Apex Magazine Issue 137

A black-haired girl in a lavender dress sits on a chair with white bird sitting on her right index finger. She sits in front of a pale purple wall with the shadow of a leafless tree falling on it.

The latest issue of Apex Magazine is a special issue exclusively dedicated to “Asian and Pacific Islander voices from the homelands and the diaspora.” The fiction is generally high quality and the perspectives are unique and wonderful.

The issue opens with “Loving Bone Girl” by Tehnuka. In it, a young girl who can create new places out of nothing asks her friend to keep her bones when she dies. It is a touching story of two girls finding and defining their affection for each other. (My rating: 3/5)

“Your Wings a Bridge Across the Stars” by Michelle Denham is a myth about magpies and crows making a bridge one day a year so lovers can meet on it and cry, starting the monsoon season. Another touching story but nothing out of the ordinary for me. (My rating: 3/5)

A woman scorned by her Indian village returns as a representative of an alien race in “The Flowering of Peace” by Murtaza Mohsin. She takes the opportunity to get her revenge. (My rating: 3/5)

Here the stories start to get better. “Liwani” by Sydney Paige Guerrero is the story of gods who are slowly dying out because there are fewer and fewer people believing in them. The goddess of light makes her way into the world to seek out more believers to stay alive. A wonderful story that connects the past to the present. (My rating: 4/5)

“The Matriarchs” by Lois Mei-en Kwa is a tale that twists through time. One woman attempts to send a message through time while another in a different time attempts to invent the tool that will allow her to receive it. A tale of dedication and illumination. (My rating: 4/5)

The best story of the issue is “The Toll of the Snake” by Grace P. Fong. It takes place in Hollywood during the heyday of the studio system. A Chinese woman seeks to make it big, but others with prejudice have different plans for her. I really felt immersed in the era and the struggles of the main character. A fantastic melding of myth and history. (My rating: 5/5)

One story had an extremely unique proposition. What if someone cloned themselves as a weapon but the clone had no choice in this? “Rhizomatic Diplomacy” by Vajra Chandrasekera gives me the feeling that I think they were going for regarding personal autonomy and agency, but it didn’t quite land for me. (My rating: 2/5)

The last entry is a creepy tale of a girl seeking assistance from an enchanted one-eyed koi. She gets what she seeks but at a steep price in “The Fish Bowl” by Zen Cho. The author connected me to this girl’s desperation and desire. (My rating: 4/5)

I loved seeing speculative fiction from a viewpoint wholly different from my own in this issue. With a story rating average of 3.5, this is time well-spent.

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 155

A spacecraft centered on the cover with the curve of a planet's night side on the left edge of the cover

I gobbled up the April issue of Lightspeed Magazine in only two days. Unfortunately, the fiction wasn’t as good as it has been in previous issues this year. Not one 5-star story for me. ☹

AI is a strong theme in science fiction right now, and “Virtual Cherokee” by Brian K. Hudson continues this trend. It is a virtual talk show hosted by an AI. The guest is an anonymous hacker who works to give AIs consciousness. This mood and setting are bit too “social media” for me. It takes away from the story. (My rating: 3/5)

On the other hand, the setup for “Lament of a Specialist in Interspecies Relationships” by Amy Johnson is absolutely delightful and is a big part of what makes the story so good. It is a letter to a recent visitor to Earth who, let’s say, had a less than respectful attention to the rules of their visa. The letter writer attempts to gently bring up what they did wrong without alienating them. A fun and funny piece. (My rating: 4/5)

Adam-Troy Castro is becoming one of my favorite new (to me) authors. His “Spaceman Jones” is another winner. A starship captain must turn around after one of her crew disobeys orders and gets himself addicted to the planet’s highly addictive drug. He must be left there as the planet is the only source of the drug. It is touching story of learning to love the life you have. (My rating: 4/5)

“Every Bone a Bell” by Shaoni C. White is about a stowaway on board a ship who is forced into becoming the ship’s singer/navigator to pay for his stolen trip. Unfortunately, this is a permanent role and involves being integrated with the ship. This is a story of individual determination and revenge. (My rating: 4/5)

A girl comes into a sword shop looking for the blade that will help her defeat her nemesis. But the proprietor senses more complicated emotions under the surface. Having similar experience, she coaches the shopper as she helps her with her purchase in “So You Want to Kiss Your Nemesis” by John Wiswell. A sweet, sort-of romance of enemies becoming lovers. (My rating: 4/5)

The main character in “Construction Sacrifice” by Bogi Takács is a human who has become a mid-size city. A trans mage wanders the city and connects with the city. This story is a metaphor for the trans experience, as the mage considers becoming a city themself. I like the concept, but the idea of becoming a city just didn’t translate well for me. (My rating: 3/5)

The oddest story of the issue is “When the Giants Came Through the Valley” by Derrick Boden. The people live in the literal footprint of a giant who had walked down the valley. They are cutoff from others. They have to deal with challenges no one else does. It feels like a metaphor for climate change and capitalism, but I spent so much time trying to understand the metaphor itself that it just didn’t work for me. (My rating: 2/5)

The final tale is “The House, the Witch, and Sugarcane Stalks” by Amanda Helms. In it a witch lives in a sentient house made of candy which is also a stop on an underground railroad. At first the house isn’t too keen on the idea. It’s interesting to see the back and forth between the witch and the house. (My rating: 3/5)

Overall the issue comes in at 3.375 which I am rounding down to 3.25. A solid effort but not the best this year.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

An open doorway stands in the middle of a field at sunrise seeming to go nowhere

Here is another winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novella. It is a portal fantasy where children return from their world to parents frantic about their missing children. When the kids tell mom and dad about where they have been, the parents naturally think them traumatized by whatever experience they actually had. In their pursuit of help, they come across a woman running a school for just such children. What they don’t know is that the headmistress was herself a child who traveled to another world and understands that the children are telling the truth.

The story follows one girl as she arrives at the school desperate to get back to her other world. As she starts to settle in, terrible things begin to happen. The children help the headmistress to figure out what is going on. We learn what is going on as the children do.

This book is both dark and funny. It deals with issues of adolescence and sex and gender in sympathetic ways while still feeling true to how children treat and relate to each other. I found the ending rather abrupt but otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the book.

My rating: 4.5/5

Uncanny Magazine Issue 51

Uncanny Magazine has released the last of their stories in issue 51 to read for free online. That means it is time to review some short stories! There were eight new stories in this issue along with one that was accidentally released in the ebook last month. Let’s get started.

The issue starts with “A Soul in the World” by Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky. This is the sweet story of a single mom and her child whose origin is special. Let’s just say that she didn’t come into this world in the most terrestrial way. But that doesn’t dampen the challenges that all parents and teens deal with as teenagers grapple with a growing sense of identity. (My rating: 4/5)

An academic in the future works on an embodied AI as she deals with misogyny and hierarchy in “To Put Your Heart Into a White Deer” by Kristiana Wilsey. The world is a blend of academic mergers and corporate control. Things don’t go well for the protagonist, as you might expect, though you might not see the end coming. For me the world building was a bit clumsy and got in the way of the story. The result was too dense and disjointed. (My rating: 2/5)

“Perhaps in Understanding” by AnaMaria Curtis takes place in a world where the characters in the story literally show their emotions as masks on their faces. The wealthier you are, the more masks (and therefore emotions) you are able to wear. This is the story of a painter who is preparing for a show that will make or break her future in this world. It is a sweet story of getting under the masks we all wear. (My rating: 4/5)

My favorite story of this issue is Delilah S. Dawson’s “Blank Space“. It tells the story of a girl living in a small town with her strict uncle who polices who she can go out with and what she can wear. While working at her uncle’s hardware store, she is approached by a tattooed biker trying to pick her up. She likes him back, but her uncle doesn’t approve. Things don’t go as planned but maybe not in quite the way you think. (My rating: 5/5)

In the first fantasy story an old mage sets out to save a village from the ravages of crystal cougars. The story is “In Time, a Weed May Break a Stone” by Valerie Valdes. The cougars belong to wealthy owners who plan to use them to get a hand up on the poor villagers. But the wealthy outsiders get more than they bargained for when the town bands together. (My rating: 4/5)

A brother and sister can’t wait to get out of school and play. But, the brother is running away from the sister. She is angry because she was punished in class for something her brother did. As they both run into the woods, they find a surprise. And what is at first fear turns to play in “Space Treads” by Parlei Riviere. (My rating: 4/5)

“Yinying—Shadow” by Ai Jiang is the other fantasy tale in this issue. A young girl whose father blames her for her mother’s death waits for foster parents to come after he also dies. Overnight she struggles with her past and how her father saw her. (My rating: 3/5)

Rounding out the issue is “Bigger Fish” by Sarah Pinsker. It feels like a futuristic Agatha Christie mystery. When a son asks a detective to investigate his father’s apparent suicide, the detective questions his house and robot valet. (My rating: 4/5)

My average rating for this issue comes out to 3.75. Overall, another excellent issue of great stories of speculative fiction.

Apex Magazine Issue 136

A thin woman wearing a brimmed hat that seems to be dissolving into the sky walks among a cityscape into the sky

I am normally not a big fan of the horror genre, at least what I think of as the horror genre. But I am starting to change my mind. It depends on the story. And two of my favorite stories from issue 136 of Apex Magazine have straight up horror elements to them. Here are my brief reviews of each story.

The issue starts out with a bang in “Over Moonlit Clouds” by Coda Audeguy-Pegon. A woman gets on a plane only to realize that she has forgotten an important aspect of her trip. She panics and mayhem ensues. A fantastic metaphor for mental illness and how those with it are seen and often treated. (My rating: 5/5)

What if a nightmare was a sentient being? What if that nightmare consumed another nightmare? That is the premise of “Beautiful Poison in Pastel” by Beth Dawkins. It is a fascinating exploration of agency and change. (My rating: 4/5)

The creepy factor is high in “Unboxing” by Lavie Tidhar. It is the story of a little girl who watches unboxing videos created by a little boy with the help of his mother. But these are way more than they seem. A dark exploration of using media as a babysitter and unintended consequences. I would have rated it higher but it felt a little unfinished without saying enough about its themes. (My rating: 3/5)

In a bleak future, Claire Humphrey tells of a double amputee who works from home to build clever toy robots as a way to save enough money to buy prosthetic legs for himself in “The State Street Robot Factory“. When things don’t go as planned, he pivots with an idea on how to leverage what he’s learned. (My rating: 4/5)

At the beginning of “After the Twilight Fades” by Sara Tantlinger, a woman finds a glowing meteorite in the woods near her home. When she touches it, catastrophic changes begin within her. But these are all not bad as she starts to see herself through her own eyes and experience for the first time. (My rating: 4/5)

“The Words That Make Us Fly” by S.L. Harris filled my heart with gladness and made it soar. It is the story of a young man whose friends all find magic in how they can use words. But the young man keeps waiting to find where his talents lie. As he waits, he begins to doubt his own ability until he stumbles on the path to his own power. (My rating: 4/5)

Like the previous story, “Every Shade of Healing” by Taryn Frazier touched me deeply. This story is a little darker as it deals with pain deeply felt and experienced. A young woman goes to get a tattoo as a way of dealing with past trauma. The artist has a magical way of transforming that pain. Together they make beauty out of suffering. (My rating: 5/5)

The one story I didn’t really care for was “Reproduction on the Beach” by Rich Larson. It boils down to the trope of a young woman with a much older man who is in a position of power. Things go about as I expected they would without any deeper exploration of the situation. Disappointing. (My rating: 2/5)

“Destiny Delayed” by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki tells of a future where a bank has discovered how to remove people’s destiny and save it as collateral against a loan. A poor man mortgages his daughter’s destiny in order to make it bigger for her. When he realizes the trap that the process really is, he takes clever and surprising revenge. (My rating: 3/5)

The third top-rated story in this issue is “They Could Have Been Yours” by Joy Baglio. Suddenly, all of a woman’s exes seem to be getting engaged and married at virtually the same time. As she revisits each of them mentally, she finds a ring that when she puts it on she finds herself disembodiedly visiting each of their fiancées. She spends more and more time in this state, allowing her real life to slowly crumble. The end is poignant and beautiful and one I didn’t see coming. (My rating: 5/5)

This issue ends with an overall rating of 3.9, quite high in my experience so far this year. There is a lot of darkness in the stories in Apex, but the exploration of feelings and ideas within the stories makes it worth the trip.

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 154

A small child is towered over by a dark, thin, metal robot in the midst of a sparse, leafless forest at night

The March issue of Lightspeed Magazine is a fairly strong issue with one meh story and one I really didn’t care for. The other six were very enjoyable and thought-provoking. There seemed to be a bit of a theme of love/relationship in this issue. On to the individual reviews.

“Crystalline” by Daniel H. Wilson stars a father who has lost his wife. He and his young daughter are in a cave where a glowing crystal connects them to a multitude of alternate worlds where the wife and mother still lives. The father is coaxing his daughter to approach the crystal and retrieve an alternate version of his wife for them both. Things do not go to plan. This is a bittersweet story of longing and loss and the things it can make us do. (My rating: 4/5)

A countess who can see, experience, and move through the past, present, and future attempts to save a spaceship from falling into a black hole in “One Pinch, Two Pinch” by Beth Goder. This is a tale told in an usual manner that is part of the storytelling itself. I enjoyed that but the whole thing didn’t quite land for me. (My rating: 3/5)

“Contracting Iris” by Peter Watts takes a page out of The Last of Us on HBOMax as it tells the story of a world plagued by a parasitic virus called Iris that slowly takes over its host. We follow a girl named Iris who is trying to navigate this world as she is not feeling well. As she seeks help, she is more and more concerned she might have the virus. But no one seems to be taking her seriously. This tale is creepy and got under my skin. I really felt for Iris the girl and what she was going through. (My rating: 4/5)

In “Four Years Minus Twelve Days” by Samantha Murray, you are a human who is married to an alien knowing that it can only last the period of the story title. But you are so in love that you ignore the metamorphosis that they will go through, forgetting you in the process. It doesn’t matter. You are in love. But as your time grows shorter you start to realize what this really means. This is well-told stuff touching the soft spot in all of us and the fairy tales we tell ourselves when we are in love. (My rating: 4/5)

“Every Little Change” by Aimee Ogden also touches on the struggles of love. Here the husband can leap through time. He does so for reasons he is not allowed to share with his wife. She feels left out and alone, and it starts to wear on their relationship. But is where/when he is going for work or for her benefit or both? For anyone who has gone through a heartbreaking alienation of affection, this story will really resonate with your experience and perhaps make you look at it in a new light. (My rating: 4/5)

In the epistolary story “The Chosen Six” by Oyedotun Damilola Muees, six people are chosen for their magical skills to help a refugee society trying to survive and thrive in a climate-ravaged world. The story here is deeply engrossing but the clunky prose kept pulling me out of it. (My rating: 2/5)

The narrator in “Our Exquisite Delights” by Megan Chee describes an experience that happens over and over again to the people in her story. Each person sees an extra door where they had only seen one previously. What might be on the other side of that door? How might life be different if they opened that extra door? This is a fanciful exploration of those tantalizing thoughts of “what if”. (My rating: 4/5)

The last story of the issue was actually included accidentally in the January issue ebook version and published again in this issue where it was originally intended to be. “The Ministry of Saturn” by Benjamin Peek, explores the nature of creativity, freedom, power over others, and what we owe others. This is the tale of a magician, a homunculus, and his creator. (My rating: 4/5)

By my ratings, this issue wasn’t as good as the others so far this year at an average rating of 3.625. There were no five ratings for me but I still enjoyed reading it. For me, still worth the subscription price and the time to read.

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

I am reading a lot of short stories for my “Year of Short Fiction”. But short fiction also includes novellas. There are many different definitions for the length of a novella, but The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines word counts for different length formats like this:

Short Story: less than 7,500 words
Novelette: at least 7,500 words but less than 17,500 words
Novella: at least 17,500 words but less than 40,000 words
Novel: 40,000 words or more

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers is therefore a novella and is the latest of my short fiction reads. It is the sequel to her previous novella A Psalm for the Wild Built. Both take place on a moon and follow a monk and a sentient robot. In the second of these novellas, the monk acts as the travel coordinator for the robot as it re-introduces its kind to humans for the first time in generations. When robots gained sentience, they left the humans and their factories and moved to the wild to live on their own. For more details, read the first novella. It’s really good.

While the theme of the first book was more individual, this second takes on relationships. How will people relate to a sentient robot after generations of separation? How will the relationship between the monk and the robot change during the tour? Once again the writing is colorful, bringing to life the world around the characters and the characters themselves. The conversation feels realistic to the situations. And the interaction of the characters shows the changing relationships through the story rather than exposition. Overall, a worthy sequel, but not quite as good as the first book for me.

My rating: 4/5

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue book cover

Wow! I simply loved this book! It was one that I had been putting off reading for some time. I’m not sure why. The premise just didn’t grab me, I guess. But it was considered one of the best books of the year when it came out (2020). The story revolves around the title character who ends up living forever but no one remembers her. As soon as she is out of their site, they forget they ever met her. Pretty straightforward fantasy stuff, but what the author does with it is nothing short of amazing.

This is a novel about emotions and relationships. How does it feel to be alone in the world? What if your worst enemy was the only one who remembered you and said your name? What kind of relationship would that be? How do satisfy your need for human connection when no one will remember you when they wake up next to you in the morning? What if your parents suddenly didn’t know who you were? Or your best friend? You follow Addie as she moves through the world finding answers to these questions.

The prose is immersive and evocative. I had such a feeling for the characters and what was happening to them. Some books when I read them I deeply admire the writing and how turns of phrase are used to paint mental pictures. This book went beyond that. I simply forgot about the words and watched the movie as it played in my mind. And those invisible words connected with the emotional experiences of my life in a way that, as I said before, I could just feel. Not everyone will fall in love with this book, but I sure did.

My rating: 5/5

Lightspeed Magazine Issue 153

Let’s dive right in. Issue 153 of Lightspeed Magazine is for the month of February 2023. It is edited by John Joseph Adams, and all the stories are original.

First up is “Learning Letters” by Carrie Vaughn, a story of the far future after “the Fall”. An isolated and primitive but successful community is visited by a stranger in an airplane. Where did they get the fuel for it? Where have they come from? And what do they want? This world just drew me in and made me want more. (My rating: 5/5)

After a nuclear war forces people to live underground, people have the desperate choice between staying underground and slowly going crazy from the lack of sunlight or venturing to the surface and dying from radiation poisoning. “In(con)solation” by Octavia Cade is the story of a couple living together facing this impossible choice. The story is told in an interesting combination of first and second person voices. (My rating: 3/5)

In “The Day the Earthman Didn’t Show“, Adam-Troy Castro tells the tale of a collectivist alien society that knows the future and works together to plan for it. For millennia. Only what if something happens and the prophecy doesn’t come true? Read this delightful story and find out. (My rating: 4/5)

Have you ever written to your congressperson or senator? If so, I bet it was nothing like the letter in “Subject: More Monsters Will Not Make Us Safer” by Paul Crenshaw. The problem this author is concerned with is using monsters to make children safer in schools. An interesting look at a current hot button issue. (My rating: 4/5)

All houses change as you live in them, even if you never renovate them. But the changes in “The House of Linear Change” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe are way beyond that! The son of the homeowner finds himself in a bit of spot. This one was a bit trippy for me, but may be just your thing. (My rating: 3/5)

The title “Real Magic” by Sharang Biswas at first doesn’t quite seem to fit. People nervously approach the local witch to seek her help with a problem. One by one she sets them each on a quest that gets them what they want but with no real magic. She saves the real magic for the really important things. (My rating: 4/5)

I was surprised to learn that the title library in “Guidelines for Using the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library” by Marie Brennan actually exists. The author created a fantastic version of guidelines for using it based on her own time there. A fun read. (My rating: 4/5)

As a child did you ever need to stay with family or friends when something unexpected came up with your family? The boy in “His Guns Could Not Protect Him” by Sam J. Miller experiences this when something happens to his father. No one will tell him as he tries to protect his little brother from learning the danger their dad is in. This one really brings that childhood feeling to life. (My rating: 4/5)

That’s it for this month’s Lightspeed fiction! My ratings come out to 3.875 on average so another successful issue. Happy reading!

Babel by R. F. Kuang

This book was one of the biggest published in 2022. I kept hearing people rave about it online and in podcasts. I knew it was about language and colonialism and was a fantasy that takes place in an alternative past. Beyond that, I didn’t know what to expect when I finally picked it up a few weeks ago. While I did enjoy it, I’m not sure I would rate it quite so highly as so many others.

The main thrust of the world is that England is a world power due to silver, and not just because of its value as a precious metal. When similar words from different languages are engraved on bars of silver, the subtle differences between the words are brought out by the bar. Babel is the name of the tower and school of translation at Oxford. A cohort of an Indian, a Haitian, a Chinese, and an Englishwoman bond over their experience at the school. But as they start to learn the consequences of their school and its work, danger and revolution ensue.

In many ways this book reminded me of Kindred. Like that book, Babel really helps the reader feel what the characters are struggling with, in this case colonialism. And the characters come alive, whether you love them or hate them. Being a bit of a linguist, I also really loved how translation is a central part of the story. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of explication, more telling than showing in some places. That said, I am not sure how else the writer could have shared such a complex topic. But for me the explanations never really interfered with my enjoyment of the story. I was carried along nonetheless. In the end the book was a bit long but still worth the read.

My rating: 3.5/5