Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 196 (September 2026)

We have original science fiction by Alexander Weinstein (“Dreamweavers”) and Sanjana Raj (“Alterverse”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “The Chrysalis of Moth One” from V.M. Ayala and “Maskwork Saltman Giftbox” by Rich Larson. Plus, we have original fantasy by Anya Ow (“Long Goodbyes”) and Thomas Ha (“Jempo”). We also have a flash story (“A Guide on How to Repay Your Vow to the Deity of Many Faces”) from Oyedotun Damilola Muees, and another (“The Dragon, the Scarab, the Wolf, the Dragon”) from Rhiannon Rasmussen. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team.

Cover art by Warmtail

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 196 (September 2026)

Editorial

Editorial: September 2026

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a rundown of this month’s content and for all of John Joseph Adams’s media and book recommendations!

Publishes Online on 9/1

Nonfiction

Announcement: We’re Launching a New Kickstarter Sept. 15. Sign up to be notified when it launches!

by John Joseph Adams

On September 15, 2026, we’ll be launching our first Kickstarter campaign in more than a decade, to fund Year 17 of Lightspeed and Year 15 of Nightmare. Join us for a year of new short fiction from some of the biggest stars in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, including: Charlie Jane Anders Travis Baldree Olivie […]

Fantasy

A Guide on How to Repay Your Vow to the Deity of Many Faces

by Oyedotun Damilola Muees

If every effort to bring down your child’s fever is unsuccessful and the doctors cannot diagnose anything wrong with her, then you should seek other means to alleviate her health. Before you help her into the house, if you notice that her shadow refuses to follow her body, then you should know that her sickness is numinous, and it is beyond what science can cure or fathom.

Publishes Online on 9/3

Science Fiction

Dreamweavers

by Alexander Weinstein

In The Before Days, Tim was a fellow procurer of dreams. He made a good living frequenting rooftop parties amid aging tech bros in fur-clad vests where mangosteen juices were mixed and silent discos reverberated within guests’ inner ears. As the dustbowl spread across the continent, even Reza himself was rumored to have purchased one of Tim’s dreamscapes—a particularly beautiful worldbuild of plummeting waterfalls and Tahitian escorts that kept Reza ensconced behind his retinas for days—after which Tim was invited to more exclusive barricaded enclaves of the super-rich, all who wanted private downloads to their next digital escape.

Publishes Online on 9/3

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Alexander Weinstein

by Robin Jeffrey

It was during an AI & Creativity Conference at Stanford that I first heard about Sam Altman’s truly horrifying next endeavor called World Coin. If you haven’t heard of this particular dystopia, it involves an eye-scanning orb that’s being sent to many third world countries to scan the retinas of those who volunteer. In turn they get world-coin credits, basically a new kind of cryptocurrency that will be based on eye-scans, and a horrific way to monetize and create a global surveillance network for the tech overlords.

Publishes Online on 9/3

Science Fiction

The Chrysalis of Moth One

by V.M. Ayala

They didn’t want either of us to live this long. Sucks for them—we’re good at living in spite. We’re good at surviving, at fighting, at never stopping. Today is the last day we exist in spite of Command, but it’s also just another day that ends in y. Most pilots are paired with a seasoned mentor. Not us. No, powerful men at Command threw us in the pit of a Moth to fight their pointless space war.

Publishes Online on 9/10

Fantasy

Long Goodbyes

by Anya Ow

Sui grunted as she straightened her back, digging her shoulder up into Taxue’s belly. The Zheng’s hind legs dragged awkwardly on the sand, trembling as the paws knuckled, the sudden weight on Sui pushing the knee she’d braced into the dirt. Sui braced her palms up under the Zheng’s hind legs, feeling for the distended sac of her bladder, swollen larger than Sui’s head overnight. Muscles bulged over arms used to drawing heavy longbows as she compressed it. For a heartbeat, nothing happened.

Publishes Online on 9/10

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Anya Ow

by Phoebe Barton

“The Long Goodbye” was a phrase I heard once online in reference to having to take care of elderly, ailing pets. I’ve been caring for a cat with multiple issues for years—he is now eighteen, and every day having to help him relieve himself, groom himself, and move him around has been a bit of a challenge. I think it’s not just an act of love but also of reciprocity—my cat has been there almost all of my adult life and made it better for it.

Publishes Online on 9/10

Nonfiction

Book Review: Africanfuturism Short Stories by Chinelo Onwualu, ed.

by Arley Sorg

Looking for a big collection of speculative fiction by African writers, curated by the always wonderful Flame Tree Press? Arley Sorg recommends Africanfuturism Short Stories.

Publishes Online on 9/10

Science Fiction

Alterverse

by Sanjana Raj

Asha is eight pages into the book before the words disappear. There are still hundreds of pages before the end of the book, so they must have had a record of the length of the volume, but lost the text. It’s a common experience in this library, to encounter fragments of things, to have to make educated assumptions about what once was.

Publishes Online on 9/17

Fantasy

The Dragon, the Scarab, the Wolf, the Dragon

by Rhiannon Rasmussen

Ánar’s bootheels echoed on the iron floor. What a groundbreaking honor this ceremony was for a landless tenant like him—joining old house Veivilkas, of the wolf. Such an honor that it made him leaden to think of, made him long for sleep. At the conclusion of the ceremony, he would no longer be merely Ánar from the undercity, scarab-kin, but Ánar Veivilkas. Nobility. The first scarab-kin to wear that name, no less.

Publishes Online on 9/17

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Sanjana Raj

by A Humphrey Lanham

A few years ago, I read an article about the Pacific nation of Tuvalu. This piece of fact emerges in the world of this story—the leadership of Tuvalu announced that it would become the first “digital nation,” in an effort to preserve sovereignty and knowledge of the physical land if the country became uninhabitable due to rising sea levels.

Publishes Online on 9/17

Nonfiction

Book Review: Black Arts: Stories by Megan Giddings

by Melissa A Watkins

If you liked Marie N’Diaye’s novella The Witch or Samantha Mill’s short story collection Rabbit Test, you’ll probably like Black Arts as well.

Publishes Online on 9/17

Science Fiction

Maskwork Saltman Giftbox

by Rich Larson

I’m only doing maskwork until I find better, but there aren’t many physical jobs to go around in Schrödinger City. Most get done by gleaming machines, by hop-along bots and drone swarms. Luckily, maskwork needs a human touch—and supposedly, village folk are better at it than the folk who grew up here. Could be. I always liked masks.

Publishes Online on 9/24

Fantasy

Jempo

by Thomas Ha

Jempo took a deep bow on the iron platform. His body flopped forward, limbs like thick braided wire. No obvious weapons in his large and rubbery hands. Little digital eyes and a bright smile that lit the rounded ball he had for a head. More clown than competitor at first glance.

Publishes Online on 9/24

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Thomas Ha

by Erik Grove

This one started with the character of Aga—someone who doesn’t quite operate like others in her world. She thinks differently and is slightly out-of-step because of it. I find something interesting about a character like that, her commitment to her work.

Publishes Online on 9/24

Nonfiction

Book Review: Code and Codex by Yoon Ha Lee

by Chris Kluwe

Reviewer Chris Kluwe recommends Code and Codex for a book to really sink your teeth into.

Publishes Online on 9/24