Apr. 2024 (Issue 167)

We have original science fiction by Endria Isa Richardson (“A Pedra”) and Susan Palwick (“Mother’s Day, After Everything”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Under a Star, Bright as Morning” from David Anaxagoras and “Limping Toward Sunrise” by Rich Larson. Plus, we have original fantasy by Modupeoluwa Shelle (“How To Know Your Father Is A God”) and Vandana Singh (“Travelers’ Tales from the Ends of the World”). We also have a flash story (“Salemo”) from David Marino, and another (“a testament to indirection, an enigma, the sun above”) from Mitchell Shanklin. 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 the rerelease of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.

Cover art by Tithi Luadthong / Shutterstock

Apr. 2024 (Issue 167)

Editorial

Publisher’s Note

by John Joseph Adams

Dear Readers,

I owe you an apology regarding our April 2024 cover. I messed up.

Editorial

Editorial: April 2024

by John Joseph Adams

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

Fantasy

a testament to indirection, an enigma, the sun above

by Mitchell Shanklin

So, this is awkward. We aren’t at the stage in our relationship where I’d feel comfortable revising your life-poem on the fly. Even as a backup plan . . . yet here we are. I’m sorry. I know I should have said that to you before the anesthesiologist put you under and the surgeon opened up your skull. But now the surgeon is staring at the quivering quill in my hand.

Science Fiction

A Pedra

by Endria Isa Richardson

Author spotlight

mãe, There are few moments that I remember with clarity. From those early days, I recall mostly a vast, pervading numbness. Profound dissociation. I remember Salt. I remember Hog. At night, I would curl between them. With my eyes closed, I would try to see them as they were just in that moment. I would block out what I knew would be.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Endria Isa Richardson

by Laurel Amberdine

I was very interested in the horrifying aspects of time as a menacing, material force—something that could eat you. But I ultimately became much more interested in the world in which time might function this way: the addictive substances that might be used to pacify kids who can “see” the future.

Fantasy

How to Know Your Father Is a God

by Modupeoluwa Shelle

Author spotlight

I know you’ve been following me since I left school, boarded the train, and took to the alley. Why didn’t I run? I’m not scared of you anymore. Right now, I’m scared for you. Be careful the way you drag me into a corner, shove me against the wall, dig your puny fists into my belly, and search me for valuables if you do not want to incur the wrath of my father.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Modupeoluwa Shelle

by Laurel Amberdine

My stories originate from those places I don’t expect them to be born. They also come at the time I don’t want them to—like when I’m about to finally attempt an eight-hour sleep. And this story is not an exception. I have always wanted to write a story with a blend of my culture—the Yoruba culture—its myths and legends, but every attempt at this had always been unrealistic.

Science Fiction

Under a Star, Bright as Morning

by David Anaxagoras

Jo drives urgently as they race toward the star, not sure how far to go, racing because the baby is coming tonight, now, and He (a He, of course) is supposed to be born under the star, that’s how the story goes. The story, the new story and the old, begins with a visitor, a messenger. Molly had just logged out for the day when the monk knocked on her door.

Nonfiction

Book Review: The White Guy Dies First edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker

by Arley Sorg

Looking for a terrific anthology full of scary and thoughtful stories? Arley Sorg recommends The White Guy Dies at the End, edited by Terry J. Benton-Walker.

Fantasy

Salemo

by David Marino

There is a city called Salemo. Salemo sits atop a cliffside at the edge of a sea. The water of that sea is always clearest blue, except when it is clearest green, or clearest purple. The colors change with the tides, but the waves are always safe to swim in, with schools of luminescent fish dashing between the coral reefs. In Salemo, you can spend your days lying on its pristine beaches.

Science Fiction

Mother’s Day, After Everything

by Susan Palwick

Author spotlight

All of us remember what Mother’s Day was like before we became sterile: flowers and candy for living mothers and tears for dead ones and anger at bad ones, and women who couldn’t be mothers or who’d lost children marinating in grief, and nobody really profiting from any of it except Hallmark and the restaurants and florists.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Susan Palwick

by Laurel Amberdine

For years now, I’ve been trying to work through my despair about climate catastrophe and what looks to me like the onrushing extinction both of our species and many others. How do we keep going in the face of annihilation? (Some people are more optimistic about all of this than I am, and I hope they’re right.)

Nonfiction

Book Review: Dazzling by Chikọdịlị Emelụmadụ

by Aigner Loren Wilson

If you’re looking for a story wrestling with grief, death, spirits, and mythology, Aigner Loren Wilson recommends Chikọdịlị Emelụmadụ’s 2023 novel Dazzling.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Vandana Singh

by Laurel Amberdine

Speculative fiction has a long history of engaging with aliens from other worlds. But we have fellow Earthlings all around us and research is indicating that the Western modern gaze has missed crucial things about other species: that they feel, they communicate, sometimes in such sophisticated ways (as in the case of cetaceans) that we can’t figure it out.

Fantasy

Travelers’ Tales from the Ends of the World

by Vandana Singh

Author spotlight

Welcome, Stranger! This is a story for you, you who wait for my words to fall into your ear, so that we can share being and become more than we are alone. The tales I have to tell today are woven into this fabric that unrolls before you as I work my Loom. As to who or what I am, you have the right to ask, but I won’t tell you as yet. To be honest, I am not quite sure, myself.

Science Fiction

Limping Toward Sunrise

by Rich Larson

Lester swung his chainsaw, mowing a path through the mob of needle-toothed quantum parasites, while Kit batted clean-up with her Louisville Slugger. Across the plain of dark rock, their destination: a whirling, gnashing portal that could doom all humanity. It wasn’t ideal timing for an awkward conversation, but it never was.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen

by Chris Kluwe

If you’re looking of a deeply imaginative story packed with wonderful characters and—yes!— engineering, Chris Kluwe’s recommends Amber Chen’s new novel Of Jade and Dragons.