Books Worth Your Time
by Jason Sizemore on Jun 16, 2017 in Nonfiction | 0 comments
Books Worth Your Time is a quarterly feature where the Apex Magazine editorial team discusses some of the good stuff they’ve read recently. We hope you find something good to read, too!
A.C. WISE (Contributing Editor)
Amberlough
Lara Elena Donnelly
Tor Books
A slick and stylish novel of political intrigue set in a decadent world of spies, cabaret performers, and black-market dealers. The story weaves together shifting loyalties, complicated relationships, and well-drawn characters set against a lush backdrop.
Agents of Dreamland
Caitlín R. Kiernan
Tor.com
A novella that mashes-up of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, suicide cults, secret paranormal investigators, and zombie fungus. Kiernan offers up a perfectly satisfying and self-contained bite of darkness, but one that hints at a much larger world.
Passing Strange
Ellen Klages
Tor.com
Set in 1940s San Francisco and centered on group of queer women, this is a novella about art, love, friendship, and a little touch of magic. The story shifts through multiple voices, giving the story extra depth, and making the world feel lived-in and real.
LESLEY CONNER (Managing Editor)
The Refrigerator Monologues
Catherynne M. Valente
Saga Press
getBook.at/therefrigeratormonologues
Finally the women who support superheros have a space to tell their tales! The linked stories in this short volume are often bleak (the ladies are sitting in a cafe in Deadtown telling each other how they died) but there’s an edge of dark humor and a sense of relief of giving voice to the women who have been driven mad, murdered, and forgotten that is refreshing. This is a quick read, but definitely worth looking into for anyone who enjoys superhero tales.
Pressure
Brian Keene
Thomas Dunne
Gigantic sea monsters and a corrupt corporation run amok in Pressure by Brian Keene. Despite the dangers from both, Carrie and her colleagues have to use their diving experience and scientific background to prevent a natural disaster on an epic scale. A fast paced thriller this is the perfect summer read … though maybe not while at the beach.
Madeline Alvey (Apex Intern)
The Fettered Flame
E.D.E. Bell
Atthis Arts
The second book of Bell’s trilogy balances two worlds and a large cast of characters, weaving the separate stories established in her previous book into a single, large tapestry. It takes the intriguing story of The Banished Craft and gives it the momentum needed to make it a true page turner.
JASON SIZEMORE (Editor-in-Chief)
The Boy on the Bridge
M.R. Carey
Orbit
A quasi-prequel to the outstanding The Girl With All the Gifts, the setup is similar to the series debut: a young doctor protects a special child in a post-apocalyptic world. A group of scientists and military types go on an expedition hoping to find a way to stop the cordyceps mutation from killing off humankind. Like Melanie from “Gifts,”, Martin is a gifted child who may hold all the answers. If you enjoyed the first book, this one should be a must-read.
Faller
Will McIntosh
Tor
Will McIntosh caught my eye originally with Soft Apocalypse. Like that novel, Faller deals with the breakdown of society, but in a more “hard science” manner than social manner. The less said about the plot of Faller, the better, so I’ll only say this is an entertaining hard SF thriller-mystery that holds many cool surprises.
The Voices of Martyrs
Maurice Broaddus
Rosarium Publishing
Maurice Broaddus is one of the most prolific, important, and under-appreciated authors in genre fiction. This debut collection shows Broaddus’s range that feature stories of futuristic roller derbies “The Electric Spanking of War Babies”), Steampunk-Funk (“Pimp My Airship”), the horrors of Jim Crow, to proselytizing on a giant gas planet. Themes of religion, the other, and cultural identity flow through the stories of this collection, and I can’t recommend it high enough.
(Full Disclosure: Maurice Broaddus is the Apex Magazine reprints editor.)
