Apex #148, January/February 2025
“One by One” by Lindz McLeod
“Jackie and Xīng Forever” by Wil Magness
“A Ten Thousand Year Survey Into Seven Stomachs of an Ishta” by Allison Thai
“I found an old god in the woods” by Monte Lin
“Halfway Alive, Halfway Living” by Colton Kekoa Neves
“Someone to Feed You” by Abigail Kemske
Reviewed by László Szegedi
“One by One” by Lindz McLeod
The title refers to people disappearing from this reality and others not remembering them. The narrator quickly concludes it’s because of them being trans people. Unfortunately, we don’t get an investigation at this point, nor a real connection between the events, they just keep happening. The vibe of the text is nostalgic, contains plenty of popcultural references, but the reader doesn’t get to know why and how this all happens. The last paragraph gives an accurate summary of the plot: “Maybe there weren’t any clues because there wasn’t any reason to what was happening, the world had just picked us off one by one and then kept turning as if our disappearance didn’t matter…” but the story is too long and filled with everyday life details of the heroine too much to reach this conclusion.
“Jackie and Xīng Forever” by Wil Magness
Two young people meet in a virtual reality/dimension and tell things about their own world, while playing around in this one. They don’t consider this relationship with the similar credit as they have different lives and goals. The story is not unique enough to feel original from ones with a similar theme, and I even felt a big “so what?” at the end.
“A Ten Thousand Year Survey Into Seven Stomachs of an Ishta” by Allison Thai
This is an adventure set so far from our present Earth, it reminds one of Iain M. Banks’ Culture books. It’s a quite interesting journey into the depth of a mythical creature. Interesting as it is, the adventure also feels a bit flat. We get to know the seven stomachs one by one, the different settings, the oxygen is getting less and less, but basically that’s all that happens. The end of the story feels abrupt, not really developed.
“I found an old god in the woods” by Monte Lin
True to the title of the story, the narrator has long and tiresome dialogs with an old god. Also having an old well in the story, I couldn’t think anything else than this being an homage to a Murakami Haruki book. The narrator and the god exchange philosophical thoughts, ending in poems, which didn’t have any effect on me. Especially, as they brought clichés of religious texts, like:
“In exchange I ask only for you to remain human
Embrace your finiteness, your uncertainty
There is a joy in not knowing
To be bounded in time”
“Halfway Alive, Halfway Living” by Colton Kekoa Neves
The author uses absurd events to speak about the disintegration of a human body. An interesting touch on how fragile our lives are and how we are connected to each other. Although I would have read further on for an explanation of how all this is possible, the author decided to keep it in the shadows and work on the vibe only.
“Someone to Feed You” by Abigail Kemske
The narrator tells the story of decluttering and cleaning after a certain “you” she feels a deep connection to. We don’t really get exactly what’s going on, why this decluttering is needed, what happened to the other person, and what exactly happens during the process to the narrator. Is it a strange dream or a horror story? It is left to the reader to decide. However, the sadness and the look into the possible future is frightening and memorable.
László is very happy for the britpop band Oasis being back together.