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 153 of LIGHTSPEED! Our first full-length short SF story this month comes from Carrie Vaughn: "Learning Letters." It's the story of our world in the near future, and two very different ways of shaping our lives in a time with limited technology. Adam-Troy Castro offers a humorous alien society with an unusual structure in his new tale, "The Day the Earthman Never Showed." We also have two flash pieces: "In(con)solation" from Octavia Cade and "Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library" by Marie Brennan. Our original fantasy shorts include "Real Magic" by Sharang Biswas, a story of one small-town witch and her clientele, and "His Guns Could Not Protect Him" by Sam J. Miller-which features an unsettling reality filled with monsters. Monsters of a different variety make an appearance in a flash story ("Subject: More Monsters Will Not Make Us Safer") by Paul Crenshaw. We also have a second flash piece: "The House of Linear Change" from Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with book reviews from our terrific review team. It's another terrific month of content, coming at you at the speed of light.