RogerBW's Blog

Apex 114, November 2018 08 December 2018

Apex is a monthly on-line magazine edited by Jason Sizemore among others.

Everything is available in HTML from the magazine's site, and it can be bought in various other formats.

Words from the Editor-in-Chief by Jason Sizemore wonders whether to continue the print edition (it has just enough subscribers to fund itself, apparently).

Toward a New Lexicon of Augury by Sabrina Vourvoulias has a city where electricity has been "privatized", i.e. made unavailable, and non-rich people need a friend with a biodiesel-fuelled generator if they're going to get power (as in The Windup Girl nobody has solar cells); and it has the magic of the streets, of the forgotten tias and aunties and bibis, fighting back against the Man while never becoming enough of a threat to get stamped on. Either of these would have made a fine premise for a story; both together, for me, makes this too crowded, particularly once it becomes clear that the Man has his own magic.

Godzilla vs Buster Keaton, Or: I Didn’t Even Need a Map by Gary A. Braunbeck is a meditation on grief, and on a possible way to deal with it. It feels rather old-fashioned in its approach to computers, and to life in general, but it's an interesting concept which doesn't go far enough.

Master Brahms by Storm Humbert has a group of clones living together, set up to share the memories of the original… but one of them has been killed. This isn't a whodunnit (though that would have been an interesting challenge), but more an examination of the meaningfulness of distinction; its reach exceeds its grasp but it still manages to have intriguing ideas.

Riding the Signal by Gary Kloster is a reprint from 2012: our viewpoint character is a mercenary in remote-controlled warfare, but the violence is about to come home. Quite surprisingly, given the lack of original ideas here (Forever Peace came out in 1997), there's one really good bit: the psychological effect of accepting that, yes, we're naffed and probably going to die here, but we still aren't going to make it easy for the enemy… but then the story fumbles the conclusion, making it look as if it's just chapter one of something larger.

Boy A, Girl A, Slender Man by Paul Jessup considers the psychological effect of reading news stories about children killing each other. Are there mythic patterns to them? Doesn't really go anywhere but at least it's original writing rather than just rehashing details of the cases.

Words for Thought by A.C. Wise reviews various recent short stories, one of which I've read; well, this is more summary than review.

Interview with Author Storm Humbert by Andrea Johnson suffers from the interviewer being too impressed with the story to ask anything more than standard questions.

Again, no Hugo nominations, though it's a step up overall from last month.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Apex 113, October 2018 | Series: Apex | Next in series: Apex 115, December 2018

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1