Edited by bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams, LIGHTSPEED is a Hugo Award-winning, critically-acclaimed digital magazine. In its pages, you'll find science fiction from near-future stories and sociological SF to far-future, star-spanning SF. Plus there's fantasy from epic sword-and-sorcery and contemporary urban tales to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folk tales. Each month, LIGHTSPEED brings you a mix of original short stories and flash fiction featuring a variety of authors, from the bestsellers and award-winners you already know to the best new voices you haven't heard yet. When you read LIGHTSPEED, you'll see where science fiction and fantasy have come from, where they are now, and where they're going. The LIGHTSPEED podcast, produced by Grammy Award-winning narrator and producer Stefan Rudnicki of Skyboat Media, features original audio short stories 6-8 times a month.
I know how you’re feeling. You wake up alone in a strange room, you get up, you look around, you soon discover that both doors are locked from the outside. It’s enough to unsettle anybody. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When it came time for her restructuring on her sixteenth birthday, she was going to walk into the room, and ask to be made a Tiffany. Narrated by Taylor Meskimen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I miss you already. But you know that. What you don’t know is just how proud I am of you. You were born for this, and no one could possibly be able to handle such a demanding job as well as you. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Heather Scott, Gabrielle de Cuir, Ted Scott. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The following transcript details the last known use of the OnStar Hands-Free A.I. Crash Advisor, once a mandatory install on all craft equipped for interstellar travel. Narrated by Amanda Carlin, with Stefan Rudnicki and Paul Boehmer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
No one knows what happens when an object crosses the point around a black hole known as an event horizon and falls into the singularity. Narrated by Stefan Rudniki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eliot’s father had been entered into Ononeida Psychiatric Hospital ten days ago, for a religious conversion in which he saw the clear image of Zeus on a strawberry toaster pastry. Copyright 2011 by Nancy Kress. Narrated by Jim Meskimen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Of course we moved into the cities of the planet we now know we must call Zobranoirundisi when Worlds Federated finally permitted a colony there. | Copyright 1973, 2001 by Anne McCaffrey First appeared in Worlds of If, from The Girl Who Heard Dragons Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, The Virginia Kidd Agency. Narrated by Paul Boehmer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The silence of the Asonu is proverbial. We know now that the Asonu are not dumb, but that once past early childhood they speak only very rarely, to anyone, under any circumstances. | Copyright 1998 by Ursula K. Le Guin. Originally published in Orion. Reprinted by permission of the author. Narrated by Gabrielle de Cuir. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Root canal is one fifty, give or take, depending on who’s doing it to you. A migraine is two hundred. Not that I get the money. The company gets it. What I get is twelve dollars an hour, plus reimbursement for painkillers. Not that they work. I feel pain for money. Other people’s pain. Physical, emotional, you name it. Copyright 2010 by Charles Yu. Narrated by Christian Rummel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
(Boom!) That’s a little scientist joke, and the proper way to begin this. As for the purpose of my notebook, I’m uncertain. Perhaps to organize my thoughts and not to go insane. | Copyright 1986 Joe R. Lansdale. First appeared in Nukes edited by John MacLay. Reprinted by permission of the author. Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 August 2058. They say I am to keep a detailed record of my feelings, my perceptions, as I grow accustomed to the new parts. To that end, they gave me an apparatus that blind people use for writing, like a tablet with guide wires. It is somewhat awkward. But a recorder would be useless, since I will not have a mouth for some time, and I can't type blind with only one hand. | Copyright 1985 by Joe Haldeman Originally appeared in Playboy. Reprinted by permission of the author. Narrated by Stefan...
Welcome, Aspiring Potentates! We are tremendously gratified at your interest in our little red project, and pleased that you recognize the potential growth opportunities inherent in whole-planet domination. Of course we remain humble in the face of such august and powerful interests, and seek only to showcase the unique and challenging career paths currently available on the highly desirable, iconic, and oxygen-rich landscape of Mars. | Copyright 2010 by Catherynne M. Valente. Narrated by Robin ...