Browsing recently, I noticed that Lightspeed - which I understood to be a science fiction magazine - and Fantasy - which covers what you'd expect - had merged under their common editor and now offer a combined publication at a very reasonable Kindle subscription price.
Initially, I feared that Lightspeed would be too similar to Fantasy and Science Fiction - where its editor trained and to which I already have a subscription. Fortunately, it seems to have a feel of its own and some interesting quirks - like re-prints of classic stories. One quirk, the ubiquitous coverage of its writers, including those writers who write short articles about other writers annoyed me, but I did enjoy the Ebook extras, so on balance, I'll take it.
My stand-out favourite would definitely be "The Green Leopard Plague" by Walter Jon Williams. I loved how it combined a solid, multi-layered plotline with a fascinating inter-disciplinary conjecture. As an inter-disciplinarian myself, I found this story worked for me on an emotional and intellectuel level. I loved how the two layers of the plot don't quite come together and the ending was one of the few in the magazine I found truly satisfying. The actual philosophy of Williams in his interview where he promotes the elimination of death I didn't agree with, but this observation did not taint the story.
The novel excerpt from Greg Egan left me cold. I'm probably small-minded but way-out science fiction is something I have difficulty with...
The Artist Showcase is a lovely idea but is a bit lost on a Kindle.They add other material to the Kindle edition and maybe this would have borne only being in the print version.
I have read "The Streets of Ashkelon" by Harry Harrison elsewhere (and as the notes later in the magazine detail it is one of the most re-printed stories) but it is always powerful. The note from the editor in his introduction about the fact that this helped seal the deal for him becoming an atheist, I found annoying and it did detract from my experience of re-reading the story. For me, ideas I disagree with are far more palatable in the form of a powerful story than in prose. Let the story speak for itself!
Overall, I far preferred the selection of Science Fiction stories over the Fantasy selection. All of them offered something fresh, different, thought-provoking and a satisfying ending. As for the Fantasy selection, they all left me hanging. I was particularly disappointed between with the Holly Black and Nina Kiriki Hoffman stories as I really got into them and the endings left me flat. Holly Black, in particular, notes in her interview that she's finally cracked endings for short stories and I don't get it. I absolutely invested into that story - what a great start - and then, nothing...
Anyways, overall, I liked the magazine, though my enjoyment of it definitely started at the highest point and went down from there. Ending with the bite-size author interviews - for every single story - followed by little profiles of the writers of the interviews almost made me claw my eyes out. However, I shall read the next edition, avoiding the bits that have irritated me and hopefully having a more positive experience that leads me to keep my subscription past the 30-day free trial. We shall see.
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