Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

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Editorial

Editorial: March 2025

Welcome to issue 178 of Lightspeed Magazine!

We’re kicking off the issue with an original SF short by Cadwell Turnbull: “Dekar Druid and the Infinite Library.” Who is Dekar Druid? Why is he trapped inside an infinite library? And how does he move inside the pages of all those books? You’ll have to read it to find out. Adam-Troy Castro brings us an epistolary story of linguistic breakdown in his short, “Message in a Babel.” Our flash pieces are both about space exploration and its terrible price: “Those Who Seek to Embrace The Sun” from Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe and “Instructions for Good Boys on the Interplanetary Expedition” by Rachael K. Jones.

Our first original fantasy short—“Memories of Temperance” by Anya Ow—takes us into the underworld, as two unhappy spirits wander the afterlife on their own mysterious mission. “The Lexicon of Lethe” by Sunwoo Jeong is about a neighborhood struggling as words begin to vanish off of signs, menus . . . and out of people’s minds. We also have a flash story in the form of a dark fairy tale from Jake Kerr (“Pure of Heart”). Nina Kiriki Hoffman brings us our final piece of fantasy flash: “The Shift.”

Our nonfiction team sees a shift as we welcome our new nonfiction editor, Kevin Figueroa Quiñones. He’ll be working with our delightful review team, who, as ever, have been reading all the best books. Find out what they recommend! We also have author spotlight interviews with our short fiction writers.

Thanks for joining us for another terrific issue!

John Joseph Adams

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John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and the New York Times bestselling editor of more than forty anthologies, such as Wastelands, A People’s Future of the United States, and Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele). He is also editor (and publisher) of the Hugo Award-winning magazine Lightspeed and is publisher of its sister-magazines Nightmare and Fantasy. Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award, a winner of the Stoker,  Locus, and ENNIE awards, and a ten-time World Fantasy Award finalist. In addition to his short fiction work, he’s the co-creator of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, and for five years he was the editor of the John Joseph Adams Books novel imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Lately, he’s been working as an editor on various TTRPG projects for Kobold Press and Monte Cook Games and as a contributing game designer on books such as Kobold Press’s Tome of Heroes. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.

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