Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

Slide 1: in a fun, witchy font: Magic & Mystery, Amazon Original Stories; Slide 2-5: Fantasy Authors Turn to Crime, Curated by John Joseph Adams: Lists authors Travis Baldree, Sarah Beth Durst, Heather Fawcett, Scott Lynch, Tananarive Due, J.M. Miro, and Robert Jackson Bennet. Slide 6: Small renderings of all seven book covers; Slide 7: a magical cat face with paw prints to the left and right, with the words "The Game is Afoot / July 28".

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Editorial

Editorial: May 2023

by John Joseph Adams

Published in May 2023 (Issue 156) | 220 words

Welcome to issue 156 of Lightspeed Magazine!

In 2016, we ran the story “Wednesday’s Story” by Wole Talabi in our May issue. We’re delighted to return to the magical realm of the Days siblings with a new story from Wole Talabi: “Saturday’s Song.” We also have a lovely new original short from Kat Howard (“One Heart, Lost and Found”) set on an extremely fascinating train. Our fantasy flash stories include “The Sword, the Butterfly, and the Pearl” by Deborah L. Davitt and “The Belfry Keeper” by S.L. Harris.

For our science fiction shorts, in “She Blooms and the World is Changed” Izzy Wasserstein takes us to a new planet filled with risks—and occupied by a family dealing with these dangers. Timothy Mudie’s new novelette (“Blood for a Stranger”) wrestles with morality and cybernetic intelligence. We also have two terrific flash pieces: “Moons We Can Circumnavigate in One Day, or the Space Probe Love Story” from Natalia Theodoridou and “When Shiva Shattered the Time-Stream” by Sharang Biswas.

On the nonfiction front, our book review team offers up some exciting new reads, and our author spotlight editor has dug deeper into our writers’ processes and inspirations. Plus we have an excerpt from Cory Doctorow’s new novel Red Team Blues for our ebook readers.

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John Joseph Adams

John_Joseph_Adams_2018_220x169px

John Joseph Adams is the editor and publisher of the Hugo Award-winning Lightspeed and publisher of its sibling magazine, Nightmare. He’s also the editor of more than fifty anthologies, including the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series, Wastelands, A People’s Future of the United States, and the New York Times bestselling Out There Screaming (with Jordan Peele). John is a winner of the Hugo, Stoker, Locus, and British Fantasy awards, and is 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 ran a novel imprint for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Lately, he’s also been working as an editor and game designer on TTRPG projects for Kobold Press, Paizo, and Monte Cook Games. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.