Editorial, February 2014

Welcome to issue forty-five of Lightspeed!

We told you last month about our Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue, and our Kickstarter campaign to help make it the best it can be. Well, we launched on January 15 as planned, and it’s going very well so far—in fact, you could say we destroyed our funding goal. We actually funded in about seven hours! And as I write this we’ve exceeded $18,000 in funding, more than 350% of our goal! As such, we’ve added some cool stretch goals: If we reach $25K of funding, we’ll also destroy horror with a Women Destroy Horror special issue, guest-edited by by the legendary editor-queen of the dark and the macabre, Ellen Datlow! But not ones to rest on our laurels, we’ve also set a $35K stretch goal, and if we reach that one we’ll also destroy fantasy, with a special Women Destroy Fantasy issue, guest edited by former Fantasy Magazine editor Cat Rambo! To learn more about the Kickstarter and our stretch goals, or to back the project, please visit lightspeedmagazine.com/kickstarter. The Kickstarter ends February 15, so there’s still lots of time to spread the word and/or get in on the action. Thanks so much to everyone who has already shown their support!

With our announcements out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

We have original science fiction by Jessica Barber (“Coma Kings”) and Carrie Vaughn (“Harry and Marlowe and the Intrigues at the Aetherian Exhibition”), along with SF reprints by Ramez Naam (“Water”) and Robert Charles Wilson (“Fireborn”).

Plus, we have original fantasy by Sunny Moraine (“So Sharp That Blood Must Flow”) and Ken Liu (“None Owns the Air”), and fantasy reprints by Rachel Swirsky (“Detours on the Way to Nothing”) and Eugene Mirabelli (“Love in Another Language”).

All that, and of course, we also have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights, along with a pair of feature interviews.

For our ebook readers, we also have the novella reprint “Hellhound” by Robin McKinley and novel excerpts from Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and Dreamwalker by C.S. Friedman.

Our issue this month is sponsored by our friends at EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. This month, look for The Trillionist by Sagan Jeffries (of which you can also read an excerpt in our ebook edition this month). You can find more from EDGE at www.edgewebsite.com.

It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out. And remember, there are several ways you can sign up to be notified of new Lightspeed content: