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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

As usual free shorts are a great chance to try out an author stype before taking the plunge with a full novel.

In “The New Breed” Michael A. Burstein tackles reproductive rights in a world where our planet has been conquered and is run by aliens. While more could have been done with the climax and end, matching it to the layered depths set up at the opening of the story, Burstein expertly captures the difficulty of decision making when none of the options are good.

“Take Your Daughters to Work” by Livia Llewellyn brings a sinister Elder Gods feel to a world that’s part science fiction and part throwback to an era of steam and industry. Sadie approaches the tradition of going to work with her father with pride and bit of worry. He’s the boss after all, and she needs to be worthy of him. Llewellyn pushes the twisted feel readers get while Sadie observes the city and her father’s work all the way to the end without relenting or depending on a twist ending.

“Behold: Skowt!” by Jason Heller is a crude and beautiful tale of the streets in the future world where the have-nots are as proportionately worse off as the haves are better, compared to our world. Skowt is the hard as stone alter ego of a boy living on the streets who aspires to only one thing, one glorious act which will make the world finally notice him. It’s raw, in an intense, effective way reminiscent of S.P. Somtow’s harsh urban fiction.

“The Moribund Room” by Carol Lanham first appeared in History is Dead, a wonderful anthology of historical zombie tales. The dark love story, heavy on the morbid, holds up to multiple readings and the prose still holds magic after all is illuminated.

It should also be pointed out that Apex Magazine is more than just fiction. Each issue also features columns, interviews and essays both genre-clectic and general literacy-based.