Current Issue Highlights
May/June 2026
This issue, we have: one man’s battle against unwelcome neighbors in Jay Werkheiser’s “Carpenter”; a deranged car out for revenge (?), in “Imprint” from Zach Poulter; a mix of family drama and high-flying thriller in Thoraiya Dyer’s “Some Plates Get Eaten”; a heartfelt piece of fiction from longtime science fact contributor Kevin Walsh, “Nirvana and Mr. Sparks”; a bit of too-true satire in Tom R. Pike’s “The Enshittification of Dogs”; a look at the current state of AI’s role in medical diagnosis, in our fact article for the issue, “The Doctor Will See You Now,” by Doug Dluzen; an examination of “The V2 in Astounding,” in the next installment of Edward M. Wysocki Jr.’s continuing special feature series, and plenty more, from Eric Del Carlo, C. Stuart Hardwick, Marie Vibbert, Timons Esaias, Gregory Feeley, and others.
You don’t want to miss it!
NOVELETTE
Imprint
by Zach Poulter
The left rear failed somewhere in Alaska. Or maybe it was British Columbia. Jacob hadn’t really been keeping track. He’d disabled the sensors and all outgoing communications, so his first indication anything was wrong was the little blue car listing to one side, and the slow moan of the tire’s final warning layer grinding against the road.
“Slow to stop.” Jacob sat up. Blinked himself awake. Took in the surrounding scrub brush and pines, the ridiculously scenic mountains, and the endless, empty road, undulating up and down into the distance.
The car eased onto the gravel shoulder, near a marshy clearing. It put itself into park.
As far as Jacob could tell, he was alone on the two-lane highway. No one to help him, but also no one who might know who he was, or what he’d done. “Time and location?”
A soft light pulsed on the main display. READ MORE
Schismogenesis
by E.G. Condé
Little Bao winced. It was not the rain that bothered him, for it was gentle and almost molten with warmth as it dripped through the wispy leaves of the Angsanas sprouting up from the mud. The boy grimaced at the figure before him, carved as it was from some cheap synthetic simulacrum of stone. The pigments, a smattering of cerise, magenta, turquoise, and a once-electric hue of green, were fading. Cracks interrupted the intricate curlicues and radial spokes that terminated in feathers, claws, and an expressive visage set beneath a bejeweled crown. Suparna sensed that the source of her younger brother’s fear was the lidless eyes that bulged out from the ornithic statue’s head.
“We walked through the Ten Courts of Hell,” Suparna said, gripping his trembling shoulder, “and you’re scared of a bird?”
Little Bao continued to peer, as if entranced, “It’s much worse than that.”
Suparna appraised the statue; its dense wings unfurled as if caught in a wind; a rosy beak opened to reveal hominid teeth; lissome arms gripping the whorled edges of its pinion throne. “Garuda.”
Bao inclined his head toward his sister with awe. READ MORE
POETRY
For Sojourner
by Adegboyega Kayowa
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial: The Editor’s Page
by Trevor Quachri, Emily Hockaday & Kevin Wheeler
I recently finished The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman (Viking Press, 2024, 688 pp): I had been meaning to get to it for some time, but I wasn’t actively intent on doing so until its nomination for a World Fantasy Award in 2025. Overall, it’s excellent: satisfyingly long, but dramatically paced (and mercifully: a single volume, with no obvious dangling threads to allow for sequels), imaginative, with well-drawn versions of some of the more minor characters of Arthurian myth. It’s not perfect: the Big Bad reveal doesn’t land perfectly; anyone even casually familiar with Tolkein will see a certain moment coming a mile away; and it can feel too modern at times for my taste—but then, that’s no unforgivable sin: that was Steinbeck’s express purpose when he began writing one of my favorite books of all time, his unfinished The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights; to take Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and update it for modern readers. So in spite of not directly nodding to Steinbeck, his influence is felt here, and Grossman’s growth as writer since his breakout The Magicians is apparent. Recommended. READ MORE
The Reference Library
by Sean CW Korsgaard
By the time you are reading this column, in late spring of 2026, the science fiction genre will have marked its 100th anniversary.
Though preceded by individual authors ranging from Mary Shelley to Edgar Rice Burroughs, it was on March 10, 1926 that the first issue of Amazing Stories hit the newsstands—the birthing cry of modern science fiction, if not as a genre, certainly as an industry and a fandom. Every magazine, every book, every author, every convention, every argument over whether Star Trek or Star Wars is better . . . it all started one century ago, with one pulp magazine, and grew into a community that has spread across the globe and numbers in the millions.
That’s an incredibly humbling thought, isn’t it? READ MORE