What makes us fall in love with a story? Do we see ourselves in the characters, the champions with whom we can identify and invest...
Apex Magazine is a digital zine of dark sci-fi, dark fantasy, and horror short fiction. During the period between issues, we drop the issue's contents online in a staggered release schedule.
Apex Magazine Issue 149
Cover art by Yorgos Cotronis
EDITORIAL
Musings from Maryland by Lesley Conner
ORIGINAL FICTION
"Shadows Below Seaway Trains" by Ai Jiang
"I Remember a One-Sided Die" by Francis Bass (5/6)
"Seven Ribbons" by Beth Goder
"Heart Seeds" by E. Thede (5/20)
"Lies As the Natural State of Things" by Rich Larson (6/3)
FLASH FICTION
"To Kill a Language" by Rukman Ragas
"Extenta" by Daniel Roop (5/13)
"Things the Older Boy Understands" by Sierra Branham (6/10)
DRABBLE FICTION WINNERS
"As It Comes" by Derek Alan Jones
"Swan Song" by Liam Hogan (5/27)
"The Fifth Horseman" by Cressida Roe (6/24)
CLASSIC FICTION
"The Liberation of Brother Buffalo" by Michael Boatman (5/1)
"The Neighbors by L. Marie Wood (6/5)
ESSAYS
"Readers & Role-play: Experiencing Your Favorite Stories Through Play" by Semaj Saint Garbutt (4/29)
"Perfection, And the Bridges Between" by Eugen Bacon (6/17)
REVIEWS
Words for Thought (Short Fiction Review) by A.C. Wise (5/15)
Book Review of One Level Down by Mary G. Thompson (Leah Ning)
Book Review of A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang (Leah Ning)
INTERVIEWS
Author Ai Jiang (Marissa van Uden)
Author Francis Bass (Marissa van Uden) (5/8)
Artist Yorgos Cotronis (Bradley Powers)
LATEST CONTENT
To Kill a Language
22 Apr, 2025
1. To kill a language, you must first rip it from living throats. Don't look so askance; you knew it already...
Interview with Artist Yorgos Cotronis
17 Apr, 2025
Yorgos Cotronis, an Athens-based artist, brings digital collage, lost mythology, and a fantasy flair to the cover of this month’s...
Seven Ribbons
15 Apr, 2025
The first ribbon was attached to a family photograph, each ribbon-end stuck on by cracking adhesive, lines of gold looped over...
Book Review: A PALACE NEAR THE WIND by Ai Jiang
15 Apr, 2025
In A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang, Lufeng—a Wind Walker with skin made of bark and hair made of needle threads—is to be married...
Book Review: ONE LEVEL DOWN by Mary G. Thompson
08 Apr, 2025
One Level Down, by Mary G. Thompson, starts with Ella, a fifty-eight-year-old woman trapped in the body of a child by a man who...
As It Comes
08 Apr, 2025
Content warnings: None
Take my hand as it comes. Only look at me.
We don’t need to see it coming. We don’t need to see how it...
Interview with Author Ai Jiang
03 Apr, 2025
“Shadows Below Seaway Trains” is a beautiful science fiction story about what it means to truly be there for another person. It...
Shadows Below Seaway Trains
01 Apr, 2025
Content Warnings: None
Time waited for no one, especially those with no money to afford a pause, a moment’s breath. We simply...