Eric Mesa’s Reviews > Lightspeed Magazine, April 2014 > Status Update

Author Spotlight: Garrity - About the inspiration for the character in Almanac ...kill you

Sigler - A little more background on Prawatt and where she came from and her motivations in "God Complex"

Chiang - How a Philip K Dick short story was part of the inspiration for "Exhalation!"

Machado - The origin of the egg story.

Heuvelt - The author's experience with grief led to the story and its extended metaphor.

Artist Gallery/Artist Spotlight: Remi Le Capon - a mix of steampunk and SF images. His description of an ideal art project sounds like The Witcher meets Steampunk.

Author Spotlight: Linda Nagata - Looks like I was slightly off in the inspiration. Apparently the short story is providing POV to a character from one of her novels.

Interview: Darren Aronofsky - An interview about the movie and graphic novel adaptations of Noah.

The Myth of Everyman - An essay on why it was problematic that the entire Noah cast (in the movie) was white. A good, short essay to show someone who doesn't understand the concept of why it's bad that "white" is assumed to be the "default".

Steles of the Sky - An excerpt from a novel that takes place in a fantasy-tinged Mongol empire. Thanks to having read The Mongoliad I recognized the names as Mongolian immediately. Story seems fascinating. Perhaps I will give the author another shot. (I didn't like the first novel of hers I read)

Mihael Shea: No Form is Eternal- A tribute to Mr. Shea and The Autopsy.

Afterparty - An intriguing novel involving (essentially) 3D printed drugs. The character of The Vincent cinched it for me and I added this book to my To Read List (long though it is)

The Autopsy - A science fiction horror novella that has a bit of a Lovecraftian bent to the narration. The plot has a few unexpected turns, but they are executed quite well. Reading the first paragraph of the next section of the magazine, an author feature, mentions this story is a classic. It definitely deserves that award.

The Only Death in the City - Something has happened on Earth and now people are reincarnated and completely remember their past lives. What would this to do life and society? Then our main character is the first newly born in thousands of years (he does not have a past life) - and so a moving story begins. An excellent selection for this fantasy reprint!

Alsiso - An exploration of how memes mutate that was a lot of fun to read. Also seems to maybe overlap a bit with the premise of Small Gods by Terry Pratchett.

Observations about Eggs from the Man Sitting Next to Me on a Flight from Chicago, Illinois to Cedar Rapids, Iowa - very odd sort of fantasy in which you get glimpses of magic or things not quite being what they seem.

The Day the World Turn Upside Down - A fantastical metaphor for a breakup alongside a literal, non-metaphorical breakup. It was a sweet story and a nice read.

Exhalation - a neat metaphor for what the current scientific thought tells us will happen with out own universe as time passes. It has a bit of that SF Golden Age (1930s-1940s) tone to it and I really enjoy that whenever I find it. 5/5 for this story.