Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 152 (January 2023)

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 152 of LIGHTSPEED! Our SFnal offerings include two flash stories: "The Last Serving" by Lincoln Michel and "A Guide to Alien Terms Useful in the Human Diaspora" by Deborah L. Davitt. Our first full-length short story is "The Narrative Implications of Your Untimely Death" by Isabel Kim. If you ever wondered what would happen if the networks took the reality TV show SURVIVOR to outer space-and gave the producers the power to bring their most popular stars back to life-then this story is for you. In the new short "From the Largest Crater," Jendayi Brooks-Flemister returns us to the slow apocalypse we visited in last year's "Up Falling." While you don't need to read both stories to understand them, the two form a poignant story of love and family. Scott Edelman brings us the first of our fantasy shorts: "A Man Walks Into a Bar: In Which More Than Four Decades After My Father's Reluctant Night of Darts on West 54th Street I Finally Understand What Needs to Be Done." It's the story of one brief interaction in New York City, and the magical consequences it could have on the entire world. Maria Dong brings us our second short story, a beautiful and harrowing tale of servitude, love, and longing called "Braid Me a Howling Tongue." The fantastical continues with a reprint of Seanan McGuire's story "In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There." And our flash story this month is "Between the Stones and the Stars" (by A.L. Goldfuss). Our book review team brings you our usual array of terrific recommendations, and of course we have author spotlight interviews with our authors.