written by David Steffen
Lightspeed is still one of my favorite magazines, still edited by John Joseph Adams. This year has been a big one for Lightspeed, in large part because of their “Women Destroy Science Fiction!” movement–for one month the magazine was staffed by women with women writers (edited by Christie Yant), because historically women have gotten the short end of the stick in SF writing. The Kickstarter for this project blew its goals out of the water and even unlocked stretch goals for Women Destroy Horror and Women Destroy Fantasy movements. The WDSF issue of Lightspeed was published in 2014, and Fantasy Magazine (which had been subsumed by Lightspeed) revived for a month for the WDF issue (which is why Fantasy Magazine is included again in this page).
The List
1. “Drones Don’t Kill People” by Annalee Newitz
I found this one of the much more plausible AI gains sentience stories, justifies how it happens. Great, fun story.
2. “Miss Carstairs and the Merman” by Delia Sherman
I love the POV character in this story, a woman scientist discovering and classifying a merman.
3. “Phalloon the Illimitable” by Matthew Hughes
This is part of Matthew’s “Kaslo Chronicles” series which is all quite good, but this is my favorite of the series so far. Every so often the universe switches from being rationally organized to sympathetically (magically) organized)–this story takes place just before this polarity switch occurs and some have placed themselves to gain a great deal of power with the switchover.
4. “The Drawstring Detective” by Nik House
Talking toy detective helps a woman in her everyday life.
5. “The Case of the Passionless Bees” by Rhonda Eikamp
Gearlock Holmes is on the case!
6. “Love is the Plan the Plan is Death” by James Tiptree, Jr
Great alien point of view by the legendary James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon).
Honorable Mentions
“Harry and Marlowe and the Intrigue at the Aetherian Exhibition” by Carrie Vaughn
“How to Get Back to the Forest” by Sofia Samatar
“We are the Cloud” by Sam J. Miller