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 177 of LIGHTSPEED! This month we're serializing an original science fiction novelette by Lowry Poletti: "It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand." If you love SF about creatures with the ability of space flight, this piece will really speak to you-and if you live with domesticated animals, it will certainly make you question your relationship with them. We also have two terrific flash pieces: "Books to Take at the End of the World" from Carolyn Ives Gilman and "My Girlfriend Is a Nebula" by David DeGraff. Our original fantasy shorts include "Some to Cradle, Some to Eat" by Eugenia Triantafyllou, which blends fairy tale creatures with real family struggles to poignant effect. Kristina Ten returns to our pages with her new story "What We Don't Know About Angels," which captures the heartbreak of watching a loved one suffer from cancer. We also have two thought-provoking flash stories: "An Omodest Proposal" by Andrew Dana Hudson, and "Standardized Test" by Seoung Kim.