Lightspeed Magazine, March 2014

by John Joseph Adams (Editor), Sofia Samatar, Robert Jackson Bennett

Novella (eBook exclusive)
"The Lucky Strike" by Kim Stanley Robinson

Short Stories - Science Fiction
"Break! Break! Break!" by Charlie Jane Anders (reprint)
"How to Get Back to the Forest" by Sofia Samatar
"The Mao Ghost" by Chen Qiufan (translation by Ken Liu)
"Turnover" by Jo Walton (reprint)

Short Stories - Fantasy
"A Different Fate" by Kat Howard
"A Drink for Teddy Ford" by Robert Jackson Bennett (reprint)
"Phalloon the Illimitable by Matthew Hughes
"The Armies of Elfland" by Eileen Gunn and Michael Swanwick

Novel Excerpts (eBook exclusives)
"Sand" by Hugh Howey
"The Milkman: A Free World Novel" by Michael J. Martineck


Edited by John Joseph Adams
Cover Art (& Artist Spotlight) Mark Zug

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

277 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 28, 2014

About the author

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as ROBOT UPRISINGS, DEAD MAN'S HAND, BRAVE NEW WORLDS,WASTELANDS, and THE LIVING DEAD. Recent and forthcoming books include WHAT THE #@&% IS THAT?, OPERATION ARCANA, PRESS START TO PLAY, LOOSED UPON THE WORLD, and THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH (consisting of THE END IS NIGH, THE END IS NOW, and THE END HAS COME). Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated nine times), is a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines LIGHTSPEED and NIGHTMARE, and is a producer for Wired's THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. You can find him online at www.johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @JohnJosephAdams.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original SF:
"Break! Break! Break!" by Charlie Jane Anders - a funny (yes, I loled) near-future story that's all the more devastating because it's set on the eve of the apocalypse. Anders is becoming a fave of mine.
"How to Get Back to the Forest" by Sofia Samatar - Second Samatar story I've read. Indoctrination camps, puking as a form of rebellion (it gets the gov't's bugs out). Powerful stuff.
"The Mao Ghost" by Chen Qiufan (translated by Ken Liu) - a man tries to convince his daughter that there's a cat's ghost inside him. Very sad story. Liu's translations are always beautiful.

Original fantasy:
"A Different Fate" by Kat Howard - short one, about...the Fates. Nice.
"Phalloon the Illimitable" by Matthew Hughes - The Kaslo Chronicles stories don't really work on their own but they are fun when you know the story arc, which is a universe that is changing from rational to magical. In this one, the change finally happens.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating is for Chen Qiufan's The Mao Ghost. Beautiful and poignant

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating and review are solely for "The Armies of Elfland" (2009) by Eileen Gunn and Michael Swanwick, a short novelette that I had somehow missed reading until now. Direct link:
https: //www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/th...
A good story about bad elves enslaving Human children. Wicked Melisaundre the Queen of Elfand is vividly drawn. Spoiler warning: she comes to a bad end. Recommended reading, 3.5 stars.

Now I see Jo Walton and Matt Hughes stories I haven't read. So I'll be back.

Jo Walton, "Turnover", https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
Eh. 2.5 stars? I bogged down.

"Phalloon the Illimitable" by Matthew Hughes, https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fi...
I'll come back to this one. Part of his Kaslo Chronicles series.

[Elysa]

So, I supposedly read this and rated it a 5 in 2017, but have absolutely no memory of it. Cleared my rating until I can reread it.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uncharacteristically I found the science fiction stories here easier to relate with and more engrossing than the fantasies. Charlie Jane Ander's is a writer I typically enjoy and this story was no exception, an apocalyptic tale that mixed seriousness with lightness effectively. The relative lightness of "Break! Break! Break!" also helped to counterbalance the wonderful melancholy of Chen Quifan's "The Mao Ghost", another translation by Ken Liu that closely mirrors the emotional power of his own work. "How to Get Back to the Forest" has similar emotional power, though for different themes, in this case one's related to the young rather than with the process of aging in "The Mao Ghost". Finally the Walton reprint of "Turnover" was excellent. I did not find any of the fantasy stories to be particularly good. Hughes' work, which I used to read expectantly, continues to just seem inconsequential space filling to me, stories that don't have much depth nor are particularly entertaining. The opposite used to be true I feel, but many still seem to love his work, so perhaps it is just I who have change in current reading. "The Armies of Elfland" was the most interesting of fantasy offerings, a uniquely more horrific use of elves than one might typically see.

[Nancy O'Toole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The March 2014 issue of Lightspeed Magazine is a bit of an uneven effort. Unlike the February 2014 issue, where I liked all of the stories featured, there were two here that just didn't work for me at all. Still, I felt that the good ultimately outweighed the bad here, and two of the stories were pretty extraordinary. The first story to get this honor is The Mao Ghost by Chen Quifan (translated by Ken Liu), which effectively broke my heart into many little pieces by the end of it. Also, I enjoyed the experience of getting to read a translated story (apparently this is something done on a regular basis at Lightspeed), as I feel that such works don't appear enough in my regular reading diet. The other story I really enjoyed was The Lucky Strike, by Kim Stanley Robinson, a reprint only included in the ebook version, which gives us an alternate history looking at the bombing of Hiroshima. There are some genuinely tense moments in this story which had me on the end of my seat.

In conclusion, not a must read issue, but there are still gems to be found here.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sofia Samatar's "How to Get Back to the Forest" was subtle. The story like a flower opens slowly to reveal its true self.

[Astrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Jack Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015


A dystopian future told through the experiences of a woman and her days in 'camp' where everyone is violently throwing up in the bathroom, but not for the reasons you think.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great issue. Another great Kaslo episode and other great original stories such as Break Break Break. I really enjoyed the reprints of a Drink for Teddy Ford and the alternate history of The Lucky Strike.

[Rob Port · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of LightSpeed's best, but I enjoyed "A Drink For Teddy Ford" and Turnover was one of the best stories set in a generational starship I've read in a while.