Scan barcode
A review by thecanary
Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear
5.0
Elizabeth Bear has been on my radar for a while, so seeing Shoggoth's in Bloom up for grab, I went for it (complimentary copy courtesy of the publisher, thank you!).
This short story collection brings together 19 short stories by Elizabeth Bear, including two Hugo winners, "Tideline" and "Shoggoths in Bloom," plus one never-before-published piece original to the collection, "The Death of Terrestrial Radio." With one exception, the stories average around a few-to-twenty pages and cover a truly mind-boggling range of genres and styles.
We get an urban fantasy with a ritual gone wrong, historic fiction written through letters between John Adams' wife and Thomas Jefferson about running for office during a time of suffrage, a lovely elegy in prose about a dragons and a museum curator, a folktale about a blacksmith's commission, and a story about the slow death of the fishing industry. Each story is powerful, heart-rending, and memorable in its own way.
The collection is exciting (policing in a high-world of genetic engineering, homicide and androids, a dragon landing by the Washington Monument...), brutally, tenderly human (cancer, divorce, overcoming phobia, personal sacrifice...) and intriguingly speculative (What if you can do plastic surgery on your personality? What are the limits of living in a virtual world? What lines would you cross for peace?). The longest piece... (Read full review here.)
Copy provided by publisher.
This short story collection brings together 19 short stories by Elizabeth Bear, including two Hugo winners, "Tideline" and "Shoggoths in Bloom," plus one never-before-published piece original to the collection, "The Death of Terrestrial Radio." With one exception, the stories average around a few-to-twenty pages and cover a truly mind-boggling range of genres and styles.
We get an urban fantasy with a ritual gone wrong, historic fiction written through letters between John Adams' wife and Thomas Jefferson about running for office during a time of suffrage, a lovely elegy in prose about a dragons and a museum curator, a folktale about a blacksmith's commission, and a story about the slow death of the fishing industry. Each story is powerful, heart-rending, and memorable in its own way.
The collection is exciting (policing in a high-world of genetic engineering, homicide and androids, a dragon landing by the Washington Monument...), brutally, tenderly human (cancer, divorce, overcoming phobia, personal sacrifice...) and intriguingly speculative (What if you can do plastic surgery on your personality? What are the limits of living in a virtual world? What lines would you cross for peace?). The longest piece... (Read full review here.)
Copy provided by publisher.