Martian folklore is brought to life in Lisa Nohealani Morton’s powerful debut, “How Maartje and Uppinder Terraformed Mars (Marsmen Trad.).”Maureen McHugh brings us a story of an AI discovered in an unlikely place, by an unlikely heroine, in “The Kingdom of the Blind.”New writer Mark Pantoja channels Ray Bradbury and Brian Aldiss as he examines what might happen to smart houses and machines after their inhabitants and operators are long gone in his first published story, “Ho...

The undead legions of Iuzerak have gathered under the banner of the villainous Black Friar, who seeks the Obelisk of Life to resurrect the dead god and unleash hell on the world of Tellus. Only the unlikely alliance of a novice wizard, a volatile mercenary, a renegade elven princess, a dishonored assassin, a doomed minotaur, a thieving gnome, and a defective mech, stand any hope of stopping the army of darkness known as the Hellmongers.

In our first story this month, Liz Coleman’s “Join,” a man who has always felt alienated returns home to visit his family on Earth, and brings with him part of his new family—a newborn, parasitic alien.Most of the universe is the regions between galaxies, yet no stories are ever set in that vast emptiness. In “Bubbles” by David Brin, we get to know Serena, a lonely entity traveling the space between galaxies.D. Thomas Minton’s “Thief of Futures” follows Eshram Kingston thro...

Our lead story this month, “In-fall,” by Ted Kosmatka, puts us aboard a ship hurtling through space. Aboard this ship, two men—mortal enemies—await their inevitable deaths, although that means something very different for each of them.“The Observer,” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch tells the story of a woman separated into various parts of herself. However, there’s always a dominant side. And that side will do whatever it can in order to survive. (Reprint)After reading our third ...

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.This month, we have original science fiction by Marissa Lingen ("Surfacing") and Cat Sparks ("Hot Rods"), along with SF reprints by Michael Blumlein ("The Brains of Rats...

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.This month, we have original science fiction by Benjamin Roy Lambert ("Division of Labor") and Carlie St. George ("This Villain You Must Create") and SF reprint...

Fiction: “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee, “The Long Chase” by Geoffrey A. Landis, “Amid the Words of War” by Cat Rambo, and “Travelers” by Robert Silverberg.

In our lead story this month, “Standard Loneliness Package,” Charles Yu—author of the debut novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe—takes us to a strange future in which those who don’t want to feel pain, don’t have to: You can hire someone else to do it…whether it’s suffering through a root canal, a migraine, or the loss of a loved one.“Faces in Revolving Souls” by Caitlin R. Kiernan depicts a future in which body modification has reached an extreme: not only can ...

In our lead story this month, “Hindsight,” horror author Sarah Langan tells the story of an apocalypse-in-progress, a world in which the laws of physics no longer seem to behave properly, and a mysterious cosmic anomaly called Black Betty. The last remaining survivors have one last hope, but can the technological singularity defeat the threat of a gravitational one?In “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back,” author Joe R. Lansdale tells the tale of a mad scientist and his fami...

One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All TimeThe Newbery Honor–winning second novel in the renowned Earthsea series from Ursula K. LeGuin.In this second novel in the Earthsea series, Tenar is chosen as high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth, and everything is taken from her—home, family, possessions, even her name. She is now known only as Arha, the Eaten One, and guards the shadowy, labyrinthine Tombs ...

Sicarion is an assassin without equal, skilled with both sword and spell, and no foe has ever escaped his devilish cunning.Yet when he accepts a contract to kill a renegade sorceress calling herself the Moroaica, Sicarion realizes he may have made a mistake.For what can an assassin do against a woman who has already died as many times as the Moroaica?

The Dread Empire, a gritty world of larger-than-life plots, nation-shattering conflict, maddening magic, strange creatures, and raw, flawed heroes, all shown through the filter of Cook's inimitable war-correspondent prose. The Dread Empire, spanning from the highest peaks of the Dragon's Teeth to the endless desert lands of Hammad al Nakir, from besieged Kavelin to mighty Shinshan, the Empire Unacquainted with Defeat, with its fearless, masked soldiers, known as the Demon Guard…