Quick Sips - Apex #104

Apex Magazine kicks off the new year with a continuing tradition—treating readers to an extra big issue as thanks for the success of last year’s subscription drive. Which means six original stories (including a fantastic translation) and the return of poetry (for this issue only)! The prose runs the gamut of what Apex puts out, giving people an excellent sampler platter of dark SFF that leans a bit sci fi but still has an eye for the strange and magical. The stories range from hopeful to abyssally bleak, but even when the stories lack hope, they tend to reveal something compelling and devastating. Gladly most of the works _are_ hopeful, pulling progress and healing from the jaws of predation. There’s a whole lot to experience in this issue, from monsters in the Wild West to twins in the farthest reaches of space. So without further delay, to the reviews!

Art by Daniele Serra

Quick Sips - Apex #83

The April issue of Apex Magazine is out and with it come a number of stories and poem that, by and large, orbit around religion. Old gods and religious guilt and growing up with religion and really giving a lot of angles on a very interesting element of life and SFF. The two fiction pieces are incredibly well paired, looking at family and religion and space and loss. They're quite different, one a sci fi almost-Western and the other a contemporary weird fantasy, but they work hand in hand to examine how siblings are effected by religion, how they relate to each other through a faith (or are damaged by it). There's just so much to read and enjoy that I need to shut up and get to those reviews!

Art by Sarah Zar