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: October 2021

Welcome to Lightspeed’s 137th issue!

We’re starting off the month with a memo—a science fictional memo, and lucky for all of you, it’s by the hilarious Gene Doucette. Not everyone can make an apocalypse funny, but we think “Memoranda from the End of the World” will have you chuckling to the bitter end. Our other original SF short comes from Yang-Yang Wang, whose story “Every Single Brian” digs into the painful and personal realm of human cloning. E. Catherine Tobler brings us a riveting SF flash piece in “Those Who Went.” Our reprint is by Rich Larson, from Grist Magazine’s recent Imagine 2200 climate fiction publication: “Tidings.”

On the fantasy side of the magazine, we’re taking you all back to P H Lee’s the Great Sweet Sea for their new novelette “The Ash-Girl and the Salmon Prince.” This fairy tale of family, love, and loss is so much fun we’re serializing it over the course of two weeks. Our fantasy flash piece is the tremendously affecting story “The Right Dragon,” from Coral Alejandra Moore. Our reprint is Endria Isa Richardson’s “The Black Menagerie.”

Our nonfiction team has put together a great selection of author spotlights and book reviews. We also have an excerpt from Ryka Aoki’s new novel, Light From Uncommon Stars.

It’s another terrific issue—thanks for reading!

John Joseph Adams

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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.