This is a really interesting collection of science fiction short stories. Baker toys with themes of loss, grief, and sentience in interesting ways. He also does some really interesting format experiments, such as annotated bibliographies, excerpts from an index, and dictionary entries. The unique formatting was my favorite part, followed by the subtle (and less-subtle) connections between some of the stories.

Baker is a new-to-me author and after reading this short-stories collection, i am eager to discover more of his works.
This book was captivating. Baker's approach to the themes of love, forgetting, grief, hope (and so many more) was so very well served by the different formats he used to recount his stories. Oscillating between pure sci-fi and anticipation narratives, we've got traditional stories as well as lists, indexes, handbooks, etc. What a refreshing read ! Lots of food for thought in these pages as well as truly heart wrenching moments. I might be repeating myself but the structure of it all was really what stayed with me the most after reading "The Butterfly Disjunct", and how it all seemed to fit together. I laughed (there's a lot of really funny bits), i cried, i stopped and thought, i pondered, i smiled... All in all, i really loved this collection.

I will most certainly be re-reading this books or at least parts of it. I want to go back to some of these worlds, some of these times. I feel it would also be something i'd enjoy reading again with new eyes, a new comprehension of the whole. Surely, i'll find even more meaning there.

It's a collection i'll decidedly recommend to all sci-fi lovers, as well as to all lovers of the art of writing. I think the latter will find in these pages a vast source of inspiration on how to tell a story, without seeming to write a story at all.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this book.

I've read so many brilliant stories by Baker through the years, and it's a real treat to have them all gathered together in this short story collection. These stories are mindbending, heart-rending, sometimes slyly funny, with unexpected twists and turns. Also, Baker's prose is always wonderful. A wonderful collection that shows the breadth and depth of this writer's imagination.

This is a collection of somewhat interconnected science fiction short stories, many of which take place in a dystopian landscape.

I thought that the characters were the shining stars of this short story collection. Each character felt complex but easy to understand. I wanted to know more about each of the characters and their stories.

I do think that some of the stories were a little difficult to understand, especially with how short they were. Additionally, I thought that some just didn’t fit the theme of the book.

However, I overall enjoyed this short story collection.

I think this book helped me learn that short story collections of science fiction are not my favorite. I will say I still enjoyed parts of this book, but I don't think I am the target audience.

The cover is quite cool and I appreciate the artistic writing style. It just didn't quite work with my brain.

I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you for allowing me to read this!

It took me a minute, but I got quite enamoured of this quirky collection. That’s possibly because the more you read, the more links you see between stories; and some themes start to emerge, too. Time. Love. Memory. Forgiveness. Ghosts—on Mars. Other things on Mars. Space. A couple of empires. Post-apocalypses. Deadly feuds. Beginnings, middles, endings, and further beginnings.

Baker likes headings—you’ll see them a lot, and so I imagine he likes grouping things and ideas—like in the very cool vision of a ruined Toronto after humanity’s lost the ability to use technology, and many of the other stories. There’s a great deal more. The title story is mind-blowing, and very strange. There are feuding time travellers who leave a message in a bottle. There’s the dad who has surgery to forget everything. Also the story of an archive; a quantum game; a time loop and a sentient ship; a one-woman symposium where her many iterations are to present papers; a little cli-fi; and a dog called Little Bastard. There’s even a whole thing on Basho. Oh, and story about ship names.

There are modified humans. There’s a confectioner’s shop on Mars. There’s diving to find exotic life on Europa. *doge coefficient* is an amusing story about language. *love and relativity* is a heartbreaking series of letters to a man lost in time and space. *images across a shattered sea* is fascinating for its imaginary tech and how Baker imagines that world; also for world-building in miniature. *???. [error: out of timeline, unable to process]* is my favourite story, and I won’t spoil it for you, but it has a really wonderful structure, and is a “hermit crab” (there are quite a few of these). I enjoyed Baker’s instructions on *how to break causality and write the perfect time travel story*. I also loved *an evening of theatre at floating world station*, which is about goats, love gone wrong, and a sentient space station. (Aren’t all these titles so cool?!)

Anyway. This is a book I want to read again soon, and I will. So many great ideas, and so much great structure. Read if you love SF ideas, and read if you’re a writer who’s interested in the many ways you can tell a story. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for DRC access.

I usually stay away from science fiction because I feel so stupid and small around anything related to STEM, but the vibe of the stories here is very welcoming. Baker does not dumb down concepts to appeal to the widest audience; rather, he subtly equips the reader with skills and cues to enjoy the worlds he has built. I feel smart while reading, and that to me is the mark of a great writer.

This is the best book I've read in this long and lonely 2024.

This short story collection is a nice sci fi one. Overall are the stories read-worthy. Some better than the others. I enjoyed it!

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for this free e-ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

The Butterfly Disjunct is a collection of short stories covering a range of science fiction ideas from AI, body modification, to time travel. Some stories hit hard emotionally hitting on the topics of grief and the hopelessness of post-apocalyptic worlds. Other stories are really funny serving a reprieve from the darker ones. These are great thought experiments that brings in just the right amount of human emotion to make them relatable. Some of the stories left me confused or wanting more, but overall this was a great collection. I would recommend it to those who like short, punchy, varied science fiction stories.

While this book had an interesting premise and seemed well paced. I could not connect with the characters and the writing.

It might simply be a style issue for me. I did not finish it and will therefore not be publishing a review on my storygraph, Since it might work well for other readers.

Thank you to the author and publisher for giving me access to this book as an ARC.

This is a pretty good collection of science fiction short stories, but I was amazed or wowed in any meaningful way. I will say the cover of the book is not enticing, it has a very amateurish element to it that made me reconsidering reading it. It's a good but not great book, but I don't regret reading it.

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. This was a book of short stories, mostly set in space. A few stories were connected, most were not. The stories were quirky and fun, and I would recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.

The Butterfly Disjunct is a collection of sci-fi short stories and the premise sounded so good I just had to check it out for myself and it didn't disappoint.

I'll first talk about the writing style. It didn't quite live up to my expectations and at times felt a bit choppy with too many scene changes (in video editing language it'd be parallel to having too many cuts) and that's why felt past paced. So, definitely took sometime to adjust with it.

The stories were unique and if I say so, many of them could be adapted into short films as well. My favourite among them was 'Masks'. It was chilling and brilliant. I don't want to spoil it further but at first I was as confused as the MC and then could feel everything as the story progressed further.

In conclusion, this book could've been a hit for me if not for the writing style.

Thanks to netgalley for this ARC! This book had a lot of heavy material stuffed into one small book. I enjoyed the stories of grief and how beautifully tragic it was described. Overall, this book wasn’t for me but it was a quick read

The writing in this collection is fast-paced, flowery and descriptive, packing as much detail about the world as possible into each short story. However, I feel that in an attempt to fit each story into just a short chapter has left many holes in the stories, causing me quite a bit of confusion while reading. Concepts are introduced with little to no background or follow up, and characters are not fully developed and so feel very one-dimensional. I feel that this collection has so much potential should the stories be expanded upon more. Many just needed more time to shine and to fully flesh out the characters and settings and to fully elaborate on the concepts introduced within each chapter.

Finally, thank you to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for this ARC

Stewart C Baker's 'The Butterfly Disjunct' is a collection of science fiction short stories that span across many galaxies, centuries and timelines! I loved this collection of work very much. It was such a wonderful, chaotic and fun read. Every story had an unusual element to it as they discuss themes of politics, science, relationships the environment and so many more.

There was so much variety and so many worlds in this short collection, an absolutely delightful aspect of the book. The shortness of each story allowed for fast paced, engaging reads that kept the reader drawn into these creative and expanse worlds.

One factor to the collection that I loved was the recurring characters, Kirsi and Aaala, who's development we got to follow across several stories. This allowed the collection to feel interconnected and created an underlying sense of growth to the novel. Several stories, especially 'How to Configure your Quantum Disambiguator' also had big 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' vibes which I adored! The chaos and randomness to the stories were an extremely fun and hilarious touch!

I thoroughly enjoyed the collection as a whole, but some stories felt that they were too short and some of the characters and plots were left underdeveloped, leaving me wanting more. This also resulted in some stories becoming quite confusing to understand due to how brief and fast paced they were.

I loved 'The Butterfly Disjunct' and I believe that Baker did a wonderful job at creating such a fun and thought provoking read. Fans of science fiction and h2g2 will love this collection!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Interstellar Flight Press for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this e-ARC for my honest review! This was my first time reading a collection of short stories and I loved them. The pervading sense of dread mixed wjth the unknown that is illustrated by these glances at a sci-fi dystopian future gave each story a little extra gravitas. This collection is a 5 stars for me.

4*

This collection of stories was well crafted, each one unique and fitting within the backdrop of the other tales. Despite how many stories were packed inside, it was a quick read, though it maybe would have benefited dropping one or two stories to more closely focus on others.

Thank you Interstellar Flight Press, and the author for reaching out and sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it! It's a collection of stories, so there were certainly ones I was more fond of than others (in particular, Fugue in a Minor Key, The Spread of Space and Endless Devastation, and Memorial Park were my favorites). Overall, though, the stories were solid. They never felt like they went on too long and, if I wasn't enjoying one of them, I always knew one I liked better was just around the corner.

Good book, good stories. Took a star off just because I didn't like Ghosts of Maricourt Crater, but that's a personal taste thing and has nothing to do with my opinion on the overall quality of the stories in this collection.

I wanted to like this collection of short stories (mainly stand alone but a few interlinked) but, while some of them were ok, others were just too short and disjointed and left me confused.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.