Stories both sweet and savory await you in our piquant December issue—and something for almost every taste. The more sophisticated palates among us often prefer both flavors intertwined, and Brian Stableford posits, in his newest novelette for us, that “Some Like It Hot.” Don’t fear—there will be no sign of either Tony Curtis or Jack Lemmon dressed as not-so-lovely ladies (and sadly no sign of Marilyn, either), but, instead, we offer a sophisticated fictional treatise on the future of commercial environmentalism, global warming, and the role Mother Nature herself must play in the mediation of the climate change conflict. It’s a fine story, and it may cause some consternation as to which houseplants you’ll have to choose from for your home in the near-future. . . . As you’ll find, the rest of the December tales are no less tasty:

Jeff Carlson returns with a sprightly tale in which two intrepid bug-hunters must dampen the holiday spirit of some “macho” termites as they all make an unholy mess of the holiest of Christian holidays in “A Lovely Little Christmas Fire.” It would be a challenge to calculate a “gender score,” as some critics are doing online, when one considers Sara Genge’s new tale, “As Women Fight,” a Tiptree-esque examination of a society of gender-changing tribespeople that is sure to turn heads and appear on next year’s award ballots; Nick Wolven returns with a frightening examination of the evils men do and the desperate situations women are then forced to endure in “Angie’s Errand”; John Shirley, after too long an absence, tells of two higher beings locked in eternal “Spy vs. Spy” conflict through the ages in “Animus Rights”; Mike Resnick retells the story of “The Bride of Frankenstein” in a sweet and sour fashion that is sure to surprise you; enter Jim Aikin’s curiosity shop where a new proprietor seeks to lure a friendly ghost into “Leaving the Station”; and Benjamin Crowell does my job for me, offering a story with “A Large Bucket, and Accidental Godlike Mastery of Spacetime.”

Robert Silverberg, in his Reflections column, completes his how-to survey in “Building Worlds III”; Peter Heck brings us “On Books”; plus an array of poetry you’re sure to enjoy.

Look for our December issue on sale at your newsstand on October 6, 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!

New stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert Reed, Carol Emshwiller, Allen M. Steele, Geoffrey A. Landis, Bruce McAllister, Felicity Shoulders, Steve Rasnic Tem, Brenda Cooper, Chris Roberson, Damien Broderick, Peter Friend, Derek Zumsteg, and many others!