Lightspeed Magazine - October 2016
Page 26
To be honest, most of my thinking on this was formed not by SF authors, but by South Asian writers. Nonfiction books like Stanley Tambiah’s Buddhism Betrayed?, which interrogate the question of how Buddhists who are supposedly committed to a philosophy of nonviolence can nonetheless become ardent, violent nationalists. Fiction like Bapsi Sidhwa’s beautiful novel, Cracking India, which examines the Partition of India and Pakistan through the eyes of a small child. Films that examine the legacy of the Tamil Tigers, and the war’s effect on my country, such as Santosh Sivan’s The Terrorist. An essential book arguing for the need for revolutionary violence against colonial oppression is Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. I’ve been tremendously moved by soldier’s stories, such as Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, and as a parent now, I am particularly disturbed by the fact that so often we send youngsters barely out of childhood to fight our wars.
There are certainly some in-genre works that have affected me as well. Delany and Le Guin both have work that considers these issues, and I’m sure they’ve influenced my thinking deeply. There’s a slew of ’70s feminist SF writers who worked in this area, and I’ve read a fair bit of military SF from authors like Elizabeth Moon and Lois McMaster Bujold, which often touch on these issues, though they’re more likely to take the periodic need for violent military intervention as a given.
Thanks so much for your story. Do you have any forthcoming projects you’re excited about?
This story is part of a series that started with a short story, “Jump Space,” was followed by my novella, The Stars Change, and then the stories “Communion” (Clarkesworld, 2014) and “Webs,” (Asimov’s, July 2016). I’ve been working on a war novel in that same universe, so my main hope is to finish that soon and send it out into the world; I think it has the potential to become a series.
There are a host of other projects, including a nonfiction memoir titled Arbitrary Passions, exploring the connections between love and nationalism. I’m also currently writing for Tremontaine (through Serial Box), in Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint universe, and for George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards series—I have stories in the anthologies Fort Freak and Lowball, and another coming soon in Low Chicago. Both of those are lots of fun, though perhaps unsurprisingly, war and violence end up in my stories for those universes as well.
*
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Arley Sorg grew up in England, Hawaii, and Colorado. He studied Asian Religions at Pitzer College. He lives in Oakland, and usually writes in local coffee shops. A 2014 Odyssey Writing Workshop graduate, he is an assistant editor at Locus Magazine. He’s soldering together a novel, has thrown a few short stories into orbit, and hopes to launch more.
*
Coming Attractions
The Editors | 122 words
Coming up in November, in Lightspeed …
We have original science fiction by Chris Kluwe (“Dinosaur Killers”) and Alyssa Wong (“Natural Skin”), along with SF reprints by Lavie Tidhar (“Under the Eaves”) and Mary Robinette Kowal (“For Solo Cello, op. 12”).
Plus, we have original fantasy by J.B. Park (“Shooting Gallery”) and Helena Bell (“I’ve Come to Marry the Princess”), and fantasy reprints by Alex Jeffers (“Two Dead Men”) and Catherynne M. Valente (“A Dirge for Prester John”).
All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with our book and media review columns.
For our ebook readers, we also have our usual ebook-exclusive novella reprint and a book excerpt.
It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out.
Thanks for reading!
*
Stay Connected
The Editors | 29 words
Here are a few URLs you might want to check out or keep handy if you’d like to stay apprised of everything new and notable happening with Lightspeed:
Website
www.lightspeedmagazine.com
Newsletter
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/newsletter
RSS Feed
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/rss-2
Podcast Feed
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/itunes-rss
Twitter
www.twitter.com/LightspeedMag
Facebook
www.facebook.com/LightspeedMagazine
Google+
plus.google.com/+LightspeedMagazine
Subscribe
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/subscribe
*
Subscriptions and Ebooks
The Editors | 308 words
Subscriptions: If you enjoy reading Lightspeed, please consider subscribing. It’s a great way to support the magazine, and you’ll get your issues in the convenient ebook format of your choice. All purchases from the Lightspeed store are provided in epub, mobi, and pdf format. A 12-month subscription to Lightspeed includes 96 stories (about 480,000 words of fiction, plus assorted nonfiction). The cost is just $35.88 ($12 off the cover price)—what a bargain! For more information, visit lightspeedmagazine.com/subscribe.
Ebooks & Bundles: We also have individual ebook issues available at a variety of ebook vendors ($3.99 each), and we now have Ebook Bundles available in the Lightspeed ebookstore, where you can buy in bulk and save! We currently have a number of ebook bundles available: Year One (issues 1-12), Year Two (issues 13-24), Year Three (issues 25-36), the Mega Bundle (issues 1-36), and the Supermassive Bundle (issues 1-48). Buying a bundle gets you a copy of every issue published during the named period. So if you need to catch up on Lightspeed, that’s a great way to do so. Visit lightspeedmagazine.com/store for more information.
• • • •
All caught up on Lightspeed? Good news! We also have lots of ebooks available from our sister-publications:
Nightmare Ebooks, Bundles, & Subscriptions: Like Lightspeed, our sister-magazine Nightmare (nightmare-magazine.com) also has ebooks, bundles, and subscriptions available as well. For instance, you can get the complete first year (12 issues) of Nightmare for just $24.99; that’s savings of $11 off buying the issues individually. Or, if you’d like to subscribe, a 12-month subscription to Nightmare includes 48 stories (about 240,000 words of fiction, plus assorted nonfiction), and will cost you just $23.88 ($12 off the cover price).
Fantasy Magazine Ebooks & Bundles: We also have ebook back issues—and ebook back issue bundles—of Lightspeed’s (now dormant) sister-magazine, Fantasy. To check those out, just visit fantasy-magazine.com/store. You can buy each Fantasy bundle for $24.99, or you can buy the complete run of Fantasy Magazine— all 57 issues—for just $114.99 (that’s $10 off buying all the bundles individually, and more than $55 off the cover price!).
*
About the LIGHTSPEED Team
The Editors | 44 words
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
John Joseph Adams
Managing/Associate Editor
Wendy N. Wagner
Associate Publisher/Director of Special Projects
Christie Yant
Assistant Publisher
Robert Barton Bland
Reprint Editor
Rich Horton
Podcast Producer
Stefan Rudnicki
Podcast Editor/Host
Jim Freund
Art Director
Henry Lien
Assistant Editor
Robyn Lupo
Editorial Assistants
Laurel Amberdine
Jude Griffin
Book Reviewers
Andrew Liptak
Sunil Patel
Amal El-Mohtar
Copy Editor
Dana Watson
Proofreaders
Anthony R. Cardno
Devin Marcus
Illustrators
Galen Dara
Elizabeth Leggett
Reiko Murakami
Sam Schechter
Webmaster
Jeremiah Tolbert of Clockpunk Studios
*
Also Edi
ted by John Joseph Adams
The Editors | 167 words
If you enjoy reading Lightspeed, you might also enjoy these anthologies edited (or co-edited) by John Joseph Adams.
THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH, Vol. 1: The End is Nigh (with Hugh Howey)
THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH, Vol. 2: The End is Now (with Hugh Howey)
THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH, Vol. 3: The End Has Come (with Hugh Howey)
Armored
Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015 (with Joe Hill)
Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2016 (with Karen Joy Fowler) [forthcoming Oct. 2016]
Brave New Worlds
By Blood We Live
Dead Man’s Hand
Epic: Legends Of Fantasy
Federations
The Improbable Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes
HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! and Other Improbable Crowdfunding Projects
Lightspeed: Year One
The Living Dead
The Living Dead 2
Loosed Upon the World
The Mad Scientist’s Guide To World Domination
Operation Arcana
Other Worlds Than These
Oz Reimagined (with Douglas Cohen)
Press Start to Play (with Daniel H. Wilson)
Robot Uprisings (with Daniel H. Wilson)
Seeds of Change
Under the Moons of Mars
Wastelands
Wastelands 2
The Way Of The Wizard
What the #@&% Is That? (with Douglas Cohen) [forthcoming Nov. 2016]
Visit johnjosephadams.com to learn more about all of the above. Each project also has a mini-site devoted to it specifically, where you’ll find free fiction, interviews, and more.
*
Table of Contents
Editorial, October 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Game Night at the Fox and Goose
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Fade To Red: Three Interviews About Sebold’s Mars Trilogy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Moment of Gravity, Circumscribed
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Plea
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Cavern of the Screaming Eyes
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Dragon’s Tears
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Key to St. Medusa’s
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
October’s Son
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Stars Do Not Lie
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EXCERPT: Faller (Tor Books)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Media Review: 12 MONKEYS and MR. ROBOT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Book Reviews: October 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Interview: Allen Steele
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Karen Joy Fowler
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Jeremiah Tolbert
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Stephen S. Power
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Aliette de Bodard
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Fran Wilde
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Kat Howard
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Will Kaufman
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Author Spotlight: Mary Anne Mohanraj
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Coming Attractions
Stay Connected
Subscriptions and Ebooks
About the LIGHTSPEED Team
Also Edited by John Joseph Adams