Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 171 (August 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 171 of LIGHTSPEED! It's hard to think of two topics more SFnal than time travel and robots, and so we're delighted to present this month's two extremely science fictional short stories. Richard Thomas gives time travel a spooky spin his new tale "The Darkness Between the Stars." Archita Mittra spins a tale of android friendship in her story "The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strain'd." We also have two terrific flash pieces: "Resistance" from Cat Rambo and "Under the Skin" by Deborah L. Davitt. Astronomy can't shake its connections to the gods, not when so many constellations are named for mythological entities, and Dominique Dickey delves into both topics in their hard-hitting fantasy tale "Look at the Moon." Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe turns our gaze away from the sky in his magical story "Child of the River." We also have a flash story ("Mud Maidens Rise") from K.A. Wiggins and a very special fairy tale retelling ("What's in a Name") from Matthew Hughes.