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Issue #24 of Abyss & Apex is a thoroughly enjoyable one with stories by Frank Wu, Tony Pi, Patrick Hudson, Mark Rayner and new author Desmond Warzel.

This is the first issue of Abyss & Apex that I've read and issue #24 is a pure delight. All the stories got a Very Good from me.

The first story in the Table of Contents is "Metamorphoses in Amber" by Tony Pi. Felix Lea is by day an art dealer. He is also on of the Elect, people who can change their shape within certain limits by using amber with insects caught inside. After a night of stealing a Faberge Egg from his bitter rival, he realizes he is undergoing a metamorphosis that he does not want, The Widowing, in which a male Elect becomes a woman and cannot change back. He must go to his rival to stop the change. Pi creates an interesting culture here and details the science of the shape-changing to make quite a nice novelette. Next comes "Looking Out for Number One" by Patrick Hudson. Barney Chip is a salesman for Creamy Dreamy, a candy company. He is on Venus waiting to teleport out. But things go wrong and soon duplicates of him are trying to kill him. All this is set in a wonderfully paranoid future in which the world is controlled by a group called the "collective directors". Hudson gives us a fun story here.

Frank Wu contributes a haunting story in "Love and Death in the Time of Monsters". Bob's mother, a lifetime smoker, is diagnosed with cancer on the same day that a giant monster attacks and destroys New York City. As the cancer is being treated, the monster continues the attacks. Who will win and at what cost? Mark Rayner's "Under the Blue Curve" takes place in a future in which most people communicate with an ultimate internet known as the datasphere. By use of implants, they can experience anything. There are no more books, movies or television, there is only the datasphere. Henry Overduin, however, is a "noneact" and cannot communicate with the datasphere. He does have a talent for telling stories and is truly inspired when he meets Elisa. She can communicate his stories to the datasphere and he becomes wealthy. He also discovers other benefits of his condition and that may change the world. Last of all, in the Flash Fiction section is a short-short called "Wikihistory" by Desmond Warzel. This one's a fun little story featuring time-travelers discussing changing history and its consequences.

The issue is rounded out by some nice poems. Check out their website at www.abyssandapex.com to learn how to support them. They deserve it.