A short month with lots of travel means my Magazine Minis are even smaller than usual this month, but I did read more than one story from two different magazine issues this month, so let’s take a brief look at a couple that caught my eye from the Winter 2025 issue of Apex and the March/April 2025 issue of Asimov’s. 

Apex

Apex will drop from bimonthly to quarterly in 2025, but two stories from their winter issue—issue 148—immediately caught my attention. First, the novelette One by One by Lindz McLeod digs into the familiar speculative trope in which a character disappears without a trace and almost no one remembers they ever existed at all. But as the title suggests, in this particular case, the disappearances don’t stop with just one person. It’s not a story that’s interested in resolving every mystery, but it does bring out a commonality among those the missing that delivers a sobering and appropriately messy thematic punch. 

Jackie and Xīng Forever by Wil Magness takes place almost entirely in a middleworld, those places between different realities shaped by the imaginations of those who visit it. But this particular middleworld contains little life apart from the grass and the two title characters, one of whom hails from a land that sounds an awful lot like 1990s America, while the other works just 90 minutes a day feeding new ideas to AI in a post-war, post-scarcity universe. Perhaps unsurprisingly, communication between the two is not always smooth, and it gets even more complicated upon the development of romantic feelings. Though I’d have liked to see a little more time spent in the buildup, this one comes together for a big finish that’s going to keep it in my head for a while. 

Asimov’s

Despite a couple novellas from authors I’ve enjoyed immensely in the past, the two stories that jumped out at me from the March/April issue of Asimov’s were quite a bit shorter. A Brief History of the Afterlife by Anthony Ha caught my attention early with the premise of signing long-term contracts in order to financially support a family—a familiar sci-fi trope with lots of room for emotional punches. But this story doesn’t dwell on the most horrifying elements of the contract, instead providing a series of glimpses into the lead’s life, taking her obligations primarily as background. And while there’s some appeal to the wide scope development, I wanted more time to really get attached to any of the constituent vignettes. 

On the other hand, I rarely have much trouble getting attached to Ray Nayler’s work, and The Demon of Metrazol was no exception. It’s a period piece following a photographer trying to capture an experimental psychiatric treatment that produces great calm in the aftermath but absolute horror during its administration. This one has some of the ambiguity common to horror writing—an ambiguity that doesn’t always work for me—but still hits hard in the way it draws the lead and her loved ones into the plot. 

February Favorites

• Jackie and Xīng Forever by Wil Magness (short story, Apex)