GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ Book Review: Best of Apex Magazine Edited By: Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner | I Smell Sheep

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Book Review: Best of Apex Magazine Edited By: Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner

Best of Apex Magazine
Edited By: Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner
January 12, 2016

Pages: 257
Whether wandering down endless stairwells, searching for answers in the desert, or reaching out to the stars, for more than six years Apex Magazine has entertained readers with stories that are strange, beautiful, shocking, and surreal. Now, for the first time, editors Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner are collecting the award winning and nominated stories, those chosen by readers as Story of the Year, and their own personal favorites into one anthology.

A Veil that wipes the experiences of war from soldiers’ memories. A witch who faces down both God and the devil to save a soul. A swaying dance that crosses the galaxy to transmit a message. A vampire caught in a web of politics and law by his responsibility to his family. Within this collection, you will find 21 stories that explore what it means to love, to regret, to be human.

With stories by Ursula Vernon, Ken Liu, Rachel Swirsky, Sarah Pinsker, Rich Larson, and more, Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1 brings readers some of the best stories Apex Magazine has published so far.


Apex Magazine has put together a collection of Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner’s favorite stories throughout the years. The magazine was filled with many unique stories. Some I liked and some I didn’t but I think they were all well written. Here are a few of the stories I enjoyed with quick synopses of each. Since I can’t say something about every story I liked I do want to mention this is worth the read. You may find like I did that not all the stories are to your tastes but there are many in here that will grab your imagination.

Advertising at the End of the World by Keffy R.M. Kehrli is a story where advertisements are real and go door to door trying to sell something. After the death of her husband, the ads started to transform into looking like him to try sell things to Marie. Not wanting to look at a fake image of her dead husband Marie uses her retirement and life insurance money and moves to Montana. It had been quite a few years since the world ended when Marie wakes up one morning to find advertisements destroying her flower garden. After the world ended they had no direction and just wandered. I think the reason I liked the story so much was because it really shows how our lives are dominated by advertising.

A Matter of Shapespace by Brian Trent is a story where everything is consciousness and people live in a virtual world. Jacob lives in a stationary house which is a permanent fixture but if Jacob really wanted to spend the money he could have a mobile homespace where he could conjure it anywhere with anything. Items appear in the home by stating what you want and it’s conjured. Then the glitch happened. A pyramid appeared that he hadn’t requested. He thought he’d been hacked only to find it was his friend Jocelyn who had been serving time in cloudspace. The author really painted a picture of our world now and how we are slaves to so many things in our lives and the destruction around us.

Build-A-Dolly by Ken Liu is a story about dolls that can be anything their owner wants. The can be a baby, a friend, a parent, anything. But what happens when the child gets too old to play with dolls? This story is a quick story about the love a doll feels for its owner and where it goes to die.

Getting 4 sheep






Denise B

Jason Sizemore
Born the son of an unemployed coal miner in a tiny Kentucky Appalachian villa named Big Creek (population 400), Jason fought his way out of the hills to the big city of Lexington. He attended Transylvania University (real school with its own vampire) and received a degree in computer science. Since 2004, he has owned and operated Apex Publications. He is the editor of five anthologies, author of Irredeemable and For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher, a three-time Hugo Award loser, an occasional writer, and usually can be found wandering the halls of hotel conventions seeking friends and free food.

Lesley Conner
Is a writer, social media editor and marketing leader for Apex Publications, and Managing Editor for Apex Magazine. She spends her days pestering book reviewers, proofreading, wrangling slush, doling out contracts, and chatting about books, writing, and anything else that crosses her mind on the @ApexBookCompany Twitter account. Most of her nights are spent with a good book and a glass of wine. Her alternative history horror novel, The Weight of Chains, was recently published by Sinister Grin Press.

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