Abyss & Apex

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Abyss & Apex: Second Quarter 2009, Issue 30

By Carole Ann Moleti ⋅ August 29, 2009

In “Dancing for the Monsoon” by Aliette de Bodard, the chosen women perform to entice the gods to bring rain, then suffer paralysis. Nampeng couldn’t go through with it and has redeemed herself by training Khean to take her place and save the suffering people from drought. It didn’t make sense to me that the [...]

Abyss & Apex, #29, 1st Quarter 2009

By Carole Ann Moleti ⋅ February 20, 2009

Abyss & Apex #29 opens with “After The Revolution” by Pauline J. Alama, where the Equality Party vanquishes the Guardians of the Eugenic Society. Aurora, an expatriate Eugen, decides the fate of the “nursery” inhabitants, many of whom are far from infants, but rather armed and dangerous members of the Cadets or Youth Corps. Aurora [...]

Abyss and Apex, #28, October 2008

By Rae Bryant ⋅ November 15, 2008

In the Fourth Quarter 2008 issue of Abyss & Apex, #28, editor Wendy S. Delmater describes her ideal or what she calls a “yummy” story:
“I love circularity…distinctive voice…unforgettable characters…[and] an ‘inevitable surprise.’”
Luckily for readers, Delmater and her staff deliver these “yummy” tales, from a virtuoso of authors, straight to the screen, no [...]

Abyss & Apex #27

By Jim Stratton ⋅ September 9, 2008

Abyss & Apex is a professional e-zine of speculative fiction and poetry of all stripes with a long established history. The editors make a special point to emphasis their interest in character over plot. If issue #27 is any indication, the editors certainly have made their preference felt. This issue contains four [...]

Abyss & Apex, #26, 2nd Quarter 2008

By David Hebblethwaite ⋅ June 3, 2008

This was my first encounter with Abyss & Apex, a generalist speculative fiction webzine that seeks to publish “powerful stories with emotion that resonates in our minds and hearts long after the first reading” and “stories that stand out from the norm even in a genre that pushes the envelope of normal.” With the five [...]

Distillations: Explorations of Hunger

By Jennifer Mercer ⋅ April 15, 2008

In this month’s Distillations column, we explore three poems involving different twists on the mundane experience of eating and the experience of hunger. The narrators in each poem are human, and the food being discussed is not particularly exotic: risotto, soufflés, and mother’s milk. However, each poem shows hunger from an unexpected direction.

Abyss & Apex, #25, 1st Quarter 2008

By Nicole McClain ⋅ March 14, 2008

Issue #25 of Abyss & Apex leans toward the melancholy. Even so, the five stories that comprise the current issue are filled with thought provoking ideas that should ultimately leave the reader in a thoughtful, but far from sad, mood.
“Snatch Me Another” by Mercurio D. Rivera is set in a reality not unlike ours—but with [...]

Abyss & Apex, #24, 4th Quarter 2007

By Nicole McClain ⋅ November 13, 2007

Issue #24 of Abyss & Apex is a solid one. One of the underlying themes in all the stories is how we do—or in some cases don’t—use technology. The stories run towards the science fiction end of the speculative fiction spectrum but do make room for both the everyday and the magical. I can’t say [...]

Distillations: An Introduction

By Jennifer Mercer ⋅ October 13, 2007

Welcome to Distillations, a monthly review of Speculative Poetry. The field of Speculative Poetry embraces every subgenre of science fiction and fantasy imaginable in every existing poetry form, plus some made up fresh for the occasion. What it doesn’t include is a lot of words. That means that every letter, every piece of punctuation, [...]

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