Current Issue Highlights
July/August 2026
Summer blockbuster season is soon beginning at your local cinema, but this issue, we’re splitting the difference, between SFnal human interest tales like Meg Elison’s “Go Forth and Multiply”—when we lose someone, it’s natural to want them back . . . but does it have to be on our terms?—and “Conversations with Callie,” by Lettie Prell, on the one hand, and big visionary SF like Tom R. Pike’s interstellar game of thrones (a nod to friend of the magazine, GRRM), “Red Ships,” and the life or death struggle against pirates in Michael Kuester’s “Casual Brutality.” Add in stories from Gregor Hartmann, Jen Downes, Auston Habershaw, and “When a Greenhouse Goes Wild,” our fact article from Kevin Walsh, and your butts will be glued to your seats. So grab your popcorn and don’t miss it!
NOVELETTE
The End of the Line
by William Paul Jones
The stars flow beneath my slippers. Each of my steps blots out a new part of the sparkling void; I am a carefree god treading on the secrets of heaven on my way from kitchen to table. Walking on the unblemished glass of our viewing floor gives most people vertigo at the very least or night terrors at worst, but this is my home and my sanctuary. I see only potential and plenty in the infinite.
The feeling is rubbing off on our guests. “I could not envision it before,” Charan says with that million-watt smile of his. “But this is why we research our roles, is it not? Rise of the Void Guard could well be the crown jewel of my career.” READ MORE
The Elegant Test
by David Horn
The control deck of the orbital station was windowless, its walls a patchwork of external feeds. Jupiter’s storms boiled across one screen; Europa’s cracked ice shimmered on another.
Dr. Lena Ortiz stood with her arms crossed, staring at the moon. Even here, kilometers of ice and substructure above the unbreachable ice shell, she felt it: the liquid below, dark and deep and restless, waiting.
Dr. Ortiz reversed her arms and stared at Europa. Behind her, Dr. Arun Sen scrolled through the mission brief. “You know the committee still doesn’t believe Europa is worth it, right?” he said. “Too deep. Too cold. Too long a shot.”
Ortiz didn’t look at him. “And yet here we are.” READ MORE
POETRY
Hope Is an Illogical Concept
by Fiona Perry
DEPARTMENTS
Guest Editorial: As Above, So Below—and Closer Than They Appear
by Howard V. Hendrix
This essay takes its title from a line in my long-ago second novel, Standing Wave. Here and now and many years later, I find that phrase a lot less mystical or metaphysical than it seemed to be when I first used it. This is especially the case in the context of meaningful analogies and parallels that can be drawn today between population growth in satellite numbers in the heavens above, and population growth in human numbers on the Earth below. READ MORE
The Reference Library
by Rosemary Claire Smith
Isn’t it a joy to find that a favorite author has produced a new collection of short fiction? Isn’t it also great fun to dig into a batch of stories written by someone who made a strong first impression in a single story? Collections offer a chance to stare through the kaleidoscope of the writer’s obsessions with the people, places, and situations that fascinate them. For here we may find themes they return to again and again, ones that resonate with us. It can be fascinating for the analytically inclined to note when each story was written or first published and to consider a few questions. Did the author handle a particular theme with more raw emotion in earlier works and with sharper insight or greater nuance in later stories? Does the writer’s work seem to be getting more optimistic or more pessimistic over time? As a reader, why are you drawn to some of their works more than others? READ MORE