Michele Lee

_The renewal of Apex Magazine begins with “She Called Me Sweetie” by Glen Lewis Gillette. Here Gillette spins a wicked tale of clones and loneliness, all from a perfectly-toned child point of view. Readers can suspect what G might find when he jealously creeps into Mommy’s bedroom, but the story will hold their attention to the bitter end.

“…That Has Such People in It” by Jennifer Pelland can be summed up with the phrase “And the meek shall inherit the earth”. In this utopian appearing dystopia, humanity locks away its homeless and its violent in order to make things appear pretty for aliens visiting from a distant land. As the above-grounders flourish those below ground are healed, made sane and forced through starvation into behaving. While heavier-handed than many of Pelland’s stories it ends with an almost trademark finish which readers will find to be a bit of bitter justice.

Jeff Carlson’s “The Frozen Sky” is a halting tale of hard science fiction that pits Vonnie, a woman exploring for Earth, against Europa’s native insect/amphibian things. The tale is long and paralleled with what happened to cause Vonnie to be the Earth last survivor on the planet trying to face down the native species with her attempts at survival. This story will appeal to hard SF lovers, but it didn’t work as well for me, as I felt too distracted by other elements to get properly wrapped up in the dynamics of Vonnie’s fight for her life. This story is a classic example of a story that could be adventure with strong SF elements, or SF with some adventure elements with execution making all the difference between the two.

ISBN: 1-933274-17-4

Ulrik stands somewhere between the traditional horror werewolf and the newer urban fantasy werewolf. This follow up to Murdered by Human Wolves starts firm and fast with Shara, who some believe is the famed Mother, a female werewolf who can birth live young. Except Shara has given it all up, taking a serum to prevent her monthly changes so she can raise Joey, her werewolf son that other werewolves think proves her role, or represents an end to their familiar life style. As three, or more, werewolf factions prepare to fight, Shara must decide who to trust to save her son, not to mention herself.

First a warning, as part of a series Shara’s tale is not complete in this book. Also, I, at times, found Shara to be a wishy-washy characters as her drive to protect her child becomes quite sidelined once she is reunited with him and she promptly chooses to spend all her time with other people.

The pacing is slower than most urban fantasies, giving Ulrik a more epic fantasy/horror feel. Other book elements truer to horror are the multi-person, third person point of view, the way the characters are sympathetic, but the reader is not fully immersed in the characters and a two-step-removed angle to the love story. The werewolves themselves are also closer to traditional horror werewolves than the people with fur more commonly found in urban fantasy.

However like urban fantasy the politics of the pack and personal vendettas are the driving forces of the story, creating a complex plot greatly affected by the characters’ action or in action. The characters may not be immersive, but the werewolf culture and history are very important to the story.

In all Ulrik reminded me, in theme, style and characterization, very much of S.P. Somtow’s Moondance, which while not my traditional favorite style of shape shifter novel is one I find myself reading over and over again with just as much enjoyment every time.