Lightspeed Magazine, July 2010 (Lightspeed Magazine, #2)

Lightspeed Magazine features all types of sf, from near-future, sociological soft sf, to far-future, star-spanning hard sf, and anything and everything in between . . . and in its July 2010 issue, Lightspeed contains two all-new, never-before-published stories: In Carol Emshwiller’s “No Time Like the Present,” the residents of a small, economically-disadvantaged town are surprised by the sudden influx of oddly tall, oddly rich, oddly speaking people who appear out of nowhere and buy up all the prime real estate. And if you don’t think that sounds shoe-dad, well, evolve, why don’t you? Corporate slavery, retrograde amnesia, posthumanism, and kicking ass take center stage in “Manumission” by Tobias S. Buckell, the tale of a mercenary named Pepper who must rebel against those who would seek to control him. Steampunk is the order of the day in “The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball” by Genevieve Valentine—an SFnal take on a subgenre more known for its flights of fantasy—featuring heliosis, 19th century ephemera, and, of course, airships. And from bestselling author George R. R. Martin, we bring you “...For a Single Yesterday”—one of his lesser-known tales, but also one of his most powerful—which explores the value of memory, music, and drugs in the aftermath of an apocalypse.