Summer 2025 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and the
November/December issues of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and
Asimov’s Science Fiction. Cover art by John Jennings, Eldar Zakirov, and Shutterstock

It’s a bittersweet month for fans of print SF magazines. First the good news. For the first time since September 2024, there’s a full complement of science fiction magazines on the shelves. The Summer 2025 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is at last available, six months late and with an 18 month-gap since the last issue, but it’s here and we’re delighted to see it. Yes, the magazines that accompany it, Asimov’s SF and Analog, are also more than two months late, cover-dated November-December 2025 but not available until last week, but at this point we know better than to complain. We’re just grateful they’re here at all.

Now the bad news. And unfortunately, it’s bad indeed. Yesterday, January 12, the news spread that Sheila Williams, the brilliant and tireless editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction, had been hospitalized with a brain aneurysm. She is reportedly conscious, and communicating with family, and we hope and pray for her speedy recovery. In my opinion Sheila is the most important editor currently at work in genre magazines, and without her the field will be enormously diminished.

Until she returns, Asimov’s Senior Managing Editor Emily Hockaday is acting as interim editor.

These three issues we have on hand have plenty to offer while we wait for news, including contributions from Joyce & Stanley Schmidt, James Dick, A.C. Koch, Mark W. Tiedemann, Marissa Lingen, James Van Pelt, James L. Cambias, Greg Egan, Susan Shwartz, Sean McMullen, Allen M. Steele, Sean Monaghan, Ray Nayler, Maurice Broaddus, John Shirley, Nnedi Okorafor, and many more.

Sam Tomaino at SFRevu enjoyed the latest F&SF.

The Summer 2025 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has two novellas, three novelettes, and three short stories. The magazine is back after a long hiatus and the first under its new publisher. It went quarterly in the previous issue.

The fiction in the issue begins with the novella, “Threat Assessment” by Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera.

Dr. Nasha Okoye, algorithmic psychologist, is recruited by an old college friend, Colonel Jason Galli of the UN Defense Force, Hephaestus Base, Von Neumann crater on the far side of Luna, to interview an AI buried beneath the surface of the Moon. It had caused an economic crash when it had less than a second’s access to the internet. Jason wants her to find out information about the AI. But her interviews reveal dark truths. The end is chilling, depending on your point of view. Very well-crafted piece.

“The Apology Tour” by Nnedi Okorafor

Nwoye had created the billion AIs in everyone’s devices, called Persons, that, due to a glitch, became independent enough to demand they not be treated like slaves. She came under fire for all of it and wrote the best-selling book, explaining how it all happened, called Playing Goddess While Being Human. She has been on her “apology tour” promoting the book. Her Person’s name is Ijele, and they have a good relationship. But a crisis occurs when they are lost in the United Arab Emirates desert. Great story!

“The Seventy-Eight Spoons” by Devan Barlow

Carlotta inherits the house her great-aunt had lived in for years. She moved into it with her dog, George. Her great-aunt had a reputation as a healer, but Carlotta does not have the power. That causes resentment amongst the townspeople, as does the disappearance of seven locksmiths who had tried and failed to open the door to the attic. But things do work out. Charming, fun story.

The fiction concludes with the novella, “Soul Rebel” by Maurice Broaddus.

This is a sequel to “Buffalo Soldier” published by Tor.com in 2017, which I have not read or reviewed. It tells the story of “the epic journey of Lij Tafari.” The story had an epilogue in “Babylon System” published in the May-June 2021 issue of F&SF, which I did read and review, saying it was an “Interesting story that makes one want to look into the books in the series.” I also said that Lij “seems to be a clone of Haile Selassie,” the heroic leader of Ethiopia in the time leading up to World War II. This story tells us “how Lij became the Star Child.” Desmond Coke is the obroni of the Niitsitapi people part of the Assembly of First Nations. The United States of Albion, their rivals, have set up entrenchments along the disputed border between the two… It ends up on a bittersweet note as a battle begins. Great story! It will be on my Hugo Short List for Best Novella of 2025.

I heartily recommend this issue in any form,

Read Sam’s complete review here.

The new Asimov’s is reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf at Tangent Online. Here’s an excerpt.

In “Because It’s There” by Susan Shwartz, mountaineers scale a gigantic peak on a human colony world with a deadly environment. Two of them are from another human planet and the rest are natives of the world with the huge mountain. The former are after a spaceship, carrying information about creating a deadly plague, that crashed into the peak. The natives hope that the outsiders will help them escape from their dying colony… The scenes of the ascent are vivid and suspenseful. The culture of the colonists on the planet with the immense peak is interesting and imaginative.

The title of “Lagrange Point 5” by Sean McMullen refers to a relatively stable position in the orbit of Mars. A robotic probe reveals that there is a strange loss of all electrical power near the asteroids located there. A spaceship carrying astronauts journeys to the place, supposedly to study the asteroids, but actually in search of ancient alien technology.

In “Solemnity” by Mark D. Jacobsen, investigators study an alien world where all the inhabitants were destroyed by the death of their god. The humans are a very mixed lot, from a priest to a poet and from persons of various faiths to atheists. They all have visions of the disaster, leading to a dramatic encounter at the site of the holocaust.

The narrator of “Catch a Tiger in the Snow” by Ray Nayler meets a woman whose profession is to replace unpleasant memories with better ones as a form of therapy. Their relationship leads to a final gesture when they realize that they cannot remain together. Rather than a plot-driven narrative, this is primarily a character study. The difference in social class between the narrator and the therapist is a major theme as well.

Read Victoria’s complete review here.

Finally, here’s an excerpt from Sam’s review of the newest Analog at SFRevu.

The November/December 2025 issue of Analog is here, and it’s got one novella, four novelettes, thirteen short stories, a Flash Fiction story, poetry, and a science fact article.

The new short fiction begins with the novella, “Aleyara’s Flight” by Christopher L. Bennett.

This is a sequel to “Aleyara’s Descent” in the May/June issue. In this story, Aleyara, Mirelle, Tirenu, and Paira, from another tribe, and others are ascending the area called the Rulai bole, discovered in this expedition for mapping the Under, a passable land route through the midcontinent swamps. There, they run into trouble and must decide the best way to live their lives. Another good story in a series I hope will continue.

“People of the Consortium Worlds V. Rax, God of Misery” by Leonard Richardson

Rax created people so he could feed on their misery. But the Consortium of Worlds does not permit that kind of repression, and they take legal action. Good story!

“Earth’s Last Library” by James Van Pelt

Cetus and Lyra have to transport a huge library of Earth’s most precious books to another planet. They have two ships that are full, the Bossa Nova and the Casanova. But the latter develops a problem and can’t leave Earth. What can they do? Nice old-fashioned solve-the-problem story!

“Chalice” by James L. Cambias

In a far future, professional thieves are hired to steal stuff from an asteroid highly quarantined because it’s infected by deadly nanobots. Good heist ale with a big twist at the end.

The fiction concludes with the novelette, “Pirates of Pan” by James Dick.

Serving the settlements of the moons around Saturn, Guillaume, our narrator, the Fire Control officer of the trader ship Arviat, is challenged by pirates demanding their laser core and four engines. They can’t give those up and decide to fight. When it appears one of the attacking ships is disabled, Guillaume is asked to grant the authority to fire. He does not give it. Turns out the disabled ship was a ruse… Great story with likable characters.

Another good issue of Analog. It needs your support!

Read the whole thing here.

Here’s all the details on the latest SF print mags.

Analog Science Fiction & Science Fact

Editor Trevor Quachri gives us a tantalizing summary of the current issue online, as usual.

It feels like we’ve barely begun, but here we are, wrapping up the year already. Ain’t that always the way in life, though? The trick, I find, is to end with as much gusto as you started with. Case in point: our current issue.

Our lead story is a sequel to reader-favorite (and reader-favorite cover!) “Aleyara’s Decent,” by Christopher L. Bennett. The world has expanded for Aleyara and her friends, but that doesn’t mean it’s done expanding, as you’ll see in “Aleyara’s Flight.”

Then the fact article for the issue is the next to tie classic SF novels to current research from Kelly Lagor, in “Warm Ponds II: BIOS and LUCA.”

We also have something(s) seasonal in “The Dancing Bear” by Stanley and Joyce Schmidt, and “The Under-appreciation of Danny White” by David Ebenbach; “Pirates of Pan,” a tale from James Dick that proves the truth of the old Ben Franklin adage that if we don’t hang together, we’ll surely hang alone, even (maybe especially!) in the depths of space; some tough familial dynamics in an even tougher environment, in Kate Maruyama’s “Faith”; a look at just how close we could be to solving some dire problems if we truly wanted to be, in Lance Robinson’s “One Step Away,” and much, much more, from Subodhana Wijeyeratne, Leonard Richardson, James L. Cambias, Marissa Lingen, and others.

Don’t miss it!

Get your copy now!

Here’s the full TOC.

Novella

“Aleyara’s Flight” by Christopher L. Bennett

Novelettes

“The Dancing Bear”by Joyce & Stanley Schmidt
“Faith” by Kate Maruyama
“One Step Away” by Lance Robinson
“Pirates of Pan” by James Dick

Short Stories

“The Starworthy Slip” by A.C. Koch
“With Lanterns Borne Aloft” by Mark W. Tiedemann
“Termina” by Subodhana Wijeyeratne
“One Peek” by Lilian Garratt-Smithson
“The Wi-Fi Womb” by Avi Burton
“And Every Galatea Shaped Anew” by Marissa Lingen
“People of the Consortium Worlds V. Rax, God of Misery” by Leonard Richardson
“Mammoth” by C.L. Schacht
“The Riches We Take” by Sam W. Pisciotta
“Earth’s Last Library” by James Van Pelt
“Cobalt Plate Special” by Jon Hansen
“The Underappreciation of Danny White” by David Ebenbach
“Chalice” by James L. Cambias

Flash Fiction

“The Mountains at the Heart of the Labyrinth” by Deborah L. Davitt

Science Fact

Out of “Some Warm Little Pond”, Part II: Bios and the Last Universal Common Ancestor by Kelly Lagor

Poetry

Constructs by Thomas Belton
Irrational Faith by Richard Schiffman

Reader’s Departments

Guest Editorial: A Matrix and (at Least Three) Curves by Howard V. Hendrix
Unknowns: Noble Guesses by Alec Nevala-Lee
The Alternate View by John G. Cramer
In Times to Come
The Reference Library by Rosemary Claire Smith
Brass Tacks

Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine November-December 2025 contents

Asimov’s Science Fiction

Sheila Williams provides a brief summary of the latest issue of Asimov’s at the website.

Greg Egan contributes an outstanding novella to our November/December 2025 issue. The story follows a close-knit family as they navigate the affects of Alzheimer’s with future drugs, technology, and “Spare Parts of the Mind.”

Susan Shwartz takes us on a dangerous adventure ascending a mountain on a distant exoplanet “Because It’s There”; Allen M. Steele resolves some mysteries in “The Recovery of Lemuria 7”; Garrett Ashley’s new story about penal laborers is told from an unusual perspective high above the Earth and “Within God”; while in “Solemnity,” Mark D. Jacobsen takes a look at religion from the perspective of a software archeologist examining the downfall of an alien civilization; Tegan Moore takes us on a self-help journey to witness a “Miiracle”; Sean Monaghan’s time-travel tale asks the rhetorical question “Can You Outrun a T-Rex?”; in Eric Del Carlo’s new story, “Mudfoots,” a man returns to his childhood environment to care for the alien who cared for him; Sean McMullen escorts us on a journey above Mars in “Lagrange Point 5”; and Ray Nayler’s conflicted character muses on how to “Catch a Tiger in the Snow.”

“Science Fiction Predicts the Future” in Robert Silverberg’s latest Reflections column; James Patrick Kelly’s On the Net offers us “Coverage”; Peter Heck’s On Books reviews works by Nisi Shawl, Mary Soon Lee, John E. Stith, Charles Stross, and others; plus we’ll have an array of poetry you’re sure to enjoy.

You’ll find our November/December 2025 issue on sale at newsstands on October 8, 2025. Or subscribe to Asimov’s—in paper format or our own downloadable varieties — by visiting us online at www.asimovs.com. We’re also available individually or by subscription via Amazon.com’s Kindle Unlimited, BarnesandNoble.com’s Nook, and Magzter.com/magazines!

Get your copy now!

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Novella

“Spare Parts for the Mind” by Greg Egan

Novelettes

“Because It’s There” by Susan Shwartz
“Lagrange Point 5” by Sean McMullen
“Solemnity” by Mark D. Jacobsen
“Miiracle” by Tegan Moore
“Mudfoots” by Eric Del Carlo
“The Recovery of Lemuria 7” by Allen M. Steele

Short Stories

“Within God” by Garrett Ashley
“Can You Outrun a T-Rex?” by Sean Monaghan
“Catch a Tiger in the Snow” by Ray Nayler

Poetry

Good Dogs by Leslie J. Anderson
Inheritance Haiku by Bruce Boston
My Flintstones Thermos, 1962 by Rob Loughran
Field Note from an Outlier Physicist by Robert Frazier
What We Learn from Quantum Mechanics by Fred D. White
Almost Immortal by Bruce Boston
The Paper Swift by Ciarán Parkes

Departments

Editorial: 39th Annual Readers’ Awards’ Results by Sheila Williams
Reflections: Science Fiction Predicts the Future by Robert Silverberg
On the Net: Coverage by James Patrick Kelly
Thought Experiment: by Kelly Lagor
On Books by Peter Heck
Next Issue

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Summer 2025 contents

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Novellas

“Threat Assessment” by Matthew Kressel and Mercurio D. Rivera
“Soul Rebel” by Maurice Broaddus

Novelets

“The Final Trial of Jalen, Oba of Uhuri” by Justin C. Key
“The Corporate Soul” by John Shirley
“The Apology Tour” by Nnedi Okorafor

Short Stories

“The Seventy-Eight Spoons” by Devan Barlow
“And a Little Garlic” by William Mangieri
“The Red River Summers” by Inda Lauryn

Poems

Moctezuma III by Lisa M. Bradley

Departments

Editorial: A New Horizon by Sheree Renée Thomas
Musing on Books by Michelle West
By the Numbers #10 by Arley Sorg
Films: Rebel Moon by Karin Lowachee
Science: The Skeptical Scientist by Jerry Oltion
Coming Attractions
Curiosities by Michael Gonzales
Cartoons by: Mark Heath, Arthur Masear, Lynn Hsu

Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction are available wherever magazines are sold, and at various online outlets. Buy single issues and subscriptions at the links below.

Asimov’s Science Fiction (208 pages, $9.99 per issue, one year sub $57.75 in the US) — edited by Sheila Williams
Analog Science Fiction and Fact (208 pages, $10.99 per issue, one year sub $57.75 in the US) — edited by Trevor Quachri
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (208 pages, $12.99 per issue, one year sub $46.95  in the US) — edited by Sheree Renée Thomas

The November-December issues of Asimov’s and Analog are officially on sale until December 16, 2025, but since that was over a month ago and the magazines just arrived, I suspect they’ll be on shelves a little longer than that. No word on when to expect the next F&SF, but let’s say 2027 to be on the safe side.

See our coverage of the September-October issues here, and all our recent magazine coverage here.