Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

LIGHTSPEED & NIGHTMARE Kickstarter graphic. Left side: Bright light blue background with rays (as of light) bursting out from the center. Central image is an open book with a rocket blasting up out of it. Below the book is the LIGHTSPEED magazine wordmark; the word lightspeed is rendered in a orange-to-yellow gradient, with a white outline around it and dropshadow underneath it. Right side: Bright light yellow background with rays (as of light) bursting out from the center. Central image is an open book with a haunted house emerging from it. Below the book is the NIGHTMARE magazine wordmark; the word nightmare is rendered in a dark red to lighter red gradient, with a white outline around it and dropshadow underneath it. Top: the words "LIVE on Kickstarter"

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Editorial

Editorial: August 2026

by John Joseph Adams

Published in Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 195 (August 2026) | 207 words

Welcome to issue 195 of Lightspeed Magazine!

Did you know that August 30th is Mary Shelley’s 229th birthday? So it seems appropriate that this month, our science fiction is centered around the difficult relationships between creators and the created. A.M. Maris kicks off the month with a story of a bioengineered organism—the eponymous “Legs.” In “Ladd’s Robot Repair,” David Anaxagoras spins us into a gritty cyberpunk future built on the salvaged ruins of our current civilization, featuring a cast of intriguing robotic characters. We also have two terrific flash pieces: “What Do You Mean the Nanobots Formed a Union??” from Joel W.D. Buxton and “The Age of Cancer” by Vajra Chandrasekera.

Adelehin Ijasan sticks to the theme with the new fantasy short “Of All Who Dream,” about a man looking to create a god . . . with the help of his magically trained grandmother. In “Fragments of the Whole,” Brooke Bolander explores a fantastical inner terrain and its inhabitants. We also have a flash story (“Infinite Wishes”) from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and another (“The Goddess of Not Enough”) from Susan Palwick.

Our nonfiction includes our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team.

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John Joseph Adams

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John Joseph Adams is the editor and publisher of the Hugo Award-winning Lightspeed and publisher of its sibling magazine, Nightmare. He’s also the editor of more than fifty anthologies, including the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series, Wastelands, A People’s Future of the United States, and the New York Times bestselling Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele). John is a winner of the Hugo, Stoker, Locus, and British Fantasy awards, and is 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 ran a novel imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Lately, he’s also been working as an editor and game designer on TTRPG projects for Kobold Press, Paizo, and Monte Cook Games. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.