Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 146 (July 2022)

LIGHTSPEED is a digital 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 issue 146 of LIGHTSPEED! We often talk about technology and art as if they are polar opposites, but of course artists use technology, and art itself is both shaped and a shaper of technology. Our first original science fiction story this month-"Critical Mass," by Peter Watts-is about the marriage of sculpture to technology, and it's a fascinating meditation on the relationship between them. Our other original SF ("Singing the Ancient Out of the Dark") also tackles what might feel like a marriage of opposites: it's about the role of historians in space exploration, written by duo R J Theodore and Maurice Broaddus. Rich Larson returns with "Ursus Frankensteinus," a flash piece about polar bears, and our SF reprint is by Samuel Peralta ("Liberty: Seeking Support for a Writ of Habeas Corpus for a Non-Human Being"). Lyndsie Manusos spins us a poignant story of love and loss in her magical tale "An Old Man Cometh and He Is Overgrown." Micah Dean Hicks shines a different kind of light on fairies in his story "Hungry as the Mirror Bright." Isabel Canas offers a solemn piece of flash fiction, "The Rustle of Growing Things," and we have a fantasy reprint by Catherynne M. Valente ("The Sun in Exile"). In nonfiction, our author spotlight interviewer, Laurel Amberdine, has sat down with our writers to discuss their work, and of course we have book reviews from our wonderful review team. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from Ruthanna Emrys's new novel, A Half-Built Garden.