Welcome to issue forty-eight of Lightspeed!

Awards season continues, and we are pleased to announce that Lightspeed is again a Hugo Award finalist for best semiprozine, and your humble editor is again a nominee for best editor, short-form. We’re extremely honored to be nominated again (that’s four times in a row for both me and Lightspeed!), so please allow me to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us. You can see a full list of the other nominees at loncon3.org/2014hugos.php.

Speaking of awards, as you have probably heard, Lightspeed has four Nebula finalists this year: “Paranormal Romance” by Christopher Barzak, “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” by Ken Liu, “The Sounds of Old Earth” by Matthew Kressel, and “Alive, Alive Oh” by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. For a complete list of the finalists, visit SFWA.org. The winners will be announced at the SFWA Nebula Awards Weekend, May 15-18, in San Jose, California.

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In case you missed the news last month, I just wanted to mention that my new anthology—Robot Uprisings, which I co-edited with Robopocalypse author Daniel H. Wilson—is now available. It’s about just what you would suspect based on the title—namely: robots, uprising! It’s got a great lineup, featuring all-new, never-before-published stories by Robin Wasserman, Seanan McGuire, Scott Sigler, Charles Yu, Anna North, and Genevieve Valentine, among others, plus a new novella by my esteemed co-editor, Daniel. If you’d like a sneak peek at the anthology, the complete text of Scott Sigler’s story, “Complex God,” appears in our April issue as one of our reprints. Visit johnjosephadams.com/robot-uprisings for other free samples or if you just want to learn more.

You remember last month when I said I don’t rest on my laurels? Well, just to drive that point home, I have another new anthology out this month. On May 13, Titan Books will publish Dead Man’s Hand. It’s full of weird-western goodness, and it has a great lineup, featuring all-new, never-before-published stories by Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, Elizabeth Bear, Alastair Reynolds, Jonathan Maberry, Joe R. Lansdale, Tad Williams, Hugh Howey, and many more. If you’d like a sneak peek at this anthology, look no further: The complete text of Rajan Khanna’s story, “Second Hand,” appears in this issue as one of our reprints. Additionally, Fred Van Lente’s story in this issue (“Willful Weapon”) takes place in the same world as his Dead Man’s Hand story, “Neversleeps.” Visit johnjosephadams.com/dead-mans-hand or your favorite book retailer for more information.

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With our announcements out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

We have original science fiction by Seth Dickinson (“A Tank Only Fears Four Things”) and Sandra McDonald (“Selfie”), along with SF reprints by Nisi Shawl (“Deep End”) and Sean Williams (“Zero Temptation”).

Plus, we have original fantasy by Matthew Hughes (“The Ba of Phalloon,” a Kaslo Chronicles tale) and Fred Van Lente (“Willful Weapon”), and fantasy reprints by Rachel Pollack (“Burning Beard”) and Rajan Khanna (“Second Hand”).

All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, along with a pair of feature interviews.

For our ebook readers, we also have the novella reprint “Shiva in Shadow” by Nancy Kress and novel excerpts from Defenders by Will McIntosh and The Silk Map by Chris Willrich.

It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out. And remember, there are several ways you can sign up to be notified of new Lightspeed content:

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Well, that’s all there is to report this month. Thanks for reading!