The August 2013 Issue is Now on Sale!

Welcome to issue thirty-nine of Lightspeed!

In this month’s issue, we have original fantasy by Ken Liu (“The Litigation Master and the Monkey King”) and Cory Skerry (“Breathless in the Deep”), along with fantasy reprints by Marc Laidlaw (“Catamounts”) and Angela Slatter (“Brisneyland by Night”).

Plus, we have original science fiction by Yoon Ha Lee (“The Knight of Chains, the Deuce of Stars”) and Sean Williams (“Face Value”) and SF reprints by Alastair Reynolds (“At Budokan”) and Nancy Kress (“End Game”).

All that, and of course, we also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, along with feature interviews with Alaya Dawn Johnson and bestselling YA author Rick Yancey.

For our ebook readers, we also have the novella “The Gorgon in the Cupboard” by Patricia McKillip and excerpts from Blood of Tyrants, the penultimate volume in the acclaimed Temeraire series by bestselling author Naomi Novik, and Kingmaker by Christian Cantrell.

Can’t wait to get your hands on a copy? You can purchase the issue from the following ebookstores: Lightspeed (direct), Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, and Weightless Books. Visit our Ebooks page for links and more information.

Lightspeed Reader Survey: Deadline Extended to August 15!

Last month we told you about our reader survey, and we said that it would end July 31. Good news! We decided to extend the survey for a bit, so you now have until August 15 the complete the survey. If you’d like to participate, we’d very much appreciate it, and to thank you for taking the time, one lucky (i.e., randomly selected) participant will win a free one-year subscription to Lightspeed. To fill out the survey (which should just take 10-15 minutes), please go to: lightspeedmagazine.com/survey. Note: It’s a long survey, but many of the questions are OPTIONAL!

Subscriptions & Bundles of Back Issues!

Just a reminder that our Lightspeed Direct ebookstore is open for business. If you’d like to purchase an ebook issue, or if you’d like to subscribe directly from us, please visitlightspeedmagazine.com/store. All purchases from the Lightspeed store are provided in both epub and mobi format.

And don’t worry—all of our other purchasing options are still available, of course; this is just one more way you can buy the magazine or subscribe. You can, for instance, still subscribe via Amazon.com or from our friends at Weightless Books. Visitlightspeedmagazine.com/subscribe to learn more about all of our subscription options.

In the Lightspeed ebookstore, we’re also currently featuring a selection of Ebook Bundles. We currently have the following Lightspeed ebook bundles available:

• Lightspeed (Year One) – $19.99

• Lightspeed (Year Two) – $24.99
• Lightspeed (Year Three) – $29.97
• Lightspeed Supermassive Bundle (Years 1-3) – $69.97

Buying a Bundle gets you a copy of every issue published during the named period. So, for instance, the Year One Bundle gets you a copy of every issue we published during our first year (June 2010 – May 2011), etc. And then there’s the SUPERMASSIVE BUNDLE, which nets you a copy of every issue published during our first three years. (And buying the Supermassive Bundle saves you $5 off the cover price of buying the other three Bundles individually!)

Have You Tried Our Sister-Magazine, Nightmare, Yet?

Have you checked out our new sister-magazine Nightmare yet? Because of the ubiquity of gory horror movies, when a lot of people think of the horror genre in literature, they imagine it deals with that same kind of gory slasher-type stories we typically see in film, full of blood and guts and generally a lot of awfulness. But literary horror is rarely like that, and the fiction in NIGHTMARE basically never is. The fiction in Nightmare tends toward “quiet horror”: that is, the stories are literary and dark–at times visceral, and at times unsettling. In other words, not overly dissimilar from the stories you’d find inLightspeed–just more toward the darker end of the literary spectrum.

Thus far, Nightmare has published original stories by acclaimed and bestselling horror scribes Ramsey Campbell, Sarah Langan, Jonathan Maberry, Laird Barron, Daniel H. Wilson, along with new material from talented newer writers such as Genevieve Valentine and Desirina Boskovich, among others. All that plus classic reprints by the likes of Joe Haldeman, Poppy Z. Brite, Sarah Pinborough, Tananarive Due, Lucius Shepard, and Lisa Tuttle.

In the August issue, we have original fiction from Matthew Cheney (“How Far to Englishman’s Bay”) and Jennifer Giesbrecht (“All My Princes Are Gone”), along with reprints by living legends Robert McCammon (“Nightcrawlers”) and Clive Barker (“Lost Souls”). (If you read the ebook or subscription edition of Lightspeed, you’ll get a copy of “How Far to Englishman’s Bay” in your issue as a bonus story.)

There’s also the latest installment of Nightmare‘s column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with all of our authors, a showcase on the cover artist, and part two of our two-part mega-interview with bestselling author Joe Hill.

Pop on over to www.nightmare-magazine.com to check out the magazine, purchase issues or subscribe, or just for more information and updates (or to subscribe to the freeNightmare newsletter).

Seeds of Change edited by John Joseph Adams

The original 2008 edition of Seeds of Change is now out-of-print, but the good news is that the new revised & expanded 2nd edition is now available. It is currently available in Kindle format (just $4!), and is coming soon in other ebook formats.

The 2nd edition includes an afterword to each story from the author, corrects some errors and typos, and features a beautiful new cover. Otherwise, it’s the same Seeds of Change you all know and love. So check it out, and tell a friend!

Learn more about the anthology at johnjosephadams.com/seeds-of-change.

If You Love Your Subscription, Review Your Subscription!

If you already have and love a Lightspeed subscription, please consider leaving us a positive review on Amazon.com or Weightless Books. A few kind words can go a long way toward encouraging other readers to try out Lightspeed if they’re on the fence about whether to give it a shot or not.

If you’d like to leave a review, here’s the product page on Amazon.com:https://www.amazon.com/Lightspeed-Magazine/dp/B004HO5TCO, and here’s the 12-month subscription option on Weightless Books:https://weightlessbooks.com/format/magazine/lightspeed-magazine-12-month-subscription.

Reviews of individual issues are also welcome, of course, though our primary interest is in spreading the word about subscriptions, so if you want to help out, please let other readers know what you think!

Sponsor Spotlight: 47North

Lightspeed‘s sponsor this month is 47North:

47North is the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint of Amazon Publishing. This month, look for Kingmaker by Christian Cantrell (of which you can read an excerpt in our ebook edition this month) and The Raven by Jeremy Bishop. You can find more from 47North atwww.apub.com.

For more information about Lightspeed‘s sponsorship program, visit our advertising page.

Keeping Current

Remember, in addition to this newsletter, there are several ways you can sign up to be notified of new Lightspeed content:

• RSS feed (full): lightspeedmagazine.com/rss-2
• Podcast feed: lightspeedmagazine.com/itunes-rss
• Twitter: @lightspeedmag
• Facebook: facebook.com/lightspeedmagazine
• Google+: plus.google.com/100415462108153087624
• Subscribe: lightspeedmagazine.com/subscribe

Looking Forward: Issue 40

Coming up in September, in Lightspeed . . .

We have original science fiction by D. Thomas Minton (“The Schrödinger War”) and Will McIntosh (“Dry Bite”), along with SF reprints by Lisa Tuttle (“Ragged Claws”) and Nina Allan (“Angelus”).

Plus, we have original fantasy by Seanan McGuire (“Homecoming”) and a new Gorlen story by Marc Laidlaw (“Bellweather”) and fantasy reprints by Gene Wolfe (“Suzanne Delage”) and the first Erm Kaslo tale by Matthew Hughes (“And Then Some”).

All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, along with feature interviews with io9’s Annalee Newitz and author of The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes.

For our ebook readers, we also have the novella “The Secret Sharer” by Robert Silverberg and a pair of novel excerpts: Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson and The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes.

It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out. And while you’re at it, tell a friend about Lightspeed!

Thanks for Reading!

We couldn’t publish the magazine without the loyal support of readers like you. So we here at Lightspeed salute you, and would like to thank you for your continued patronage.

Well, that’s about it for this installment of the newsletter. Thanks again for reading. Meanwhile, for more, visit www.lightspeedmagazine.com. See you next month!