Apex Magazine, Issue 74 July 2015

Apex Magazine #74

by Jason Sizemore (Editor), Rich Larson, Shira Lipkin

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.

Edited by Hugo Award-nominated editor Jason Sizemore.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FICTION
Going Endo--Rich Larson
All Who Tremble--A.A. Balaskovits
Never Chose This Way--Shira Lipkin
The River--adrienne maree brown (eBook/Subscriber exclusive)

NONFICTION
How Horror Made Me More Empathetic--Mark Allan Gunnells
Interview with Rich Larson--Andrea Johnson
Interview with Carly Sorge--Russell Dickerson
Clavis Aurea: A Review of Short Fiction--Charlotte Ashley

POETRY
How the World was Made--A Super Crown--Roger Bonair-Agard

EXCERPTS
For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher--Jason Sizemore
The War Against the Assholes--Sam Munson (eBook/Subscriber exclusive)

Cover art by Carly Sorge.

Genres: Science Fiction

106 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 5, 2015

About the author

I was born the son of an unemployed coal miner in a tiny Kentucky Appalachian villa named Big Creek (population 400). It’s an isolated area with beautiful rolling hills, thick forests, and country folk. I lived in Big Creek until I went to college, spending my weekends cruising the Winn Dixie parking lot of ladies, partying in my cousin’s run-down three room trailer, and being a member of the bad-ass Clay County High School Academic Team.

College was quite a shock for me. Girls! Minorities! Strip clubs! And it didn’t help that I attended Transylvania University, a fairly snotty (but excellent) private college in Lexington, KY (on scholarship… no way my family could have sent me otherwise). I graduated in the standard four years with a degree in Computer Science.

Since 1996, I’ve worked for evil corporations (IBM), dot com dreamers (eCampus.com), The Man (both city and state government), and for The Kids (KY Dept. of Education), and assholes (lots and lots of assholes).

In 2004, I decided my life was boring, that I no longer needed disposable income, and I needed to increase my stress levels. I started Apex Publications, a small press publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. At first it was just a small print zine, then a pro-level online zine, then books, and then ebooks.

I edit anthologies, mostly for Apex (because I’m a control freak). I occasionally do copy editing (when pressed) and have done plenty of acquisition editing over the years.

I also write. I don’t really write enough to leave a mark, but it seems to go well when I do put pen to paper.

Miscellaneous facts about me: left-handed, blue eyes, super geeky, hillbilly accent, near-sighted, and typically in a goofy mood.

Also, and most importantly, I’m not the drunkard all those Facebook photos makes me out to be. It just happens that cameras are always around when I… have libations. Honest!

Reviews

[Esther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure what to think of this edition. All the stories were dark, a bit odd, with a bit of a grimy aftertaste. Wasn't really sure what I thought of any of them, though I tried to sort them into categories below, but may not have been entirely fair to any of them. All of them were accomplished, but I struggled with the tone of the issue. May simply have been a case of wrong day, wrong magazine. Another day it may have resonated with me. Who knows?

[Also, the Kindle organisation of the magazine is very weird. The editorial is almost at the end...]

Not My Cup of Tea
"Never Chose This Way" by Shira Lipkin - One of those stories where you're not sure whether fantasy or madness constitutes "the real". Not the type of thing I like.

Fine, but didn't talk to me
"All who Tremble" by A.A. Balaskovitz - An odd story about a family whose house is always whirring. Almost worked for me, but not quite.
"The River" by adrienne maree brown - A woman's connection to her city and its river.

Enjoyable, may reward re-reading
"Going Endo" by Rich Larson - Quite a dark, challenging story but still had some interesting aspects.

Perfect for me