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“A Night at the Empire” by Joy Marchand kicks off the last issue of Apex Magazine for 2008. It begins with a familiar dream, a slightly distorted version of Len’s work day. As readers follow Len through a real day at the post office they can easily start to sympathize with his hatred for the cold, impersonal embrace of technological doodads that travel like parasites with everyone around him. But the wonder years of yesterday hold no comfort in their vice grip either. “A Night at the Empire” is simultaneously beautiful and creepy, and a perfect reminder in this holiday season that the past is sometimes better left behind us.
“Organ Nell” by Jennifer Pelland is the tale of a woman exploited by the medical industry, a woman who has saved countless lives, or possibly the tale of a strange genetic mutation. True to Pelland style there’s a lot layered into this mixed interview style story of a destitute woman who is selling her body in an entirely different way. In only a paragraph or two per character Pelland spins not just a large tale, but dozens of small ones with characters every bit as real than Organ Nell herself.
“The Barrow-Maid” by Christine Morgan is a Norse-flavored tale of Sveinthor the Unkillable, who though he dies in the opening, is truly unkillable in a Permuted Press way. But this tale is more than just a battle tale, or a zombie tale. It captures a sense of honest and loyal love that historians often leave out of Viking legends. Originally printed in History is Dead here’s another tale worth rereading.
The last piece of fiction for this issue is Anil Menon’s “Harris On the Pig: Practical Hints For the Farmer”. A strange, tech-heavy tale of a future pig farmer being terrorized by someone akin to a hardcore PETA activist, there are more twists and turns here than in a brick of ramen. Despite the complex scope of the tale there’s a feel of hyper focus, of only a small bit being shown to the reader. This feel adds a lot to the narrow-mined, superior mindset of the narrator. Like most excellent tales this one dwells in a muddled moral gray space where neither side is exactly wrong, but they aren’t by any stretch right either.
This issue also features:
Confessions of a Book Junkie #12: Rumours of the death have been somewhat premature (or, on the difference between print and digital storage) by Lavie Tidhar
An Interview with Michael A. Burstein
Popped Culture: Doomsgiving by Justin Stewart
