Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 193 (June 2026)

We have original science fiction by M.R. Robinson (“Ghost in the Tank”) and David Marino (“The Overview Initiative”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Memeostasis” from Benjamin Rosenbaum and “The Sharing of Some Familiar Song” by Adam-Troy Castro. Plus, we have original fantasy by Alex Irvine (“An Oral History of the Schooner Key Invasion”) and Beesan Odeh (“Ash-Shūrā”). We also have a flash story (“The Best of Intentions”) from Mari Ness, and another (“I Cut Off a Monster’s Arm. AITA?”) from Marie Brennan. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team. It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out.

Cover art by Tithi Luadthong (aka Grandfailure)

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 193 (June 2026)

Editorial

Editorial: June 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 6/4

Science Fiction

Ghost in the Tank

by M.R. Robinson

The first time you killed me, I cried like a baby.

Stupid, stupid, to cry over something make-believe—stupid and ugly and pathetic, too, when already the only thing I wanted in the world was for you to find me pretty. I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t expected it to hurt so bad, dying in the sim. I hadn’t expected it to hurt at all.

Publishes Online on 6/4

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: M.R. Robinson

by Erik Grove

The story came directly out of two incidents around the same time last summer: a con released a panel description complaining about the existence of too many lesbian stories, and a couple of gaming websites started mass-censoring/banning queer games and creators. The way these events overlapped made both even more frustrating; looking back at my early handwritten notes for this story, the first line is “too many lesbians” in scare quotes.

Publishes Online on 6/4

Fantasy

The Best of Intentions

by Mari Ness

She assures them, again and again, that she acted under the best—the very best—of intentions. Oh, yes, she can be a bit dramatic at times—she won’t deny that. And she was hurt—very hurt—by that mess with the invitations. She won’t deny that, either.

But surely—surely—no one can think that she would respond by hurting an innocent child?

Publishes Online on 6/4

Science Fiction

Memeostasis

by Benjamin Rosenbaum

“They farm starlight.”

“Bullshit.”

“Okay, they’re going to farm starlight. For now they’re running fusion rigs. But that’s not their long-term plan.”

“No one in the sunforsaken Oort has a long-term plan. Other than slow suicide. You know what they told me, when I was first coming out here? ‘There are warmer ways to die.’ That’s in the bloody Kuiper.”

Publishes Online on 6/11

Fantasy

An Oral History of the Schooner Key Invasion

by Alex Irvine

When you look out from the garage doors of the corrugated steel warehouse where the Fort Springwell Community College soccer team made their heroic stand against the forces of darkness, the view at first seems . . . idyllic. A rocky shoreline, uncommon for Florida. Periodically the beam of a lighthouse sweeps across our field of view. Everything looks normal, except on its course across the little cove, the beam lights up magical sigils that form a barrier from the lighthouse point to the other side of the cove.

Publishes Online on 6/11

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Alex Irvine

by A Humphrey Lanham

The location is loosely based on the Round Table Foundation, an occult and psychic research facility that existed on the Maine coast in the mid-20th century. It was led by one Henry Puharić, who is well known in paranormal conspiracy circles, and a guy named Harry Stump, whose biography has to be read to be believed. Aldous Huxley used to stop by.

Publishes Online on 6/11

Nonfiction

Book Review: My Dear You by Rachel Khong

by Arley Sorg

Arley Sorg recommends Rachel Khong’s new short story collection My Dear You for your next read.

Publishes Online on 6/11

Science Fiction

The Overview Initiative

by David Marino

We’ll skip ahead. Say eight minutes in, so I’m not wasting your time. You’re in your chair, strapped tight, taking around eight Gs. Like this, they wouldn’t even feel that bad, all the force coming from front to back, pressing you down into your seat. Your eyes are starting to water. You might have trouble breathing. But you’re doing great. You’re looking out that window into the black of space, everything shaking. There’s some pinpricks of stars, light-years away, wobbling out there.

Publishes Online on 6/18

Fantasy

I Cut Off a Monster’s Arm. AITA?

by Marie Brennan

Look, it’s bad enough that my wife gets cat-called in the street and flashed on the train. There’s a lot of sickos out there who get their jollies by harassing women, and usually I try to shut them down without escalating it to a fight.

But we moved a few months ago to a new place. (I don’t want to say where, but it’s in Ishikawa Prefecture.) Last week my wife went to the toilet one night—we have the traditional kind, rather than a Western-style seat—and a moment later I heard this godawful shriek.

Publishes Online on 6/18

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: David Marino

by Phoebe Barton

Initially, I started with trying to envision a positive future. I came up with the Overview Initiative concept, then immediately realized all the reasons it is a terrible idea. That tension, as well as a tension I’ve been feeling around what the “point” of science fiction writing is more broadly (as if there is one singular point), drove this story.

Publishes Online on 6/18

Nonfiction

Book Review: Goldenborn by Ama Ofosua Lieb

by Melissa A Watkins

Melissa A Watkins recommends Goldenborn for fans of LaDarrion Williams’s Blood at the Root, Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn, or Wole Talabi’s Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon.

Publishes Online on 6/18

Science Fiction

The Sharing of Some Familiar Song

by Adam-Troy Castro

The creatures who shared your art with us had to explain many things to make it minimally comprehensible. This by itself made sense. You are who and what you are, and we are who and what we are, and the physical differences between us are profound. We belong to different orders, and this means that our minds are also different, our philosophies are different, our ways of measuring and of comprehending the universe are different.

Publishes Online on 6/25

Fantasy

Ash-Shūrā; or, A Book, a Bowl, a Bag of Coins

by Beesan Odeh

There once lived a boy who paid for a fortune. Nassim wore carob hair and eyes severe like cardamom. He spent his days scouring the souk for unique trinkets he liked to collect or counting the uneven stones of Jerusalem’s cobbled streets as he passed Al-Aqsa Mosque or picking up groceries for his grandmother. He knew it was best to avoid attention and wise to steer clear of the soldiers clad in olive drab watching from the shadows of their field caps in Al-Quds, walled and on fire.

Publishes Online on 6/25

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Beesan Odeh

by Delia Cullity

I fought this story on and off for years, and it’s changed almost entirely, except for the two main characters. The very first draft dealt more with the westernized interpretation of genies and wishes that folks are familiar with. Still set in the same place but quite different than the end product. But the main idea I wanted to explore then and now was the dynamic between two characters like Nassim and Khaizaran amidst that setting.

Publishes Online on 6/25

Nonfiction

Book Review: Auntie Heroes by Rita Beeman, ed.

by Chris Kluwe

Looking for your next short story collection? Chris Kluwe recommends Auntie Heroes!

Publishes Online on 6/25