Website: apex-magazine.com

"Advertising at the End of the World" Author: Keffy R. M. Kehrli Main Characters: Marie Main Elements: Science Fiction - Post-Apocalypse "Fungal Gardens" Author: Ekaterina Sedia Main Characters: David, Johnny Main Elements: Science Fiction - Biohazard "The Girl in the Basement " Author: Matthew Kressel Main Characters: Unnamed Main Elements: Science Fiction - Post-Apocalypse Non-Fiction When Science Fiction Meets Horror in World Building - Monica Valentinelli Interview with Elizabeth Engstrom - Deb Taber

"Advertising at the End of the World" - This was in interesting twist on the advertisements we are bombarded with. What if ads were made to have human form, but the deal for free toilet paper scrolls across where the face should go. They can talk and interact with you in a limited way. Now toss in a plague apocalypse and now there are all these ads wandering about with no one to sell their pitch too. I enjoyed this one, especially as it wasn't so much about the evils of advertisement as it was about how that was the only thing left of civilization, until they too died out.

"Fungal Gardens" - this one didn't impress too much, took the idea of the fungus that can take over ants, as well as taking the idea that there are ants that actually farm fungus, combines them, and comes up with an unlikely story where a similar things starts happening to humans. I found it had zero plausibility so failed to shock or scare me.

"The Girl in the Basement" - was...well dark and disturbing as a child abuse story, but aside from mentioning "there are no more cows" and there being a lot of dead trees, thus making it post-apocalyptic of some sort, there was nothing SF about it. The post-apocalyptic part had absolutely nothing to do with the story (it could have, but it didn't get woven in) so felt like it just got tossed in so it could get published in an SF magazine and thus even distracted from the core of the story. Aside from "you shouldn't prostitute your underage daughter and keep her locked in a basement", I didn't get the point.