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Baffling, Kaleidotrope, and Small Wonders: Reviews by Charles Payseur Baffling 4/25 Kaleidotrope Spring ’25 Small Wonders 4/25 The April issue of Baffling features seven stories from authors new to the publication, including Plangdi Neple’s “How to Rob a Bullion Van”…

“Rosette Spots” by @ephraimorji.bsky.social (Spring ‘25) “doesn’t hold back as the story explores hurt and grief and rage, and the lines between humans and animals.”

🥹🥹❤️❤️❤️.

My favorite anecdote about THE BEWITCHING is that people are surprised a student has a laptop in 1998. I had a laptop in 1998. Weighed like a ton of bricks and had a CD player. We also had Internet. Connected via the phone jack and it made funny sounds. We messaged each other through ICQ.. Etc.

Loved every bit of it. The three stories I’ve read in this collection so far have been quite the experience. Exquisite writing. Terrifying and vivid. This particular story is so carefully written and full of tenderly depicted violence. (Whatever that means.)

"He'd had a name once, this man."

"Rosette Spots" by @ephraimorji.bsky.social

Honestly I get you 😂

I hate the concept of killing your darlings in writing 😭. The mental gymnastics I had to pull off to keep this particular darling (knowing I might still take it out when I look at this draft tomorrow) was profound. I hate when good paragraphs and sentences have to tossed out 😭

A cover of Philip B Williams’ debut novel, Ours.

Finally had the courage to finish it today. One of those novels I know I’ll be rereading for years to come. Williams writes such beautiful sentences. I have over a hundred highlights; sentences that sent my chest flipping over. A brilliant magical devastating book.

💔 it's so good!!

That’s my story y’all 🤭

He’d had a name once, this man. A name he could barely remember now, a name that came to him in dreams, spoken through the cracked lips of a woman he knew he had once known but had no memory of.

What would you walk away from to become what you really are? How much of your humanity would you give up to find the animal inside?

Read “Rosette Spots” by @ephraimorji.bsky.social and find out.

kaleidotrope.net/spring-2025/...

Read this over the weekend--gripping, tightly-written SF horror. Effective and economical in its worldbuilding and characterization; not a detail out of place. When the story hits its beats, they feel not formulaic but inevitable.

Started reading this sometime last year. I gave up after the first few pages. This is my second attempt. I know it has promise, just need to get past that initial hurdle 🌞.

2025 Locus Awards Top Ten Finalists Congratulations to all of the Locus Awards top ten finalists! The Locus Awards winners will be announced June 21, 2025, during the in-person Locus Awards Ceremony, held in the historic Nile …

So nice that Kinning is a finalist for the Locus Award! I am in awe of the other novels in this category, and tickled to see such a funny, weird, sweet, strange book of mine included in with them. locusmag.com/2025/05/2025...

Just realized if I read one short story every day of the year I’d have read 365 stories by December 31st! How did I not think of this sooner.

Another very intense action packed emotional short story by the same author. Enjoyed reading this. It’s always a joy when I find an author whose work sends me hunting down everything they’ve written.

reactormag.com/our-king-and...

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: Extraction Request by Rich Larson

This is a Love Death+Robot type short story.Heartbreaking and horrifying.A team of ex cons stranded in a swamp on a strange planet.Hunted down by flesh melting fungus.There’s gay sex, drug addiction, and grief.Will need to read more of this author’s work. 10/10 clarkesworldmagazine.com/larson_01_16/

Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction & Fantasy Clarkesworld Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine and Podcast. This page: Extraction Request by Rich Larson

This is a Love Death+Robot type short story.Heartbreaking and horrifying.A team of ex cons stranded in a swamp on a strange planet.Hunted down by flesh melting fungus.There’s gay sex, drug addiction, and grief.Will need to read more of this author’s work. 10/10 clarkesworldmagazine.com/larson_01_16/

Oh to read this for the first time again

Yes!!!🎉

Finished copies are here!

Part II in the Abeni’s Song trilogy. Just two weeks away.

ABENI and the KINGDOM of GOLD | 4•29•25

Cover art: Michael Machira Mwangi

Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian

This book is so creepy I keep getting gagged with each information I receive. Just when I think I’ve read the worst thing yet something even more terrifying comes to replace it.

Since 2024 my attention span and patience with books has dropped drastically. It’s been very depressing seeing my TBR pile up, knowing I want to experience these books, but can’t for the life of me find the joy in it.

Leopard rosette spots

Living the life of a were leopard has erased Odinaka's memories. He lives alone in a once occupied village. He meets a female shifter who shows him hiding away isn't sustainable...

Thrilling action-drama by @ephraimorji.bsky.social in @kaleidotrope.bsky.social 🪐📚💙

kaleidotrope.net/spring-2025/...

Read intentionally!

Nnedi and many copies of DEATH OF THE AUTHOR that she’d just signed.

Taken at Seattle University after my speaking event there.

Phrases that stood out to me that day: Soft robotics, Philosopher of Trauma, Aficionado of Strange Objects. I left there with a lot to think about.

Locus voting closes next Tuesday!

If you enjoyed Asunder, I would appreciate you taking five minutes to vote. It’s free and easy. 😊

In this promotional piece, Ororo sits on the right shoulder of Rio’s iconic 98ft Cristo Redentor statue. She leans against Him, as though deep in conversation—goddess to God. The statue is lit from below with rich amber lights, reflecting on the embossed heart and the indented nail mark in His palm, while the moon behind His head doubles as a gleaming halo. I like to imagine this scene framed by a rephrased line that aptly ties together the messianic storm goddess and The Messiah: “Who is this, whose very command bends the wind and stills the raging sea?”

This is just a close-up shot of the previous image.

STORM #7 Out Today!

Love that fizzy feeling I get when I finish a story and send it to somebody else to read!

Monthly reminder: Many people have a book in them, but it takes a special kind of freak to leave the Land of Laziness, cross the Plains of Procrastination and Insecurity Mountain, find the Blade of No One Made You Do This, and use it to cut your chest open and yank that book out.