A group of misfit humans and machines fight to stop a conspiracy to exterminate humanity in a future Chicago ruled by a brutal artificial intelligence.The future is ruled by intelligent machines. After a brutal war leaving at least one quarter of the United States still under occupation, the remnants of the American government are negotiating for a permanent peace with a coalition of sophisticated but fascist machines that have besieged the country.Barry Simc...

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's cover art is by Reiko Murakami, illustrating an original science fiction story by A. Merc Rustad and Ada Hoffman ("I Sing Against the Silent Sun")...

A thrilling adventure in a world one step away from total subjugation by machines After long years of war, the United States has sued for peace, yielding to a brutal coalition of nations ruled by fascist machines. One quarter of the country is under foreign occupation. Manhattan has been annexed by a weird robot monarchy, and in Tennessee, a permanent peace is being delicately negotiated between the battered remnants of the U.S. government and an envoy of implacable machines. Canadian busi...

In the beginning…Three brothers – Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer. Royalty. Archangels. United in devotion to their father and all his works.But when Lucifer learns of their father’s latest creation – a new race, fashioned from crude matter and yet made in his image – he is consumed with resentment. Why have he and his angelic kind been overlooked?After a bitter confrontation, Lucifer is cast out, doomed to an eternity of exile and punishment.Unrepenta...

A brilliantly written and ritiving post-dystopian debut from Eyal Kless, about a society hoping to salvage the technology of a lost generation, a mysterious missing boy who can open doors no one else can, and a scribe who must piece together the past to determine humanity’s future.More than a hundred years have passed since the Catastrophe brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Those who survived are changed. The Wildeners have reverted to the old ways—but wi...

A collection of shockingly prescient stories covering topics from aliens to AI, including some that have never before been seen, from the New York Times best-selling author of the Silo trilogyHugh Howey is known for crafting riveting and immersive page-turners of boundless imagination, spawning millions of fans worldwide, first with his best-selling novel Wool, and then with other enthralling works such as Sand and Beacon 23....

A reporter tries to cheat death and jeopardizes the fate of millions in this science fiction thriller by the author of The Whole Mess and Other Stories.Olivia Nikitas, a hardened journalist whose specialty is war zones, has been reporting from the front lines of the civil war in Aleppo, Syria. When Brian, an aid worker she reluctantly fell in love with, dies while following her into danger, she'll do anything to bring him back. In a makeshift death chamber ...

The new neighbors don't seem interested in socializing . . . "An enormously enjoyable first contact story . . . from a talented new voice in sci-fi." —A.G. Riddle, bestselling author of The Atlantis GeneThree years ago, a spaceship landed in an open field in the quiet mill town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts. It never opened its doors, and for all that time, the townspeople have wondered why the ship landed there, and what—or who—could be inside.Then one day ...

**"**Autonomous is to biotech and AI what Neuromancer was to the Internet."—Neal Stephenson"Something genuinely and thrillingly new in the naturalistic, subjective, paradoxically humanistic but non-anthropomorphic depiction of bot-POV—and all in the service of vivid, solid storytelling."—William GibsonWhen anything can be owned, how can we be free?Earth, 2...

"Thoughtful, heartbreaking . . . King expertly explores the myriad routes to family, hope, and love in a repressive country." — Publishers WeeklyUnder the One Child Policy, everyone plotted to have a son.Now 40 million of them can't find wives.China's One Child Policy and its cultural preference for male heirs have created a society overrun by unmarriageable men. An Excess Male is one such leftover man's quest for love and family unde...

Galactic Exploration is a compilation of four closely related stories following the exploration of the Milky Way by the star ships Serengeti, Savannah and the Rift Valley. These three generational spaceships are manned by clones and form part of the ongoing search for intelligent extra-terrestrial life. With the Serengeti heading out above the plane of the Milky Way, the Savannah exploring the outer reaches of the galaxy, and the Rift Valley investigating possible alien signals within the ...

The Hugo Award is one of the most prestigious speculative fiction literary awards. Every year, supporting members of WorldCon nominate their favorite stories first published during the previous year to determine the top five in each category for the final Hugo Award ballot. Between the announcement of the ballot and the Hugo Award ceremony at WorldCon, these works often become the center of much attention (and contention) across fandom.But there are more stories loved by the Hugo v...