Aug. 2025 (Issue 183)

We have original science fiction by Adam-Troy Castro (“Feast of Famine”) and V.M. Ayala (“To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Five Dispatches from Conflict Zone W-924/B Regarding Post-battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis” from David Anaxagoras and “The Dream Tourists” by Sarah Langan. Plus, we have original fantasy by Fatima Taqvi (“It Might Be He Returns”) and Christopher Rowe (“Savannah and the Apprentice”). We also have a flash story (“Dad Went Out to Get the Milk”) from Osahon Ize-Iyamu, and another (“Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers”) from Naomi Kanakia. 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 / Adobe Stock

Aug. 2025 (Issue 183)

Editorial

Editorial: August 2025

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!

Science Fiction

Five Dispatches from Conflict Zone W-924/B Regarding Post-Battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis

by David Anaxagoras

Dispatch #1. [INAUDIBLE] . . . but hopefully I’ve got the recorder working now. This is Dr. Nathaniel Letheford, Director, Alliance for Military Neutralization and Eradication of Sensitive Incidents and Atrocities. I have been inserted into conflict zone W-924/B for sample collection.

Fantasy

It Might Be He Returns

by Fatima Taqvi

Author spotlight

What you need to know about the boy in this story is he is always hungry and the sun is always too hot for him, and he would save the world if he could. This is what he tells himself as he sits opposite the tailor’s shop, looking at the clothes sway in the breeze of the air conditioner within. Fawad would save the world, he would change fate itself.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Fatima Taqvi

by Alex Puncekar

The biggest influence was my own encounters with unhoused children on the streets of Karachi. Either on the way to school myself or coming to and from places in the city. There is no childhood for them, and no organised resource or infrastructure to resort to.

Science Fiction

Feast of Famine

by Adam-Troy Castro

The buffet was infinite. It existed in a pocket dimension, via some sort of technological jiggering of the sort that you have heard about before and, unless you are totally anal, don’t want to hear about now.

Fantasy

Dad Went Out to Get the Milk

by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

Dad went out to get the milk and came back with two scars on his upper chin and a brand from the Druid King on his right thigh. He stumbled through the door like it was nothing; face scarred; eyes full of light.

Mum and Tega and I were eating dinner. We didn’t notice when he stepped through the door.

“Milk’s cold,” Mum said, not taking her eyes away from the TV. These days, she hardly seemed to care.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Osahon Ize-Iyamu

by Mayookh Barua

I’m always thinking about real-life stereotypes and tropes, and how I can subvert them in the space of fiction. I wanted to write a story where the dad didn’t disappear but perhaps was neglectful of his family in other ways. He gets the milk, but is that the point?

Nonfiction

Book Review: Mindscape by Andrea Hairston

by Melissa A Watkins

If you’re looking for your next mind-bending SF read, Melissa A. Watkins highly recommends Mindscape by Andrea Hairston.

Science Fiction

The Dream Tourists

by Sarah Langan

Defense Attorney John Yurasov: Earlier you referred to this trial as a circus. Can you explain what you meant? Defendant Michaela Xiao: I don’t mean it was corrupt. Though that’s very possible. I just mean that the conclusion was always foregone.

Fantasy

Savannah and the Apprentice

by Christopher Rowe

Author spotlight

Savannah the Librarian, long of leg and short of temper, got out of the city to do some killing. As ever, she rode her sly, dependable white mule, Seldom. As ever, the invisible swikehead demon, Boy, crouched on her left shoulder.

Read
Listen
- Narrated by:
  
  Stefan Rudnicki
- Duration:
  
  1:00:31
- Buy eBook
Subscribe

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Christopher Rowe

by Alex Puncekar

I knew wanted to write a series character, so I took inspiration from the many, many characters in fantasy which appear over multiple pieces in general, and I guess a little bit from C.L. Moore’s great swordswoman, Jirel of Joiry.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Not Your Papi’s Utopia: Latinx Visions of Radical Hope by Matthew David Goodwin, Alex Hernandez, Sara Rivera, eds.

by Arley Sorg

If you remember one thing from Arley Sorg’s review of Not Your Papi’s Utopia: Latinx Visions of Radical Hope, he wants it to be—You need to read this book.

Science Fiction

To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter

by V.M. Ayala

Author spotlight

Zan’s supervisor tossed the glass square onto their rusting desk. A glass-rendered construct of a silver ticket hovered in the air, text shimmering. Zan held their breath as they re-read it until they were sure their credentials were correct.

Fantasy

Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers

by Naomi Kanakia

One time at a convention I ran across the Man of Flowers, the Superman of Daffodils, a long-haired guy, indestructible (of course), who slept in his car and drank a lot of cough syrup and didn’t really fight crime, unless the crimes were happening pretty close by. He was old by then, maybe fifty years old, but with stubble and green eyes and that ageless Tom Petty So-Cal face, and we’d gotten used to the idea that this particular ubermensch was more super-hero vibe than actuality.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: V.M. Ayala

by Delia Cullity

Zan being biracial, nonbinary, and working to get by paycheck to paycheck is, frankly, a relatable existence that’s also an infuriating one. I wrote this back in 2024, prior to the election in the U.S. and other events related to CEOs that transpired, so this story feels eerily relevant in a way I never intended.