The October 1, 2026 Abyss & Apex is published. Read fiction by Hall Jameson, Lancelot Schaubert, Raul Gonzalvez de Aguila, Lynn Gazis, R.J. Gerard, David McGillveray, Alex Scott, and William H. Hilf. Plus genre poetry and small press book reviews. Its all at abyssapexzine.com/

From our archives: "AIs Don’t Feel Guilty." Depending on an AI in wartime. abyssapexzine.com/2023/05/ai…

This week we are going to share Abyss & Apex stories about, or containing, AI (which some are now calling SI--super intelligence.) A&A has a lot of them! We'll start with "Per Jur AI," where an expert system is confronted in court. abyssapexzine.com/2024/09/pe…

A&A Reviews IN FLUX Talk about a stunning opening! A man slows time long enough to roll it back a few slow-as-syrup seconds and save the life of a woman who’s body about to be murdered. She survives, and he takes her to his home in a strange dimension he calls the Flux... In Flux is very hard to categorize. It’s part historical novel, part fantasy, part sci-fi, and part romance. And it works on all those levels. A very enjoyable and satisfying read! abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/aa…

A&A Reviews TIME CLOCKS. It’s a wild ride, a mystery with in a mystery, a high-tech thriller: historical and yet very grounded in our era. Great characters and surprises build to an unexpected resolution (quite a few of them, actually.) This was a fun book that kept me guessing! abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/aa…

Book review! A&A Reviews AGENCY. Ciaran MacCool is an agent who is a contractor for the military in Syria under an assumed name. He accomplishes his work, his covert mission, and is nearly killed–which blows his cover. But the reader wonders, who sent him? There are tantalizing clues that it’s someone, or something…extremely unusual. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/aa…

New genre poetry! “Mysteries” by Jennifer Crow. we hope only for numbness to spread from synapse to synapse until our nerves melt into protoplasmic goo, a mystery for aliens to ponder... abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/my…

New genre poetry! “Alice” by John C. Mannone. I feel an uncanny calm despite the turbulence plaguing Alice’s world, and the mirror of this one, reflecting a psychedelic anthem of white rabbits and purple haze to escape through the maze of the mind. But there is no escape. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/al…

New genre poetry! “Prearranged Departure” by Ann Thornfield-Long. I am still chockfull of day // so I watch the fireflies who send me words in Morse Code: Dah-dah-dit. Dah-dah-dah, Dah-dit-dit. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/pr…

New genre poetry! “Vindication” by Eileen Tynion. “There are no beings in the sky,” …………my mother said to me. “And nowhere else does life exist …………beyond this world of ours.” “But mama,” said the child I was... abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/vi…

New genre poetry! “The Body as Archive” by Joely Williams. The body is not a fast archive. But it holds. It always holds. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/th…

New genre poetry! “Triton at Perihelion” by Stuart Greenhouse. I move, a drop; 672 cycles of your nervous heart I’ll thaw; 38 degrees Kelvin, then 39.3, just warm enough to weep skyward, life-like; that is, to sublimate my methane-and-nitrogen-clenched outer face from rink-smooth chitin to a moist, warm air life-bearing-like — you breathe nitrogen gas mostly, where you live, don’t you? abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/tr…

New genre poetry! “Vinespeak” by Lindsay Duncan. The poet speaks: The terminology I learned while studying for Certified Specialist of Wine grew upon the trellis of the other lines... abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/vi…

New genre poetry: “Kyrielle to a Dragon” by Michael Mingo. Poet speaks: I’m not a believer, and I wasn’t sold on writing a straightforward prayer. I asked myself, “What’s something else that’s god-like?” and the first thing that came to mind was a dragon. There was the prompt, and nine stanzas later, there was the poem. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/ky…

New genre poetry! “Very Few Good Dragons” by Christiaan Sabatelli. My friend the medievalist says we misunderstand the dragons of legend and nightmare, of role-playing games that bear their name. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/ve…

In honor of the late, great, David C. Kopaska-Merkel: "Flying." The story of Icarus. Image credit: "Fall of Icarus" by René Milot. abyssapexzine.com/2020/09/fl…

Our Poetry Editorial for this issue mourns the passing of A&A poet & regular David C. Kopaska-Merkel, and highlights one of his poems. abyssapexzine.com/2026/09/in…

New flash fiction! "Big Sky" by William H. Hilf. When you drink the water, you drink the ghosts, she used to say. They’re looking for home too. (this one's so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes) abyssapexzine.com/2026/08/bi…