What do you think?
Rate this book
Lightspeed_177_February_2025
LIGHTSPEED is a digital science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF-and from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales.
Welcome to issue 177 of LIGHTSPEED! This month we're serializing an original science fiction novelette by Lowry "It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand." If you love SF about creatures with the ability of space flight, this piece will really speak to you-and if you live with domesticated animals, it will certainly make you question your relationship with them. We also have two terrific flash "Books to Take at the End of the World" from Carolyn Ives Gilman and "My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" by David DeGraff. Our original fantasy shorts include "Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou, which blends fairy tale creatures with real family struggles to poignant effect. Kristina Ten returns to our pages with her new story "What We Don't Know About Angels," which captures the heartbreak of watching a loved one suffer from cancer. We also have two thought-provoking flash "An Omodest Proposal" by Andrew Dana Hudson, and "Standardized Test" by Seoung Kim.
Welcome to issue 177 of LIGHTSPEED! This month we're serializing an original science fiction novelette by Lowry "It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand." If you love SF about creatures with the ability of space flight, this piece will really speak to you-and if you live with domesticated animals, it will certainly make you question your relationship with them. We also have two terrific flash "Books to Take at the End of the World" from Carolyn Ives Gilman and "My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" by David DeGraff. Our original fantasy shorts include "Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou, which blends fairy tale creatures with real family struggles to poignant effect. Kristina Ten returns to our pages with her new story "What We Don't Know About Angels," which captures the heartbreak of watching a loved one suffer from cancer. We also have two thought-provoking flash "An Omodest Proposal" by Andrew Dana Hudson, and "Standardized Test" by Seoung Kim.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 30, 2025
2 people are currently reading
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 20, 2025
It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand
This novelette treats the reader to the world of mysterious gastor creatures and their way of communicating through pheromones, which makes them especially useful for humans to exploit for safe space navigation. Pretty cool how one gastor has a name presented to the humans as a string of pheromones of oak-tea—petal—whale-blood. The prose is concise and eloquent, and I look forward to reading another Lowry Poletti story.
Rating: 4/5
My Girlfriend Is a Nebula
In just 1102 words, "My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" made my heart feel tender, almost achingly so. The ending, where the narrator decides to live his life in a way that pays homage to Bernadette, made me feel so much. The little details, like the two-body problem and how everything relates back to astronomy for Bernadette, are something I deeply relate to as a scientist. It is my belief that stories like these, if read and taken to heart by the masses, could make this planet a more humane and decent place. My guess is that I will think about this beautiful supernova metaphor and nebulas from time to time.
Rating: 5/5
Standardized Test
The subject of this story is all too timely. Education is liberating and promotes progress. Misguided and co-opted forms of it are generationally damaging. I liked how the story is told through the form of an exam. Although the subject matter deserves treatment, I felt the story missed its mark by certain details it chose to focus on.
Rating: 2/5
An Omodest Proposal
This is another reimagining of Le Guin's classic, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The title alludes to Jonathan Swift's 1729 satirical piece, "A Modest Proposal", where it's suggested that a solution to poverty for Irish families is to sell their children as food to the rich. The phrase itself has become an allusion to proposals that are anything but modest and instead radical and distasteful. And herein lies this story's "Omodest" proposal: the benefits of the suffering child can now extend to all who think of themselves as Omelans. But the catch? Those who don't join will increasingly find themselves on the suffering end of an Omelan Union that seeks to push them further into the margins of society.
The Omodest Proposal teases at a future where, instead of one solitary suffering child powering the city of Omelas, many more will suffer in order for Omelas to increase in population. Extending the original utilitarian calculation only propounds the original problem. As much as I appreciate the power of ratios in research, they can lose meaning when measuring human souls.
We live in a world where we too quickly conclude that there is no solution that works for both the masses and the few. We rush to see zero-sum games when practical solutions can benefit both groups. It's become a reflex: if one group wins, another must lose. If resources go to the marginalized, the mainstream must be deprived. If we address climate change, the economy must suffer. If we protect the vulnerable, the system must be weakened. We lack the will to search for mutual gains when those solutions can be found. I often wonder in all the versions of Le Guin's story, are we simply limiting ourselves by choosing to accept suffering because it is convenient? I suppose new imaginations capacious enough for shared flourishing can only be found if we believe they are worth finding. Maybe the people of Omelas in every story should ask: "What if there were a better way, but we chose not to look for it?"
Rating: 3/5
This novelette treats the reader to the world of mysterious gastor creatures and their way of communicating through pheromones, which makes them especially useful for humans to exploit for safe space navigation. Pretty cool how one gastor has a name presented to the humans as a string of pheromones of oak-tea—petal—whale-blood. The prose is concise and eloquent, and I look forward to reading another Lowry Poletti story.
Rating: 4/5
My Girlfriend Is a Nebula
In just 1102 words, "My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" made my heart feel tender, almost achingly so. The ending, where the narrator decides to live his life in a way that pays homage to Bernadette, made me feel so much. The little details, like the two-body problem and how everything relates back to astronomy for Bernadette, are something I deeply relate to as a scientist. It is my belief that stories like these, if read and taken to heart by the masses, could make this planet a more humane and decent place. My guess is that I will think about this beautiful supernova metaphor and nebulas from time to time.
Rating: 5/5
Standardized Test
The subject of this story is all too timely. Education is liberating and promotes progress. Misguided and co-opted forms of it are generationally damaging. I liked how the story is told through the form of an exam. Although the subject matter deserves treatment, I felt the story missed its mark by certain details it chose to focus on.
Rating: 2/5
An Omodest Proposal
This is another reimagining of Le Guin's classic, "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The title alludes to Jonathan Swift's 1729 satirical piece, "A Modest Proposal", where it's suggested that a solution to poverty for Irish families is to sell their children as food to the rich. The phrase itself has become an allusion to proposals that are anything but modest and instead radical and distasteful. And herein lies this story's "Omodest" proposal: the benefits of the suffering child can now extend to all who think of themselves as Omelans. But the catch? Those who don't join will increasingly find themselves on the suffering end of an Omelan Union that seeks to push them further into the margins of society.
You may find yourselves in a cramped place, living in squalor, with never a kind word said to you by the whole of the world. So be it. We accept that your suffering may be necessary for the good of all. We have made such calculations before.
The Omodest Proposal teases at a future where, instead of one solitary suffering child powering the city of Omelas, many more will suffer in order for Omelas to increase in population. Extending the original utilitarian calculation only propounds the original problem. As much as I appreciate the power of ratios in research, they can lose meaning when measuring human souls.
We live in a world where we too quickly conclude that there is no solution that works for both the masses and the few. We rush to see zero-sum games when practical solutions can benefit both groups. It's become a reflex: if one group wins, another must lose. If resources go to the marginalized, the mainstream must be deprived. If we address climate change, the economy must suffer. If we protect the vulnerable, the system must be weakened. We lack the will to search for mutual gains when those solutions can be found. I often wonder in all the versions of Le Guin's story, are we simply limiting ourselves by choosing to accept suffering because it is convenient? I suppose new imaginations capacious enough for shared flourishing can only be found if we believe they are worth finding. Maybe the people of Omelas in every story should ask: "What if there were a better way, but we chose not to look for it?"
Rating: 3/5
March 1, 2025
Didn't quite connect with much of this issue sadly. I found Some to Cradle, Some to Eat to be the strongest, but An Omodest Proposal also deserves a mention!
The rest of what's in here didn't really do much for me.
The rest of what's in here didn't really do much for me.
Read
February 21, 2025Stop with the second person already, I beg!
February 21, 2025
An issue with a lot of good writing, but unusually some stories just didn't "click" with me, mainly the longest story which is split into 2 parts. Anyway, I thought the highlights were:
- "My Girlfriend is a Nebula" by David DeGraff (a local human tragedy juxtaposed against a cosmic explosion)
- "Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou (a family tale with a metaphor for monsters as parents)
- "What We Don't Know About Angels" by Kristina Ten (a subtly clever story with questions about the sometimes dual nature of those who help others, and society's understanding of human mutation and difference)
- "My Girlfriend is a Nebula" by David DeGraff (a local human tragedy juxtaposed against a cosmic explosion)
- "Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou (a family tale with a metaphor for monsters as parents)
- "What We Don't Know About Angels" by Kristina Ten (a subtly clever story with questions about the sometimes dual nature of those who help others, and society's understanding of human mutation and difference)
September 27, 2025
Lowry "It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand."
All of these words is for bird? I think this has similar vibe with Migration (the birds). 3 ⭐
"Books to Take at the End of the World" from Carolyn Ives Gilman
Very short but very powerful. With our little time in this world, why hoard so much? We won't be remembered anyway. 5 ⭐
"My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" by David DeGraff
Omg this is so beautiful. Of course because I love astronomy, but the analogy of an exploding star is extraordinary. 5 ⭐
"Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou
I take it like this: even if your parents are monsters, and maybe you are too, you can always choose not to be. You are not them. 3 ⭐
Kristina Ten "What We Don't Know About Angels,"
ok, fingers growing everywhere is kind of creepy 1 ⭐
"An Omodest Proposal" by Andrew Dana Hudson
Another pov from Omelas. I still hate that the one child has to suffer but this proposal (actually the original story itself) has an interesting argument. 4 ⭐
"Standardized Test" by Seoung Kim
Not a fan. 1 ⭐
All of these words is for bird? I think this has similar vibe with Migration (the birds). 3 ⭐
"Books to Take at the End of the World" from Carolyn Ives Gilman
Very short but very powerful. With our little time in this world, why hoard so much? We won't be remembered anyway. 5 ⭐
"My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" by David DeGraff
Omg this is so beautiful. Of course because I love astronomy, but the analogy of an exploding star is extraordinary. 5 ⭐
"Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou
I take it like this: even if your parents are monsters, and maybe you are too, you can always choose not to be. You are not them. 3 ⭐
Kristina Ten "What We Don't Know About Angels,"
ok, fingers growing everywhere is kind of creepy 1 ⭐
"An Omodest Proposal" by Andrew Dana Hudson
Another pov from Omelas. I still hate that the one child has to suffer but this proposal (actually the original story itself) has an interesting argument. 4 ⭐
"Standardized Test" by Seoung Kim
Not a fan. 1 ⭐
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews