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Apex Magazine #50
Apex Magazine Issue 50
Apex Magazine is a monthly science fiction, fantasy, and horror magazine featuring original, mind-bending short fiction from many of the top pros of the field. New issues are released on the first Tuesday of every month.
We are a 2013 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine!
FICTION
"To Die for Moonlight" by Sarah Monette
"Abomination Rises on Filthy Wings" by Rachel Swirsky
"The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link
POETRY
"A Great Clerk of Necromancy" by Catherynne M. Valente
NONFICTION
"Editorial: Blood on Vellum" by Lynne M. Thomas
"Role for Damage" by Sarah Kuhn
"Interview with Kelly Link" by Maggie Slater
"Interview with Sarah Monette" by Maggie Slater
"Editorial: Words from the Publisher" by Jason Sizemore
Cover art by Aunia Kahn.
Edited by multi-Hugo Award-winning editor Lynne M. Thomas.
We are a 2013 Hugo Award nominee for Best Semiprozine!
FICTION
"To Die for Moonlight" by Sarah Monette
"Abomination Rises on Filthy Wings" by Rachel Swirsky
"The Constable of Abal" by Kelly Link
POETRY
"A Great Clerk of Necromancy" by Catherynne M. Valente
NONFICTION
"Editorial: Blood on Vellum" by Lynne M. Thomas
"Role for Damage" by Sarah Kuhn
"Interview with Kelly Link" by Maggie Slater
"Interview with Sarah Monette" by Maggie Slater
"Editorial: Words from the Publisher" by Jason Sizemore
Cover art by Aunia Kahn.
Edited by multi-Hugo Award-winning editor Lynne M. Thomas.
128 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 5, 2013
2 people are currently reading
274 people want to read
About the author
Lynne M. Thomas
104 books222 followersIn my day job, I am the Head of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Rare Book and Manuscript Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the largest public university rare book collections in the country. I used to manage pop culture special collections that include the papers of over 70 SF/F authors at Northern Illinois University. I also teach a Special Collections course as an adjunct in the iSchool at Illinois, and used to do so at SJSU.
I'm an eleven-time Hugo Award winner, the Co-Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Uncanny Magazine with my husband Michael Damian Thomas. The former Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine (2011-2013), I co-edited the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords, Whedonistas, and Chicks Dig Comics. I moderated the Hugo-Award winning SF Squeecast and contribute to the Verity! Podcast. You can learn more about my shenanigans at lynnemthomas.com.
I'm an eleven-time Hugo Award winner, the Co-Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Uncanny Magazine with my husband Michael Damian Thomas. The former Editor-in-Chief of Apex Magazine (2011-2013), I co-edited the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords, Whedonistas, and Chicks Dig Comics. I moderated the Hugo-Award winning SF Squeecast and contribute to the Verity! Podcast. You can learn more about my shenanigans at lynnemthomas.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
February 25, 2019
this is a 3.5 stars, because it balances out my two readings of it.
it's a perfectly good story on the first reading: it's engaging, it inspires emotions, it sets up an unusual situation and brings the reader trippingly along on the journey, hypnotized by its nursery-rhyme cadence. i finished it and i thought, "huh. i liked that just fine - why all the low ratings on here?"
so i put on my dora the explorer hat and oh. more of this old battle over awards and genre-specificity and sad puppies. if you're new to this controversy, i will ham-fistedly summarize: in what is the opposite of what happens with movie trophies, some people in the SFF community are outraged by there being too much diversity when it comes hugo-award time, and that most of the stories barely qualify as speculative fiction but they win because of the gender/ethnicity of the author or the progressiveness of the story's message. i came across this earlier in my tor reading, with The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere - and i didn't really understand the complaints; even though that story was so *gasp* gay and chinese, it seemed to live deep enough in magical realism/fantasy territory to qualify for the honor.
this one is different, though - this time i can totally understand the pushback, as it relates to genre. there is nothing of the fantasy or speculative fiction to this story unless you are being extremely loose with your boundaries. LGM.
daydreams aren't SFF, stoners musing, "what if we made a bong out of that pumpkin?" isn't SFF, doodles, no matter how fanciful, aren't SFF.
and honestly, this story is a bit of a doodle. again, on the first reading, it does everything a story is meant to do and it does it well - it appeals to the reader's emotions, and there's something very inspiring about it, something very - oh, god, is karen going to drop that reference again, is she??
she is.
feel free to make a legend of billie jean drinking game outta me
but it really does suffer on subsequent readings, and considering this won a nebula and was nominated for a hugo; that people who are supposedly authorities in the community read this story multiple times and considered it to be upper-tier, well… it's hard not to see the sad puppy point.
it's a story that seems powerful until you grab one of its threads and start pulling only to find it's all surface-emotion, and there's no structure or underlayering or real craft to it. as a battle cry, it's excellent. as an award-winning story, it's lacking.
its strong points are its relevancy, the flow that hides its spikes under its safe-for-babies cadence, and its reveal.
and while i am in agreement with some about the genre-inappropriateness and award-unworthiness, the multiple accusations i saw on here and other sites, for this story being hate speech or anti-working class is so bananas i need to make a point of distancing myself from that particular nonsense parade. it's such a bizarre interpretation of what's actually written on the page. it says nothing about rednecks or hicks or anything like that. for the record, i read a lot of working-class fiction, and ain't none of them drinking gin. the biggest consumers of gin in my own personal experience have been fancypants gay men and bookish folk. according to the scholarly article What Your Drink Of Choice Says About You, in which A rowdy group of social drinkers and former bartenders speak from their experience, this is what and who gin is for:
“A gin and tonic is for old white men with too much money.”
“A gin and tonic is for when you’re like: I’d like a cocktail but I have no imagination.”
“I don’t get sleepy when I drink gin and tonics, I get…more polite?”
“You don’t have bar fights during a night of gin and tonics — you have bar disagreements.”
“‘Settle down, man. Here, have a gin and tonic.’”
so, now you can read this story picturing sleepy old rich white men instead of whatever inbred hicks you were accusing the writer of maligning.
come to my blog!
it's a perfectly good story on the first reading: it's engaging, it inspires emotions, it sets up an unusual situation and brings the reader trippingly along on the journey, hypnotized by its nursery-rhyme cadence. i finished it and i thought, "huh. i liked that just fine - why all the low ratings on here?"
so i put on my dora the explorer hat and oh. more of this old battle over awards and genre-specificity and sad puppies. if you're new to this controversy, i will ham-fistedly summarize: in what is the opposite of what happens with movie trophies, some people in the SFF community are outraged by there being too much diversity when it comes hugo-award time, and that most of the stories barely qualify as speculative fiction but they win because of the gender/ethnicity of the author or the progressiveness of the story's message. i came across this earlier in my tor reading, with The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere - and i didn't really understand the complaints; even though that story was so *gasp* gay and chinese, it seemed to live deep enough in magical realism/fantasy territory to qualify for the honor.
this one is different, though - this time i can totally understand the pushback, as it relates to genre. there is nothing of the fantasy or speculative fiction to this story unless you are being extremely loose with your boundaries. LGM.
daydreams aren't SFF, stoners musing, "what if we made a bong out of that pumpkin?" isn't SFF, doodles, no matter how fanciful, aren't SFF.
and honestly, this story is a bit of a doodle. again, on the first reading, it does everything a story is meant to do and it does it well - it appeals to the reader's emotions, and there's something very inspiring about it, something very - oh, god, is karen going to drop that reference again, is she??
she is.
feel free to make a legend of billie jean drinking game outta me
but it really does suffer on subsequent readings, and considering this won a nebula and was nominated for a hugo; that people who are supposedly authorities in the community read this story multiple times and considered it to be upper-tier, well… it's hard not to see the sad puppy point.
it's a story that seems powerful until you grab one of its threads and start pulling only to find it's all surface-emotion, and there's no structure or underlayering or real craft to it. as a battle cry, it's excellent. as an award-winning story, it's lacking.
its strong points are its relevancy, the flow that hides its spikes under its safe-for-babies cadence, and its reveal.
and while i am in agreement with some about the genre-inappropriateness and award-unworthiness, the multiple accusations i saw on here and other sites, for this story being hate speech or anti-working class is so bananas i need to make a point of distancing myself from that particular nonsense parade. it's such a bizarre interpretation of what's actually written on the page. it says nothing about rednecks or hicks or anything like that. for the record, i read a lot of working-class fiction, and ain't none of them drinking gin. the biggest consumers of gin in my own personal experience have been fancypants gay men and bookish folk. according to the scholarly article What Your Drink Of Choice Says About You, in which A rowdy group of social drinkers and former bartenders speak from their experience, this is what and who gin is for:
“A gin and tonic is for old white men with too much money.”
“A gin and tonic is for when you’re like: I’d like a cocktail but I have no imagination.”
“I don’t get sleepy when I drink gin and tonics, I get…more polite?”
“You don’t have bar fights during a night of gin and tonics — you have bar disagreements.”
“‘Settle down, man. Here, have a gin and tonic.’”
so, now you can read this story picturing sleepy old rich white men instead of whatever inbred hicks you were accusing the writer of maligning.
come to my blog!
January 31, 2018
Thank you Althea Ann for introducing me to this short work and to Apex Magazine.
Poignant, meditative, thought provoking - Rachel Swirsky playfully draws the reader in and then opens the door to sorrow and regret. The narrator is grasping for meaning in a situation that is senseless and without redemption.
Brief, poetic and powerful.
Poignant, meditative, thought provoking - Rachel Swirsky playfully draws the reader in and then opens the door to sorrow and regret. The narrator is grasping for meaning in a situation that is senseless and without redemption.
Brief, poetic and powerful.
January 5, 2016
While it's true that it isn't SF, that's not why I give it 1 star. It's simply a brutally racist hate-piece. Oh, it's racist against white rednecks who presumably marry their own sisters, so it's OK. Not.
January 4, 2016
I just can't... I have no words. Best I can do is give it the award winning Nebula, Hugo nominated ONE STAR it deserves.
January 5, 2016
Well... it was shorter than most blog posts. Is it a story? Is it poetry? Is it a word picture? Rambling thoughts?
Disappointingly, it doesn't strongly present as any of these. It's too short to be a story, too ugly to be poetry, too disjointed to be a word picture, too deliberate to be stream-of-consciousness. What exactly is it?
There was no pining for what was missed, no harkening to the beauty or love that was lost. Only empty wishes and violence: the very thing that took him away. And for what reason is this revenge such a noble pursuit? We still don't know.
I wanted to sympathize with the narrator- I really did- but I found it difficult to empathize with petty revenge, and the hypocritical wishes that a man were a violent killing machine, instead of what he actually was.
Sadly, it left a bad taste in my razor-tooth-filled mouth.
Disappointingly, it doesn't strongly present as any of these. It's too short to be a story, too ugly to be poetry, too disjointed to be a word picture, too deliberate to be stream-of-consciousness. What exactly is it?
There was no pining for what was missed, no harkening to the beauty or love that was lost. Only empty wishes and violence: the very thing that took him away. And for what reason is this revenge such a noble pursuit? We still don't know.
I wanted to sympathize with the narrator- I really did- but I found it difficult to empathize with petty revenge, and the hypocritical wishes that a man were a violent killing machine, instead of what he actually was.
Sadly, it left a bad taste in my razor-tooth-filled mouth.
January 5, 2016
This is a pretty good exercise in Bathos, but it is clear that this was not the intent of the writing.
There are good, unserious stories, where the writer winks from behind the page. This is not one of them. Indeed, it's not even a story, per se, much less Speculative Fiction (it won an award for the latter). If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love tries to be very, very, very serious and very, very, very emotional, but it's clumsy love song with murder-fantasy tacked on.
The first few paragraphs seem to meet word count, expressing Standard Emotional Things expressed shallowly (flowers and wedding showers, lullabies and gazing eyes...look, butterflies!), like Teen Vampire Fiction.
Her Prey (the villains) are not realistic, mouthing strange obscenities with no relationship to each other, as if the story was supposed to encompass 2014 Victim Groups instead of the person she dotes on. If the police were filing the report, they would have flagged her as an unreliable witness: "Hands Up Don't Shoot!" God help her on the witness stand.
This is a major point, as her throwaway villains need to be believable in order to justify the subsequent appeal to murder, and Her Love is written specifically, not symbolically. If Her Love is merely a symbol, then the previous overwrought paragraphs become unnecessary and mendacious. It becomes cheap snuff-fantasy (I'm not sure that qualifies as Best Speculative Fiction--perhaps Best Imam Rant, although the villains did identify Her Love as a "towel-head" among other Diverse Slurs).
Indeed, there is lost potential there, as tales of monster hunters becoming monsters themselves are a great peek into the human condition, but the narrator avoids portraying herself negatively (her guilt is necessarily hypothetical and unnecessarily redemptive).
Instead, we have run out of space and avoided potential for characterization or conflict (whether external or internal), having spent 2/3rds of the words on things that are blue and dubious genetic engineering.
Amidst all of the above, it is at best unclear why Her Love needs to be a five foot, ten inch Tyrannosaurus Rex and not a "teen werewolf" or "telepathic flying barracuda" or "armed."
There are good, unserious stories, where the writer winks from behind the page. This is not one of them. Indeed, it's not even a story, per se, much less Speculative Fiction (it won an award for the latter). If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love tries to be very, very, very serious and very, very, very emotional, but it's clumsy love song with murder-fantasy tacked on.
The first few paragraphs seem to meet word count, expressing Standard Emotional Things expressed shallowly (flowers and wedding showers, lullabies and gazing eyes...look, butterflies!), like Teen Vampire Fiction.
Her Prey (the villains) are not realistic, mouthing strange obscenities with no relationship to each other, as if the story was supposed to encompass 2014 Victim Groups instead of the person she dotes on. If the police were filing the report, they would have flagged her as an unreliable witness: "Hands Up Don't Shoot!" God help her on the witness stand.
This is a major point, as her throwaway villains need to be believable in order to justify the subsequent appeal to murder, and Her Love is written specifically, not symbolically. If Her Love is merely a symbol, then the previous overwrought paragraphs become unnecessary and mendacious. It becomes cheap snuff-fantasy (I'm not sure that qualifies as Best Speculative Fiction--perhaps Best Imam Rant, although the villains did identify Her Love as a "towel-head" among other Diverse Slurs).
Indeed, there is lost potential there, as tales of monster hunters becoming monsters themselves are a great peek into the human condition, but the narrator avoids portraying herself negatively (her guilt is necessarily hypothetical and unnecessarily redemptive).
Instead, we have run out of space and avoided potential for characterization or conflict (whether external or internal), having spent 2/3rds of the words on things that are blue and dubious genetic engineering.
Amidst all of the above, it is at best unclear why Her Love needs to be a five foot, ten inch Tyrannosaurus Rex and not a "teen werewolf" or "telepathic flying barracuda" or "armed."
January 6, 2016
I thank Althea Ann for her review that introduce me to this work.
It is a poetic short story with poetic style that gripped me into the story. And without long over flowery words, the story showed me a shattered happiness and wishful thinking.
Despite the Hugo Nominee and Nebula Award, I suggest not to expect a science fiction or even a fantasy story. It is a beautifully written story, but the fantasy elements are just metaphors in my opinion.
It is a poetic short story with poetic style that gripped me into the story. And without long over flowery words, the story showed me a shattered happiness and wishful thinking.
Despite the Hugo Nominee and Nebula Award, I suggest not to expect a science fiction or even a fantasy story. It is a beautifully written story, but the fantasy elements are just metaphors in my opinion.
July 28, 2017
Read this one during a bus ride.
Title was enough to make me laugh. Without thinking much about its genre, I read and enjoyed it.
Poetic and marvelous.
Title was enough to make me laugh. Without thinking much about its genre, I read and enjoyed it.
Poetic and marvelous.
February 1, 2017
Redefines the notion of 'speculative fiction' as 'heroic hypothetical'. I wish there was more story to it, and if we're being honest it's probably not 5 stars but I believe in affirmative action.
January 6, 2016
This is a remarkably disturbing work, seemingly patterned using the structure of the Preschooler's story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Disturbing for it furthering a bigoted stereotype of the working class ("five blustering men soaked in gin and malice" at a pool hall) as people who readily inflict thoughtless violence against anybody different from them. Disturbing for its attempt to paint revenge fantasy in a positive light. But most of all, disturbing for relaying images that are, to put it bluntly, stupid. Seriously, consider the following lines from the story:
"We’d go to Broadway. You’d stand onstage, talons digging into the floorboards. Audiences would weep at the melancholic beauty of your singing. If audiences wept at the melancholic beauty of your singing, they’d rally to fund new research into reviving extinct species."
Does anything in this selection make sense – allowing for the existence of dinosaurs in contemporary times for the sake of the story, could you imagine that a dinosaur would then sing on Broadway and subsequently increase research funding? The story is full of passages that are similar. I suppose that there are those who would state such images convey the irrational mental state of somebody anguishing over the loss of a loved one. This doesn’t work for me, however. It rattles me out of the story, and I lose sympathy for the narrator.
"We’d go to Broadway. You’d stand onstage, talons digging into the floorboards. Audiences would weep at the melancholic beauty of your singing. If audiences wept at the melancholic beauty of your singing, they’d rally to fund new research into reviving extinct species."
Does anything in this selection make sense – allowing for the existence of dinosaurs in contemporary times for the sake of the story, could you imagine that a dinosaur would then sing on Broadway and subsequently increase research funding? The story is full of passages that are similar. I suppose that there are those who would state such images convey the irrational mental state of somebody anguishing over the loss of a loved one. This doesn’t work for me, however. It rattles me out of the story, and I lose sympathy for the narrator.
January 6, 2016
I read this story just after the 2014 Hugo awards because I'd read the accusations being thrown around on both sides and wanted to make my own mind up about what was going on. The SPs held it up as an example of a story that was only nominated for the Hugos (and given a Nebula) because of politics, whereas the anti-SPs claimed it was an example of a brilliant story that the SPs hated for political reasons.
My initial reaction was one of being completely underwhelmed. The characterisation (such as there was) didn't grip me, the plot was almost non-existent, and the writing was distinctly average. If anything I'd liken it to a simple revenge analogy that you might find on a message board for new writers.
If it had been presented as a first attempt by somebody learning to write I'd have probably given some encouragement, but it's not something I'd choose to read for enjoyment, and definitely nowhere near the best short story of 2014.
My initial reaction was one of being completely underwhelmed. The characterisation (such as there was) didn't grip me, the plot was almost non-existent, and the writing was distinctly average. If anything I'd liken it to a simple revenge analogy that you might find on a message board for new writers.
If it had been presented as a first attempt by somebody learning to write I'd have probably given some encouragement, but it's not something I'd choose to read for enjoyment, and definitely nowhere near the best short story of 2014.
December 16, 2014
A new Kyle Murchison Booth story. Monette fans will be delighted to be granted another encounter with her archivist. (See The Bone Key for more... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) Here, when called upon to catalog a rather disappointing collection of 19th-century literature, Booth has an uncomfortable (and unexpected) encounter with family curses and the paranormal.
Merged review:
A poetic, short piece utilizing a thought-association format to gradually reveal a tragic scenario.
This was a Hugo-nominated piece (we read several short nominees in my book club this month), and it's not the only one that I felt really didn't belong under the speculative fiction umbrella. The only 'speculative' elements here are purely metaphorical.
I have to admit, upon beginning the story, I wasn't really a big fan of the style. As it progressed, my opinion of it as a piece of writing rose, however.
It's about grief, and crime, and the fallout that strikes victims of violence and those around them.
Merged review:
A poetic, short piece utilizing a thought-association format to gradually reveal a tragic scenario.
This was a Hugo-nominated piece (we read several short nominees in my book club this month), and it's not the only one that I felt really didn't belong under the speculative fiction umbrella. The only 'speculative' elements here are purely metaphorical.
I have to admit, upon beginning the story, I wasn't really a big fan of the style. As it progressed, my opinion of it as a piece of writing rose, however.
It's about grief, and crime, and the fallout that strikes victims of violence and those around them.
January 6, 2016
How did SF/speculative fiction fall this low?
I read this because of the fuss it caused... and I wish I hadn't. The SF of my youth is long gone and been replaced with dreadful message fiction written by charlatans.
I don't mind eccentric or different if it's done with talent and skill. This isn't. It's just poorly-written fan fiction elevated to prominence by a political clique.
I read this because of the fuss it caused... and I wish I hadn't. The SF of my youth is long gone and been replaced with dreadful message fiction written by charlatans.
I don't mind eccentric or different if it's done with talent and skill. This isn't. It's just poorly-written fan fiction elevated to prominence by a political clique.
March 19, 2016
If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love sounds like something you might say to your lover when it's 2 am and you're feeling whimsical or half sleepy (I tend to spew the soppiest shit when I'm half asleep) or high/drunk.
It was sweet and emotive but I can see what the bashingapalooza was all about and while the story is lovely, it doesn't have a sci-fi element. Oh, well.
It was sweet and emotive but I can see what the bashingapalooza was all about and while the story is lovely, it doesn't have a sci-fi element. Oh, well.
Read
January 6, 2016I'm not going to rate this, because sometimes if you give a bad rating to the wrong person, they'll have you removed from Goodreads. I know they can't ban everyone who didn't like this poem, because that would be everyone, but still, I won't take the chance.
Now, you might think I'm some kind of cruel weirdo for posting a negative review about some little girl's poetry. Not at all. There are plenty of tweens who dream of growing up to be writers, and most of them end up doing something less productive, like managing a Days Inn or selling time shares. So I think the best way to encourage this kid is to leave constructive criticism.
First thing is, I won't give out love advice here, but if you're going to write about love you need to be in one or two relationships first and really examine how they started, how they progressed, what kinds of things you associate with your feelings, etc. You can't just vomit it all onto the page like a clump of torn up rancid love letters you wrote and then ate so no one would read them.
Second, if you're going to write science fiction, include some science. Like, the T-Rex is bigger than that. Here's the weird part, if the T-Rex had some kind of reason for being under 6' tall, or if it served a symbolic / plot function, it would be ok, but it was just small for no reason. Do your basic research.
Third, the "fantasy" genre doesn't mean "write down your fantasy."
If you're writing message fiction, pick something like "Socialism is great!" or "Capitalism causes war!" You know, deep, original stuff. "Bullying is bad" is great for an after school special, but it's basic knowledge to every adult who reads.
Finally, the whole point of a twist ending or an anachronic narrative is that the ending causes the reader to reinterpret the text they just read in a new light. You didn't do that. You just put the beginning at the end to confuse people, which is the closest you could get to suspense or drama, because there really is none.
Now, you might think I'm some kind of cruel weirdo for posting a negative review about some little girl's poetry. Not at all. There are plenty of tweens who dream of growing up to be writers, and most of them end up doing something less productive, like managing a Days Inn or selling time shares. So I think the best way to encourage this kid is to leave constructive criticism.
First thing is, I won't give out love advice here, but if you're going to write about love you need to be in one or two relationships first and really examine how they started, how they progressed, what kinds of things you associate with your feelings, etc. You can't just vomit it all onto the page like a clump of torn up rancid love letters you wrote and then ate so no one would read them.
Second, if you're going to write science fiction, include some science. Like, the T-Rex is bigger than that. Here's the weird part, if the T-Rex had some kind of reason for being under 6' tall, or if it served a symbolic / plot function, it would be ok, but it was just small for no reason. Do your basic research.
Third, the "fantasy" genre doesn't mean "write down your fantasy."
If you're writing message fiction, pick something like "Socialism is great!" or "Capitalism causes war!" You know, deep, original stuff. "Bullying is bad" is great for an after school special, but it's basic knowledge to every adult who reads.
Finally, the whole point of a twist ending or an anachronic narrative is that the ending causes the reader to reinterpret the text they just read in a new light. You didn't do that. You just put the beginning at the end to confuse people, which is the closest you could get to suspense or drama, because there really is none.
January 7, 2016
You can read it here for free, but it isn't worth it: http://www.apex-magazine.com/if-you-w...
I've read some good short stories about Sci-Fi or Fantasy. But this isn't one. It's not even Sci-Fi or Fantasy. The 3 Sci-Fi/Fantasy awards that it won are not a sign that it's a good story. They're a sign that the Hugo awards et al. have been taken over by people who understand nothing about Sci-Fi and Fantasy, don't care about the readers, and are trying to push a political agenda.
The story is like a picture book, without pictures. It's the length of a blog post. The theme is that her partner is too much of a metrosexual, and she wishes he was more alpha. But to get to that point, first you have to get past a lot of nonsense about her miniature dinosaur boyfriend singing and dancing on stage.
Don't trust the awards, this truly wasn't worth reading.
I've read some good short stories about Sci-Fi or Fantasy. But this isn't one. It's not even Sci-Fi or Fantasy. The 3 Sci-Fi/Fantasy awards that it won are not a sign that it's a good story. They're a sign that the Hugo awards et al. have been taken over by people who understand nothing about Sci-Fi and Fantasy, don't care about the readers, and are trying to push a political agenda.
The story is like a picture book, without pictures. It's the length of a blog post. The theme is that her partner is too much of a metrosexual, and she wishes he was more alpha. But to get to that point, first you have to get past a lot of nonsense about her miniature dinosaur boyfriend singing and dancing on stage.
Don't trust the awards, this truly wasn't worth reading.
January 6, 2016
How did something without a story win the Nebula for best short story? There's a reason the readership of SFF has been shrinking, and it's thinking that gives this work awards. A needy, whiny work, there is nothing to comprehend here, nevermind see. Please, move along for sanity's sake.
September 23, 2015
This is my first story by the author, and I'm at a loss here. I'm trying to search for adequate words that could explain how touched I was by this little piece of writing. I feel like saying this is witty, funny, and has a level of emotional depth that can only be understood when you reach the end of the story. I have already said these things in simple words, but I don't think it does justice to the story.
This review clearly fails to explain how I felt after reading the story. I'm grasping for the proper words as I'm trying to figure out how the author wrote this. I look forward to reading more by the author.
This review clearly fails to explain how I felt after reading the story. I'm grasping for the proper words as I'm trying to figure out how the author wrote this. I look forward to reading more by the author.
January 4, 2016
If this was supposed to be a whimsical rip off of Kipling's epic If, I didn't get it.
Didn't like it, but I'll give it 2 stars since it only take a few minutes to digest. And hey, it was free to read, so that's a plus.
Didn't like it, but I'll give it 2 stars since it only take a few minutes to digest. And hey, it was free to read, so that's a plus.
January 7, 2016
Read this from the Hugo package. Still can't believe that a publisher put this in print, let alone that it was award worthy. Don't waste your time.
January 13, 2016
Seriously? The only people "soaked in gin and malice" these days are angry homosexuals, not knuckle-dragging dudes in a pool hall.
3 problems with this work:
1. This is not speculative fiction. Thus, it is inaccurate in the extreme for the story to be awarded a Nebula and nominated for a Hugo.
2. The quality is what one would expect of a grade school student venturing into creative writing for the first time. (Think Ralphie's breathless essay on the Red Ryder air rifle in the movie "A Christmas Story").
3. This is not speculative fiction.
Definitely give this one a pass.
3 problems with this work:
1. This is not speculative fiction. Thus, it is inaccurate in the extreme for the story to be awarded a Nebula and nominated for a Hugo.
2. The quality is what one would expect of a grade school student venturing into creative writing for the first time. (Think Ralphie's breathless essay on the Red Ryder air rifle in the movie "A Christmas Story").
3. This is not speculative fiction.
Definitely give this one a pass.
August 24, 2015
Hugo Awards were handed out last night, with the fandom community triumphing over politicking puppies. This story was nominated for last year's and was cited by pups as why SF/F is apparently in decline, so naturally it has to be a good one, right?
While it's on the border of being defined as speculative fiction, I do think it's a beautifully composed work, using science fiction as a medium for the narrator to work through a painful event.
While it's on the border of being defined as speculative fiction, I do think it's a beautifully composed work, using science fiction as a medium for the narrator to work through a painful event.
January 6, 2016
A short work that was foolishly nominated for an award it did not qualify for as it is neither science nor fiction.
What is most odd is that the author ends up attacking the (fictional?) fiancé for the same reason the gin soaked straw men do. Which makes it strangely self-loathing.
What is most odd is that the author ends up attacking the (fictional?) fiancé for the same reason the gin soaked straw men do. Which makes it strangely self-loathing.
January 19, 2016
This piece got a lot of attention after its Hugo and Nebula nominations. Those awards are for the best science-fiction/fantasy stories in a given year, according to WorldCon and the WSFA, respectively. The difficulty in this case is that IYWAD,ML is neither science-fiction, nor fantasy, nor a story. It's a brief prose poem about a woman whose fiancee was beaten to death by generic bigots who hurled out generic insults. The emotion of grief carries through strongly, but everything else is gibberish. A paleontologist, the scientific profession whose field work involves moving and breaking rocks, called a sissy and beaten by... bikers or rednecks or whoever they were? These generic bigots, based on the insults they apparently hurled, thought their victim was a homosexual transsexual transvestite Arabic Latino - how the devil does that make any kind of sense?
As a one-time fan and admirer of the Hugos, I cringed when this was nominated.
As a one-time fan and admirer of the Hugos, I cringed when this was nominated.
January 31, 2017
A super short story with a twist that pulls together some somber strings related to intolerence and violence against the "other." The story is tightly written, doesn't overstay it's welcome, and quickly insinuates its way into your conscience. I suspect that's why all the reward committees picked up on it.
You can read this in several minutes, and for free, here: http://www.apex-magazine.com/if-you-w...
You can read this in several minutes, and for free, here: http://www.apex-magazine.com/if-you-w...
September 29, 2015
I, uh. What?
I didn't really get it, maybe I read it too fast.
At the same time, I don't understand the utter hatred it gets... I'm so confused.
I didn't really get it, maybe I read it too fast.
At the same time, I don't understand the utter hatred it gets... I'm so confused.
January 5, 2016
Beautiful and very sad. Swirsky just wrote 5 pages and won Nebula Award for short story. That's totally something.
January 5, 2016
Not science fiction, but very well written. An interesting story, and a quick read. It's not something I'd like to see "catch on", as this works partially because it's quite unique.
March 14, 2016
Gorgeous and heartbreaking and gorgeous.
Did I mention gorgeous?
Did I mention gorgeous?
August 7, 2013
Magazines like Apex are my current Thing. Little bitesized bits of novelty to stop me buying so many new books. It seems to be paying off: I read this issue of Apex curled in bed very happily, and I enjoyed it. I haven't read Kelly Link or Sarah Monette's stuff before; their short stories here have convinced me to give them a try, though I did find Monette's story predictable.
Normally I'd enjoy Rachel Swirsky's work, but I don't think she was successful in subverting the type of story she wrote. I do appreciate that a trigger warning was given, though.
I enjoyed Valente's poem, which isn't surprising given her skill with words in general and the Arthurian references. The non-fiction essay was food for thought, too: it's making me wonder if the way we expect strong female characters to be role models is an extension of the expectation that the default character is a straight white male (i.e. for a female character to be more than a prop, she must be a good role model or otherwise more than a male character would have to be).
Normally I'd enjoy Rachel Swirsky's work, but I don't think she was successful in subverting the type of story she wrote. I do appreciate that a trigger warning was given, though.
I enjoyed Valente's poem, which isn't surprising given her skill with words in general and the Arthurian references. The non-fiction essay was food for thought, too: it's making me wonder if the way we expect strong female characters to be role models is an extension of the expectation that the default character is a straight white male (i.e. for a female character to be more than a prop, she must be a good role model or otherwise more than a male character would have to be).
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