What’s in Issue 288

Novel	Slawomir Rapala, The Three Kings Shira reminds the Tha-kians of profits awaiting at the slave market, but his shipmates seem to think that their captives are supposed to be beaten senseless and thrown overboard. Iskald is cursed, whipped, thrashed and cudgeled repeatedly but only grows all the more stubborn. Chapter IV: Empty Heaven, part 2; part 3; part 4
Novella	Bertil Falk, Eucharist for a Sinless Mankind On the eruptive surface of Io, Paxinterra, Mervil Tojas, and Björn Personit ponder sinlessness from the perspective of android Cardinals. Meanwhile, Xavier Pascal pleads with Abbess Tamara Crossfire to abandon her missionary work in an immaterial universe and save him from the wrath of Teresia Nightmare. Chapter 2: The Not-Sinning Ones, part 5; part 6
Serial	Beverly tries to talk to her family and has a date with Joe, but Anida offers something different: Fred Ollinger, The Brummagem Clan Ablated, part 3; conclusion.
Short Stories	They who build walls deserve not to get what they don’t get: Bill Bowler, The Wall, part 1; conclusion. New contributor Jacqueline Gum looks at love as both a physical and mystical reality: Night Traveler. New contributor Heather Kuehl introduces the elf Kinandrea, who finds in Jackson a devoted husband: Raising the Dead, part 1; conclusion.
Flash Fiction	What Dorian Gray images might be captured by Xselian’s camera obscura? Oonah V Joslin, Exposure. An uncommon idiomatic turn of phrase lends special intensity to shopping and zombies: Lyn Perry, The Hunt Hunt.
Poetry	Gary Inbinder, Storm at Sunrise Michael Murry, Soldier’s Soldier
Short Poetry	Christopher Barnes, Playground Soldier Richard H. Fay, Infiltration
Essays	What symbolism, some of it faintly naughty, might lurk in the Ring and the pronoun “I”? Mark Murdock, Analogical Meaning in Lord of the Rings, part 2. Michael Murry shows how the march of poetic meter can sound ‘a fire bell in the night’: Beasts of My Land.
Memoir	Gabriel Timar shows that Newfoundland is itself a truly Bewildering story: God’s Country.

Departments

Welcome	*Bewildering Stories* welcomes Jacqueline Gum and Heather Kuehl.
Challenge	Challenge 288 slides through the issue, Getting Splinters in the Process.
The Art Gallery	A randomly rotating selection of Bewildering Stories’ art NASA: Picture of the Day

Randomly selected Bewildering motto:

Randomly selected classic rejection notice:

Bewildering Stories’ official mottoes:

“Poems are not made with ideas; they are made with words.” — Stéphane Mallarmé
Ars longa, vita brevis. Rough translation: “Proofreading never ends.”

To Bewildering Stories’ schedule: In Times to Come

Readers’ reactions are always welcome.
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