BCS #157, our Sixth Anniversary Double-Issue, is out today!
It includes “The Sorrow of Rain,” a new Lord Yamada tale by Richard Parks (“Cherry Blossoms on the River of Souls” in BCS #131, “In the Palace of the Jade Lion” in BCS #100, and nine other stories), and “The Moon Over Red Trees,” a tale of colonialism and personal fury by Aliette de Bodard (“The Breath of War” in BCS #142 and podcast BCS 121, “Memories in Bronze, Feathers, and Blood” in BCS #45 and podcast BCS 041, and several others).
Plus two more stories, including BCS debuts by multiple World Fantasy Award-winner K.J. Parker and Gwendolyn Clare.
The Parker and Clare stories won’t be released on the website until next week, but they are available now in the ebook of the full issue, on Kindle and at WeightlessBooks.com.
The BCS Audio Fiction Podcast episode is BCS 135: The Sorrow of Rain, the Lord Yamada story by Richard Parks. A bonus second podcast, of the Aliette de Bodard story, BCS 136: The Moon Over Red Trees, will be released next week, read by guest narrator Kate Baker of Clarkesworld Magazine.
The ‘From the Archives’ story is “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest” by Richard Parks, one of the most emotive and personal of the Lord Yamada stories, also available as podcast BCS 055. The new cover art for our sixth anniversary is “Golden Age” by Juan Carlos Barquet, an artist from Mexico City.
Our Sixth Anniversary Ebook Sale continues: buy a BCS ebook subscription or the new Best of BCS Year Five from WeightlessBooks.com and get a coupon for 30% off all BCS titles. (Ebook subscribers always get issues before they go live on the website.)
We are also running three different giveaways in conjunction with this anniversary double-issue. Enter now to win a signed copy of the Lord Yamada short story collection, Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter, and learn the date and time for our giveaway on Twitter of a signed hardback limited-edition K.J. Parker short fiction collection.
(Congratulations to the two winners of the audio book edition of Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter! That giveaway was only mentioned in the podcast of The Sorrow of Rain. Your reward for keeping your ears peeled!)
In six years of BCS, we’ve published over 325 stories and 135 audio fiction podcasts. And there’s more to come! Thanks so much for reading!