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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Asimov’s Science Fiction is celebrating its 40th Anniversary Year in 2017, and in her editorial this issue Sheila Williams reflects on the many milestones and anniversaries she’s had during her 35 years with the magazine.

Alas, the magazines’ fifteenth anniversary was not a happy occasion. Isaac died on April 6, 1992, leaving all of us heartbroken. He’d told me several times before he died that one major reason he’d founded the magazine was to give new writers a welcoming place to break into science fiction. He also expressed his deeply held wish that the magazine continue long after his death. While the following year wasn’t a special anniversary year, it was a happier one. In March 1993, Rick Wilber and I announced the creation of what would become known as the Dell Magazine Award. This award, which goes to the best SF or fantasy story by a full-time college student, seeks to further Isaac’s legacy of supporting emerging authors. Later that year, I hit another important milestone — the birth of my first daughter, Irene.

I don’t remember if we held a twentieth anniversary celebration for the magazine in 1997, but I do remember that the magazine hit a grand slam at the Hugos. Asimov’s stories picked up the award in all three short fiction categories, and Gardner Dozois won one of his many Hugos for best editor. The twenty-fifth anniversary is another blur, partly because my second daughter, Juliet, was born in early July….

2017 is shaping up as a very good year, as well. As I write this, we are formulating plans for a fortieth anniversary celebration on April 13. It will be held in New York City at the Housing Works Bookstore Café on 126 Crosby Street. Although this issue doesn’t go on sale until April 25, I hope that many of you will have heard the word via social media and will have commemorated the occasion with us. Later in the year, Prime Books will be publishing Asimov’s Science Fiction: A Decade of Hugo & Nebula Award Winning Stories, 2005 to 2015 in conjunction with our anniversary year. In addition to many of the authors who appeared in our Thirtieth Anniversary Anthology, this book contains stories by Sarah Pinsker, David Levine, Karen Joy Fowler, Elizabeth Bear, Vylar Kaftan, Will McIntosh, and others. We hope to have a book signing in place in NYC to celebrate the launch of the book. Please keep up with us on social media to learn more about our plans.

Indeed, Derek Kunsken wrote about his adventurous trip to New York for Asimov’s fortieth anniversary celebration here.

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Anyone who says the online genre short fiction market isn’t thriving isn’t paying attention. We track 47 different fantasy magazines here at Black Gate, and one or two new ones pop up every quarter. This month the newcomer is Broadswords and Blasters, a modern pulp magazine edited by Matthew X. Gomez and Cameron Mount, with a issue that includes stories by BG alums Nick Ozment and Josh Reynolds. For pulp fans we have some special treats — including a look at the Adventure House Pulp Reprints (such as Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories), and Rich Horton’s review of Jack Williamson’s The Reign of Wizardry, which first appeared in the March 1940 issue of Unknown.

Check out all the details on the magazines above by clicking on the each of the images. Our April Fantasy Magazine Rack is here.

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