In this romantic comedy set in Johannesburg, a fake “healer” falls in love with the woman he’s meant to win over for his client. Senzo Mabizela is a man of many talents. He can fit in with any crowd, hustle his way out of a tight spot, and bring back lost lovers – or at least pretend to do so long enough to trick lovesick customers out of their money. When his childhood nemesis seeks help to win over Ayanda, the girl they’ve both wanted since their school days, Senzo sees a chance to kill two birds with one con. If he plays his cards right, he can get revenge on his former bully, make a small fortune and win the heart of the woman he loves. But the game of love isn’t quite that simple…

Conyza Bennett will never be an ordinary teenager. Her supernatural powers make her different to other kids her age, and as hard as she tries to avoid trouble, often trouble finds her...

People think nothing ever happens where I live. It’s too quiet, too docile, too peaceful. They don’t know the half of it. I am Conyza Bennett and I am the teen queen of things that go bump in the night...

Connie Bennett is a freak. She has premonitions, crazy wild hair and the boy she’s loved for three years doesn’t know who she is. Suddenly she can hear everyone’s thoughts and she finds herself drawn to a mysterious, scarred boy. Sparks literally fly between them, but could he actually be dangerous?

Strange. Beautiful. Shocking. Surreal. International futurists edition! Guest-edited by Francesco Verso. APEX MAGAZINE is a digital dark science fiction and fantasy genre zine that features award-winning short fiction, essays, and interviews. Established in 2009, our fiction has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards. We publish every other month. Issue 128 contains the following short stories, essays, reviews, and interviews. EDITORIAL From the Sense of Wonder to the Sense of Wander by Francesco Verso ORIGINAL FICTION Soil of Our Home, Storm of Our Lives by Renan Bernardo Robin's Last Song by Nina Munteanu Godmother by Cheryl S. Ntumy The synchronism of touch by Gabriela Damián Miravete Dreamports by Tlotlo Tsamaase Samsāra in a Teacup by Lavanya Lakshminarayan CLASSIC FICTION Aethra by Michalis Manolios Francine (draft for the September lecture) by Maria Antònia Martí Escayol NONFICTION Highlighting Trends in Indian SF in the Twenty-first Century by Tarun K. Saint REVIEWS Words for Thought: Short Fiction Review by A.C. Wise INTERVIEWS An Interview with Author Renan Bernardo by Marissa van Uden An Interview with Author Nina Munteanu by Rebecca E. Treasure An Interview with Artist Chiara Topo by Jason Sizemore

Your feelings are of no consequence. Shad-Dari has escaped her past, her dreams now in reach. An excavator of the valuable old sounds of Órino-Rin, she steals tiny, unheard fragments of the sacred songs to erase the painful echo of her home planet, Ekwukwe. In one rebellion too far, she sets off a chain of events that severs her from time itself, forcing her, without another way forward, to face her past.

A stunning collection in a stunning book, Cheryl Ntumy's fantasy and near-future sci-fi is powerful and unique. Cheryl Ntumy is a Ghanaian writer of short fiction and novels of speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in FIYAH Literary Magazine, Apex Magazine, World Literature Today and she's also been shortlisted for the Nommo Award for African speculative fiction, the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize and the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship. She is part of the Sauúti Collective, which created a shared universe for Afrocentric speculative fiction, and a member of Petlo Literary Arts, an organization that develops and promotes creative writing in Botswana. This collection features nine new stories, including 'Dream State', 'Clickbait' and 'The Feeding Grounds' with other popular tales, such as 'The Storymage' and 'The Way of Baa'gh' (A Sauútiverse story). The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Keabetswe Rantao, an ambitious estate agent, is determined to sell a house to architect, Oagile Motsumi. Soon the smouldering Oagile wants more from Keabetswe than just the perfect house. But Oagile has a seven-year-old daughter, and being a mother is the furthest thing from Keabetswe s mind. Will Keabetswe have to sacrifice her dreams or is this really the beginning of happily ever after?"

Ausgabe 8 unseres Magazins bringt erneut deutsche und internationale Geschichten aus unserer nahen Zukunft. Mit dabei sind diesmal Katharine Tyndall (USA/Berlin) mit der Siegergeschichte des Berlin Sci Fi Filmfest 2024, der mehrfach ausgezeichnete Uwe Hermann, die weltweit bekannte Cheryl S. Ntumy aus Ghana, Roderick Leeuwenhart aus den Niederlanden und last but not least Kris Brynn aus Deutschland. Ein Artikel über Politik und SF von keinem geringeren als Dirk van den Boom sowie mehrere Interviews runden die Ausgabe ab.