Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 175 (December 2024)

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 175 of LIGHTSPEED! Both of our science fiction original shorts contain a warning for our near future selves. In Pat Murphy's "A Catalog of 21st Century Ghosts," a woman travels America searching for connection in an age of climate disaster-and finds it where she least expects it. Gene Doucette mixes comedy and concerns about privacy and AI in his story "Get Hyped!" Tamra Masri has her LIGHTSPEED debut with "Inside the House of Wisdom," a flash story that looks with hope toward a future Gaza. We also have a piece of dark flash ("What We Plan to Do to You") by Adam-Troy Castro. Melissa A Watkins launches off our fantasy short stories with "Ol' Big Head," the story of one young man's education about family history . . . and the importance of taking care of one's community. Cressida Blake Roe's story "The Godhood of Ima Day" is set in a future where, for better or worse, people can host gods. In our fantasy flash, Lincoln Michel gives us a retelling of Sleeping Beauty ("Sleeping Beauty and the Restless Realm") and David Anaxagoras spins an entirely modern fairy tale in "Three Birds That Came Out of Grayson Huff and a Bunch More That Fell from the Sky." All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our review team.