We open the issue with a visit to a plausible near-future, as Anya Josephs presents us with a disturbing glimpse of a world where ordinary people rarely get the chances they dream of, and corporate life is everything. That last is a theme this magazine plans to play host to again - but that's a story for another time. As for this one, well, the title gives it all away. Doesn't it?
Mythaxis is not just about looking to the future. Jeffery Scott Sims delivers a classic yarn with echoes of H. P. Lovecraft to it - courtesy of the kind of roguish problem-solver-for-hire who made the stencilled doors of Private Eyes so much fun to knock on...
Afrofuturism is riding a wave of popularity around the world, but that richness which scifi is benefitting from has its roots in traditional stories, myths, and beliefs. Moustapha Mbacké Diop takes us to present day Senegal and shows us that some of those things from the past are alive and well, and very up close.
Depending on her name at the time, Skye Allen either does fantasy fiction or she does music. In the piece she gave us, we get both - along with a stage-side pass to a gig that threatens to go to some very dark places. There's nothing quite like a band that's on fire...
Fantasy author and speculative poet Daniel Ausema is no stranger to strange lands, strange technologies, strange creatures. Here he takes us on a journey though a selection of the first, and exposes us to the others in ways his heroine - and readers - may be unprepared for.
Mythaxis generally seeks out unpublished work, but occasionally a story comes along that leaves the kind of impression that you want to land again. Micah Hyatt's perfectly crafted piece of flash fiction is just such a thing: a short, sharp, knock-out punch of a story, with a killer final line.
Liam Baldwin has been providing humorous and/or pun-ridden art (and occasionally fiction) to Mythaxis since the beginning, and long may he continue. As for right now, who'd enjoy a short, informative dissertation with a dose of classic scifi to it?
From the beginning there's been a fine tradition of epistolary fiction in the speculative genres - Dracula, for example, told its bloody tale through diaries, letters, newspaper articles, ship's logs... Andrew Johnston tells no less bloody a tale - and if these records glowed on a screen on some distant planet, what of it?
Not only is "Alternate History" a fun source of escapism for the well-informed reader, it can give rise to what we might call "Alternate Future" stories - where we glimpse what might have followed what might have been. Andrea Kriz doesn't say it outright, but we can see what changed here. And what needs to.
The only unifying thing Mythaxis seeks is good writing - but we want to bring together a variety of genres, styles, themes, and no two alike is fine by us. Dennis Mombauer answered that call with a vision of the strange, and left us with questions.
They say "Always leave them wanting more", and we think the final story of the issue will certainly do that. Chris Cook introduces us to a down-to-earth family man dealing with real world problems... and then introduces him to the quirkiest suburban adventure you're ever likely to come across. Fuggedaboudit.