Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

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Editorial

Editorial: December 2025

Welcome to issue 187 of Lightspeed Magazine!

We’re starting off this month’s science fiction with “Reality Check,” a new short story from Nancy Kress that asks whether our love affair with technology is whittling down our very humanity. For something a little more lighthearted, we’re happy to bring you a new short by Oyedotun Damilola Muees: “The Hub Living Among the Stars.” It’s imaginative SF at its most enjoyable. We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Us, in Another Universe” from A.C. Wise and “The Space Between Us” by P.A. Cornell.

Jonathan Olfert returns to our pages with a new fantasy story, “Crickets in Lost Light,” which follows Ander Carmora after the events of “Ninnagan Says Remember” (from our March 2025 issue). Things have only gotten more complicated for our hero, but he keeps learning and growing. Our second fantasy short is the slightly darker “Memories of the MindMine” by David Marino. We also have a flash story (“You Always Told Her You’d Give Her the World”) from Aimee Ogden, and another (“HagioClass”) from José Pablo Iriarte.

In nonfiction, our hardworking staff members have been devouring books to find you the best recommendations, and of course, our spotlight interview team sat down with our authors to get even more insight into our great fiction.

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John Joseph Adams

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John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and the New York Times bestselling editor of more than forty anthologies, such as Wastelands, A People’s Future of the United States, and Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele). He is also editor of the Hugo Award-winning magazine Lightspeed and is publisher of both it and its sister-magazine, Nightmare. Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a winner of the Hugo, Stoker, Locus, British Fantasy, and ENNIE awards and a ten-time World Fantasy Award finalist. In addition to his short fiction work, he’s the co-creator of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, and for five years he was the editor of the John Joseph Adams Books novel imprint. Lately, he’s been working as an editor and game designer on TTRPG projects for Kobold Press, Paizo, and Monte Cook Games. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.

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