“Bootcut” by Allison Pottern – 3.6
Haven Spec Magazine, January 2026 The narrator of this second-person story is a young woman scraping by as a waitress at a tacky Italian restaurant called Arrivedercheese, enduring daily harassment…
“What Any Dead Thing Wants” by Aimee Ogden – 3.1
Adventitious, February 2026 (Originally published in psychopomp, 2024) Hob is a weary exorcism specialist leading a crew tasked with clearing the ghost-life from a freshly terraformed planet — a world…
“Precipice Sun” by Ewen Ma – 3.4
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 “Precipice Sun” is an epistolary science-fantasy novelette told entirely through a series of journal entries addressed to an absent, unnamed recipient named Aohane. The narrator…
Thorns That Teach: Mental Health, Magic, and Self-Narration in R.Z. Held’s “Like Thorns on Her Tongue” – 4.1
Introduction R.Z. Held's novelette "Like Thorns on Her Tongue," published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #450 during Science Fantasy Month (February 5, 2026), represents a compelling contribution to the increasingly…
“Like Thorns on Her Tongue” by R.Z. Held – 4.1
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 “Like Thorns on Her Tongue” by R.Z. Held — Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issue #450Trist is a blood mage traveling the settlements along the great Mother…
Souls as Currency: Reincarnation, Disclosure, and the Ethics of Knowledge in Emily C. Skaftun’s “A Dirge for the Mirrorbirds”
Introduction Published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #450 (February 5, 2026) as part of the magazine's Science Fantasy Month, Emily C. Skaftun's novelette "A Dirge for the Mirrorbirds" represents a…
“A Dirge for the Mirrorbirds” by Emily C. Skaftun – 4.0
Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2026 The narrator is a Yem — a species unique in the universe for their ability to direct their own reincarnation using meditative tones, returning life…
“And If You Must Be Wicked, You Must” by Elou Carroll – 2.9
Haven Spec Magazine, January 2026 In this quiet, unsettling piece of speculative fiction, Elou Carroll builds a world where every person is accompanied by a “wickend” — a shadow-self pulled…
“Agency” by George Sandison – 3.2
Reactor, February 2026 Francis is an estate agent in financial freefall, scraping together his salary to service debt while showing rental properties across the United Kingdom. What his colleagues Misha…
The Threshold Between Worlds: An Academic Review of Michael Libling’s “The Placemat at Baldy’s Diner” – 4.2
Introduction Michael Libling's novelette "The Placemat at Baldy's Diner," published in the March/April 2026 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction, represents a mature and formally inventive entry in the author's expanding…