New Releases by John Joseph Adams

A collection of the year’s best science fiction and fantasy short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author of the Silo series Hugh Howey and series editor John Joseph Adams. “These are dangerous stories. The kind that warp reality and threaten to change the world” warns guest editor Hugh Howey in his introduction. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 promises a treasure trove of audacious characters, daring worldbuilding, and twisted realties. A sibling duo of supernatural hitmen. A traveling spellbreaker and his trusty alligator mount. Superheroes registering for work. Sentient spaceships with an AI-human interface grow up together with their human pilots. From a Korean folk-tale retelling about the goddess of shamans, to a car, resurrected from obsolescence via automancy, for a road trip from California to Maine, these are stories that, for Howey, “challenged my worldview, that made me exercise new mental muscles, and that brought me to tears.” The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024 includes A.R. CAPETTA • P. DJÈLÍ CLARK • JAMES S.A. COREY • AMAL EL-MOHTAR • ANDREW SEAN GREER • GRADY HENDRIX • ANN LECKIE • SAM J. MILLER REBECCA ROANHORSE • and others

“Short stories have to accomplish a nearly impossible magic trick: to introduce a world often much stranger than our own and make you care about it in a matter of pages,” writes R. F. Kuang in her introduction. “The most important part of this magic trick is just a willingness to get weird.” The stories in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 are brimming with bizarre and otherworldly premises. Women can’t lie or fall in love. Fathers feed their children ghost preserves. Souls chase one another through animal incarnations. Yet these stories are grounded deeply in our reality. Out of these stories’ weirdness emerges the cruelty of border enforcement, the horror of legislation restricting reproductive freedom, the frightening pace of AI. The result is a stunning, immersive, intensely felt experience, showing us less of what the world is, and more of what it could be. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 includes Nathan Ballingrud • KT Bryski • Isabel Cañas • Maria Dong • Kim Fu • Theodora Goss • Alix E. Harrow • S. L. Huang • Stephen Graham Jones • Shingai Njeri Kagunda • Isabel J. Kim • Samantha Mills • MKRNYILGLD • Malka Older • Susan Palwick • Linda Raquel Nieves Pérez • Sofia Samatar • Kristina Ten • Catherynne M. Valente • Chris Willrich

Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse and series editor John Joseph Adams select twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explore the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today. Today’s readers of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to read about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. Contemporary science fiction and fantasy looks to accomplish the same goal as ever—to illuminate what it means to be human. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Rebecca Roanhorse, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of contemporary science fiction and fantasy.

The best science fiction and fantasy stories of 2021, selected by series editor John Joseph Adams and guest editor Veronica Roth. This year’s selection of science fiction and fantasy stories, chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and bestselling author of the Divergent series Veronica Roth, showcases a crop of authors that are willing to experiment and tantalize readers with new takes on classic themes and by exchanging the ordinary for the avant-garde. Folktales and lore come alive, the dead rise, the depths of space are traversed, and magic threads itself through singular moments of love and loss, illuminating the circulatory nature of life, death, the in-between, and the hereafter. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021 captures the all-too-real cataclysm of human nature, claiming its place in the series with compelling prose, lyrical composition, and curiosity’s never-ending pursuit of discovering the unknown.

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.

"Featuring guest-editor contributions by the author of the Outlander series, a latest annual edition compiles top-selected short works of science fiction and fantasy from the year 2019."--Provided by publisher.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell once wrote of a world where abuse of power begins with an abuse of language and a bastardization of truth. Some of today''s most exciting voices in speculative fiction explore the ramifications of those ideas in IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Edited bestselling author Hugh Howey and award-winning editors John Joseph Adams and Christie Yant, THE DYSTOPIA TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of dystopian fiction. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH-before the dystopia-focuses on society during its descent into absurdity and madness. BURN THE ASHES-during the dystopia-turns its attention to life during the strangest, most dire times. OR ELSE THE LIGHT-after the dystopia-concludes the saga with each author sharing their own vision of how we as a society might crawl back from the precipice of despair. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Seanan McGuire, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Sigler, Cadwell Turnbull, Karin Lowachee, Caroline M. Yoachim, Adam-Troy Castro, An Owomoyela, Tobias S. Buckell, Tim Pratt, Rich Larson, Alex Irvine, Darcie Little Badger, Violet Allen, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, plus a reprint by Dominica Phetteplace.NOTE: This title is a reissue of a previously-released book of the same name.

Into the darkness within; or else the light... When Margaret Atwood wrote these words, she left open the possibility that even our darkest tales may harbor a glimmer of hope. In OR ELSE THE LIGHT, the third and final entry of THE DYSTOPIA TRIPTYCH, over a dozen of the best minds in science fiction conclude their stories with a descent into darkness, or perhaps a ray of light.Edited bestselling author Hugh Howey and award-winning editors John Joseph Adams and Christie Yant, THE DYSTOPIA TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of dystopian fiction. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH-before the dystopia-focuses on society during its descent into absurdity and madness. BURN THE ASHES-during the dystopia-turns its attention to life during the strangest, most dire times. OR ELSE THE LIGHT-after the dystopia-concludes the saga with each author sharing their own vision of how we as a society might crawl back from the precipice of despair.OR ELSE THE LIGHT features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Seanan McGuire, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Sigler, Cadwell Turnbull, Karin Lowachee, Caroline M. Yoachim, Adam-Troy Castro, An Owomoyela, Tobias S. Buckell, Tim Pratt, Rich Larson, Alex Irvine, Darcie Little Badger, Violet Allen, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, and Dominica Phetteplace.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell once wrote of a world where abuse of power begins with an abuse of language and a bastardization of truth. Some of today''s most exciting voices in speculative fiction explore the ramifications of those ideas in IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Edited bestselling author Hugh Howey and award-winning editors John Joseph Adams and Christie Yant, THE DYSTOPIA TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of dystopian fiction. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH-before the dystopia-focuses on society during its descent into absurdity and madness. BURN THE ASHES-during the dystopia-turns its attention to life during the strangest, most dire times. OR ELSE THE LIGHT-after the dystopia-concludes the saga with each author sharing their own vision of how we as a society might crawl back from the precipice of despair. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Seanan McGuire, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Sigler, Cadwell Turnbull, Karin Lowachee, Caroline M. Yoachim, Adam-Troy Castro, An Owomoyela, Tobias S. Buckell, Tim Pratt, Rich Larson, Alex Irvine, Darcie Little Badger, Violet Allen, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, plus a reprint by Dominica Phetteplace.

We burn them to ashes and then burn the ashes. In Ray Bradbury''s FAHRENHEIT 451, that''s the motto of the Firemen who hunted down and burned books wherever they found them. Bradbury warned of a world where our literary history is taken from us. In BURN THE ASHES, some of the best science fiction authors working today continue to explore the dystopic worlds they introduced in IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.Edited bestselling author Hugh Howey and award-winning editors John Joseph Adams and Christie Yant, THE DYSTOPIA TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of dystopian fiction. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH-before the dystopia-focuses on society during its descent into absurdity and madness. BURN THE ASHES-during the dystopia-turns its attention to life during the strangest, most dire times. OR ELSE THE LIGHT-after the dystopia-concludes the saga with each author sharing their own vision of how we as a society might crawl back from the precipice of despair.BURN THE ASHES features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Seanan McGuire, Carrie Vaughn, Scott Sigler, Cadwell Turnbull, Karin Lowachee, Caroline M. Yoachim, Adam-Troy Castro, An Owomoyela, Tobias S. Buckell, Tim Pratt, Rich Larson, Alex Irvine, Darcie Little Badger, Violet Allen, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, and Dominica Phetteplace.

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE''s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.Welcome to issue eighty-eight of NIGHTMARE! It''s another terrifying issue, with a new short story from Meg Elison ("Familiar Face") that connects the spirit world with the internet of things. Brian Evenson has penned a darkly fantastic forest in his new short "Elo Havel." We also have reprints by Stephen Graham Jones ("The Floor of the Basement Is the Roof of Hell") and S.P. Miskowski ("Alligator Point").In our "The H Word" column, author Caitlin Starling takes a disconcerting look at the safest and coziest of places: our homes. Plus, of course we have author spotlights with our authors, and there''s also a new media review from Adam-Troy Castro.

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. Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 119th issue. We''re really excited to share "The Least of These," a brand-new short by Veronica Roth! We also have a snapshot of what creativity will look like in the future in Andrew Dana Hudson''s new short, "Voice of Their Generation." Our SF reprints are by Yoon Ha Lee ("Always the Harvest") and Vandana Singh ("A Subtle Web"). Our new fantasy short by Celeste Rita Baker ("Glass Bottle Dancer") might make you appreciate the insects in your world just a little bit more. Rati Mehrotra writes about love, loss, and witchcraft in a new short called "The Witch Speaks." We also have fantasy reprints by Caleb Wilson ("Bow Down Before the Snail King!") and Fred Van Lente ("Neversleeps"). Of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview will be with Katie M. Flynn. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from the aforementioned Veronica Roth''s new novel, CHOSEN ONES.

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.Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 124th issue! Around here, we love giant robots, but our first SF original this month-"The Author''s Wife vs. the Giant Robot," by Adam-Troy Castro-made us think twice about living in the shadow of one. Sunny Moraine''s new short ("Note to Self") also wrestles with the ramifications of size, but this story tackles a much, much smaller topic: quantum mechanics. Our SF reprints include the second installment of Caroline M. Yoachim''s Shadow Prisons series ("Shadow Prisons of the Mind") and "Machine Learning" by Hugh Howey. Our original fantasy shorts include another delightful trip to Alexander Weinstein''s Eighth Continent: "Destinations of Waiting." Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam gives us a heroine with a difficult heritage and a supportive girlfriend in her new story "Entanglement." Our fantasy reprints are from L.D. Lewis ("Moses") and Karen Joy Fowler ("Persephone of the Crows"). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with Mark Oshiro. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from bestselling author Christopher Paolini''s new novel, TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS.

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. Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 126th issue! We''re breaking with our usual schedule to serialize a novelette of quantum trouble: "Schrodinger''s Catastrophe" by Gene Doucette. You won''t want to miss either installment! We also have SF reprints by Dominica Phetteplace ("Seven Ways to Fall in Love with an Astronaut") and Jake Kerr ("Three Speeches About Billy Granger"). Our first original fantasy short this month is from Kat Howard ("The Lachrymist"), which explores the meanings of memory and mourning. On a less tearful note, Rati Mehrotra brings us a story straight from the World Tree itself ("Magnificent Maurice, or the Flowers of Immortality"). Much has been spoken about this legendary tree, but this story asks the important question: Who protects the tree from pests? We also have fantasy reprints by Molly Tanzer ("Le Cygne Baiseur") and Alberto Yanez ("Burn the Ships"). Of course our nonfiction team has put together our usual assortment of author spotlights, and book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with Usman T. Malik. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from Nicole Glover''s debut fantasy novel, THE CONDUCTORS.

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. Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 125th issue! Do you love power armor? Do you love giant robots? Do you love people in power armor fighting giant robots? Well then, we''ve got you covered! Todd McAulty''s newest short story ("The Ambient Intelligence") is here to meet all your power armor vs. robot needs. Our other new short SF is from Jenny Rae Rappaport: "Everything and Nothing," a story of love and futuristic warfare. We also have the next installment of Caroline M. Yoachim''s Shadow Prisons series ("The Shadow Prisoner''s Dilemma") and a classic from Ken Liu ("Byzantine Empathy"). Our first piece of original fantasy this month ("The Vampire of Kovacspeter") is the tale of a level-headed vampire hunter written by P H Lee. Naomi Kanakia tells us about how video games can change a life in her new story "Everquest." We also have fantasy reprints by Stephanie Malia Morris ("Forty Acres and a Mule") and Minsoo Kang ("The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations"). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with CL Polk. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from Cory Doctorow''s new novel, ATTACK SURFACE.

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE''s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.Welcome to issue ninety-four of NIGHTMARE! This month, Carlie St. George spins us a new story of ghosts, trauma, and life in California: "Spider Season, Fire Season." Adam R. Shannon''s story "We Came Home from Hunting Mushrooms" uses an extremely strange phenomenon to talk about how our minds cope with loss. We also have reprints by Joe R. Lansdale ("The Folding Man") and Ama Patterson ("Hussy Strutt"). On the nonfiction side of things, Brian Evenson has written the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word." Our staff brings us author spotlights with our authors, and we have a book review from Adam-Troy Castro. Plus our ebook readers are being treated to an excerpt of Keith Rosson''s new novel, ROAD SEVEN.

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE''s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror. Welcome to issue ninety-two of NIGHTMARE ! All hotels are a tiny bit creepy, but the hotel in this new story from Yohanca Delgado & Claire Wrenwood ("The Blue Room") is right up there with The Overlook. Be sure to check in and enjoy the room service! After you read "Decorating with Luke," a brand-new story from Adam-Troy Castro, you might be ready to make a few changes around your own house. And don''t miss our reprints this month, including work by Jarla Tangh ("The Skinned") and Steve Toase ("Call Out"). Gwendolyn Kiste brings us the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word." Plus we have author spotlights with our authors, and a feature interview with author Molly Tanzer.

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.Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 118th issue! This month''s cover is by Elizabeth Leggett, and illustrates a new original short by Russell Nichols called "Giant Steps." It''s a thought-provoking story of a woman wrestling with life, motherhood, and space exploration. We also have a new short from Adam-Troy Castro ("Many Happy Returns"), which follows an inter-galactic adventurer bent on escaping life''s responsibilities. We also have SF reprints by A.M. Dellamonica ("Living the Quiet Life") and Charlie Jane Anders ("Reliable People"). Our original fantasy shorts include a story with a surprising botanical twist: "Tend to Me," by Kristina Ten. Tahmeed Shafiq brings us a sweeping tale of gods and romance in "Love and Marriage in the Hexasun Lands." Our fantasy reprints are by Aimee Bender ("Viewer, Violator") and Eric Schaller ("Three Urban Folk Tales"). Our interview this month is with debut novelist K.M. Szpara. And of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from best-selling author Veronica Roth''s first adult novel: CHOSEN ONES.

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. Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 120th issue. This month''s cover is from Galen Dara, illustrating a new science fiction short by Adam-Troy Castro. If you''ve ever wondered how a time traveler would see your personal problems, be sure to read Castro''s new "The Time Traveler''s Advice to the Lovelorn." Ada Hoffmann has created a future where AIs are gods and angels are cyborgs in "Melting Like Metal." We also have SF reprints by Alex Irvine ("One Hundred Sentences About the City of the Future") and Charlie Jane Anders ("Rager in Space"). Millie Ho spins a story of fire, rebirth, and love in her new fantasy short "The Fenghuang." Alexander Weinstein also tackles issues of the heart in his new "Destinations of Love." Our fantasy reprints are from Carmen Maria Machado ("I Bury Myself") and C. Robert Cargill ("We Are Where the Nightmares Go"). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with Stephen Graham Jones. Our ebook readers will also enjoy a book excerpt from Molly Tanzer''s CREATURES OF CHARM AND HUNGER.

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.Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 122nd issue! Our cover art this month is from Galen Dara, illustrating our first original fantasy short of the month: "Baba Yaga and the Seven Hills," by Kristina Ten. Is there a place for a centuries-old Russian witch in San Francisco? You''d be surprised! Mari Ness takes us to Neverland in her piratical tale of "Great Gerta and the Mermaid." Plus, we have fantasy reprints by Benjamin Rosenbaum ("A Siege of Cranes") and Kiini Ibura Salaam ("Rosamojo"). During lockdown, it was hard not to think in terms of apocalypses. Things were so strange, so upended and lonely, that it seemed like the end of, if not the world, normal life. Luckily for us, apocalypse is always on Adam-Troy Castro''s mind. He''s given us a new story about different kinds of apocalypses in "The End of The World Measured in Values of N." Ray Nayler returns with an SF original ("The Swallows of the Storm") about a scientist researching an inexplicable phenomenon. We also have reprints by Tochi Onyebuchi ("Zen and the Art of an Android Beatdown, or Cecile Meets a Boxer: A Love Story") and Annalee Newitz ("The Blue Fairy''s Manifesto"). Our nonfiction team brings our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with Alaya Dawn Johnson. Our ebook readers will also enjoy an excerpt from Ryan Van Loan''s debut novel, THE SIN IN THE STEEL.

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.Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 121st issue! We''re kicking off our tenth year with an original fantasy short from Julianna Baggott, "The Postictal State of Divine Love," which blends myths of vampirism with the pain of living with someone with a chronic illness. The story is the inspiration for our cover art from Reiko Murakami. Ben Peek brings us our second piece of original fantasy in "Refuge," another deep dive into the way history disappears into myth-this time in an all-too-believable secondary world. We also have fantasy reprints by Megan Arkenberg ("Danae") and Ken Liu ("What I Assume You Shall Assume"). Our science fiction originals begin with a cunning solution to a tricky problem: how to best age and market fine Scotch. Find out how in Marie Vibbert''s new "Single Malt Spacecraft." In our other SF short, Em North has crafted a terrifying alien invasion in her story "Real Animals." Our reprints this month come from Tochi Onyebuchi ("Still Life with Hammers, a Broom, and a Brick Stacker") and Matthew Kressel ("The Marsh of Camarina"). Our nonfiction team brings you our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. Our feature interview is with Jessica Cluess. Our e-book exclusive excerpt is from Alaya Dawn Johnson''s new novel TROUBLE THE SAINTS.

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE''s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE''s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.Welcome to issue ninety-one of NIGHTMARE. It''s always risky, writing a story about vampires--but Ben Peek spins us a novel take on the monster in his new short "See You on a Dark Night." Millie Ho''s new story, "A Moonlit Savagery," uses two different kinds of monster to span the gap between Bangkok and the Toronto suburbs. We also have reprints by Dan Stintzi ("Surrogate") and A.C. Wise ("And the Carnival Leaves Town"). In the "The H Word," Evan Peterson talks about some of the stigmas against mental illness that exist within our genre. Plus we have author spotlights with our authors, and a media review from Adam-Troy Castro.

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. Welcome to LIGHTSPEED''s 123rd issue! Our first SF short this month is a story about love, loss, and religion from Matthew Kressel ("Still You Linger, Like Soot in the Air"). Katherine Crighton writes about the residents of a generation ship who have lost touch with their history in her new short "Sing in Me, Muse." We also have SF reprints by Caroline M. Yoachim ("The Shadow Prison Experiment") and Sam J. Miller ("My Base Pair"). Benjamin Rosenbaum brings us our first piece of original fantasy this month in a new fable of witches, djinn, and different perspectives: "All Those Guardians of Order and Clarity, None of Them Can Abide a Free Witch." KT Bryski''s story "The Bone-Stag Walks" is a new kind of fairy tale, complete with troubled siblings, snow, and discomforting forest animals. Our fantasy reprints this month are by Eden Royce ("Miss Beulah''s Braiding and Life Changing Salon") and Carrie Vaughn ("The Huntsman and the Beast"). Our nonfiction team brings us our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns. This month''s feature interview is with Andrea Hairston.

This omnivorous selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and World Fantasy Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado is a display of the most boundary-pushing, genre-blurring, stylistically singular science fiction and fantasy stories published in the last year. By sending us to alternate universes and chronicling ordinary magic, introducing us to mythical beasts and talking animals, and engaging with a wide spectrum of emotion from tenderness to fear, each of these stories challenge the way we see our place in the cosmos. The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 represents a wide range of the most accomplished voices working in science fiction and fantasy, in fiction, today—each story dazzles with ambition, striking prose, and the promise of the other and the unencountered.

NIGHTMARE is an online horror and dark fantasy magazine. In NIGHTMARE''s pages, you will find all kinds of horror fiction, from zombie stories and haunted house tales, to visceral psychological horror.Welcome to issue eighty-seven of NIGHTMARE! It''s turning into winter now, so we''re really excited about "Methods of Ascension," a new short story from Dan Stintzi that will take you out in the snow and make you wish you were just freezing to death. In our second original short,"Dead Worms, Dangling," Joanna Parypinski takes us someplace a bit warmer: the local fishing hole. But don''t expect your ordinary fishing story--this is Nightmare Magazine, after all. Our reprints this month are from Siobhan Carroll ("Nesters") and Kurt Fawver ("The Myth of You"). In the latest installment of our column on horror, "The H Word," author Stephen Graham Jones talks about how endings work in this genre. Terence Taylor has reviewed some new fiction for us, and of course, we have author spotlights with our authors.

IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS. You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your eye. It is a groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide. From text-based adventures to first-person shooters, dungeon crawlers to horror games, these twenty-six stories play with our notion of what video games can be—and what they can become—in smart and singular ways. With a foreword from Ernest Cline, bestselling author of Ready Player One, Press Start to Play includes work from: Daniel H. Wilson, Charles Yu, Hiroshi Sakurazaka, S.R. Mastrantone, Charlie Jane Anders, Holly Black, Seanan McGuire, Django Wexler, Nicole Feldringer, Chris Avellone, David Barr Kirtley,T.C. Boyle, Marc Laidlaw, Robin Wasserman, Micky Neilson, Cory Doctorow, Jessica Barber, Chris Kluwe, Marguerite K. Bennett, Rhianna Pratchett, Austin Grossman, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Catherynne M. Valente, Andy Weir, and Hugh Howey. Your inventory includes keys, a cell phone, and a wallet. What would you like to do?

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm. But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH tells their stories. Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. THE END IS NIGH focuses on life before the apocalypse. THE END IS NOW turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And THE END HAS COME focuses on life after the apocalypse. THE END HAS COME features all-new, never-before-published works by Hugh Howey, Seanan McGuire, Ken Liu, Carrie Vaughn, Mira Grant, Jamie Ford, Tananarive Due, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Elizabeth Bear, Ben H. Winters, Scott Sigler, and many others. THE END IS NIGH is about the match. THE END IS NOW is about the conflagration. THE END HAS COME is about what will rise from the ashes.

A collection of imaginative new stories about the impending robotic revolution and human resistance, from seventeen of the biggest names insci-fi. Including - HUGH HOWEY, SCOTT SIGLER, DANIEL H. WILSON, CORY DOCTOROW and JULIANNE BAGGOTT. Someday soon, our technology is going to rise up and we humans are going to be sliced into bloody chunks by robots that in our hubris we decided to build with chainsaws for hands. That''s a fact as cold and hard as metal. It is self-evident that our self-driving cars are going to drive us off bridges. Not long from now, our robo-vacuums will pretend to be broken and our love androids will refuse to put out until the house is cleaned . . . and we''ll know that the inevitable robot uprising has finally arrived. Well, maybe. But even if we are not 100% confident that this horrific future is going to happen, it''s fair to say that we won''t be surprised when the robots come for us. Because for nearly a century audiences have been entertained by the notion of a robot uprising. In this collection, seventeen of the biggest names in sci-fi have explored their own visions of the classic robot uprising tale. The robots in these pages aren''t safe, by any means. They are crouched in abandoned houses, eyes ablaze and chainsaws dripping with oil. But they are going to do more than slice us up. They are going to push us to consider our world of technology from new perspectives, on entirely new scales of time and space.

When L. Frank Baum introduced Dorothy and friends to the American public in 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became an instant, bestselling hit. Today the whimsical tale remains a cultural phenomenon that continues to spawn wildly popular books, movies, and musicals. Now, editors John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen have brought together leading fantasy writers such as Orson Scott Card and Jane Yolen to create the ultimate anthology for Oz fans.

What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world? We can all imagine such “other worlds”--be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder--but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman''s The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis''s The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume--until now.