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Asimov's Science Fiction, March/April 2026
March/April 2026 Vol. 50 Nos. 3 & 4
NOVELLAS
The Ghosts of Goldilocks by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber
Satan’s Slave by R. Garcia y Robertson
Quest for the Corpus Mundi by Preston Grassmann & Paul Di Filippo
NOVELETTES
How to Live With Polar Bears by Octavia Cade
A Fierce Need by James Van Pelt
The Placemat at Baldy’s Diner by Michael Libling
SHORT STORIES
How Else by David Ebenbach
The High Shrines by Stephen Case
Antarctic Radio by Gu Shi (translated by Andy Dudak)
Decoherence by Jennifer Crow
Ice House by Anuel Rodriguez
Spacesick by Grace Fitzgibbon
AITA for Killing All the Humans? by Jenna Hanchey
Time-Lost Stamps by Adele Gardner
Sounds of Silence by Robert Frazier
Zero-G Soliloquy by Connor Yeck
Creation by Archie Abaire
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: Nothing Gold Can Stay by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Round-Robin by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: Impending Dooms by James Patrick Kelly
On Books by Peter Heck
NOVELLAS
The Ghosts of Goldilocks by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber
Satan’s Slave by R. Garcia y Robertson
Quest for the Corpus Mundi by Preston Grassmann & Paul Di Filippo
NOVELETTES
How to Live With Polar Bears by Octavia Cade
A Fierce Need by James Van Pelt
The Placemat at Baldy’s Diner by Michael Libling
SHORT STORIES
How Else by David Ebenbach
The High Shrines by Stephen Case
Antarctic Radio by Gu Shi (translated by Andy Dudak)
Decoherence by Jennifer Crow
Ice House by Anuel Rodriguez
Spacesick by Grace Fitzgibbon
AITA for Killing All the Humans? by Jenna Hanchey
Time-Lost Stamps by Adele Gardner
Sounds of Silence by Robert Frazier
Zero-G Soliloquy by Connor Yeck
Creation by Archie Abaire
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: Nothing Gold Can Stay by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Round-Robin by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: Impending Dooms by James Patrick Kelly
On Books by Peter Heck
469 pages, ebook
Published March 1, 2026
7 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Sheila Williams
284 books67 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Sheila Williams is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. She is also the recipient of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form.
Sheila grew up in a family of five in western Massachusetts. Her mother had a master's degree in microbiology. Ms. Williams’ interest in science fiction came from her father who read Edgar Rice Burroughs books to her as a child. Later Ms. Williams received a bachelor's degree from Elmira College in Elmira, New York, although she studied at the London School of Economics during her junior year. She received her Master's from Washington University in St. Louis. She is married to David Bruce and has two daughters.
She became interested in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (as it was then titled) while studying philosophy at Washington University. In 1982 she was hired at the magazine, and worked with Isaac Asimov for ten years. While working there, she co-founded the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (at one time called the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing). In 2004, with the retirement of Gardner Dozois, she became the editor of the magazine.
Along with Gardner Dozois she also edited the "Isaac Asimov's" anthology series. She also co-edited A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (2001) with Connie Willis. Most recently she has edited a retrospective anthology of fiction published by Asimov's: Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: 30th Anniversary Anthology. Booklist called the book "A gem, and a credit to editor Williams."
She has been nominated for 4 Hugo Awards as editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
See also Sheila Williams's entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
Sheila Williams is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. She is also the recipient of the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Editor, Short Form.
Sheila grew up in a family of five in western Massachusetts. Her mother had a master's degree in microbiology. Ms. Williams’ interest in science fiction came from her father who read Edgar Rice Burroughs books to her as a child. Later Ms. Williams received a bachelor's degree from Elmira College in Elmira, New York, although she studied at the London School of Economics during her junior year. She received her Master's from Washington University in St. Louis. She is married to David Bruce and has two daughters.
She became interested in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (as it was then titled) while studying philosophy at Washington University. In 1982 she was hired at the magazine, and worked with Isaac Asimov for ten years. While working there, she co-founded the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (at one time called the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing). In 2004, with the retirement of Gardner Dozois, she became the editor of the magazine.
Along with Gardner Dozois she also edited the "Isaac Asimov's" anthology series. She also co-edited A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (2001) with Connie Willis. Most recently she has edited a retrospective anthology of fiction published by Asimov's: Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: 30th Anniversary Anthology. Booklist called the book "A gem, and a credit to editor Williams."
She has been nominated for 4 Hugo Awards as editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
See also Sheila Williams's entry in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 16, 2026
I didn’t care for two of the novellas, but some super good short stories and novelettes made up for it.
The Ghosts of Goldilocks by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber
The “eden” of Goldilocks is anything but for colonists as their infrastructure crumbles around them. The continuing story of the generation ship Hind.
How to Live With Polar Bears by Octavia Cade
A wise man once said that bears are godless killing machines.
Becoming that which most frightens you.
A Fierce Need by James Van Pelt
Follow two young girls thru the years as they pursue their dreams with hard work, perseverance and never taking their eyes off the stars.
The Placemat at Baldy’s Diner by Michael Libling
Out on an open highway,
Such a lovely day but something's wrong.
I just left home this morning,
This old road keeps rolling on and on.
Won't somebody help me?
I've never been so lonesome and long way from home.
—B Bramlett / B Bramlett / L Russell
How Else by David Ebenbach
Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song
—Shel Silverstein
(Best not to listen?)
The High Shrines by Stephen Case
For millennia, Mount Athos has been a a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved. In our future, a pilgrim arrives looking for answers about a missing asteroid.
Antarctic Radio by Gu Shi (translated by Andy Dudak)
Goood morning Taishan Station! Talk radio tying together those struggling in the post-tipping point hothouse world.
The Ghosts of Goldilocks by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber
The “eden” of Goldilocks is anything but for colonists as their infrastructure crumbles around them. The continuing story of the generation ship Hind.
How to Live With Polar Bears by Octavia Cade
A wise man once said that bears are godless killing machines.
Becoming that which most frightens you.
A Fierce Need by James Van Pelt
Follow two young girls thru the years as they pursue their dreams with hard work, perseverance and never taking their eyes off the stars.
The Placemat at Baldy’s Diner by Michael Libling
Out on an open highway,
Such a lovely day but something's wrong.
I just left home this morning,
This old road keeps rolling on and on.
Won't somebody help me?
I've never been so lonesome and long way from home.
—B Bramlett / B Bramlett / L Russell
How Else by David Ebenbach
Last night, while I lay thinking here,
some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
and pranced and partied all night long
and sang their same old Whatif song
—Shel Silverstein
(Best not to listen?)
The High Shrines by Stephen Case
For millennia, Mount Athos has been a a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved. In our future, a pilgrim arrives looking for answers about a missing asteroid.
Antarctic Radio by Gu Shi (translated by Andy Dudak)
Goood morning Taishan Station! Talk radio tying together those struggling in the post-tipping point hothouse world.
March 26, 2026
On the optimistically named planet Goldilocks, the population of the generation ship Hind are living a hardscrabble existence with failing crops and radiation illnesses. But a cheerful Johnny Applesed-like character, a Down syndrome man named Lonnie, may have triggered a visit from something else when he discovers an ancient allien city in “The Ghosts Of Goldilocks” by Kevin J. Anderson & Rick Wilber. Shar has always wondered ‘what if?’ and when the VAR, Virtual Alternative Reality, device was invented she signs up for ten minutes with an altered decision point in her life. What she finds in “How Else” by David Ebenbach is not what she originally wanted. Octavia Cade gives us a horror film-in-waiting with “How To Live With Polar Bears”, where a woman neurotically phobic about polar bears conducts a thought experiment where the giant carnivores are translocated to the Antarctic where they run amok. it is a thought experiment…isn’t it? Be the bear. The Roma colony orbiting Saturn is a strange mix of ox carts and fusion generators, and home to an arena for gladiatorial combat by slaves. Diana and Becky have been forced to fight through trumped up charges, to halt a potential patent claim from Diana’s father’s invention of FTL. “Satan’s Slave” by R. Garcia y Robertson feels like part of a series. Celeste and her best friend Theo are two space-obsessed girls with “A Fierce Need” to make it into space. While the genius Celeste makes it to the Dirac One flight, testing a new drive, Celeste still struggles to gain space-cred. But only one can reach the stars in James van Pelt’s poignant tale. “The Placemat At Baldy’s Diner” by Michael Libling sees the middle-aged Shore adrift after losing his wife. Finding a UFO hotspot where a local inn owner vanished along with a female neighbour, he pretends to be a reporter to feed a strange need to know what happened. Excellent tale. Preston Grassman & Paul Di Filippo combine to unleash upon an unsuspecting readership the bastard child of Gulliver’s Travels and Fantastic Voyage! In the “Quest For The Corpus Mundi” a group of intrepid tiny humans seek to take the power of the giant corpus from the hands of the Autarch. Their journey is fraught with peril as they must gain control before the Hand closes on the moons. Felt like I was on psychedelic drugs! Fine fantasy. Good issue.
March 17, 2026
This is another great issue. The two novellas on offer here are among the best I’ve read in a while, especially “Quest for Corpus Mundi”.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews