Lightspeed editor Adams (Brave New Worlds) provides an outstanding print anthology of stories collected during the online SF magazine’s first year. These stories make it clear why Adams and the magazine have already separately been nominated for Hugo awards. The roster includes such longtime stars as Robert Silverberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Tanith Lee, as well as impressive up-and-comers like Genevieve Valentine, John R. Fultz, and Maggie Clark. The stories, though short, are hard-hitting and powerfully suggestive. Yoon Ha Lee’s “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” twists time into knots. Catherynne M. Valente discusses the path to supreme leadership in “How to Become a Mars Overlord.” Joe R. Lansdale’s “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” is a stunning mix of horror and SF. Years of work on F&SF and numerous lauded reprint anthologies have clearly honed Adams’s talents and prepared him to be a major force in the field. Agent: Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Feb.)
A 2011 Hugo Award nominee, online magazine Lightspeed (www.lightspeedmagazine.com) focuses exclusively on sf, introducing new writers and showcasing familiar voices. This anthology of 48 tales represents the best of the publication's first year. In Carol Emshwiller's "No Time Like the Present," a group of eerily similar families who seem unfamiliar with the basics of modern American culture moves into an upscale neighborhood. A young woman is addicted to diseases in a world where everything is curable in David Tallerman's "Jenny's Sick." There are also stories by George R.R. Martin, Tananarive Due, Bruce Sterling, Stephen Baxter, and Ken Liu. VERDICT This solid introduction to online speculative fiction deserves wide exposure.
