Summary: Abyss & Apex, 2008

Abyss & Apex  has been publishing on a regular quarterly schedule the past four years (having published more frequently, but with some wobbles, in previous years). Carol Burrell is the Publisher, Wendy Delmater is the Managing Editor, the Science Fiction editor is Rob Campbell, Fantasy Editor is Ilona Gordon, and others in the mix include Trent Walters, Tom Simon, Jude-Marie Green, Camille Alexa, and Deirdre Saoirse Moen .

They published a total of 21 stories this year. The total word count was about 108,000. Four novelettes, the rest short stories, three of them being "short-shorts". I should note that they publish quite a lot of poetry as well, some of it quite good. This one fewer story than last year, and about 10,000 fewer words.

My favorite stories this year included, from the first quarter, "Snatch Me Another" by Mercurio D. Rivera, in which it is possible to take people from parallel worlds, with scary results; and Alan Smale’s "Quartet, with Mermaids", a powerful and dark look at how the discovery of real mermaids might play out. From the second quarter, Laura Anne Gilman's "Wolfling", a wrenching look at a boy who is, in common with many people, "Changed", and his attitude towards his unChanged little sister. Marissa K. Lingen's "Vanamoinen and the Singing Fish" (third quarter) is a well done evocation of Finnish fairy tales (in spirit at least). And from the fourth quarter, "Angry Rose's Lament" by Cat Rambo is a gritty SF story about a woman who lost a friend to aliens and wants revenge. Other strong stories included work from S. K. Richard, Nye Joell Hardy, Rush Nestvold, Lawrence Schoen, and Brian Dolton.

And the gender count ... 12 of 21 stories (57%) were by women. In 2007 27% (6 of 22).

SF/Fantasy split -- perhaps 13 of the 21 stories qualify as SF -- so 62%. As ever, I emphasize that that's a fuzzy guess.

Tags: 2008, webzines, yearly summaries