Coming to you at the speed of light…

Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 164 (January 2024)
by Lightspeed Magazine, John Joseph Adams

Five Views of the Planet Tartarus, Rachael K. Jones 
549 words – 🪐🪐🪐🪐🪐 
“Once a decade, a titanium-nosed shuttle plows through the rings of the planet Tartarus with a new batch of prisoners destined for the Orpheus Factory.“
Ok, wow, that was harsh. Twisted and truly horrific. And all that in 500 words.

Shadow Films, Ben Peek 
9148 words – 👽👽👽👽👽
“Alvin’s scripts arrived in yellow envelopes. They were hand delivered, placed inside his letter box as if part of the regular mail, but with no address or stamps on it.“
Aliens live among us! Interesting idea, I really liked this. It reminds me strongly of the 2009 SF movie „District 9“. Look for it, if you haven‘t seen it yet!
More about the author

We Shall Not Be Bitter at the End of the World, David Anaxagoras 
2988 words – 🐝🐝🐝🐝 
“It’s my twelfth birthday and we’re all waiting for Wormwood and everyone is here and I mean everyone.“
Cute, amusing and a little strange. The author has a degree in child development and seems to be working on a middle-grade fantasy novel. I can see that in this story. It made me laugh. 

I might check out another of his stories: Anything Short of Death Is Survivable

A Saint Between The Teeth, Sloane Leong 
6683 words – 🦎🦎🦎🦎
“Kharatet moistens his sightless eyes with his tongue as he draws his finger across the limestone tablet glyphs.“
Bi-pedal, sentient newts? Going into a pretty odd direction. Interesting discussion about imposing your own values and ethics on someone from a different culture. It‘s worth to read the Author Spotlight: Sloane Leong for this one.
Maybe I should look for more by this author, for example: The Blade and the Bloodwright.

To Be a Happy Man, Thomas Ha 
884 words 👻👻👻½
“My son tells me that there’s a man in the house, someone he hears well after the lights are out, in the narrower halls or maybe at the far side of the den—a gait and creak he’s certain isn’t me or his mom, since he can hear us both breathing heavily and tossing in our sleep.“
Very short ghost story. Family. Not bad, has potential.
Further reading here: https://www.thomashawrites.com
And: Asian Heritage in Horror: Interview with Thomas Ha

Night Desk Duty at the Infinite Paradox Hotel, Aimee Ogden 
886 words – ♾️♾️♾️
Well, you learn something new every day. “The Infinite Hotel Paradox or Hilbert’s Hotel is a thought experiment which illustrates a counterintuitive property of infinite sets.“ Thank you, Wikipedia! If you are a math nerd, you should find this amusing. I found it wacky and a bit pointless. But ok, entertaining as well.

In the Tree’s Hollow, a Doe, Lowry Poletti 
769 words 🐺🐺🐺 
“Finneus Lark finds the man nestled inside of the abdominal cavity of a doe, his skin so pale that his veins are like spiderwebs.“
Ok, I didn‘t get this one. Huh?

Farewell to Faust, Adam-Troy Castro 
2811 words ⭐️⭐️ — resisting temptation. Faust aka Goethe? Meh.

I skimmed the novel excerpt and the three book reviews, none of them pinged my radar. I like the enclosed author spotlights, they give some nice insights into the stories.

Magazine and individual stories here