Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 66, November 2015

by John Joseph Adams (Editor), Rahul Kanakia (Contributor), Brian M. Stableford (Contributor)

CONTENTS

Short Stories - Science Fiction
"Here is My Thinking on a Situation That Affects Us All" by Rahul Kanakia
"The Pipes of Pan" by Brian Stableford (reprint)
"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death" by Caroline M. Yoachim
"The Light Brigade" by Kameron Hurley (reprint)

Short Stories - Fantasy
"The Black Fairy’s Curse" by Karen Joy Fowler (reprint)
"When We Were Giants" by Helena Bell
"Printable" by Toh EnJoe (reprint)
"The Plausibility of Dragons" by Kenneth Schneyer

Novella (Subscription / eBook exclusive)
"The Least Trumps" by Elizabeth Hand

Novel Excerpts (eBook exclusives)
"Chimera" by Mira Grant

Lightspeed Magazine, November 2015 #65
Edited by John Joseph Adams
Cover Art (& Gallery & Artist Spotlight): John Broslo

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Time Travel, Fiction, Audiobook

Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2015

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

[Peter Tillman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review is solely for two stories: Caroline M. Yoachim's twisty time-travel tale "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death" , which I liked a lot. As in all time-travel stories, it doesn't really make sense, but it's fun & has a happy (?) ending. 4 stars! Recommended. She's a very good writer. Link: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...

And "Here is My Thinking on a Situation That Affects Us All" by Rahul Kanakia. Direct link: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...
A pretty good story by a new-to-me writer. I read the story because of Rich Horton's review:
This story "has one of the more original ideas I've seen in a while – not original as in mind-blowing or weird so much as in just taking an unexpected, and fairly logical, look at some some SF tropes from a slant angle. It's told by a spaceship that was buried in the Earth's core by aliens for millions of years, and which has finally emerged. It has a mission – for its makers – and it will not be deviated from it – at least, not much. The spaceship is effectively portrayed as truly non-human, and yet the story becomes something of a love story, though not in any expected way."

I didn't like it as much as Rich did: the writing is good, but the story premises made no sense: why would the mysterious aliens bury their giant spaceship in the Earth's core? And apparently the waste-heat from the idling starship is what kept the core hot, and plate-tectonics moving! Huh. 2.5 stars.

I didn't reread the Stableford reprint, which I recall as minor.

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting time travel and love short story, but it got me a little confused at one point..

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note this is only a review for "The Light Brigade" by Kameron Hurley.

[Jasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note this is only a review of The Light Brigade

originally posted at: http://thebookplank.blogspot.com/2015...

Kameron Hurley is far from a stranger in the Fantasy world. Being the bestselling author of the Bel Dame series and her most recent Epic Fantasy series the Worldbreaker series. Earlier this year I read a short story by Kameron Hurley, Elephants and Corpses which blew me away. So when I found out that Lightspeed Magazine reprinted one of her stories. What else was there left to do!

The Light Brigade definitely picks up with one of the catchiest introductions. Stating that the war has turned them into light and that light is the fastest way to travel. You have to take this last bit very literal. People have literally been turned into light making them heroes. Because aliens once took over in a more than hostile way and this was the only way to fight them. In this introduction you meet a young man who turned from being a soldier into an light hero. There is something very unique to this story, you are given a quite dire situation of Earth how it was ravaged for a long time by the aliens. But partly this isn't the focus of The Light Brigade in my opinion.

The focus for me is on the soldier that narrates the story and his personal beliefs. He was loaded up with stuff and turned into light. Without any explanation he had to learn on the go on how to handle his abilities. He questioned somethings like what truly happens when you dissolve into light particles. Do you leave something behind when you travel so fast, are there multiverses and what do you see when you are a light particle, he made some very interesting observations. However he has to throw this all overboard by his psychiatrist, well he has to participate in a program to make him forget... So he wisely learns never to mention that again. Bascially he learns a lot the hard way and this makes up for a more than interesting ending.

The Light Brigade will enlighten you guaranteed!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only listened to the short story Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death by Caroline M. Yoachim through the new It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton podcast.

This story was about a married couple who try to defy time-traveling paradoxes while preserving their love story. As with many sci-fi or fantasy stories, the premise sounds plausible, with enough scientific jargon thrown in to make it sound believable. It was a solid story to kick off this new venture by Wheaton, who is filling a hole left by the conclusion of LeVar Burton Reads.

[BobA707 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short Stories - Science Fiction
"Here is My Thinking on a Situation That Affects Us All" by Rahul Kanakia 4/5
"The Pipes of Pan" by Brian Stableford (reprint) 4/5
"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death" by Caroline M. Yoachim 4/5
"The Light Brigade" by Kameron Hurley (reprint) 4/5

Short Stories - Fantasy
"The Black Fairy’s Curse" by Karen Joy Fowler (reprint) 4/5
"When We Were Giants" by Helena Bell 4/5
"Printable" by Toh EnJoe (reprint) 1/5
"The Plausibility of Dragons" by Kenneth Schemer 4/5

Novella (Subscription / eBook exclusive)
"The Least Trumps" by Elizabeth Hand 4/5

Only one story I didn't like and the rest were good - big improvement on the last few editions.

[Amy Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death by Caroline M. Yoachim, as read by Wil Wheaton on It's Story Time with Wil Wheaton [as Goodreads no longer allows the simplicity of marking single stories from these, as it bloody well ought to].

At any rate, I loved this story. I wasn't sure about it at first, as the divisions make it seem choppy, but then they start to make sense, and help tie the story into a connected whole. It's a devious little time travel love story that goes to rather unexpected places that then seem inevitable.

Highly recommended.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Rating & review are only about The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley)

The Light Brigade is mind blowing. It is everything I enjoy about short stories: the world building is clear, nothing is confusing and it fills your head with imagination.

I enjoyed the plot (first-person narrative from the POV of a corporate soldier who travel from one front to another by transforming into light) and I loved that the main character's gender is not revealed.

All the stars.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightspeed Magazine podcast.

[Carlos Casas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Con una primera frase que engancha desde el principio, esta es un relato que me ha encantado por la sencillez de su lenguaje y la agilidad de sus frases.

Hice bien en apoyar a Kameron Hurley en su Patreon.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Caroline Yoachims short story about love and time travel. Beautiful story.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Light Brigade is intense! Hurley gives readers a world in which human beings can be turned into light, and where our understanding of time and space starts breaking down. It's a first person narrative from a foot soldier who slowly comes to realise that he's not fighting the war he wants to fight. It's emotional, but also strange, weird, and really pushes what an SF narrative can do. Definitely recommend!

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite edition, but despite not loving many of the individual stories, I still enjoyed reading the magazine overall. Lots of very challenging stories in this edition - some of which worked for me and some of which did not. There were lots of interesting pieces that didn't quite speak to me but were still, well, interesting.

Resonated with my soul

Enjoyable, worked for me
"The Pipes of Pan" by Brian Stableford - Beautiful multi-layered piece about a world where children can no longer be allowed to grow up.
"Printable" by Toh Enjoe, Translated by David Boyd - Weird piece of meta-fiction (maybe). Another challenging piece in this edition, but somehow I found this quite intriguing in its odd layers.

Fine, but didn't speak to me
"Here is My Thinking on a Situation that Affects Us All" by Rahul Kanakia - Interesting viewpoint piece on a alien ship floating above the earth.
"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death" by Caroline M. Yoachim - Interesting patchwork piece about time travel and how love folds in on itself. Found it a bit tricky to follow.
"The Light Brigade" by Kameron Hurley - An examination of intra-planetary war with a light-based weapon and how wars tend to create themselves.
"When We Were Giants" by Helena Bell - When girls are young, they play complicated games.
"The Plausibility of Dragons" by Kenneth Schneyer - Decent piece of social satire about the improbability of dragons versus female knights and black monks.

Not my Cup of Tea
"The Black Fairy's Curse" by Karen Joy Fowler - Lots of fairy tale allusions and I couldn't quite follow what was happening. The ending was clever but it didn't make up for the confusion.
"The Least Trumps" by Elizabeth Hand - I stopped reading once I realised Tarot was an important part of the story.

[Lionel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special. A sentient spaceship instead of an alien, but that's it

[Basil H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story. Nice world building and nice characterization, in a very short story.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The slow unraveling of the revelation is the highlight of this story. It's an enjoyable story, in a quietly devastating way.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley: 4.50
So much goodness in such a little story.
Makes me even more confident & excited in reading Hurley's Worldbreaker Saga.

[Fantasy Literature]

Reviewed in our Short fiction Monday column:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...