And lo, a new month starts, and a whole pile of new reading material arrives. What’s more, Clarkesworld has a new look to the website.

But what’s inside? I hear you ask. Well, how about stories by Kij Johnson (“Mantis Wives”) and Cat Valente (“Fade to White”)? I feel kind of sorry for Sofia Samatar being sandwiched between those two, but I’m sure that “Honey Bear” must be really good or it would not have got in. Kate Baker, as always, narrates the stories, starting with “Mantis Wives” with the other two to follow.

In the non-fiction, Jeff Seymour talks about magic systems, Jeremy interviews China Miéville, and Daniel Abraham discussed the relationship between plausibility and truth.

In his editorial, Neil talks about suffering a heart attack while at ReaderCon, and having a kidney stone operation soon thereafter. Take it easy, buddy. We all want to see you well.

The cover is “Space Journey” by Martin Faragasso who is from Argentina. As always, the magazine is available in the bookstore.

Not to be outdone in the big names stakes, the August issue of Lightspeed contains a new story by the magnificent Ken Liu, and the ebook exclusive is a novella by Joe Haldeman.