The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5

The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 5, edited by Cristina Jurado, features award-winning science fiction and fantasy short stories from South America, southeast Asia, First Nations, and Africa.

Cyberpunk from Spain, Singapore, and Japan; mythology from Venezuela, Korea, and First Nations; stories of the dead from Zimbabwe and Egypt, and space wonders from India, Germany, and Bolivia. And much more. The fifth volume of the ground-breaking World SF anthology series reveals once more the uniquely international dimension of speculative fiction.

Table of Contents

Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Singapore) — "A Series of Steaks"
Daína Chaviano (Cuba, translated by Matthew D. Goodwin) — "Accursed Lineage"
Darcie Little Badger (USA/Lipan Apache)  — "Nkásht íí"
T.L. Huchu (Zimbabwe) — "Ghostalker"
Taiyo Fujii (Japan, translated by Jim Hubbert) — "Violation of the TrueNet Security Act"
Vandana Singh (India) — "Ambiguity Machines: An Examination"
Basma Abdel Aziz (Egypt, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette) — "Scenes from the Life of an Autocrat"
Liliana Colanzi (Bolivia, translated by Jessica Sequeira) — "Our Dead World"
Bo-young Kim (South Korea, translated by Jihyun Park & Gord Sellar) — "An Evolutionary Myth"
Israel Alonso (Spain, translated by Steve Redwood) — "You Will See the Moon Rise"
Sara Saab (Lebanon) — "The Barrette Girls"
Chi Hui (China, translated by John Chu) — "The Calculations of Artificials"
Ana Hurtado (Venezuela)  — "El Cóndor del Machángara"
Karla Schmidt (Germany, translated by Lara M. Harmon) — "Alone, on the Wind"
Eliza Victoria (Philippines) — "The Seventh"
Tochi Onyebuchi (Nigeria/USA) — "Screamers"
R.S.A. Garcia (Trinidad and Tobago) — "The Bois"
Giovanni De Feo (Italy) — "Ugo"

Excerpt

From "The Barrette Girls" by Sara Saab

When we get to Euston Station, we help them change trains, and the barrette girls do not resist us.

Andrew says, “They told us to be gentle with them, Sunday.”

For his sake, I touch them gingerly and coo to reassure them. I hand around the kind of water bottle you buy at a gas station, five liters in flimsy plastic, and they drink with the desperation of suckling cubs.

Andrew asks, “Where will they all sleep?”

I reply, “It’s not supposed to rain tomorrow,” because he should not be so obvious in public.

The station is full of people who watch us. They look at the orange knapsacks we have put on all the girls to make them seem part of an organized tour, here to learn English or ramble in the frosted countryside. Andrew and I wear orange hats. The girls’ knapsacks are a different shade of orange to our hats. Andrew was late, so we bought the knapsacks in a rush from a TK Maxx near the pick-up point.

The barrette girls do not speak on the Tube. There is no place for every one of them to sit and so they stand. Andrew shrugs and sits down. The girls, who do not sit, bump each other with their orange decoy knapsacks, unwitting. Some girls catch a bag in the face but do not react, as if a bag is just a buffet of underground air.

About the Editors

Lavie Tidhar is the author of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize-winning A Man Lies Dreaming, the World Fantasy Award-winning Osama, and of the critically-acclaimed The Violent Century. His other works include the Bookman Histories trilogy, several novellas, two collections, and a forthcoming comics mini-series, Adler. He currently lives in London.

Cristina Jurado is a bilingual author and editor who writes in Spanish and English. She studied Advertising at the Universidad de Sevilla (Spain) and holds a Master’s degree in Rhetoric from Northwestern University (USA).