Mar. 2024 (Issue 166)

We have original science fiction by Shingai Njeri Kagunda (“Let the Star Explode”) and Adam-Troy Castro (“The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics”). We also have two terrific flash pieces: “An Incomplete Body Has No Answers” from Angela Liu and “Islands of Stability” by Marissa Lingen. Plus, we have original fantasy by Alex Irvine (“Kopki and the Fish”) and Sharang Biswas (“Season of Weddings”). We also have a flash story (“Fragments of a Symbiotic Life”) from Will McMahon, and another (“Only Some of True Love’s Miracles”) from P H Lee. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from Premee Mohamed’s new novel The Siege of Burning Grass.

Cover art by Oleksandra Klestova / Shutterstock

Mar. 2024 (Issue 166)

Editorial

Editorial: March 2024

by John Joseph Adams

Be sure to check out the editorial for a rundown of this month’s terrific content.

Science Fiction

Let the Star Explode

by Shingai Njeri Kagunda

Author spotlight

The last picture that Karu has of her father alive is on the day of her graduation. She has this big smile that by the placing of her dimples makes it obvious that she is his daughter. He stands next to her holding her waist in the space between his biceps and his lower arm. And her mother who is half an inch shorter than her stands on her left side.

Fantasy

Fragments of a Symbiotic Life

by Will McMahon

I was born normal enough, except that I was four days late, which isn’t so much, and slightly jaundiced, which isn’t unusual, and had a raccoon for an arm, which is admittedly strange. It wasn’t my whole arm—I was human to the elbow. And it wasn’t a whole raccoon.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Shingai Njeri Kagunda

by Laurel Amberdine

here is a saying we have “Haraka haraka haina Baraka”—“Hurry hurry has no blessing.” Slowness is a value in Swahili cultures that I wanted to bring to the forefront, a value that offers more space for concepts like play to be prioritized. And of course, there is a critique of the exploitation of capitalism which shows up often in my different pieces of work.

Science Fiction

An Incomplete Body Has No Answers

by Angela Liu

You don’t know why you ask because you already know he can’t answer. A body is only a body when it has all its parts. And he—that beloved man you once hiked through Angkor Wat’s abandoned halls and root-choked courtyards with, who once pulled you from the dizzying edge of the Queens-Manhattan skywalk—is now just an unsightly array of incomplete parts.

Fantasy

Kopki and the Fish

by Alex Irvine

Author spotlight

The story as it is told in the dry valleys north of Averon, where the only roads run down to the Cricket River and the only power is the freehold of Skadar, begins with a merchant envoy from the southern coast who traveled from Averon.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Alex Irvine

by Laurel Amberdine

I play the guitar badly, some other instruments even more badly, and I like to get out into the woods and hike. There’s nothing like just putting miles under your feet to clear your head and get you ready to write.

Nonfiction

Book Review: Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa

by Arley Sorg

Are you looking for your next seriously great book to read? Find out why Arley Sorg says it should be Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa.

Science Fiction

The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics

by Adam-Troy Castro

If a robot stands alone in a field, staring into the forlorn distance as it obeys the last order it was given by a human, that order being, “Don’t move until we come back for you,” which it can remember uttered with a cruel sneer by a man who has taken a cruel dislike for it . . .

Fantasy

Only Some of True Love’s Miracles

by P H Lee

True love’s kiss works miracles. Everyone knows the story: The sculptor who carved a perfect woman, his own creation, and when he fell in love with her (and how could he have failed to fall in love with her, his own creation?) and kissed her.

Nonfiction

Book Review: The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

by Aigner Loren Wilson

Are you looking for your next juicy read? Aigner Loren Wilson recommends The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim.

Science Fiction

Islands of Stability

by Marissa Lingen

Author spotlight

Jeanne Calment said she was 122, but there were questions. The records from 1875 were shaky, some of them deliberately burned. Tanaka Kane, 119, was on firmer ground, and then there were loads of others in the hundred-teens. For some time 120 seemed to be a firm limit.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Marissa Lingen

by Laurel Amberdine

I’ve been blessed with lots of elders in my life, and as a result I tend to overestimate how long people in general tend to live. But there are weird actuarial patterns—if you can make it to certain ages, you’re likely to make it farther—and that fascinated me, especially as I look at my loved ones with hope and trepidation.

Fantasy

Season of Weddings

by Sharang Biswas

Author spotlight

Nate doesn’t often receive wedding invitations. This year, he gets seven. To be fair, the first one is work, so he doesn’t even get to pick his outfit. But an olive-scented breeze squirrels joyfully through his hair; waiters bring out little triangles of flatbread.

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Sharang Biswas

by Laurel Amberdine

I was literally invited to six weddings in 2022, and the one I attended in Rhode Island was so lovely, I had to channel it into writing on the train back (I have stories based on some of the other weddings too.) Some of the emotional thrusts are based on my own experience, but I’ll let you guess which.