Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

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Fiction

Science Fiction

War 3.01

Kevin O’Farrell was in town when the war broke out. He was in town when the war ended. It was that quick.

Science Fiction

The Five Elements of the Heart Mind

The Dandelion lost structural integrity so quickly that I doubt the bridge even had time for a distress call, and this escape pod’s radio is only sub-light.

Fantasy

A State of Variance

Her son’s face was almost a perfect mirror of itself, in such a way that one realized how imperfections created trust because no one trusted her son, with that perfect symmetry in his face.

Science Fiction

Always True to Thee, in My Fashion

Suzanne liked wearing the new feelings. They were light and cool, allowing her a lot of freedom of movement. The off-hand affection made her feel unencumbered, graceful.

Fantasy

On the Acquisition of Phoenix Eggs (Variant)

Lloyds was not willing to insure a phoenix egg, not even of the most impeccable pedigree. Hence the inspection of the purchase became a great deal more important.

Fantasy

You Have Never Been Here

You resist the temptation to look at faces because faces can be deceiving, faces can make you think there is such a thing as a person, the mass illusion everyone falls for until they learn what you have come to learn.

Science Fiction

Gene Wars

The slime mould he’d created, a million amoebae aggregated around a drop of cyclic AMP, had been transformed with a retrovirus and was budding little blue-furred blobs.

Fantasy

Blue Lace Agate

Jamie Keller and his partner hadn’t found the shoggoth larva smugglers yet, but his boss, the head of the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation’s southeast hub, had other things on his mind.

Fantasy

How Many Miles to Babylon?

It’s getting harder and harder to pretend we aren’t racing along the edge of a knife, one box of flashlights and a fistful of batteries away from the mercy of the things in the darkness.

Science Fiction

The Hammer of God

Suddenly, he was back in this cabin aboard the orbital tug Goliath, commanding the 100-person team of Operation ATLAS, the most critical mission in the history of space exploration.

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