Lightspeed: Year One
About this audiobook
Lightspeed: Year One compiles fiction published by the online science fiction magazine Lightspeed in its first year. Produced by Skyboat Media, and under the direction of Grammy and Audie Award–winning narrator and producer Stefan Rudnicki, the Lightspeed podcast features audiobook-style recordings of the stories published each month in Lightspeed.
“The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt, read by Stefan Rudnicki“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn, read by Gabrielle de Cuir“The Zeppelin Conductors’ Society Annual Gentlemen’s Ball” by Genevieve Valentine, read by Rosalyn Landor“No Time like the Present” by Carol Emshwiller, read by Judy Young“More Than the Sum of His Parts” by Joe Haldeman, read by Stefan Rudnicki“How to Become a Mars Overlord” by Catherynne Valente, read by Robin Sachs“Amid the Words of War” by Cat Rambo, read by Don Leslie“Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” by Yoon Ha Lee, read by Stefan Rudnicki“The Taste of Starlight” by John Fulz, read by Kristoffer Tabori“Tight Little Stitches on a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale, read by Stefan Rudnicki“Hwang’s Billion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim, read by Cassandra Campbell“Standard Loneliness Package” by Charles Yu, read by Christian Rummel“The Silence of the Asonu” by Ursula K. Le Guin, read by Gabrielle de Cuir“Jenny’s Sick” by David Tallerman, read by Mirron Willis“Black Fire” by Tanith Lee, read by Rosalyn Landor“Elephants of Posnan” written and read by Orson Scott CardDiscover more
About the author
John Joseph Adams is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, including Wastelands, The Living Dead, and The Way of the Wizard. A six-time Hugo finalist and five-time World Fantasy Award nominee, he is also the editor and publisher of the magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare as well as the cohost of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast.
Jack McDevitt is an American science fiction author who won the 2006 Nebula Award for his novel Seeker. He has served as an officer in the US Navy, taught English and literature, and worked for the United States Customs Service. He lives with his wife, Maureen, in Georgia.
Carrie Vaughn is the author of many novels of science fiction and fantasy, including the Kitty Norville urban werewolf series and five others series. Bannerless won the Philip K. Dick Award.
Genevieve Valentine ’s first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, won the 2012 Crawford Award and was nominated for the Nebula. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Lightspeed, and elsewhere; and have been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog.
Carol Emshwiller is the author of many acclaimed novels and story collections, including Carmen Dog, The Start of the End of It All (winner of the World Fantasy Award), Report to the Men’s Club and Other Stories, I Live with You and You Dont’ Know It, and The Mount (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award and a Nebula Award finalist). She teaches in the NYU Continuing Education program, and divides her time between homes in New York City and California. Visit Carol online at www.sfwa.org/members/emshwiller.
Joe Haldeman is an American author of award-winning science fiction and nonfiction works and a part-time professor at MIT. He earned a BS in physics and astronomy, as well as an MFA in writing. Drafted into the military, he served in Vietnam as a combat engineer in 1968 and 1969, was severely wounded, and earned a Purple Heart. His experience in war and in returning to civilian life are themes he uses in much of his writing. He is the author of numerous novels and several series, including the Forever War series. His science fiction has earned many awards, including five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, a John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, a Locus Award, three Rhysling Awards, a World Fantasy Award, and a James Tiptree Jr. Award. Haldeman was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2009, received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 2010, and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.
Catherynne M. Valente has been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, World Fantasy Award, and the James Tiptree Jr. Award.
Cat Rambo (they/them) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer whose work has appeared in, among others, Asimov's, Weird Tales, Chiaroscuro, Talebones, and Strange Horizons. They live and write in Washington State.
Yoon Ha Lee is a Korean American who was born in Texas, went to high school in South Korea, and received a BA degree in mathematics from Cornell University in New York state. Among his books are Ninefox Gambit, which won the Locus Award, and Dragon Pearl, a New York Times bestseller, which won the Locus Award and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.
John R. Fultz lives in the Bay Area, California, but is originally from Kentucky. His fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Weird Tales, Space & Time, Lightspeed, Way of the Wizard, and Cthulhu’s Reign, and his comic book work includes Primordia, Zombie Tales, and Cthulhu Tales. He has many literary heroes, including Tanith Lee, Thomas Ligotti, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, William Gibson, Robert Silverberg, and Darrell Schweitzer, not to mention Howard, Poe, and Shakespeare. When not writing novels, stories, or comics, John teaches English literature at the high school level and plays a mean guitar.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar-award winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Charles Yu is the author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, which was named one of the best books of the year by Time magazine. He received the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Award for his story collection Third Class Superhero and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award. His work has been published in the New York Times, Playboy, and Slate, among other periodicals.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was an American author of novels, children’s books, and short stories, mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has also written poetry, literary criticism, and essays. She was widely recognized as one of the greatest science fiction writers in the history of the genre. She won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards on several occasions, as well as the National Book Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, and many other honors and prizes. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
David Tallerman ’s fantasy, science fiction, and horror short stories have appeared in numerous markets. Among other projects, he has published poetry, comic scripts, and an award-winning short film.
Tanith Lee was a legend in science fiction and fantasy, and the winner of multiple World Fantasy Awards, a British Fantasy Society Derleth Award, the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Acheivement in Horror. She wrote over 50 novels and short story collections, among them the bestselling Flat Earth Series. She passed away in 2015.
Orson Scott Card is best known for his science fiction novel Ender's Game and its many sequels that expand the Ender Universe into the far future and the near past. Those books are organized into the Ender Saga, which chronicles the life of Ender Wiggin; the Shadow Series, which follows on the novel Ender's Shadow and is set on Earth; and the Formic Wars series, written with co-author Aaron Johnston, which tells of the terrible first contact between humans and the alien "Buggers." Card has been a working writer since the 1970s. Beginning with dozens of plays and musical comedies produced in the 1960s and 70s, Card's first published fiction appeared in 1977--the short story "Gert Fram" in the July issue of The Ensign, and the novelette version of "Ender's Game" in the August issue of Analog. The novel-length version of Ender's Game, published in 1984 and continuously in print since then, became the basis of the 2013 film, starring Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, and Abigail Breslin. Card was born in Washington state, and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he runs occasional writers' workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University. He is the author many science fiction and fantasy novels, including the American frontier fantasy series "The Tales of Alvin Maker" (beginning with Seventh Son), and stand-alone novels like Pastwatch and Hart's Hope. He has collaborated with his daughter Emily Card on a manga series, Laddertop. He has also written contemporary thrillers like Empire and historical novels like the monumental Saints and the religious novels Sarah and Rachel and Leah. Card's work also includes the Mithermages books (Lost Gate, Gate Thief), contemporary magical fantasy for readers both young and old. Card lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card. He and Kristine are the parents of five children and several grandchildren.
Don Leslie has appeared on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theaters throughout the country. He has been heard in thousands of commercials, promos for all the broadcast networks and most cable stations, political campaigns, movie trailers, and over fifty audiobooks.
Cassandra Campbell is an actress, director, and teacher who has performed in New York at the Public Theater, the Mint Theater, and the Clurman Theatre. She is an accomplished voice-over artist whose credits include numerous audiobooks, documentaries, and commercials in both Italian and English.
Gabrielle de Cuir, is an Audie and Earphones Award–winning narrator who has narrated over three hundred titles.
Rosalyn Landor is an English-born television, theater, and multiple-award-winning audiobook narrator. Her television credits include Love in a Cold Climate, Rumpole of the Bailey, Sherlock Holmes, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has won numerous Audie awards and AudioFile magazine Earphones awards.
Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards, as well as more than twenty-five Earphones Awards, and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices.
Christian Rummel has recorded many audiobooks in a variety of genres and won two AudioFile Earphones Awards. As an actor, he has worked with Theatre for a New Audience and Clubbed Thumb and also appeared in several episodes of Law & Order.
Robin Sachs (1951–2013), actor and narrator, was raised in London and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His audiobook narrations earned ten Earphones Awards. His acting credits include Alias, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dynasty, Nowhere Man, Babylon 5, Diagnosis Murder, Galaxy Quest, Northfork, Ocean’s 11, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Megalodon.
Kristoffer Tabori made his screen debut when he was six years old and appeared on Broadway for the first time at age sixteen. He has garnered numerous honors for his stage, screen, television, and radio acting and directing, including an Emmy and three Earphones Awards. His first solo narration won the 1993 Audie Award for best audiobook of the year.
Mirron Willis—actor of film, stage, and television—is the winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2012 and a finalist for the Audie in 2015, as well as the winner of four AudioFile Earphones Awards for his audiobook recordings. He has worked extensively in film and television and on stage with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Houston Shakespeare Festival, and the Ensemble Theatre, among others. He has recorded some 150 audiobooks, including the Smokey Dalton series by Kris Nelscott and My Song by Harry Belafonte. He resides and records audiobooks on his family’s historic ranch in East Texas.
Judy Young is a voice talent and audiobook narrator.
