Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 127 (December 2020)

LIGHTSPEED is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF--and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales. Welcome to LIGHTSPEED's 127th issue! Our first piece of original science fiction is a deep dive into pop culture that will have you rethinking your relationship with advertising: "You Mind Is the Superfund Site," by writing duo Andrew Dana Hudson and C.Y. Ballard. Ben H. Winters brings us a twisted little piece of double-speak in his new story "PARTY TIME!" We also have SF reprints by Jennifer Marie Brisset ("The Executioner") and S.L. Huang ("The Woman Who Destroyed Us"). Our first piece of original fantasy this month is by Kali Wallace ("The Salt Warrior"), the story of a woman surviving her society . . . and its destruction. Plus, P H Lee is back with an original fairy tale: "Ann-of-Rags." We also have reprints by Maurice Broaddus ("Ah Been Buked") and Sofia Samatar ("An Account of the Land of Witches"). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with E. Lily Yu. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from Sam J. Miller's new novel THE BLADE BETWEEN.