Apex magazine tends toward the dark side of fiction, so it is appropriate that I finished reading the latest issue just before Halloween. It was definitely more of treat than a trick.

The issue starts with a dystopian story in a world experiencing climate change called “Whisper Songs” by Lyndsie Manusos. A woman experiencing post-partum depression witnesses three birds die in her yard. As required by law, she calls the authorities so they can come collect the birds’ songs. They come but things get off track. A close examination of one of these collectors and the mom. Unique and interesting. (My rating: 4/5)

A new writer with the name Zohair gives on odd story called “Quietus“. A man is condemned to death and put alive into a coffin and floated down the river. As the coffin travels, people seem to see what they want to see and have very different experiences, including seeing an empty coffin. It doesn’t seem to have much to say, at least not to me. (My rating: 2/5)

A game of mahjong centers “Life Wager” by Lucy Zhang. A woman who is the child of a god and a human returns to heaven and plays a series of games with the emperor. But that’s about all that happens. Just kind of meh for me. (My rating: 3/5)

“Kɛrozin Lamp Kurfi” by Victor Forna is an experimental story that I really wanted to like much more than I did. It tells of a mother who chases her son into a story to save him and struggles to get out with her mind intact. I liked the idea of going into the story but the telling was a little disjointed and confusing for me. (My rating: 3/5)

Apex excels at stories with atmosphere that provoke emotions. “Junebug” by Sarah Hollowell is an excellent example. Three friends are traveling to visit their dying friend when they get stuck in traffic on the highway. The emotions build and overflow, leading to unusual experiences. (My rating: 5/5)

“Spitting Image” by Rich Larson is the kind of creepy story that is perfect for Halloween. A boy’s friend leads him to a well in the forest that returns things dropped into it, changed. I shiver just remembering this story. Makes your skin crawl, just like it is supposed to. (My rating: 4/5)

After her grandmother dies, a woman wears the hat she did and starts to experience the same thinning of skin and hair. In “Brainpink Umber“, Chelsea Sutton explores questions like: What makes us who we are? And what happens when that starts to fade? This story feels like a metaphor for dementia running in a family. (My rating: 4/5)

Talk about metaphors that work! “From This Beating Heart, From This Fractured Mind” by Elisabeth Ring tells of a man with a wooden ticking heart and a woman with a glass mind living together and supporting one another. He is a bit cold and disconnected. She can’t seem to wrap her mind around things like she should. It is a tale of mental health and isolation. Well done. (My rating: 4/5)

In a future with sentient biorobots, a young man lives with his male partner while his mother from the old country begs him to get married and have children. At the same time, he struggles with what to do with one of his under performing charges. “Memories of the Old Sun” by Eugen Bacon addresses two tropes but never really brings them together. Disappointing with great writing. (My rating: 3/5)

The issue ends with the beautiful “Through Dreams She Moves” by Tonya Liburd. A woman who can enter other people’s dreams enters those of a man in a coma in an effort to wake him up. What makes this especially poignant and evocative is the clever use of the second person. The story addresses several people as it goes: her mom, then boss, the client’s father, the client, and her great grandfather in the past. It works beautifully. (My rating: 5/5)

My average rating for this issue is 3.7 out of five. Be sure to at least spend the time to read the two best stories in the issue.

When I finally picked up the September/October issue of Uncanny Magazine, I was excited. I had been looking forward to reading since early September. Right away I was rewarded with a spectacular story.

Advertising has become so much a part of our culture. In “Can You Hear Me Now?“, Catherynne M. Valente uses that fact to amazing effect. Imagine if a woman in the ads you see was suddenly a real person, aware that they played different roles in each commercial? How would she deal with that? This masterpiece explores that idea while touching on all the real troubles and desires that consumerism covers up. (My rating: 5/5)

I was initially intrigued by the indigenous setting of “We Do Not Eat Much Fish” by Grace P. Fong. A woman called a witch by her father and husband, encounters a fisherman and brings him home to her son with dire results. The story is a bit gruesome for me and doesn’t explore as much as I wanted about the context of a woman taken to strange home by her husband. (My rating: 3/5)

Remember being a kid and peeling Elmer’s glue off your hand in sheets? In Kristina Ten’s “The Curing“, the outcast immigrant kids go a bit further. They cover their whole bodies and peel them off, and the glue copies come “alive”! Now, just one wouldn’t do, right? These kids make multiple copies and absorb all the memories that their copies make. It is a great story with lots of metaphor, subtle, and not too much in your face. (My rating: 5/5)

The longest story in the issue is “The Kingdom of Darkness” by Sarah Monette. In an alternative past, a man protects a demoniac after his witch finder is murdered. I am sorry to say that I could not finish this story. I found myself forcing myself to read it. I didn’t care what was going on. And it seemed a bit all over the place. (My rating: 1/5)

I found “The Girl with a City Inside of Her” by Jeannette Ng to be a little confusing. A girl with a city inside her sits on a stool in the sideshow of a carnival talking to the visitors about her city. The author seems to switch back and forth between the girl literally having a city inside her to it being simply a metaphor. I didn’t really care for it. (My rating: 2/5)

On a doomed mission to look for a replacement planet, a reluctant outfitter does her best to keep the surveyors alive after a deadly pandemic at home. This is “The Coffin Maker” by AnaMaria Curtis, and she really creates a palpable atmosphere. I could feel what was going on in this story. The desperation, the frustration. (My rating: 4/5)

“Four Words Written on My Skin” by Jenn Reese is a kind of a romance with a trope I don’t care much for. A woman follows her wife into the woods where the Fae have stolen her in an attempt to get her back. Their relationship was rocky but once her wife is taken, the main character realizes how important she is to her. That said, it is a good story well-written. (My rating: 3/5)

My excitement at the start of the issue had pretty much petered out by the end. The issue comes to a disappointing average rating of 3.25 out of five. Issue 55 is likely to be the last in my subscription.

I always look forward to the wide variety of stories in Lightspeed Magazine, and the September issue was no exception.

The issue starts with an odd adventure written by John Kessel and Bruce Sterling entitled “Money in the Bank“. A veteran using a false identity to sell his services as a body guard gets what seems to be a run-of-the-mill assignment. He is sent to guard a cryptocurrency genius. He succeeds but learns that there is much more going on behind the scenes. Madcap humor and an out-there plot that turns out to be a fun combination. (My rating: 3/5)

“Eve’s Prayer” by Victor Forna is an actual prayer. A woman on a habitable planet prays for guidance on whether to send a beacon to let humanity know they can safely come. The planet is safe for humans, but she is concerned about what they will do to it. (My rating: 4/5)

The next entry is a bedtime story, literally. In “The Hole in the Garden” by Gene Doucette, a hard-working man comes home late to find his seven-year-old daughter still up waiting for him to tell her a story. Tired, he searches his memory for one that won’t take too long. He comes up with one about a quantum singularity in a man’s garden. But the ending has a surprise twist. This story really pops. (My rating: 5/5)

Many science fiction writers experiment with the way they tell stories. Maria Haskins does this in “Death by Water“, and it doesn’t work for me. The result is a trippy, psychedelic, confusing story about a woman who sails away from Vancouver in a ship as her body slowly falls apart. I didn’t really understand what she was trying to say with this. (My rating: 2/5)

Have you ever wondered how to get over a broken heart? Jordan Kurella gives step-by-step guidance in “Instructions for the Broken Hearted“. This story takes the idea of someone ripping your heart out and stomping on it literally, teaching the reader what to do to get it back in your chest. It is bittersweet and really evokes all the feelings you would expect. (My rating: 4/5)

Dragon tales. Typical fantasy fare, right? Not exactly in “Simmered in Their Wealth Like the Richest of Sauces” by Jo Miles. In our modern world, a dragon is awakened by a rich man seeking the gold that the dragon sleeps on. But the dragon can smell and taste greed. And the aroma of our modern world is making the dragon salivate. (My rating: 5/5)

“Remains” by N.R. Lambert is another experimental story. It seems to be the story of a person (“you”) trying to survive as the world around them breaks down. The language is flowery and evokes feeling but I couldn’t tell what was going on. This seems to be a modern trend in writing. I don’t care for it. (My rating: 2/5)

In “His Thing” by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, an African woman is essentially purchased by a man returning to his hometown. He imprisons her in a sentient house that he controls. She seeks to find a way to control her own life. It includes a lot of words from southern Africa that are not defined though there is context to understand their purpose. I would have preferred having them fully defined. (My rating: 4/5)

Altogether, this issue comes in for a rating of 3.63 out of five. The issue was better than that rating for me, the two stories rated at two bringing the average down.

All the stories in the June issue are now available to read free online. Here are my brief reviews for each.

Dominique Dickey writes about a biracial couple of dating teenage boys who take a “Spaceship Joyride” by hot-wiring a school vehicle. When stopped by the police, both are terrified. Also, ll the uncertainties and exciting feelings of new relationships are there. (My rating: 3/5)

Ruth Joffre gives us “Queen of the Andes” where Bolivian climate refugees struggle with the decision to leave a dying planet or stay and preserve the eponymous plant. One character tries to decide if he should take a seed and leave while others consider such a choice a betrayal. An unflinching look at how climate change can influence indigenous people. Yet I still wanted there to be more to the story. (My rating: 3/5)

When you are living on a multi-generation space ark, there isn’t much to do for fun. So, a pair of young people on separate space arks traveling together decide to make a perilous jump between them. This is “Jaywalk the Stars” by Elad Haber. It has a good built up but I found the climax a little banal. (My rating: 3/5)

Wendy Nikel tells a haunting tale in the desert in “The Bone Gatherer’s Lament“. As he travels the desert gathering and listening to the bones, he contemplates how to share what he hears. His solution is creative and beautiful. This piece of flash fiction is lyrical and poetic, a real work of beauty. (My rating: 4/5)

The other flash fiction story is a wonder of storytelling. Rich Larson give us “Always Personal” in only 743 words! In it a detective is investigating a serial killer who uses genetically coded bone daggers that grow inside the victim and kill them from the inside out. A chilling and gripping piece. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Philoctetes in Kabul“, Deborah L. Davitt tells of a veteran of Afghanistan who is forced to leave the Army due to too many concussions. He is not happy with having to leave. As he deals with his PTSD, he has hallucinations that involuntarily associate his war experience with Homer’s Odyssey. The emotion really comes through here. (My rating: 4/5)

When a boy’s father dies, he leaves him a book that is a bestiary of mythical animals that come to life out of its pages. This brings him power and wealth and the ire and jealousy of his neighbors. In the end, the gift protects the boy. “Bestiary viventum” Kyle E Miller is a beautiful story of love and overcoming grief. (My rating: 4/5)

The best story of the issue is the last—”And All the Fields Below” by Sarah Grey. After a sick boy dies, his parents prepare to move out of the home. At the last minute, the boy’s dog runs into the woods, and they are forced to leave without him. He stays because he can still see the boy in his attic bedroom. He breaks into the house to be with the boy. But then the house is purchased by a new owner. What will the dog do? A sweet tale of love and loss that pulled me right in and wouldn’t let me go. I can’t wait to read this author’s next story! (My rating: 5/5)

My average rating for the stories in this issue: 3.75 of 5.

The May issue was a bit of a mixed bag for me, I’m afraid. A couple of 5-stars and a couple of 2-stars. There are a bunch smack in the middle at three that you may find more appealing than I did. As usual, here are my brief reviews of each story.

The issue starts with “The Mausoleum’s Children” by Aliette de Bodard, a deeply emotional tale of a young woman who escapes slavery on board derelict space ships only to return in an effort to help those left behind. The woman’s mentor in the free world tries to talk her out of it to no avail. Her determination and dedication take her to those she is trying to save, but their reaction is not what she expects. (My rating: 5/5)

Almost as good is “The Infinite Endings of Elsie Chen” by Kylie Lee Baker. A computer science grad student builds an AI machine to help her figure out why so many of her high school classmates have died so early. Reading the story I caught up in the student’s obsession in unraveling the mystery. In the process you also learn in subtle ways what led her to this obsession. (My rating: 4/5)

In “All These Ghosts Are Playing to Win” by Lindsey Godfrey Eccles, a man finds himself in a casino playing blackjack. The chips represent his memories. He is surrounded by other ghost who are trying to win their way upstairs. Though they don’t know what is up there, they expect it is better than being dumped int eh DARK when their chips run out. Suddenly he finds a ghost accompanied by her living sister. He and the living sister come up with a plan to win that doesn’t go the way they expect. A haunting tale of love and loss. (My rating: 3/5)

An odd young woman is raised by a man dedicated to preserving birds and preventing them from being used to decorate hats in “The Rain Remembers What the Sky Forgets” by Fran Wilde. In adulthood, her father sets her up as a hat maker. When her foster father dies, his widow requests that she make a hat using some of the birds from her father’s aviary. This goes against her principles, but if she refuses she will lose her inheritance. What is a girl to do? (My rating: 3/5)

“Désolé” by Ewen Ma is the story of two husbands raising a young daughter. One husband if from H city somewhere in Asia while the other is from France. They meet in school in France but make their home after graduating in H city. All residents of H city must consent to a data chip implanted in them. While his husband is away on a business trip, the husband from H city has a climbing accident and his chip is damaged and replaced with unexpected consequences. (My rating: 3/5)

For a poignant and experimental tale, read “Want Itself Is a Treasure in Heaven” by Theodora Ward. The narrator switches between telling us of the past and describing the present that followed. They and their partner join a study where they get implants that allow them to see and experience all that the other sees and feels. The narrator becomes a little too enamored with seeing through their partners eyes. This is a story about not being comfortable in your own skin. For me it is the best explanation I have read for what it must be like to be transgender. (My rating: 5/5)

The last two stories didn’t really connect with me. “A Lovers’ Tide in Which We Inevitably Break Each Other; Told in Inverse” by K.S. Walker is a creepy tale about two predators who hunt each other as well as being lovers. I didn’t really get the point, and it isn’t my sort of story. (My rating: 2/5)

And wrapping up the issue is “And For My Next Trick, I Have Disappeared” by Chimedum Ohaegbu. I had a hard time following the action in this one. A woman seems to slowly turn into a bus and then back into herself as she thinks of her old girlfriend. Again, I don’t know what this story is trying to do or make me feel. (My rating: 2/5)

Overall, my ratings for the stories in this issue average out to 3.375. The two 5-star stories really helped the average overall. While this was a weak issue for me, I still love and appreciate what the magazine does with the speculative fiction they publish.