Apex Magazine is back!
Apex went on what looked like permanent hiatus while editor-in-chief Jason Sizemore dealt with multiple surgeries for serious health issues (see his editorial in this month's magazine). But he's thankfully recovered, and after a successful Kickstarter, he's re-assembled the Apex editing team, and resurrected the magazine!
Issue 121, then, is their first new issue in almost two years. It's a double issue, as all of them will be from now on, released every two months. You can grab your own copy here
So let's dive in! (no spoilers, I promise).
Root Rot, by Fargo Tbakh
Jesus, this story.
Reading it is disorienting at first. There's a good reason for that, for why the narrator's voice seems jumbled and confused. But as I read, more and more pieces fell into place, until the very last scene broke my heart.
I wish I could write something this powerful. This moving. An inspiration, and a bar to shoot for.
Your Own Undoing, by P H Lee
Second person, represent!
I usually hate stories told in the second person. All those "You"s feel like commands, and I instinctually kick back against those, and out of the story.
Not so in this case. Lee's story wove a meta fairy tale around me, a story that was itself an illustration of the conflict at its heart.
If it sounds too clever for its own good, don't be put off. It's not. It's a fantastic story, first and foremost. It's only afterward, when thinking about it, that its clever structure reveals its shape. Just amazing.
Love, That Hungry Thing, by Cassandra Khaw
This one....this one did feel too clever for its own good, for me.
Not in structure, but in the way it leans so far into the modern (well, post-2004) tendency to leave readers out on a limb. Being confused can work -- see the first story, above -- for a while, but I (being very careful here, as I know not everyone shares my tastes) tend to get very frustrated if there's no payoff at the end.
And there's no payoff in this story, for me. In fact, there's very little action at all, or even dialog.
A lot of beautiful description, though. Evocative words and phrases that promise glittering insight into this future, but then never cohere into a stable image. Nothing falls into place. It's an exquisitely described place, though.
Mr Death, by Alix E Harrow
My favorite of the bunch.
I don't want to say too much, lest I give anything away. Let me just say that this is what I wish the movie Soul had been. Read it. You won't regret it.
The Niddah, by Elana Gomel
A short story about a global pandemic. Yes, really.
Grey Skies, Red Wings, Blue Lips, Black Hearts, by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Had an allergic reaction to this one. Something about another story that drops the reader into a confused space, with no explanation, and calls its main environment "The City."
All I Want for Christmas, by Charles Payseur
Short, powerful flash piece. Made me shudder.
