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 is basically an
extended contents page.
Field Biology of the Wee Fairies by Naomi Kritzer is set in a world
where girls are expected to catch a fairy and demand a gift to let it
go, at which point they become interested in Boys. The puberty
metaphor is perhaps over-worked, but this is a metaphor that an
enquiring young girl can talk to and ask questions of, and that's
where things get interesting.
River Street by S.R. Mandel makes it very obvious what's going to
happen… and then stops before it happens. Oh well. The atmosphere is
lovely, but atmosphere alone doesn't make a story.
Coyote Now Wears a Suit by Ani Fox has the intersection of the
spirit world with Hawaii lowlife, and it's fun, which all too many
stories forget to be, while touching on serious matters without
getting bogged down in them. Great stuff.
A Siren’s Cry Is a Song of Sorrow by Stina Leicht is largely a
meditation on the socialisation of woman-as-inferior; but the writing
is good enough to carry me over the polemic, and over the harrowing,
and if only the author had the guts to carry on for two more
paragraphs and actually have a procedural climax as well as the
emotional one it would be superb. As it is, the story falls at the
last fence.
Talking to Cancer by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali is a story of a
specialised sort of healer (with a strong side note of All Men Are
Scum). The fantastic is largely a background for the
emotional/personal story (as in Siren, really), but it holds
together better and actually comes to a conclusion.
The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5 by Cristina Jurado is an account
by the editor of the compilation of this anthology; alas it's more of
a mental travelogue than impressions of why this particular author
was found worthy of inclusion. Still, at this length I don't suppose
it could be much more.
The Power of Anger, Acceptance, and Affirmation in Dirty Computer by
Lashawn M. Wanak is an impressionistic criticism of the Janelle Monáe
album: why is it angry in a way that her earlier work largely hasn't
been?
Page Advice with Mallory O’Meara and Brea Grant answers the
question: how can one give away unread books without feeling that
one's giving up on them? Which is mostly standard decluttering, with a
slight book-specific tinge.
Between the Lines with Laura Zats and Erik Hane talks about the
seasonality of book releases, largely based on the American
Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday group.
Interview with Author Naomi Kritzer by Andrea Johnson perhaps goes
into a bit too much detail about the genesis of the story in this
issue, but is interesting about Kritzer's upcoming novel and her
involvement in local politics.
I'm reviewing September's issue because articles are released over the
course of the month (unless you subscribe, and I'm a cheapskate). The
overall theme does seem to be that all men are horrible, but perhaps
there are simply a lot of stories like that which still need to be
told; and I did read at least ten volumes of the Sword and Sorceress
series…
All of these authors are new to me. Coyote may well get a Hugo
nomination from me; _Fairies_and Cancer are excellent too. I'll be
back next month.
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