Welcome to issue 197 of Lightspeed!

This month’s original science fiction offerings are by Adam-Troy Castro (“The Raspberry Manifesto of Professor Warana”) and Rob Cameron (“Ice Like Honey”), the latter of which we’re publishing in partnership with Dartmouth University and MIT Press. Our two science fiction flash pieces are: “Guidance” by Martin Cahill and “Master/Slave Couple Seeking Physicist to Feed to a Black Hole” by Arden Powell.

Our original fantasy offerings are by Susan Palwick (“Uncanny Jack”) and Marissa Lingen (“Until the Cure”). Our two fantasy flash pieces are: “All the Shapes We Have Ever Been” by Kehkashan Khalid and “Congratulations on your Magic Sword™” by John Wiswell.

We will also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our review team. It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out.

Android in the Archives

ICYMI: We’ll be featuring one story per issue from the forthcoming fiction + nonfiction anthology Android in the Archives (lightspeedmagazine.com/android), which will be published by MIT Press in 2027. Through design activities, panels, symposia and a mountain lodge retreat, the editors and authors collaboratively imagined worlds that interrogate the future humanity is heading towards. The fiction was edited by Sharang Biswas and Liz Gorinsky, which was done in collaboration with academic editor Rebecca Clark, along with project leads Solomon Diamond and Paula Olson, and contributing academic authors Jacqueline Wernimont and Eugene Korsunskiy. Stories by Max Gladstone, Brooke Bolander, and Dartmouth student Sanjana Raj have already been published; other stories are forthcoming from Nibedita Sen, K. M. Szpara, Sam J. Miller, Alice Sola Kim, Andrea Kriz, and—in this issue—Rob Cameron. To see all of the stories published thus far, visit lightspeedmagazine.com/series/android-in-the-archives.