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Also featuring:
Editorial Dispositions from Guest Editor Michael A. Burstein
Interviews with Ekaterina Sedia and Paul Jessup
The End of the Golden Era, or, the Opposite Problem of Appropriation by Lavie Tidhar
The April 2009 issue of Apex Magazine features special guest editor, Michael A. Burstein whose collection of Hugo nominated short stories is also published by Apex.
“Hindsight, In Neon” by Jamie Todd Rubin kicks off the issue, dwelling on the value of science fiction as a whole, yet true to the genre, raising speculative questions of what humanity’s future might look like. True to Apex’s style there’s a dismal feel to this story, which doesn’t seek to answer any questions, or tell a compelling story, but suggests a haunting “what if” for readers and writers alike.
“Waiting for Jakie” by Barbara Krasnoff is a post Holocaust tale that’s brutal and dark without resorting to gruesome scenes of gore. As a survivor struggles to deal with the path her life has taken, the pain she’s suppressed to survive rends her life, like it rips through the tale, allowing her to travel through her memories trying to find a moment of happiness. It’s tragic and surreal, and uncomfortably real.
This issues’ reprint, “Love, Dad” by Jeffery D. Kooistra is just as emotional. Told via a series of letters between a father who left for a journey to another solar system and the family he left behind, the story, without directly commenting, invokes questions of loyalty and dreams and putting the potential of science and humanity above emotions and people as individuals. Never an easy choice the tale is both sad and hopeful.
This issue also features two poetic offerings. “Message in a Bottle” by Michael Ceraolo is a very short poem that nevertheless embraces a sad moment of the future. “Fallen Gardens” by Elizabeth Barette, a historical-themed poem about reoccurring dangers brought on by our time-limited view of the world’s events.
The Permuted Press Presents tale for this issue is “Savage” by E. Anderson, from their Monsters anthology. Much more Apex’s style than previous tales, in this one a woman, possibly with a destiny, must face down the creature that dominates the land where her ship crash landed. She must kill the monstrous Jessari, who killed her father, uncle and twin brother, not just so that the survivors can try to call for rescue, but for her own identity which has always depended on the snow cat that stalks them.
This issue of Apex can be read for free or purchased as a pdf for $2 by clicking the alien head above.
