A Stirring in the Ruins

So, you know that bit in every apocalypse when the plucky survivors find that bit of greenery growing in the fire-husked rubble of whatever cityscape they are currently foraging in for ramen and shotgun ammo? That little shoot of something, maybe a bean plant (which has the advantage of being much more practical than a flower, though just as metaphorical), promising a better tomorrow? Amidst all the doom-and-gloom of market closings and contractions for short SF, two new e-zines have just been spotted forcing their little green fronds through the cracked pavement of the short fiction scene: Lightspeed and Daybreak.

Lightspeed Magazine, coming in June of 2010, will be helmed by John Joseph Adams — currently assistant editor at F&SF and also widely known for the numerous recent anthologies he has edited, such as The Living Dead. Lightspeed will be the SF companion zine to Prime Books’ Fantasy Magazine, a magazine that has clearly learned a thing or two about online presentation in its transitioning to a web-based existence.

Jetse de Vries’ Daybreak Magazine launched yesterday and already has its first story up. The zine is a companion to de Vries’ Shine anthology, and both book and zine focus on near-future, optimistic science fiction — something not too common in much of today’s SF but thematically appropriate on any day when two new short fiction zines can be seen sending their verdant little buds skyward.