BCS #142 is out, a special double-issue kicking off BCS Science-Fantasy Month 2!
Aliette de Bodard (“Memories in Bronze, Feathers, and Blood” in BCS #45 and podcast BCS 041, and three others) returns to BCS with “The Breath of War,” a new story in the futuristic spacefaring age of her Xuya world. Rachel Sobel offers “The River Does Not Run,” a tale of personal questing through a strange ruined landscape.
The two bonus stories, releasing on the website next Thursday, are both by returning BCS authors: “Stonebones” by Nathaniel Lee, a tale of a forthright young science-fantasy Knight setting out on her own, and “The Goddess Deception, Pt. 1” by Dean Wells, the first half of a novella set in a future spacefaring age of the world of his BCS steampunk stories (“Evensong, Having Been Answered;” “To the Gods of Time and Engines, a Gift”). The full issue is available now on ebook at Kindle and Weightless Books.
The BCS Audio Fiction Podcast episode is BCS 121: The Breath of War by Aliette de Bodard, guest-narrated by podcaster, novelist, and BCS author Tina Connolly, who has guest-narrated past BCS podcast episodes including BCS 091: Cursed Motives by Marissa Lingen and BCS 084: One Ear Back by Tina herself.
The ‘From the Archives’ story with BCS #142 is “Scry” by Anne Ivy from BCS #90, part of our first BCS Science-Fantasy Month in 2012, a tale of family relationships and the fate and free will of seeing their future. The special science-fantasy cover art is the gorgeous “Sojourn” by Philippine artist Ferdinand Dumago Ladera.
We’re also giving away signed hardcover copies of George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois’s anthology Old Mars. Learn how you can enter here.
BCS Science-Fantasy Month 2 will continue next week, with the website release of the two bonus stories, and in two weeks with BCS #143, featuring Yoon Ha Lee (whose story “The Book of Locked Doors” was in our previous Science-Fantasy Month), Seth Dickinson (“Worth of Crows” in BCS #104, among others), the conclusion of “The Goddess Deception,” a bonus podcast, and more!