Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 131 (April 2021)

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 LIGHTSPEED's 131st issue! This month An Owomoyela returns to our pages with a new story of advanced AI, brain adaptations, and oh, yes, dead loved ones: "The Equations of the Dead." It's a riveting read, and so is our other SF original, Rich Larson's "Complete Exhaustion of the Organism," a post-apocalyptic story of love, loss, and, well, dead loved ones. We also have SF reprints from Seanan McGuire ("Swear Not by the Moon") and Ray Nayler ("The Ocean Between the Leaves"). Our fantasy original is a new novelette from Ashok K. Banker: "The Giving One." It's an epic tale that we'll be serializing in two parts. We also have fantasy reprints from Ann Leckie ("The Justified") and Genevieve Valentine ("Blood, Ash, Braids"). The book review team has been busy reading everything from a new serialized dark SF novella (SPIDER KING, by Justin C. Key, MD) to a joyous YA novel from LIGHTSPEED alum Charlie Jane Anders.