The December 2013 Issue is Now on Sale!

Welcome to issue forty-three of Lightspeed!

This month, we have original science fiction by Hao Jingfang (“Invisible Planets,” translated by Ken Liu) and Gregory Benford (“Leaving Night”), along with SF reprints by Maureen F. McHugh (“Dead Fads”) and David Barr Kirtley (“Power Armor: A Love Story”).

Plus, we have original fantasy by James Patrick Kelly (“Miss Nobody Never Was”) and Siobhan Carroll (“The Correspondence Between the Governess and the Attic”), and fantasy reprints by William Browning Spencer (“The Foster Child”) and Kit Reed (“Yard Sale”).

All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, along with feature interviews with Jay Lake and Margaret Atwood.

For our ebook readers, we also have the novella “The Ballad of Bowsprit Bear’s Stead” by Damien Broderick and novel excerpts of Twinmaker by Sean Williams and Alien Honor by Vaughn Heppner.

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 ourEbooks page for links and more information.

JJA Anthology Newsletter

Don’t want to risk missing out on news about John Joseph Adams’s projects? Sign up for JJA’s free newsletter (sent out no more than once or twice a month) to receive updates about his various projects. Subscribe to the JJA Newsletter.

The Apocalypse Triptych

Speaking of the JJA Newsletter, if you had been a subscriber to that, you would already know about this big new project JJA is working on now: THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH.

Edited by JJA, in collaboration with bestselling author Hugh Howey, THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction, exploring three different facets of the form:

• THE END IS NIGH: pre-apocalyptic stories—exploring the world on the brink of collapse. (Forthcoming June 2014)

• THE END IS NOW: apocalyptic stories—exploring the end of the world as it happens. (Forthcoming December 2014)

• THE END HAS COME: post-apocalyptic stories—exploring life after the end of the world. (Forthcoming June 2015)

THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH will include stories by authors such as Paolo Bacigalupi, Seanan McGuire, Ben H. Winters, Elizabeth Bear, Scott Sigler, Robin Wasserman, and many more. Additionally, each volume will include a brand new story by Hugh Howey set in the world of his bestselling novel Wool.

World Fantasy Awards

The World Fantasy Awards were presented at the World Fantasy Convention, held this year in Brighton, England, Oct. 31 – Nov. 3. As we mentioned previously, Kat Howard’s story, “Breaking the Frame” (Lightspeed, August 2012), was a finalist for the award this year, as was your humble editor (now for the fifth time), this time in the Best Anthology category, for Epic: Legends of Fantasy. Alas and alack, both Kat and I lost in our respective categories. But, as always, it was a thrill to be nominated, and congrats to all of the winners!

Lightspeed 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 viaAmazon.com or from our friends at Weightless Books. Visit lightspeedmagazine.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) – $69.95

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!)

Fantasy Magazine Back Issue Bundles

In addition to the Lightspeed bundles mentioned above, you can now also buy ebook back issues—and ebook back issue bundles—of Lightspeed’s (now dormant) sister magazine, Fantasy. (You might remember that we merged Fantasy into Lightspeed back in January 2012.)

To check out the back issues, just visit fantasy-magazine.com/store. You can buy each Fantasybundle for $24.99, or you can buy the complete run of Fantasy Magazine—all 57 issues—for just $114.99 (that’s $10 off buying all the Bundles individually, and more than $55 off the cover price!). Of course, if you don’t want to buy a Bundle, you can also just purchase an individual ebook issue!

• Fantasy Magazine (2005-2007)  – $24.99

• Fantasy Magazine (2008) – $24.99

• Fantasy Magazine (2009) – $24.99

• Fantasy Magazine (2010) – $24.99

• Fantasy Magazine (2011) – $24.99

• Fantasy Magazine (MegaBundle: Every Issue, #1-#57) – $114.99

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 in Lightspeed—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.

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 free Nightmarenewsletter).

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:

This month, look for Alien Honor by Vaughn Heppner (of which you can also read an excerpt in our ebook edition this month). You can find more from 47North at www.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 44

Coming up in January, in Lightspeed . . .

We have original science fiction by Jeremiah Tolbert (“In the Dying Light, We Saw a Shape”) and Anaea Lay (“Salamander Patterns”), along with SF reprints by Terry Bisson (“Bears Discover Fire”) and Zhao Haihong (“Exuviation”).

Plus, we have original fantasy by Matthew Hughes (“His Elbow Unkissed”—a Kaslo Chronicles tale) and Adam-Troy Castro (“The Thing About Shapes to Come”), and fantasy reprints by Rosamund Hodge (“Apotheosis”) and Ursula K. Le Guin (“Elementals”).

All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, along with feature interviews with Hyperbole and a Half’s Allie Brosh and bestselling epic fantasy author Scott Lynch.

For our ebook readers, we also have the novella reprint “The Chambered Fruit” by M. Rickert and a pair of novel excerpts.

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