Lightspeed Magazine, January 2011 (Lightspeed Magazine, #8)

Lightspeed Magazine is a monthly science fiction magazine that features all types of sf, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between:

In our first fiction story of 2011, “Postings from an Amorous Tomorrow,” debut author Corey Mariani shows us a future in which connections are limitless, love can be quantified, and your social networking status is your greatest asset.

A lonely drug dealer’s strange relationship with space cucumbers leads to a tentative new friendship in “Cucumber Gravy” by Susan Palwick.

Turns out not all gorgeous, sparkling men are angst-ridden vampires. In Tanith Lee’s “Black Fire,” we see what happens when you let that gleaming stranger—who just happens to show up after you see a strange object soar across the evening sky—into your home.

And for our final story of January, we bring you Orson Scott Card’s “The Elephants of Poznan,” in which animals know more about saving mankind than we do.