The Butterfly Disjunct: and Other Stories collects more than 30 science fiction stories from my published short stories of the last ten years, and is my debut short story collection.
About The Butterfly Disjunct
A short story collection exploring the expanse of human experience across infinite futures.
A scientist haunted by an impossible ghost. A cocky poet attempting to outrun peace. A grieving mother looking for life beneath Europa’s icy surface. A ship AI desperate to rescue its beloved crew. An ongoing fight against the end of existence. Equal parts earnest and strange, Stewart C Baker’s stories span the breadth of human emotion, space, and time. In this debut collection, gender and genre collide to celebrate relationships and empathy in all their forms.
Published November 4, 2024, from Interstellar Flight Press.
Where to Buy The Butterfly Disjunct
Free Sampler and Table of Contents
Want to see what’s inside before you buy?
Download a free sampler, which includes a full table of contents and contains my stories “How to Break Causality and Write the Perfect Time Travel Story” (Translunar Travelers Lounge, 2019), “The Spread of Space and Endless Devastation” (Lightspeed, 2022), and “Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep” (No Police = Know Future, 2020).
Readings and Discussions
“Mystery, Meaning, and Mortality,” a conversation with Cheryl S. Ntumy (author of Songs for the Shadows) and Wole Talabi (author of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon and editor of Mothersound).
Praise for The Butterfly Disjunct
The Butterfly Disjunct is quirky, smart, funny, and deadly serious. Narratives range from classically told to cleverly experimental, always science fiction and always a delight. Well done!
Kij Johnson
I absolutely adored The Butterfly Disjunct, a collection as vast and varied as the transdimensional words that appear in its pages. In this book, robotic haiku poets muse on the imperfect nature of translation, physicists host one-woman academic conferences with themselves through dubious time travel technology, women take up their swords and battle through the Shogun’s space station, and not even a breakup can get in the way of a good game of Heisenball. Stewart C Baker’s collection plays havoc with the space-time continuum, running the range from comedy to adventure to tragedy, asking big questions and daring you to answer them.
Rachael K. Jones, Hugo and Nebula-nominated author of “The Sound of Children Screaming”
Dream-visions of alternate realities and timelines featuring researchers, ghosts, poets, explorers, rogues, survivors, and more. The stories in The Butterfly Disjunct are as varied as the styles, and just as interesting. Full of unexpected connections, recurring settings, great feats of imagination and fascinating thought threads, this is a clever collection that is very much worth reading.
Wole Talabi, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-nominated author of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
This wondrous collection by Stewart C Baker engages like a dance through the mysterious and illimitable at the fingertips of a storyteller who, at each meeting of the eyes, each insight of connection, flicks away with a wink to the next turn. In these stories redefining power, genre, and purpose, I hope that you will find yourself in The Butterfly Disjunct.
E.D.E. Bell, author of the Alyssia series and executive editor at Atthis Arts
The Butterfly Disjunct is a wild ride, full of unexpected laughs, deep reflections, and creative twists. It’s the kind of book that makes you think—and then makes you laugh a second later. If you’re into multiverse chaos, time travel headaches, and stories that don’t take themselves too seriously while still hitting emotional beats, this is definitely one to pick up.
Luz Rivas, Goodreads reviewer (5/5 stars)
Good sci-fi takes you on a fantastic journey and captures your imagination. Great sci-fi captures your heart and makes you ponder the complex themes of life. The Butterfly Disjunct is great sci-fi and I will be thinking about these stories for the rest of my life.
MagnoliaJules, Goodreads reviewer (5/5 stars)
The Butterfly Disjunct was a masterclass in character-centric worldbuilding. The prose dances perfectly with the imagery. Just enough detail for a crisp picture yet not so much as to be overwhelming. The twists are poignant and zesty! There is only one other book I have ever read that so artfully weaves varied and similar stories into each other with such style.
Celia Diino, Goodreads reviewer (5/5 stars)
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