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Apex Magazine #127
Apex Magazine Issue 127
Original Fiction:
"To Seek Himself Again" by Marie Croke
"This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief" by Izzy Wasserstein
"In Haskins" by Carson Winter
"Whose Mortal Taste" by Erin K. Wagner
"Hank in the South Dakota Sun" by Stephanie Kraner
"I Call Upon the Night as Witness" by Zahra Mukhi
Classic Fiction:
"Dogwood Stories" by Nicole Givens Kurtz
"Thresher of Men" by Michael Boatman
Nonfiction:
"Accost Me, SFF, and Waste My Time" by Carlos Hernandez
"The Death of Captain Kirk: Why the Illusory Singularity of the White Hero Must Die" by Gerald L. Coleman
"To Seek Himself Again" by Marie Croke
"This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief" by Izzy Wasserstein
"In Haskins" by Carson Winter
"Whose Mortal Taste" by Erin K. Wagner
"Hank in the South Dakota Sun" by Stephanie Kraner
"I Call Upon the Night as Witness" by Zahra Mukhi
Classic Fiction:
"Dogwood Stories" by Nicole Givens Kurtz
"Thresher of Men" by Michael Boatman
Nonfiction:
"Accost Me, SFF, and Waste My Time" by Carlos Hernandez
"The Death of Captain Kirk: Why the Illusory Singularity of the White Hero Must Die" by Gerald L. Coleman
180 pages, ebook
Published November 2, 2021
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Jason Sizemore
121 books115 followersI 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!
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!
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 7, 2025
This Apex issue theme is "Identity" and although I originally only meant to read two short-stories and those two short-stories definitely turned out to be the best of the bunch, I don't really regret reading the whole thing (almost, I skipped most of the reviews and one of the non-fic pieces), because there was a lot of food for thought.
To Seek Himself Again by Marie Croke ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read Marie Croke's Turn To Stone Ourselves a few years ago now and wanted to read more by her ever since, so I'm so glad I finally managed it! That said, Turn To Stone Ourselves is definitely the superior of the two stories so if you are only to read one Marie Croke, read that one! (Both are available for free.)
To Seek Himself Again is a story about bodily autonomy. It's set in a world where you can trade parts of your body for different people's and animal's parts. I won't give the plot away but I will say that my only complaint would be that the story isn't quite clear where it stands for pretty long time (or maybe it just wasn't obvious to me) and I was pretty uncomfortable for a bit with where the story might be going. But rest assured that we are safe in Marie Croke's hands!
Now I have to pick which one from her I'm going to read next, hopefully it won't take me several years this time!
This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief by Izzy Wasserstein ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is easily my favourite of the whole issue. I read a really short flash fiction piece by Izzy Wasserstein last year From the Deep, the Music Rises and I was enchanted by the beautiful writing and atmosphere she conjured there. This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief brings this to an entirely new level though. Those were some of the easiest five stars I gave. This is a story about... grief and guilt, about losing your chosen family, violent state and police brutality. I think this story might be hard to read for some now, but I personally didn't find it so, because even though the story was about coming out of tragedy there was definitely hope in the future.
This story also has witches and anarchism, which are some of my favourite things. I do hope to read more Izzy Wasserstein this year, because she is just a marvel. I hope some of my friends will read this one, because I think a lot of you would love it!
In Haskins by Carson Winter ⭐⭐
The premise of this one was super interesting - identities/roles are assigned to people randomly and yearly switched. But the author didn't do that much with it and there was also completely unquestioned murder perpetrated by . A weird story for sure, I am certain some people will appreciate it more than I did.
Whose Mortal Taste by Erin K. Wagner ⭐⭐⭐,5
This story was quite amusing to me. Set after humans went extinct (or did they?), robots are leading philosophical debates about the nature of their being and stuff. Some shenanigans ensue. I thought this had a lot of potential to be truly interesting, but it remained kind of surface level (it's deeper than surface level, but not that by much, you know?). I just wanted more out of this one.
Hank in the South Dakota Sun by Stephanie Kraner ⭐⭐,5
This story made me really excited because one of the MCs is a sentient train and I was reminded of Annalee Newitz, especially their The Terraformers and I was so ready for it! That said this story made me pissed, I expect exactly because it wasn't written by Newitz and I don't think the author realised what she was actually writing about at all.
(Everything spoilers, but in a funny package.)
So yeah, I kind of hated this, but it also made me feel a lot and I cried SO MUCH. It was a mix of sad and angry tears, this was an experience for sure.
I Call Upon the Night as Witness by Zahra Mukhi ⭐⭐⭐,75
An interesting story about refugees and world where borders can be magically moved and have even more power than in ours. The idea behind this was pretty great, but in the end I wasn't quite satisfied with it. That said, I'm not sure it could have been improved? Maybe it just wasn't my type of story. I would read more by this author but I don't think she wrote more.
Dogwood Stories by Nicole Givens Kurtz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This story had a clear goal and it pulled it off really well. It's just that I wasn't ready for it emotionally 😂 This wasn't my favourite type of story but I think it is pretty good at what it is. I did like the writing though, so I'm going to check if some of her longer stuff catches my eye.
CW which I think kind off spoils the effect of the story but on the other hand it's significant
Thresher of Men by Michael Boatman
This was such a hard read, the story kicks off with the POV of bigoted cop and I almost DNFed right there, because I didn't realise what the author was going for. This is a tough and disgusting read and it ultimately wasn't the type of story I appreciate the most. I lightly skimmed some of the parts because the violence was too much for me. This pretty much has all the trigger warnings you can think of.
I mean, I didn't like this, but I feel like I wasn't supposed to? So rating this one is kind of impossible. Definitely read at your own risk.
The Death of Captain Kirk: Why the Illusory Singularity of the White Hero Must Die by Gerald L. Coleman (essay)
This was quite interesting because it talks about the beginnings of calling a character Mary Sue which I didn't hear about before. Otherwise not that much new for me, but it was a super short read and a nice re-cap of some stuff. Have to check out what kind of fiction Coleman published.
Read for free here: https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blo...
To Seek Himself Again by Marie Croke ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I read Marie Croke's Turn To Stone Ourselves a few years ago now and wanted to read more by her ever since, so I'm so glad I finally managed it! That said, Turn To Stone Ourselves is definitely the superior of the two stories so if you are only to read one Marie Croke, read that one! (Both are available for free.)
To Seek Himself Again is a story about bodily autonomy. It's set in a world where you can trade parts of your body for different people's and animal's parts. I won't give the plot away but I will say that my only complaint would be that the story isn't quite clear where it stands for pretty long time (or maybe it just wasn't obvious to me) and I was pretty uncomfortable for a bit with where the story might be going. But rest assured that we are safe in Marie Croke's hands!
Now I have to pick which one from her I'm going to read next, hopefully it won't take me several years this time!
This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief by Izzy Wasserstein ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is easily my favourite of the whole issue. I read a really short flash fiction piece by Izzy Wasserstein last year From the Deep, the Music Rises and I was enchanted by the beautiful writing and atmosphere she conjured there. This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief brings this to an entirely new level though. Those were some of the easiest five stars I gave. This is a story about... grief and guilt, about losing your chosen family, violent state and police brutality. I think this story might be hard to read for some now, but I personally didn't find it so, because even though the story was about coming out of tragedy there was definitely hope in the future.
This story also has witches and anarchism, which are some of my favourite things. I do hope to read more Izzy Wasserstein this year, because she is just a marvel. I hope some of my friends will read this one, because I think a lot of you would love it!
In Haskins by Carson Winter ⭐⭐
The premise of this one was super interesting - identities/roles are assigned to people randomly and yearly switched. But the author didn't do that much with it and there was also completely unquestioned murder perpetrated by . A weird story for sure, I am certain some people will appreciate it more than I did.
Whose Mortal Taste by Erin K. Wagner ⭐⭐⭐,5
This story was quite amusing to me. Set after humans went extinct (or did they?), robots are leading philosophical debates about the nature of their being and stuff. Some shenanigans ensue. I thought this had a lot of potential to be truly interesting, but it remained kind of surface level (it's deeper than surface level, but not that by much, you know?). I just wanted more out of this one.
They were occupied by one of their favourite pastimes, recounting the amusing things humans had said before the species had gone extinct.
Hank in the South Dakota Sun by Stephanie Kraner ⭐⭐,5
This story made me really excited because one of the MCs is a sentient train and I was reminded of Annalee Newitz, especially their The Terraformers and I was so ready for it! That said this story made me pissed, I expect exactly because it wasn't written by Newitz and I don't think the author realised what she was actually writing about at all.
(Everything spoilers, but in a funny package.)
So yeah, I kind of hated this, but it also made me feel a lot and I cried SO MUCH. It was a mix of sad and angry tears, this was an experience for sure.
I Call Upon the Night as Witness by Zahra Mukhi ⭐⭐⭐,75
An interesting story about refugees and world where borders can be magically moved and have even more power than in ours. The idea behind this was pretty great, but in the end I wasn't quite satisfied with it. That said, I'm not sure it could have been improved? Maybe it just wasn't my type of story. I would read more by this author but I don't think she wrote more.
Dogwood Stories by Nicole Givens Kurtz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This story had a clear goal and it pulled it off really well. It's just that I wasn't ready for it emotionally 😂 This wasn't my favourite type of story but I think it is pretty good at what it is. I did like the writing though, so I'm going to check if some of her longer stuff catches my eye.
CW which I think kind off spoils the effect of the story but on the other hand it's significant
Thresher of Men by Michael Boatman
This was such a hard read, the story kicks off with the POV of bigoted cop and I almost DNFed right there, because I didn't realise what the author was going for. This is a tough and disgusting read and it ultimately wasn't the type of story I appreciate the most. I lightly skimmed some of the parts because the violence was too much for me. This pretty much has all the trigger warnings you can think of.
I mean, I didn't like this, but I feel like I wasn't supposed to? So rating this one is kind of impossible. Definitely read at your own risk.
The Death of Captain Kirk: Why the Illusory Singularity of the White Hero Must Die by Gerald L. Coleman (essay)
This was quite interesting because it talks about the beginnings of calling a character Mary Sue which I didn't hear about before. Otherwise not that much new for me, but it was a super short read and a nice re-cap of some stuff. Have to check out what kind of fiction Coleman published.
Read for free here: https://www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blo...
February 1, 2022
Loved this identity-themed issue from editor Lesley Connor. Especially enjoyed the story "This Shattered Vessel, Which Holds Only Grief" by Izzy Wasserstein, and the essay "Accost Me, SFF, and Waste My Time," by Carlos Hernandez.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews