Ted Kosmatka and Michael Poore contribute a literary tale of loss and personal redemption amidst the curious life cycle of an insect known as the “Blood Dauber”; Heather Lindsley, making her Asimov’s debut, tells of the troubles experienced by time-traveling wage-slaves who answer the eternal question of just “Where the Time Goes”; R. Garcia y Robertson returns to his Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired milieu for an extremely fun (and dangerous!) jaunt during the peculiar Barsoomian period known as “Wife-Stealing Time”; Damien Broderick channels the inventive spirit of the classic SF works of Roger Zelazny in his tale “Flowers of Asphodel”; Ian Creasey describes the peculiar weltschmerz experienced by a man who must leave his body behind to travel the stars in “Erosion”; Robert Reed contributes what is sure to be an SF award-nominee with his haunting “Before My Last Breath,” the story of a tragic race of aliens once landed on our world, now all deceased for reasons both mysterious and transcendent; William Barton pens a thrilling interstellar adventure in his Standard ARM series, trawling “The Sea of Dreams,” with his (un)usual cast of immortals, fox-aliens, and lovely lady simulacrums; acclaimed novelist Christopher Barzak shares the haunting, but ultimately uplifing tale of “The Ghost Hunter’s Beautiful Daughter”; Elissa Malcohn laments the discovery of a peculiar bit of “Flotsam” amidst corporate America’s polluted waste; and Nancy Kress shares her latest, an investigation into some decidedly futuristic “Deadly Sins.”

We present a fascinating interview with physicist Michio Kaku in a brand new Thought Experiments column by Mary Robinette Kowal; Robert Silverberg, in Reflections, continues to offer insights into the invention of his popular Majipoor series in “Building Worlds II”; Norman Spinrad brings us “On Books” and James Patrick Kelly offers a new On the Net; plus an array of poetry you’re sure to enjoy.

Look for the October/November issue on sale at your newsstand on September 1, 2009. Or you can subscribe to Asimov’s—in classy and elegant paper format or new-fangled downloadable varieties, by visiting us online at www.asimovs.com. We’re also available on Amazon.com’s Kindle!