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 173 of LIGHTSPEED! We're starting off the beautiful month of October with a brand-new climate fiction short from Ai Jiang: "Ashes Like Tea Leaves, Lava Like Honey." Russell Nichols explores the technological future of agriculture in his mystery-SF short "Autonomy of a Murder." If you love robots, do not miss "The Life You've Given Me, Rusty," a new flash piece from P.A. Cornell. Our second piece of SF flash, "Hot Hearts" by Lyndsie Manusos, explores the emotional side of terraforming. Kenneth Schneyer returns to our pages with a dark fantasy short, "Winding Sheets," which explores a mortician's transformative experience. Philip Gelatt & JT Petty team up to write about a future corporation marketing all things mythological in their darkly hilarious tale "Sully the God." Our flash includes "Zekelo's Barterhouse & Emporium" by Patrick Hurley (as magical as its title promises) and the story of a very unusual prosthetics project in Ashlee Lhamon's "Caesura."