LIGHTSPEED is an online 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 LIGHTSPEED's 128th issue! We're kicking off the year with an original short by Anjali Sachdeva ("The Incorruptible World"), which asks the big question: If you could design the world to your taste, what would you include, and what would you leave out? And more dangerously: What would you forget? Our other original SF short is an alien tale ("The Memory Plague") from D. Thomas Minton that digs into the nature of identity and memory and the very worth of life. Our SF reprints are from An Owomoyela ("The Hard Spot in the Glacier") and Greg van Eekhout ("On the Fringes of the Fractal"). Our first fantasy original is from Adam-Troy Castro ("Answering the Questions You Might Have About the Kharbat") that mixes vicious beasts with a little bit of physics' observer effect. We also have another original fairy tale from P H Lee, the chilly story of "Frost's Boy"-it will leave you ready for a hot cup of cocoa. Our fantasy reprints are from Maria Dahvana Headley ("The Orange Tree") and Liz Ziemska ("The Mushroom Queen"). All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, and our ebook readers will get to see a sneak peek of Greg Bear's new novel, THE UNFINISHED LAND. Our nonfiction department is reorganizing a bit, but you we've got three fantastic book reviews for you to dig into. Hope you enjoy the issue, and see you next month!