John Joseph Adams

@johnjosephadams.com

4647 Followers 636 Following

Series Editor of BASFF. Publisher of @lightspeedmagazine.com (+ Editor) and NIGHTMARE. Editor of 50+ anthologies. Co-editor (with Jordan Peele) of OUT THERE SCREAMING. Newsletter Signup: https://robotwizardzombiecrit.com

Yasso cookies and cream wrapper next to a Yasso with no cookies in the cream
"The Carindale Orphan" by J.M. Miro: A stout man wearing a bowler hat and overcoat walks beside a young boy down a dark Victorian-era cobblestone alley.
"The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious" by Scott Lynch: A wizard with a long white beard stands waist-deep in water. He's holding a wooden staff and wearing a pointed wizard hat; on the had are several small trees as if his hat is an island, and some waterfalls cascade off the brim of it.
"A Labyrinth of Honeybees" by Heather Fawcett: A large honeybee with maze-like markings on its abdomen hovers above a garden.
"The Wednesday Witches Book Club" by Sarah Beth Durst: A white teapot with flowers and a cat etched onto it pours tea into a similarly-decorated teacup. In the background are shelves filled with books.
"Battle of the Round House" by Tananarive Due: A figure in a wide-brimmed hat stands beneath a wooden gate at sunset, facing an enormous cloud in the sky in the shape of a bull's head.
"The Lion's Tusk" by Robert Jackson Bennett: A stained-glass window depicts two finely dressed medieval nobles clasping hands, one holding a bouquet.
"Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk" by Travis Baldree: A figure in armor with a full closed helmet stands in the foreground, with a tall stone bell tower behind it. Purple magical energy swirls around a collection of trinkets hanging from the figure's neck.
Magic & Mystery: an Amazon Original Stories Collection. A cat's face with eyes glowing with pink and white magic. Below it are seven book covers, described below. "Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk" by Travis Baldree: A figure in armor with a full closed helmet stands in the foreground, with a tall stone bell tower behind it. Purple magical energy swirls around a collection of trinkets hanging from the figure's neck. "The Lion's Tusk" by Robert Jackson Bennett: A stained-glass window depicts two finely dressed medieval nobles clasping hands, one holding a bouquet. "Battle of the Round House" by Tananarive Due: A figure in a wide-brimmed hat stands beneath a wooden gate at sunset, facing an enormous cloud in the sky in the shape of a bull's head. "The Wednesday Witches Book Club" by Sarah Beth Durst: A white teapot with flowers and a cat etched onto it pours tea into a similarly-decorated teacup. In the background are shelves filled with books. "A Labyrinth of Honeybees" by Heather Fawcett: A large honeybee with maze-like markings on its abdomen hovers above a garden. "The Wizard Who Kept Himself Suspicious" by Scott Lynch: A wizard with a long white beard stands waist-deep in water. He's holding a wooden staff and wearing a pointed wizard hat; on the had are several small trees as if his hat is an island, and some waterfalls cascade off the brim of it. "The Carindale Orphan" by J.M. Miro: A stout man wearing a bowler hat and overcoat walks beside a young boy down a dark Victorian-era cobblestone alley.
A batch of oatmeal cookies cooling on a wire rack, surrounded on all four sides by a Dungeon Master Screen
Screenshot of Disney+'s carousel showing the Star Wars movies, in this order Episode 4, then 2, then 6, then 3, then The Clone Wars tv show (?!), then 5, then 7, then 8, then 1.
Banner gif in red, white, and blue, with the slides: Impeach Trump, Remove Trump, Imprison Trump, and No Kings No Tyrants.
A pros/cons list of cats vs. donkeys, designed to look like it's handwritten on a two-page notepad. Cats: charming, gets what they want, curious, beloved, independent thinkers, adaptable. Donkeys: braying, slow moving, stubborn, not so smart, beast of burden, is literally an ass.
Drake Hotline Bling meme with Drake holding his hand up to protest the top option (Donkeys) but then pointing and smiling at the bottom option (Cats).
Photo of my screen with MailerLite open, with a piece of cardboard covering the upper right corner of the screen in order to hide the annoying button situation mentioned in the previous post in this thread.
Screenshot of MailerLite newsletter service's nav bar while editing a newsletter. Top row shows the default view; bottom row shows what happens every time you make a change (as it saves progress).
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy stylized as cover text.
A multicolored mobius strip with folds and angles to it, with the silhouette of a person walking on one side of it.
RECKLESS EYEBALLING N.K. Jemisin EYE & TOOTH Rebecca Roanhorse WANDERING DEVIL Cadwell Turnbull INVASION OF THE BABY SNATCHERS Lesley Nneka Arimah THE OTHER ONE Violet Allen LASIRÈN Erin E. Adams THE RIDER Tananarive Due THE AESTHETE Justin C. Key PRESSURE Ezra Claytan Daniels DARK HOME Nnedi Okorafor FLICKER L.D. Lewis THE MOST STRONGEST OBEAH WOMAN OF THE WORLD Nalo Hopkinson THE NORWOOD TROUBLE Maurice Broaddus A GRIEF OF THE DEAD Rion Amilcar Scott A BIRD SINGS BY THE ETCHING TREE Nicole D. Sconiers AN AMERICAN FABLE Chesya Burke YOUR HAPPY PLACE Terence Taylor HIDE & SEEK P. Djèlí Clark ORIGIN STORY Tochi Onyebuchi
2025 Table of Contents Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 contains the following stories. FANTASY Look at the Moon by Dominique Dickey from Lightspeed The Witch Trap by Jennifer Hudak from Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet Ushers by Joe Hill from Amazon Original Stories Country Birds by Kij Johnson from Sunday Morning Transport The Wonders of the World by ‘Pemi Aguda from Ghostroots: Stories Also, the Cat by Rachel Swirsky from Reactor What Happened to the Crooners by Russell Nichols from Nightmare The River Judge by S.L. Huang from Reactor A Stranger Knocks by Tananarive Due from Uncanny An Ode to the Minor Arcana in a Triplet Flow by Xavier Garcia from Death in the Mouth, Vol. 2 SCIENCE FICTION The Three Thousand, Four Hundred Twenty-Third Law of Robotics by Adam-Troy Castro from Lightspeed The Weight of Your Own Ashes by Carlie St. George from Clarkesworld We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read by Caroline M. Yoachim from Lightspeed Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole by Isabel J. Kim from Clarkesworld The Forgetting Room by Kathryn H. Ross from FIYAH The Audit by Olivie Blake from Januaries Yarns by Susan Palwick from Asimov’s Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! by T.J. Klune from In the Lives of Puppets Fuck Them Kids by Tatiana Obey from FIYAH The Sort by Thomas Ha from Clarkesworld
Cover of ASCENDANCY OF NUR'RY'ZA, a 5e Adventure for PCs of 5th or 6th level by Ennie and Hugo Award winner John Joseph Adams. Cover image depicts a female monk standing in a powerful martial arts pose, with the earth shattering around her as if from the force of her feet striking the ground. TEXT: PLAY THE GAME. LOSE CONTROL. FEED THE GOD. What begins as a simple missing persons case quickly spirals into a descent through obsession, curses, and cult sacrifices. Ascendancy of Nur’Ry’Za is a one-shot adventure easy to slip into any campaign. Set in a monastery high atop a remote mountain, a cursed game is dominating minds and feeding the bottomless hunger of a dark eldritch entity. This 50+ page adventure includes: A narrative-rich mystery adventure with elements of horror and psychological tension A Go/Chess-like game called Ascendancy that curses its players and enthralls them to a dark eldritch entity A climactic ritual encounter where timing and choices matter A monastery dungeon with tactical encounters and dramatic set-pieces Three original full-color, highly-detailed hi-res maps (including player versions, GM versions, and a GM versions with creature placement) 3 original monk statblocks, inspired by Brazilian jiu-jitsu: Monk, Grappler Monk, and Grappling Master Monk 4 original “disciple” statblocks, designed to be warlock-monk cultists: Disciple Initiate, Zealous Disciple, Dark Disciple Priest, and Ardent Disciple Tokens for all creatures and NPCs Adventure text that uses special formatting conventions and hyperlinks to help GMs easily navigate the text while running the adventure Four player handouts An original monk subclass, The Way of Control, inspired by Brazilian jiu-jitsu Designed for 5 PCs of 5th level (Hard-Deadly) or 6th level (Medium-Hard), this adventure is perfect for groups who enjoy a mix of intrigue, combat, and unraveling ancient secrets.
FBI director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi stand in front of an American Flag. Kash has his arms folded across his chest and is making weird eyes at someone off camera; a thought balloon beside him says "Can't wait for Valhalla." Pam is looking longingly offscreen, with a thought balloon that says "Can't wait to end rule of law."
Text Screenshot: Your performances are somewhere between middling and dreadful. There are either some hecklers or someone falls asleep during the show and begins snoring loudly—or both. You lose the money you spent on setting up and promoting your show. In addition, you lose a number of fans equal to 20 minus your check result (the minimum number of fans you can have is 0). Here’s the good news: No one who saw your act will ever come to another one of your shows, and anyone else almost certainly won’t have heard of you, so when you do your next show it’ll be like it’s your first, which is just as well, really.
DUNGEONS DEEP: 16 Classic Ready-to-Play Drop-in Dungeons. A young female wizard with long black hair holds a lantern in one hand and a crystal in the other, side by side with a male warrior in splint armor holding a sword and shield. Both face a grick—a large serpent-like creature with a head opens like tentacles, with a large beak in the center.
Photo of a weasel riding on the back of a woodpecker.
A blue heeler//aussie shepherd mix, white with black markings. His head is on his dad's leg looking up at him balefully, desperately in hopes that it might possibly please please please be dinner time now.
A tree round with a chessboard-like pattern on it, but hexagonal instead of square. Three groups of pieces are arranged on the board, one turquoise, one maroon, and one yellow.
Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! newsletter graphic. It has those four words stacked, with an emoji representation of the word next to it.
Promo graphic for an Ask Me Anything interview on r/Fantasy with John Joseph Adams. Features the cover of the book PROTEST 2025: Stories Against Tyranny and a photo of John, who is a 40s bald white man with a short chin beard.
Emoji-style representations of a robot, wizard, zombie, and two d20 dice (one showing a 20 and the other showing a 1).
Political image of a cat in place of the Democratic donkey symbol. Text reads "Vote Democrat" and "Harris/Walz 2024"; the cat is pawing the R in Democrat so it looks like "Democat."