Beneath Ceaseless Skies has changed up its cover art again. I quite like the new art, “Research Lab” by Sung Choi (see the full piece here), which covers their third Science Fantasy Special Issue.

The March 3rd BCS is a special double-issue featuring a bonus story, a bonus podcast, and a science-fantasy episode of the BCS Audio Vault podcast. It contains original short fiction by Yoon Ha Lee, Cat Rambo, Anaea Lay, and an Audio Vault reprint by Yoon Ha Lee.

“Foxfire, Foxfire” by Yoon Ha Lee
Even in human-shape, I had an excellent sense of smell. I had no difficulty tracking the pilot. She lay on her side in the lee of a chunk of rubble, apparently asleep. The remains of a Brick Ration’s wrapper had been tossed to the side. She had downed all of it, which impressed me. But then, I’d heard that piloting was hungry work.

“Call and Answer, Plant and Harvest” by Cat Rambo
Today her sleeves are sewn with opals and moonstones and within their glimmer here and there on the left sleeve, glitters another precious stone, set in no particular order, random as the stars. Her skirt and bodice are aluminum fish-scales, armored though she expects no fight. Her only weapon is her own considerable wit.

“The Right Bright Courier” by Anaea Lay
A Bright Courier never looks back, never regrets, but when I crested the bank I turned to her. Her scales were gray and shimmering under the golden light of the double moons, her sails reflecting the ether-glow we sailed upon to travel between planets. I’d sacrificed a valve of my heart, a length of my gut, and an impossible desire, all to have her grown for me. From me. It wasn’t looking back, that last glance. You can’t look back at your present self.

Audio Fiction Podcast
“Foxfire, Foxfire” by Yoon Ha Lee
Nuclear physics was not typically a fox specialty, although my mother had allowed that astrology was all right.

Audio Fiction Podcast
“Call and Answer, Plant and Harvest” by Cat Rambo
The glass-marbled plaza before the gates murmurs with spans of pigeons in the early light.

Audio Vault
“The Book of Locked Doors” by Yoon Ha Lee
Introduced by the author.

From the Archives
“Scry” by Anne Ivy (from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #90, March 8, 2012)
She had never imagined that she — the greatest scryer of her generation — could be lied to and tricked by her own husband.

Read issue 194 online completely free here.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies is edited by Scott H. Andrews and published twice a month by Firkin Press. Issues are available completely free online; you can also get a free e-mail or RSS subscription.

Firkin Press also sells a Kindle/e-Reader subscription, which includes automatic delivery to your Kindle or other device. A 12-month subscription comes with 26 issues and costs only $13.99. Single issues are available on Kindle and at Weightless Books for 99 cents. Subscribe here.

The magazine supports itself though subscriptions, and also by selling anthologies, including the annual Best of BCS volumes and occasional themed books such as the steampunk anthology Ceaseless West. The anthologies each contain 15-18 stories and cost only $2.99-$3.99.

We last covered Beneath Ceaseless Skies with issue #193.

See our March Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.