There are no vacations for the editors of monthly magazines. The new issues of Lightspeed and Clarkesworld popped into my mailbox bang on schedule. I have now done my bit and put them on sale.

So what do we have for you? We’ll this month’s Clarkesworld looks pretty special. The headline story is “Driftings” by one of my favorite authors, Ian McDonald. Ian said on Twitter that this is his first online publication, and I’m delighted he has chosen Clarkesworld in which to make that debut. Kate Baker’s audio version is, of course, already available.

The second story is “Variations on Bluebeard and Dalton’s Law Along the Event Horizon” by Helena Bell. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but it will be well worth reading because Ken Liu has described it as “One of the loveliest stories you’ll read all year”. Ken Liu. Really.

Finally we have “Effigy Nights” by Yoon Ha Lee. Her work should be familiar to Clarkesworld readers (you may remember “Ghostweight” from 2011). This one has a great opening. As usual, Kate will record the second and third stories during the month.

In the non-fiction we have a fascinating-sounding article called “The Wine-Dark Sea: Color and Perception in the Ancient World”. It is by Erin Hoffman and it opens with the revelation that there is no word for “blue” in ancient Greek. Wow, I wish I’d bought that one.

Jeremy’s interview this month is with Jesse Bullington, while in the Another Word column E.C Ambrose takes on the thorny topic of spoilers. There is also the annual Readers’ Poll.

This month’s cover is “Winding Down” by Australian artist, Alex Ries.

The January Lightspeed includes amongst the reprints a short story that came 8th in the Locus Centuries Poll for the 21st Century, “The Cambist and Lord Iron” by Daniel Abraham. There’s also a Theodora Goss story. The book exclusive novel is “The Fear Gun” by Judith Berman and there are interviews with Cory Doctorow and Lemony Snicket.

As usual, both magazines are available in the bookstore.