LIGHTSPEED is a digital science fiction and fantasy magazine. In its pages, you will find science fiction: from near-future, sociological soft SF, to far-future, star-spanning hard SF-and fantasy: from epic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, and contemporary urban tales, to magical realism, science-fantasy, and folktales. Welcome to issue 158 of LIGHTSPEED! We're kicking off this month with a short story by JB Park, "Six Months After All Life on Titan Died," that takes the idea of ChatGPT and imagines what we'll do with it in the distant future. If you loved the Ents and the Entwives in The Lord of the Rings, you'll definitely enjoy Ashok Banker's new SF short "The Bodhi Tree Asks Only For The Safe Return Of Her Beloved," told from the perspective of, well, a tree! We also have two terrific flash pieces: "Death Is Better" from Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe and "The United Systems Goodwill Concert Series and the Greatest Performance of All Time" by James Van Pelt. Our fantasy shorts include "Starpoop," by Sandra McDonald, a meditation on dementia and social media fame. We also have a new story by Isha Karki: "Muna in Barish," the story of a young writer struggling against discrimination. We also have a flash story ("The Real Worlds") from Lauren Bajek, and another ("Monsters of the Drunken Shore") from Nic Anstett. We also have an excerpt of THE DEEP SKY by Yume Kitasei.
