Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 161 (October 2023)

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 161 of LIGHTSPEED! This month we're serializing A.L. Goldfuss's SF novelette "Where the God-Knives Tread." This two-parter is a delightful mix of mystery, space exploration, and archaeology. We also have two terrific flash pieces: "The Void Wyrm's Guide to Devouring Stars" from AJ Wentz and "Excerpts from a Scientist's Notebook: Ancestral Memory in Europan Pseudocephalopods" by David DeGraff. If you're looking for the recipe to a magical reading experience, don't miss "Immortality Soup, Or, An Excerpt From the Cookbook of the Gods," our first fantasy short story of the month, which is written by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe. Jae Steinbacher remixes Little Red Riding Hood in their new story "What You Are and the Wolf." Our flash includes "A Small God" by Jeff Reynolds and the very magical "Four Self-Care Secrets for a Long and Happy Life" by Tina S. Zhu. Our book reviewers have been devouring and evaluating new books so they can bring you their monthly array of recommendations. As always, spotlight interviewer Laurel Amberdine has sat down and interviewed our short fiction authors so you can get better insights into their work and their processes. And our ebook readers will also enjoy a book excerpt from Tlotlo Tsamaase's novel WOMB CITY.