November 2023 (Issue 162)

We have original science fiction by MKRNYILGLD (“The CRISPR Cookbook (Chapter Two): A Guide to Biohacking Your Own Eggs into Weapons of Destruction, to Be Forcibly Implanted into One Patriarchist at a Time”) and Regina Kanyu Wang (“A Record of Lost Time”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “A Review: The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7” from Lars Ahn and “Confession #443 (Comments open)” by Dominica Phetteplace. Plus, we have original fantasy by Osahon Ize-Iyamu (“Last Ritual of the Smoke Eaters”) and Martin Cahill (“The Moment Before the Moment”). We also have a flash story (“Of Death Deserved We Will Not Die”) from Bennett North, and another (“Dr. Seattle Opens His Heart”) from Winston Turnage. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from This Dark Descent, a new novel by Kalyn Josephson.

Cover art by Grandeduc / Adobe Stock Image

November 2023 (Issue 162)

Editorial

Editorial: November 2023

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a discussion of this month’s terrific content.

Science Fiction

The CRISPR Cookbook (Chapter Two): A Guide to Biohacking Your Own Eggs into Weapons of Destruction, to Be Forcibly Implanted into One Patriarchist at a Time

by MKRNYILGLD

Author spotlight

If you’re reading this, in a self-destructing DM, on the reverse strand of a plasmid, in the recipe binder you found in a deported neighbor’s belongings dumped on the curb, you’re no longer angry. You’re hungry. Your last co-op got raided by the Department of Homeland Biosecurity, hunting for pharmaceuticals “dangerous” to those at risk of getting pregnant.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: MKRNYILGLD

by Mayookh Barua

I’m a working scientist doing biological research. There is some overlap in my day-to-day work and the science of these stories, so doing the research to write them was a familiar, cathartic, and supremely challenging experience at the same time. I have to be vague now, but I hope there’ll come a time when I can share that in more detail.

Science Fiction

A Review: The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7

by Lars Ahn

Warning! This review contains spoilers. To answer the question on everybody’s mind: No, controversial filmmaker Manuela Riviera’s new documentary The Reunion of the Survivors of Sigrún 7 doesn’t reveal what happened during the forty-five days the spaceship went missing on its way to Mars or how mission commander Ruben Corto died.

Fantasy

Last Ritual of the Smoke Eaters

by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

Author spotlight

I didn’t want to eat Joshua, but he turned into dust, and the way things go in Carrucchi village is that if someone turns into ashes you inhale them till there’s nothing but smoke in your lungs and redness in your eye. Sometimes we have to eat people to make us less lonely. I didn’t want to do it, but Joshua named me as his eater, so my entire village forced me.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Osahon Ize-Iyamu

by Laurel Amberdine

When I was much younger, I wrote a lot of stories that were told in the vein of traditional epic fantasy novels, and I wanted to write a more recent version of those. Specifically, one that involved dragons. I was really drawn to the idea of a story that portrayed the complex dynamics of romantic relationships within a fantasy world, and so this story was my attempt at capturing that.

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

by Aigner Loren Wilson

Our reviewer says The Reformatory by Tananarive Due is the scariest book she’s read all year. Find out why!

Science Fiction

Confession #443 (Comments open)

by Dominica Phetteplace

I was sorry even before I got caught. The first inkling that we were not going to get away with it came when we were messing with the AI art generator app. You know, the kind where you put some words in and out comes a trippy image. I typed in: Gothic lemon pie running away from the sun. I was expecting something yellow with an errant eyeball.

Science Fiction

A Record of Lost Time

by Regina Kanyu Wang
Translated by Rebecca F. Kuang

Author spotlight

How did we end up here? The humans before me had the same physiological traits as I did, yet still we had no means of communicating with one another. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Words and phrases spilled from their mouths, a torrent of sounds bleeding into one another, syllables pouring out in a drum roll, unending and uninterrupted.

Fantasy

Dr. Seattle Opens His Heart

by Winston Turnage

When they flash his sign at the top of the Space Needle, he shoots out from the center of Lake Union and flies high into the sky. A mushroom wave erupts from where he surfaces and expands radially. Children watching from the shore jump in place and scream and point at him. The shy ones clap.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Regina Kanyu Wang

by Laurel Amberdine

I guess I am not the only one who feels that time flows faster and faster nowadays. The pace of life in the twenty-first century is much faster than that in the twentieth or before. We all try to do more things with the same amount of time and achieve more. If there is a product that can make you more efficient in a time unit, definitely some people will be willing to use it.

Nonfiction

Book Review: McSweeney’s 71: The Monstrous and the Terrible (edited by Brian Evenson)

by Arley Sorg

This month, Arley Sorg checks out the newest issue of McSweeney’s, guest edited by Brian Evenson. It’s a little bit literary, a little bit speculative . . . find out why Arley thinks you should check it out.

Fantasy

The Moment Before the Moment

by Martin Cahill

Author spotlight

Azahn had been the ninety-third Imperial Foresight to the Dynasty of Silken Flame for only three weeks when he was forcibly retired. His body had been blessed by the holy waters of the Sky-Vein River, and he had earned the named-blade Stalwart Thy Mind, Strong Thy Arm, even now strapped to his back. He had trained his entire life.

Fantasy

Of Death Deserved We Will Not Die

by Bennett North

The sweet air of the temple district is what makes the bread taste so good, Mama says. The shafts of sunbeams that come through broken stained glass pick up a honeyed fragrance on their way down and warm our rising dough. The breeze that wheezes through chinks in crumbling stone walls stirs up ghosts of ancient incense and perfumes our airy loaves.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Martin Cahill

by Laurel Amberdine

It started as most stories do: a what-if that wouldn’t leave my mind, that demanded an answer. What if you had someone with precognition that somehow couldn’t see their own future? Their own tomorrow, a mystery. Initially, there was something a little funny in that idea, but as often happens with my stories, the little bit of humor caved in.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams

by Chris Kluwe

Chris Kluwe finds light in the characters populating the new dark fantasy novel Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams. Find out why you might like it, too!