Black Gate

Over on her website, Caroline M. Yoachim talks about her newest story in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

I have a new story out in issue #225 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies (May, 2017). “Carnival Nine” is a story that I am particularly proud of, and I’m so happy it found a good home. A short excerpt:

One night, when I was winding down to sleep, I asked Papa, “How come I don’t get the same number of turns every day?”

“Sometimes the maker turns your key more, and sometimes less, but you can never have more than your mainspring will hold. You’re lucky, Zee, you have a good mainspring.” He sounded a little wistful when he said it. He never got as many turns as I did, and he used most of them to do boring grown-up things.

Rocket Stack Rank gives the story four out of five stars… read their (spoilery) review here.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents for issue 225.

“Carnival Nine” by Caroline M. Yoachim

The train took us to the maker’s bench, and we laid out our son’s body, chest open. Tonight the maker would give him a mainspring and wind him for the very first time. “Should we name him now, or after we’ve gotten to know him?” My parents had waited to name me until my second day, because they wanted to be sure the name would fit.

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The longest story in the May Clarkesworld is Kelly Robson’s novelette “We Who Live in the Heart.” Here’s a snippet from Quick Sip Reviews.

The story centers [on] a character who has fled from human civilization belowground, a place where cooperation is king and time is heavily monitored and monitzed. The alternative, though, is to go up to the surface and try to live inside the body of whale-like creatures that seem about the only thing that can handle the extreme conditions. It’s a decision that the narrator was one of the first to make, to go out and try to create something in this waste, to survive where people didn’t think possible. And it’s a decision that Ricci is just making as the story opens, escaping a string of bad situations… We as humans are all different and the story does a lovely job of showing what that can mean, how people can still find value in each other and in their relative seclusion, forming loose bonds that perhaps don’t offer as much cohesion but don’t bind, either. That exist to be supportive and caring without suffocating. And I like how the story establishes that with the crew of Mama, how the main character comes to stand for this voice of freedom even as they do yearn for relationships and company… It’s a story with a great sense of wonder and fun, and it’s an amazing read!

The May Clarkesworld contains original fiction from Nick Wolven, Kelly Robson, E. Catherine Tobler, and Tang Fei, plus reprints from Kage Baker and James Tiptree Jr.

The cover, “Darkess,” is by Julie Dillon.

Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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