Lightspeed: Edited by John Joseph Adams

LIGHTSPEED & NIGHTMARE Kickstarter graphic. Left side: Bright light blue background with rays (as of light) bursting out from the center. Central image is an open book with a rocket blasting up out of it. Below the book is the LIGHTSPEED magazine wordmark; the word lightspeed is rendered in a orange-to-yellow gradient, with a white outline around it and dropshadow underneath it. Right side: Bright light yellow background with rays (as of light) bursting out from the center. Central image is an open book with a haunted house emerging from it. Below the book is the NIGHTMARE magazine wordmark; the word nightmare is rendered in a dark red to lighter red gradient, with a white outline around it and dropshadow underneath it. Top: the words "LIVE on Kickstarter"

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Editorial

Editorial: October 2023

by John Joseph Adams

Published in October 2023 (Issue 161) | 226 words

Welcome to issue 161 of Lightspeed Magazine!

This month we’re serializing A.L. Goldfuss’s SF novelette “Where the God-Knives Tread.” This two-parter is a delightful mix of mystery, space exploration, and archaeology. We also have two terrific flash pieces: “The Void Wyrm’s Guide to Devouring Stars” from AJ Wentz and “Excerpts from a Scientist’s Notebook: Ancestral Memory in Europan Pseudocephalopods” by David DeGraff.

If you’re looking for the recipe to a magical reading experience, don’t miss “Immortality Soup, Or, An Excerpt From the Cookbook of the Gods,” our first fantasy short story of the month, which is written by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe. Jae Steinbacher remixes Little Red Riding Hood in their new story “What You Are and the Wolf.” Our flash includes “A Small God” by Jeff Reynolds and the very magical “Four Self-Care Secrets for a Long and Happy Life” by Tina S. Zhu.

Our book reviewers have been devouring and evaluating new books so they can bring you their monthly array of recommendations. As always, spotlight interviewer Laurel Amberdine has sat down and interviewed our short fiction authors so you can get better insights into their work and their processes. And our ebook readers will also enjoy a book excerpt from Tlotlo Tsamaase’s novel Womb City.
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It’s another terrific month of SF/F fiction!

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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.