io9 takes genuine pride in curating and sharing selections of captivating speculative fiction drawn directly from the pages of Lightspeed Magazine. This partnership offers readers a recurring literary experience: once every month, io9 highlights a compelling story from the magazine’s current issue, giving audiences a carefully chosen glimpse into the publication’s ever-evolving universe of imagination. Through this collaboration, readers are invited not merely to consume fiction but to inhabit distinct artistic worlds where narrative craft meets emotional resonance. Each installment embodies the editorial spirit of discovery, ensuring that even a brief visit can open into an entire landscape of wonder.
In the spotlight for this month stands A.L. Goldfuss’s unforgettable tale, “Drosera regina.” This piece has been selected as October’s featured story, and it exemplifies the exquisite tension between horror and beauty, humanity and monstrosity, that defines so many of Lightspeed’s finest offerings. Readers encountering this story will find themselves drawn not just into its haunting atmosphere but into the hypnotic pull of its characters, whose struggles radiate out from the page with disturbing intimacy. The choice of “Drosera regina” demonstrates Lightspeed Magazine’s ongoing dedication to narrative complexity—fiction capable of unsettling the spirit even as it fascinates the intellect. Through Goldfuss’s precise prose and the story’s unnerving sensuality, the boundaries between the natural and the unnatural seem to dissolve, inviting readers to reflect on transformation, desire, and survival in ways that linger long after the final line.
As always, io9 welcomes its audience to approach this monthly offering as more than a simple reading recommendation. These stories are presented as creative dialogues between publication and reader, between the art of writing and the act of imaginative interpretation. With each issue, Lightspeed continues to affirm its place among the foremost venues for modern fantasy and science fiction, curating tales that challenge expectation and celebrate innovation. When io9 brings one of these works to the fore, it is more than an endorsement—it is an invitation to engage deeply, to sit with ideas that resist closure and evoke empathy in unexpected forms.
“Drosera regina,” like its titular plant, is beautiful, dangerous, and full of quiet power. It reflects Goldfuss’s remarkable ability to blend the grotesque with the tender, to craft an emotional ecosystem where vulnerability and predation exist side by side. For readers of horror, fantasy, or literary fiction alike, this story functions as both mirror and trap: it holds you close until you realize you’re caught in something exquisite. Such is the alchemy that io9 and Lightspeed aspire to present every month, offering a story that nourishes and unsettles in equal measure. Savor it, read it slowly, and let its resonance take root long after the final word has passed.
“Drosera regina,” by A.L. Goldfuss — October’s selection from Lightspeed Magazine. Enjoy the experience, and discover where darkness blooms.
Sourse: https://gizmodo.com/a-woman-hides-a-monstrously-alluring-secret-in-this-eerie-short-story-2000680209
