A review by bahnree
Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear

5.0

"Tideline": Loooooooved it. I love it when Bear gives souls to soulless things, eg robots. Plus the new importance of oral storytelling in post-apocalyptic world so yeah FEELINGS. 5/5

"Sonny Liston Takes the Fall": This one is very understated and at first I was like "ehhh that was ehhhh" but it stuck in my brain and percolated for a while and it's really quite lovely. 5/5

"Sounding": Whales, man, they'll kill ya??? I didn't really get this one. 2/5

"The Something-Dreaming Game": heebie-jeebies, auto-erotic asphyxiation style. I liked the ambiguousness of whether what is happening is actually happening. 4/5

"The Cold Blacksmith": Shenanigans with Weyland Smith (from Promethean novels). Some things are harder to fix than others so it kinda sucks when you have a "fix-it-all" geas, DOESN'T IT. 4/5

"In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns": Parrot-cats and side-notes on astronomy and a really fabulous little murder mystery. LOVED IT. 5/5 PS I would like more in this universe.

"Orm the Beautiful": There are a LOT of stories in this collection about how the person who pays isn't necessarily the person who benefits. This is one of them. Dragons and miners museums and I loved it. 5/5

"The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe": Well there's a shark and it...well it eats everything. 3/5

"Love Among the Talus": I started reading it and wondered how Bear would invert princess-in-the-tower, and then she did it and it was horrible and beautiful and ugh. 5/5

"Cryptic Coloration": The constant POV-switches really annoyed me and messed up my feeling of suspense. Despite that, there's nothing really WRONG with this monster-hunt feat. freshmen college girls. 4/5

"The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder": I loved the ending, but at the same time I didn't quite believe the character's journey to making that choice. 3/5

*rest of review to come*