Nebula Award! We are hugely honored that these two stories have been selected as finalists for one of our field’s most prestigious awards, so we would like to extend our most heartfelt congratulations to Vylar and Adam-Troy. (For the full list of nominees, visit sfwa.org.)

The other big news is that this month marks the beginning of my tenure as editor of Lightspeed’s sister-publication, Fantasy Magazine (www.fantasy-magazine.com). So if you enjoy fantasy as well, please pop over and check it out on March 7th. (And tell your friends!)

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

March 1

In "Saying the Names," debut author Maggie Clark gives us the story of a woman hired to navigate the sticky legal system of a complicated alien race, and her own equally sticky relationship with the defendant.

And to accompany Ms. Clark’s story, we have, from Genevieve Valentine, an overview of our attempts to communicate with other species, in “You Never Get a Seventh Chance to Make a First Impression: An Awkward History of Our Space Transmissions.”

March 8

"Gossamer" by Stephen Baxter takes us to Pluto and Charon, tidally-locked in their mutual orbit. A team briefly stranded there discovers that timing is everything, and that the relationship between the two worlds is more complicated than anyone had guessed. (Reprint)

Author and reviewer Chris Moriarty presents our feature interview with Nebula Award-winning, bestselling author Walter Jon Williams, in which they discuss big ideas, “sub-genre busting,” and Walter’s latest book, Deep State.

March 15

In "Spider the Artist," Nnedi Okorafor takes us to Nigeria of the future, where Big Oil protects the pipelines with spider-like AIs known as zombies, and tells the tale of a woman who faces down one of the murderous machines armed only with a guitar. (Reprint)

Roboticist/author Daniel H. Wilson examines the history of robotics and warfare in “Retro Robots on the Battlefield,” and reveals that these autonomous machines may have been around longer than you would have thought.

March 22

"Woman Leaves Room" by Robert Reed gives us a view of immortality, forgotten files, and perhaps a reminder to be awake for the parts of life that matter.

In the related nonfiction, celebrated novelist Ekaterina Sedia puts on her scientist hat and tells us about Turritopsis nutricula, a kind of jellyfish that seems to live forever, and speculates on what that means for humans, in “Immortal Jellyfish and Transhuman You.”

That about does it for our fiction and nonfiction selections for March, but be sure to also look for our author and artist spotlights, and keep an ear out for our podcasts of “Saying the Names” by Maggie Clark and “Woman Leaves Room” by Robert Reed.

So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to issue nine of Lightspeed!

Before we get to this month’s teasers, I just wanted to remind you that you can now subscribe to the ebook edition of Lightspeed, via Weightless Books, a new ebookstore managed by Gavin Grant and the team at Small Beer Press. Subscriptions are just $19.95 a year, which is over $15 off the cover price, so subscribe early and subscribe often—and tell your friends!

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

February 1

Our lead story for February is “Long Enough and Just So Long” by Cat Rambo, the tale of two teen, Heinleinesque Moon-residents who meet a liberated sexbot from Earth.

In the related nonfiction, columnist Genevieve Valentine finds out how sophisticated (or not) artificial intelligences currently are in “When the Chatbots Come to Greet Us.”

February 8

Next up is “The Passenger” by Julie E. Czerneda, the tale of a man and a committee aboard a generation ship, that examines justice, hypocrisy, art, and our ability to rationalize and explain away the most horrific things. (Reprint)

In the feature interview this month, Dreamworks animator Andrew Penn Romine talks to two of his colleagues—Lightstorm Entertainment’s Nolan Murtha, director of digital effects on James Cameron’s Avatar, and Digital Domain’s Steve Pregg animation director for Tron: Legacy—and finds out just what it takes to create “Digital Lifeforms.”

February 15

New author Ken Liu also explores the creation of digital lifeforms in his first story for Lightspeed, “Simulacrum,” in which the innovator of a vividly-realistic holographic technology finds that creating and interacting with fake people may be easier than maintaining relationships with real ones.

Jeff Hecht, author of our popular piece, “Future Weapons,” returns to our pages with “Where’s My Holovision,” an overview of holographic technology that ponders how far we still have to go before we’ll have anything like Star Trek’s Holodecks (or Ken Liu’s simulacra) in real life.

February 22

“Breakaway, Backdown” by Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author James Patrick Kelly gives the reader a chance to be a fly on the wall during a conversation about the allure and perils of space.

And last but not least, astronomer Nicholos Wethington takes us on a tour of our solar neighborhood and provides some tips for “Colonizing the Solar System in Four Easy Steps.”

That about does it for our fiction and nonfiction selections for February, but be sure to also look for our author and artist spotlights, and keep an ear out for our podcasts of “Long Enough and Just So Long” by Cat Rambo and “Simulacrum” by Ken Liu.

So that’s our issue this month. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, if you don’t want to wait for the content to be released on the site throughout the month, or you’d just like a handy, downloadable version of the magazine on your favorite handheld electronic reading device, Lightspeed is available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format.

After some months of technical delays, we're also happy to report that every issue of Lightspeed is now available in the following stores: Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and Fictionwise. It's also now available via two new channels: Wizard's Tower and Weightless Books (of which the latter, as we mentioned earlier, also offers subscriptions).

Happy new year, and welcome to issue eight of Lightspeed! We hope you had a great holiday season, and are ready to read some great new fiction this year.

Just one piece of business before we get to this month’s teasers: I'm pleased to announce that you can now subscribe to the ebook edition of Lightspeed, via Weightless Books, a new ebookstore managed by Gavin Grant and the team at Small Beer Press. Subscriptions are just $19.95 a year, which is over $15 off the cover price, so subscribe early and subscribe often—and tell your friends!

With that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

January 4

In our first fiction story of 2011, “Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow,” debut author Corey Mariani shows us a future in which connections are limitless, love can be quantified, and your social networking status is your greatest asset.

Speaking of social networking…on the nonfiction side of things, in “The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades,” Genevieve Valentine postulates about the future of social media. Sure, everyone you know is on Facebook, but wait ‘til you get a load of the iGlass!

January 11

A lonely drug dealer’s strange relationship with space cucumbers leads to a tentative new friendship in “Cucumber Gravy” by Susan Palwick. (Reprint)

Christopher Sedia, in “Neurotransmitters: God’s Way of Getting You High,” takes a look at some of the more dangerous (illegal!) drugs, the plants they come from, and what your chances are for addiction.

January 18

Turns out not all gorgeous, sparkling men are angst-ridden vampires. In Tanith Lee’s “Black Fire,” we see what happens when you let that gleaming stranger—who just happens to show up after you see a strange object soar across the evening sky—into your home.

In our feature interview this month, Christie Yant presents “The Redemption of Paolo Bacigalupi.” They discuss everything from newfound fame to SF versus mainstream fiction, and how Bacigalupi’s work fits into both.

January 25

And for our final story of January, we bring you Orson Scott Card’s “The Elephants of Poznan,” in which animals know more about saving mankind than we do. (Reprint)

In the related nonfiction, Jeremiah Tolbert speculates about the “Five Animals That Will Take Over the World After We Eradicate Ourselves,” and which of them we need to side with, ASAP. (Hint: It’s not the elephants.)

That about does it for our fiction and nonfiction selections for January, but be sure to also look for our author and artist spotlights, and keep an ear out for our podcasts of “Black Fire” by Tanith Lee and “The Elephants of the Poznan” by Orson Scott Card.

So that’s our issue this month. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, if you don’t want to wait for the content to be released on the site throughout the month, or you’d just like a handy, downloadable version of the magazine on your favorite handheld electronic reading device, Lightspeed is available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format.

After some months of technical delays, we're also happy to report that every issue of Lightspeed is now available in the following stores: Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and Fictionwise. It's also now available via two totally new channels: Wizard's Tower and Weightless Books (of which the latter, as we mentioned earlier, also offers subscriptions).

Welcome to issue seven of Lightspeed! Here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

December 7

Our lead story this month, “In-fall,” by Ted Kosmatka, puts us aboard a ship hurtling through space. Aboard this ship, two men—mortal enemies—await their inevitable deaths, although that means something very different for each of them.

In our first nonfiction article this month, “Black Holes: Starving and Misunderstood,” Dr. Pamela Gay gives us another perspective on black holes. Did you know they’re simply longing for attention, maybe a little extra companionship? And they’ll do whatever they can to get it, so it’s best if you stay out of their way.

December 14

“The Observer,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch tells the story of a woman separated into various parts of herself. However, there’s always a dominant side. And that side will do whatever it can in order to survive. (Reprint)

In our feature interview with Greg Bear by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley, Bear discusses writing for Halo; his new novel Hull Zero Three; his collaboration with Neal Stephenson, The Mongoliad; and advising the Department of Homeland Security. (Reprint)

December 21

After reading our third piece of fiction for the month, “Jenny’s Sick” by David Tallerman, you might do a double take when you see your colleague coughing by the water fountain. A seasonal cold, he says, but are you certain that’s the case? Maybe it’s something more serious.

In the related nonfiction article, “Five Upcoming Plagues (We're Doomed),” Genevieve Valentine keeps us up to speed on when and if we should pull out those face masks. Better stock up—just in case.

December 28

For our final story this month, we present “The Silence of the Asonu” by Ursula K. Le Guin, which allows us a glimpse into a race of people that do not speak as we do, but have plenty of other ways to communicate, some which may be more powerful than our own. (Reprint)

And for our final piece of nonfiction, we have an article by Lawrence M. Schoen, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Klingon language. In “Linguistic Expectations,” he explains how if we’re ever going to understand alien speech, we’d better ditch our current expectations and start thinking above and beyond the norm.

That about does it for our fiction and nonfiction selections for December, but be sure to also look for our author spotlights, and keep an ear out for our podcasts of “Jenny’s Sick” by David Tallerman and “The Silence of the Asonu” by Ursula K. Le Guin, along with a resyndication of Drabblecast’s performance of Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “The Observer.”

So that’s our issue this month. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, if you don’t want to wait for the content to be released on the site throughout the month, or you’d just like a handy, downloadable version of the magazine on your favorite handheld electronic reading device, Lightspeed is available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format, and is also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats.

Welcome to issue six of Lightspeed! We’re six months in, and we’ve had a great run so far, and the enthusiastic feedback of readers like yourself goes a long way toward letting us know what’s working and what’s not.

With that in mind, before I get to this month’s teasers, I just wanted to remind our loyal readers: if you want to support the magazine, one of the best things you can do is spread the gospel of Lightspeed. We love it when you leave comments on lightspeedmagazine.com, but I would also like to invite you to post a review of any of our issues on Amazon.com (where it is available on Kindle) or in the iBooks store (for iPhone and iPad), or wherever else you might find the ebook edition available. Also, you can go to iTunes, find the Lightspeed Magazine story podcast, and leave a review there. Or if you don’t want to spend time writing a review, just giving any of our issues a positive "star rating" might encourage other readers to try the magazine.

With that out of the way, on to this month’s teasers!

November 2

In our lead story this month, “Standard Loneliness Package,” Charles Yu—author of the debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe—takes us to a strange future in which those who don’t want to feel pain, don’t have to: You can hire someone else to do it...whether it’s suffering through a root canal, a migraine, or the loss of a loved one.

And in our feature interview this month, Matt London talks to Chris Avellone, the acclaimed video game designer of such games as Fallout: New Vegas, Planescape: Torment, and Alpha Protocol. In this in-depth interview, Chris explains the art of video game design, making players make moral choices, and how valuable tabletop dungeonmastering is to being a game designer.

November 9

“Faces in Revolving Souls” by Caitlin R. Kiernan depicts a future in which body modification has reached an extreme: not only can people modify their bodies, they can become a unique species entirely by incorporating attributes of other creatures into their own physiology. (Reprint)

In the related nonfiction, expert Lori St. Leone shares “The Art and History of Body Modification,” detailing the origins of tattoos and piercings to scarification and beyond.

November 16

In “Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim, poor eponymous Hwang is slipping through time, but that’s what you get when you try to use a time machine to solve your problems.

In the related article, Genevieve Valentine does some temporal research and presents “Five Freaky Futures Your Kids Might Face.” (Pro tip: Hold onto those IKEA Allen wrenches!)

November 23

For our final story this month, we present “Ej-Es” by Nancy Kress. In it, we follow a team of medicians who provide medical relief around the galaxy. But the people of Good Fortune prove challenging to communicate with... (Reprint)

And riffing off some of the science in “Ej-Es,” we have the return of Neurotopia’s Evil Monkey, who explains the science behind “God Spots”—the results we perceive when our brains misfire.

That’s it for our fiction and nonfiction selections, but be sure to also look for our author spotlights, and keep an ear out for our original podcasts of “Standard Loneliness Package” by Charles Yu and “Hwang's Billion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim, along with a resyndication of Escape Pod’s performance of Nancy Kress’s “Ej-Es.”

So that’s our issue this month. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, if you don’t want to wait for the content to be released on the site throughout the month, or you’d just like a handy, downloadable version of the magazine on your favorite handheld electronic reading device, Lightspeed is available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format, and is also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats.

Welcome to issue five of Lightspeed!

We’re doing a little something different this month. Because October is Halloween month, and Halloween is a time for scary stories, we thought it would be appropriate to make October “Horror Month” here at Lightspeed. But never fear, we haven’t changed our scope completely—each story in this issue is still science fiction; it’s just that you’ll be getting your daily dose of sensawunda but also a liberal helping of whadafrakwuzzat as well.

Here’s the schedule and teasers for this month:

October 5

In our lead story this month, “Hindsight,” horror author Sarah Langan tells the story of an apocalypse-in-progress, a world in which the laws of physics no longer seem to behave properly, and a mysterious cosmic anomaly called Black Betty. The last remaining survivors have one last hope, but can the technological singularity defeat the threat of a gravitational one?

In the related nonfiction, astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay discusses what there was before the Big Bang, gravity, the mediocrity principle, and just what might happen if two universes collided.

October 12

In “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back,” author Joe R. Lansdale tells the tale of a mad scientist and his family who spend twenty long, hard years Down Under waiting for the war to end. By doing so, they manage to survive the end of the world, but when they go back Topside, they find a world very different than the one they remember—a world in which even a rose is supremely dangerous...and not just because of its thorns. (Reprint)

In our feature interview this month, Matt London talks to Marc Laidlaw—creator of Valve Software’s Half-Life series—about video game creation, his literary and gaming influences, and the intersection of SF and horror.

October 19

Imagine you’re awakened early from cryonic stasis aboard a starship traveling to a colony world where tens of thousands of starving colonists will die if you don’t get there to help them. John R. Fultz’s chilling “The Taste of Starlight” explores whether the lives of many outweigh the lives of few, as we experience the lengths the good Doctor Pelops is willing to go to in order to ensure his mission’s success. Would you—should you—be able to do the same thing?

The idea of cryonic suspension has been around nearly as long as science fiction itself, but just how plausible is it? And if it is scientifically viable—would it be a good investment? Scientist (and SF author) Dr. Gregory Benford weighs all the (cold, hard) facts, figures, and probabilities in “Considering Cryonics.”

October 26

There are few authors in the world about whom you can honestly say “he needs no introduction.” But when you’re talking about Stephen King, that’s most certainly the truth. “Beachworld,” one of the horror master’s rare forays into straight-up science fiction, follows the plight of the two survivors of a far-future interstellar spaceflight, who crash land on a harsh and unforgiving planet. (Reprint)

And if you think that place would be a terrible planet to crash land on, well, you’d be right. But, in case you’d like a little variety when choosing your final extraterrestrial resting place, author Genevieve Valentine scoured the cosmos and found “Five Planets that Will Kill You Dead.”

That’s it for our fiction and nonfiction selections, but be sure to also look for our author spotlights, and keep an ear out for the podcasts of “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale and “The Taste of Starlight” by John R. Fultz.

So that’s our issue this month. I hope you enjoy it. And remember, if you don’t want to wait for the content to be released on the site throughout the month, or you’d just like a handy, downloadable version of the magazine on your favorite handheld electronic reading device, Lightspeed is available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format, and is also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats.

In our lead story this month, “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain,” author Yoon Ha Lee explores the notions of evitability and inevitability in a story about ancestry, multiple universes, an extraordinary gun...and the extraordinary woman who wields it.

To accompany Miss Lee’s story, we present author Jeff Hecht’s “Future Weapons”; it doesn’t cover anything as extraordinary as the weapons depicted in “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain,” but instead focuses (like a LASER, you might say) in on the most iconic weapon in all of science fiction the laser (and some laser alternatives that might work a whole lot better as weapons).

In “The Long Chase,” author (and NASA scientist) Geoffrey A. Landis tells the story of a survivor of a brutal, ideological war who escapes to the stars the only way she can. But she quickly finds that her enemies do not give up easily and are extremely patient when pursuing their prey....

Speaking of patience, since warp drive and instantaneous jaunting seem to be impossible, we’re going to have to learn patience in a major way if we’re ever going to travel amongst the stars. Author and physicist Gerald D. Nordley’s “Engines for the High Frontier” explores the science of spaceship travel, explaining the different methods we might (realistically) use to travel the stars, and what sort of energy sources we can use to do so.

“Amid the Words of War” by Cat Rambo also tells the story of the survivor of an interstellar war. This tale takes place on the space station TwiceFar, where you can find a house of leisure called The Little Teacup of the Soul, whose patrons promise to fulfill any need...or die trying.

Seeking some insight into the motivations of some of the characters in “Amid the Words of War,” our columnist Carol Pinchefsky did an extensive amount of research and came up with “Five Reasons Why Aliens Make Better Lovers.” (And you probably thought joining the Zero G club would be exciting.)

Legendary author Robert Silverberg’s far-future “Travelers” take us on a journey throughout the galaxy, hopping from solar system to solar system as they explore everything from the living seas of Megalo Kastro to the monsters of Sidri Akrak. But what is it they’re really looking for?

Our final nonfiction piece of the month is a feature interview with popular author John Scalzi, in which he discusses Little Fuzzy, Stargate Universe, and how to make a Schadenfreude Pie

Available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format.

ePub is an open ebook standard format that is compatible with a variety of software for Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, as well as with many portable devices (Android devices, iPhone/iPad, Nook, etc.). Learn more about ePub format.

(Also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats.)

Catherynne M. Valente teaches us “How to Become a Mars Overlord,” with her step-by-step program that enables each and every one of us to find the right Mars for us to rule over. (Original, August 3)

Tananarive Due tells the tragic story of “Patient Zero” in her chilling account of a child being raised in isolation, ignorant of an apocalyptic infection raging in the outside world. (Reprint, August 10)

In the audacious “Arvies,” author Adam-Troy Castro tells the story of a post-poverty utopia in which everybody lucky enough to be plugged into the society's opportunities gets to do whatever the heck they want to do with their lives, indulging their slightest whims—including living their lives inside a living womb. (Original, August 17)

And for our final fiction selection of the month, we present “More Than the Sum of His Parts” by Joe Haldeman, an examination of one man’s transformation from human to cyborg that asks the question: As a person becomes less and less organic, might they become less and less human? (Reprint, August 24)

On the nonfiction side of things this month, in addition to author spotlights on all four of our fictioneers, we’re starting off with “Dead Mars,” a fascinating article by Astronomy Cast’s Dr. Pamela Gay in which she tells us how Mars, now dead, once lived, and how we might make it live again. (August 3)

Carol Pinchefsky, meanwhile, brings us “Bangs & Whimpers: A Look at the Top Five Doomsday Scenarios” and explains why we may or may not have to worry about them. (August 10)

You won’t want to miss Lightspeed nonfiction editor Andrea Kail’s interview with multiple award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer, in which he discusses the possibility of the internet becoming sentient, religion’s place in science fiction, and what it was like watching his novel FlashForward adapted into a television program. (August 17)

And last, but not least, we have an exploration of the cutting-edge science being done today in the field of prosthetics and cybernetics from author Matt London, in which he tells of an amputee mountain climber who designed and built his own bionic legs and explains how the Six Million Dollar Man would have been a bargain at that price if he were (re)built today. (August 24)

Available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format.

ePub is an open ebook standard format that is compatible with a variety of software for Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, as well as with many portable devices (Android devices, iPhone/iPad, Nook, etc.). Learn more about ePub format.

(Also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats.)

In Carol Emshwiller's "No Time Like the Present," the residents of a small, economically-disadvantaged town are surprised by the sudden influx of oddly tall, oddly rich, oddly speaking people who appear out of nowhere and buy up all the prime real estate. And if you don’t think that sounds shoe-dad, well, evolve why don’t you? (Original, July 6)

Corporate slavery, retrograde amnesia, posthumanism, and kicking ass take center stage in "Manumission" by Tobias S. Buckell, the tale of a mercenary named Pepper who must rebel against those who would seek to control him. (Reprint, July 13)

Steampunk is the order of the day in "The Zeppelin Conductors' Society Annual Gentlemen's Ball" by Genevieve Valentine—an SFnal take on a subgenre more known for its flights of fantasy—featuring heliosis, 19th century ephemera, and, of course, airships. (Original, July 20)

And from bestselling author George R. R. Martin, we bring you "...For a Single Yesterday"—one of his lesser-known tales, but also one of his most powerful—which explores the value of memory, music, and drugs in the aftermath of an apocalypse. (Reprint, July 27)

On the nonfiction side of things this month, in addition to author spotlights on Genevieve Valentine and Tobias S. Buckell, we'll be starting off on a humorous note with Carol Pinchefsky and the "Top Five Time Travel Nightmares" you might encounter should go for a swim in the timestream. (July 6)

In "You Are the Person You Are Now," Neurotopia's Evil Monkey explains how memories work, the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia, and how you may be a new person from moment to moment. (July 13)

Gregory K. H. Bryant, meanwhile, provides us with "A Brief History of Airships," a primer on the history and evolution of dirigibles that explains how steerable, lighter-than-air craft progressed from some crackpot inventor's dream to the elegant, Victorian technology of yesteryear. (July 20)

And, finally, in "Music is Science Fiction," we present an interview with indie rock band The Lisps, whose steampunk musical Futurity tells the story of two Civil War-era inventors who imagine a utopian future defined by an omnipotent machine that will end war once and for all. (July 20)

Available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format.

ePub is an open ebook standard format that is compatible with a variety of software for Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, as well as with many portable devices (Android devices, iPhone/iPad, Nook, etc.). Learn more about ePub format.

(Also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats.)

Our debut issue features four all-new, never-before-published stories: from newcomer Vylar Kaftan, we have an interstellar love story dealing with the perils of communication and time-dilation; from veteran, award-winning author Jack McDevitt, we have a tale about Earth’s moon and the mysteries it might still possess; from David Barr Kirtley, an adventure of a young catman who must face the last of the dogmen and something else entirely unexpected; and from bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a cautionary tale of the near future that shows some of the extremes we might be pushed to if we don’t start implementing now the seeds for a sustainable future.

And for our nonfiction this month, in addition to the author spotlights on each of our writers, we will feature an article about relativity and the speed of light by astronomer Mike Brotherton; a profile of Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, by Genevieve Valentine; a top ten list explaining why genetically-engineered animals will not make good pets by Carol Pinchefsky; and an overview of sustainability by Amanda Rose Levy.

Available directly from our publisher, Prime Books, in DRM-free ePub format.

ePub is an open ebook standard format that is compatible with a variety of software for Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, as well as with many portable devices (Android devices, iPhone/iPad, Nook, etc.). Learn more about ePub format.

(Also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors.)