Shoggoths in Bloom and Other Stories

Eternal Sky # - Love Among the Talus

by Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch (Introduction)

A compilation of short science fiction and fantasy from Elizabeth Bear—tales of myth and mythic resonance, fantasies both subtle and epic in tone; hard science fiction and speculations about an unknowable universe. This collection, showcasing Bear’s unique imagination and singular voice, includes her Hugo- and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winning story “Tideline” and Hugo-winning novelette “Shoggoths in Bloom,” as well as an original, never-published story. Recipient of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, the Locus Award, a World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Philip K. Dick nominee, Bear is one of speculative fiction’s most acclaimed, respected, and prolific authors.


Content

Tideline
Sonny Liston Takes the Fall
Sounding
The Something-Dreaming Game
The Cold Blacksmith
In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns
Orm the Beautiful
The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe
Love Among the Talus
Cryptic Coloration
The Ladies
Shoggoths in Bloom
The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder
Dolly
Gods of the Forge
Annie Webber
The Horrid Glory of Its Wings
Confessor
The Leavings of the Wolf
The Death of Terrestrial Radio

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Lovecraftian, Anthologies

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

What Goodreads really needs is a "currently WRITING" option for its default bookshelves...

Reviews

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!

last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.

i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.

and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!

DECEMBER 26

From the greatest distance possible, Harding reaches out and prods the largest shoggoth with the flat top of his hammer. It does nothing, in response. Not even a quiver.

He calls out to the fisherman. "Do they ever do anything when they're like that?"

"What kind of a fool would come poke one to find out?" the fisherman calls back, and Harding has to grant him that one. A Negro professor from a Negro college. That kind of a fool.

oops, i accidentally read a lovecraft-reimagining. i read lovecraft ages and ages ago, and he never clicked for me, and any writer i've read in the lovecraft tradition has been the same - there's some kind of barrier between me and the reading that prevents the love from happening. i didn't recognize the shoggoth as being a lovecraft creature, or i probably wouldn't have invested the time in this longish story, as much as i have loved elizabeth bear's stories in the past. i started getting lovecraft vibes early on and i was pleased to see that my itchings were correct, although i was not pleased to be stuck in a lovecraft story, albeit one i enjoyed more than most, due to bear's excellent prose. but still - lovecraft and i were not meant to be, even with the lubricant of better-than-average writing. maybe you will fare better.

read it for yourself here:

http://web.archive.org/web/2011071018...

DECEMBER 1: FABLE - CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS - SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES - LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE - NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER - JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP - PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR - STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU - PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES - ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 12: THE TOMATO THIEF - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP - JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH - DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE - ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW - PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS - PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE - MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT - SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES - KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK - URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN - ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS - SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH - CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN - LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE - EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? - KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES - TINA CONNOLLY

come to my blog!

[Megan Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of short stories, and as long as people get that I mean this in a positive way, reading them is a lot like swallowing razors. They're sharp, dig in as they go down, lodge in your throat in unexpected and painful (deliciously painful) ways. I've loved her novels, but these short stories are really something else. Each one packs a punch.

Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an enchanted forest this book turned out to be!
It contained bittersweet fantasies like 'The Cold Blacksmith', 'Orm the Beautiful', 'The Leavings of the Wolf', 'Cryptic Coloration' and 'The Horrid Glory of Its Wings'.
It had profoundly allegorical fantasies like 'Love Among the Talus'.
There were scifi that became transcendental tales of humanity, like 'Tideline', 'The Something-Dreaming Game', 'Shoggoths in Bloom' (a precursor to as well as vastly superior to the recent 'The Ballad of Black Tom') and 'The Death of Terrestrial Radio'.
There were absolutely awesome scifi mysteries like 'In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burms', 'Dolly' and 'Confessor'.
But above all, the book was a stunning showcase of speculative fiction that sets practically a gold standard for others.
Highly recommended.

[Basia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a spectacular story. Truly IS perfect for the times in which we find ourselves. Will take about 40 minutes. But I'd happily reinvest them into reading this one another time.
Highly recommended.
(Link in Karen's December Project review.)

[Rattyfleef · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this so much I will review each story INDIVIDUALLY.

1) TIDELINE
A damaged war robot and her pet boy, seaglass, and storytelling.

2) SONNY LISTON TAKES THE FALL
I love this one. The narrator is the spirit of Vegas and the story is about boxing and the price of magic, and that sometimes the person who pays for a thing is not the person who gets to use it.

3) SOUNDING
Also about magic and who pays vs who enjoys, but this time with whales and a bro who makes a bad call.

4) THE SOMETHING-DREAMING GAME.
Kids, auto-erotic asphyxiation, and who's on the other end of the hand reaching out in the dark.

5) THE COLD BLACKSMITH
Weyland Smith and the thing he couldn't fix.

6)IN THE HOUSE OF ARYAMAN, A LONELY SIGNAL BURNS
Got goosebumps from this one and I love it madly. It is available free here (http://www.elizabethbear.com/?page_id...). Worth it for itself and also for the talking parrot-cats.

7) ORM THE BEAUTIFUL
Dragon family values, prices, and precious gems.

8) THE INEVITABLE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE
An idea piece. I don't usually go for those but this one has a shark that really does eat everything.

9) LOVE AMONG THE TALUS
The princess in the tower gets some agency. It's about what you want vs what you're willing to pay for.

10) CRYPTIC COLORATION
I also adore Bear's 'Promethean Age' series. This story takes place in that 'verse and has my favourite of favourites, Matthew. (SERIOUSLY read Blood and Iron, it has wicked fairies, the tithe to Hell, Why Lucifer Did It, Shakespeare and Marlowe are characters, and Morgana, and there's a wizard who maintains his virginity in exchange for a boost to his MAG stat and it inverts every trope ever and it's why I have 'patience' and 'fortitude' tattooed on my feet). But yes this particular story is about all the work the good guys do to save the civilians and how the little fuckers have agency and how sometimes that causes...complications.

11) THE LADIES
What if John Quincy Adams had been running for president against his wife?

12) SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM
About the dangers of poking mysterious slime-monsters with sticks to get a slime-sample and on not doing to others as was done to you.

13) THE GIRL WHO SANG ROSE MADDER
Man, being a middle-aged musician sucks. Especially when your peer group seems to have stopped aging, and only play their old stuff, and their hands are always cold.

14) DOLLY
I love this one. Inversion of the problematic SF sexbot trope.

15) GODS OF THE FORGE
If you could fix the inside of your head, would you? How about if you could fix someone else? Who decides what needs fixing--and what's a scientist with PTSD to do when she can have her brain, her job, or her integrity, but whichever one she picks will cost the other two?

16) ANNIE WEBBER
Annie changes a lot. The barista notices.

17) THE HORRID GLORY OF ITS WINGS
You can't be sure the harpy is your friend, but fuck, the harpy doesn't talk to anyone else.

18) CONFESSOR
The ethics of genetic engineering, law enforcement, and OMGWTF was that the rare Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus?

19) DAGMAR
Running Shoes, Tyr's Right Hand, and Divorce.

20) THE DEATH OF TERRESTRIAL RADIO
The worth of a career, how fucking long it takes a message to travel between galaxies, and the relationship between talking and listening, and how lonely the latter can be.

***

OK I'M NEARLY DONE but I do enjoy the way the collection talks to itself. 'Dagmar' and 'The Cold Blacksmith' are in dialogue. 'In The House of Aryaman...' is in dialogue with 'The Death of Terrestrial Radio' and 'The Something-Dreaming Game.' Too, 'Sonny Liston' is about the purchase and 'The Horrid Glory' is setting the price and in 'Cryptic Colouration' was it worth it? And 'Sounding' thinks it is.

As always, go buy your own 'cause you can't have mine <3

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is undoubtedly one of the darkest and grimmest mythos-tales that I have eve read! More importantly, the darkness didn't stem from any cosmic source. The horror was too human, too real!

[Beth Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this gratis e-ARC through the publisher on NetGalley.

I'm very familiar with Elizabeth Bear's work. I have followed her blog for many years, read several of her books, and a number of her short stories. It turned out that I had already read about 1/3 of the stories in this anthology--but I didn't mind in the least. I connect much more with her shorter work than I do her novels, and it was a joy to re-read her masterful work such as "Tideline," "Shoggoths in Bloom," and "The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder."

I also appreciated that the anthology introduced me to unfamiliar stories. There were three stand-outs that were future-set police mystery stories, relying heavily on new technology and dire economical and environmental constrictions on society. My favorite of these was, "In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns," set in India; if talking, genetically-altered cats were available, you better believe I'd go buy one.

Bear's work is solid. Even if a story didn't grab me, none of the featured works were bad, and all were worth finishing. This is an excellent anthology for those seeking out quality, contemporary speculative short fiction.

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really an incredible collection. I read Shoggoths in Bloom and enjoyed every page. Some of the stories weren't what I would normally read (yay for broadening horizons!), but I can say with confidence that every single one was beautifully written. Elizabeth Bear has a gift for language. I can't wait to read more of her work.

[Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's be honest for a minute. I only picked this book up off the Library shelf because it had "Shoggoths" in the title. Let that be a lesson to me.

I enjoyed the eponymous short story, because it was about Shoggoths and they were done well (there are no other mythos intersections, however). I also rather liked "The Cold Blacksmith". The rest of these stories are depressing, formulaic, and uninspired. The formula involves sacrifice, bittersweet and/or cathartic endings, and the lead character dying four times out of five.

Elizabeth Bear isn't a horrible writer. Oh sure, she muddies her points frequently with overly florid description of details. She occasionally forgets to mention something central to the plot, leaving you wondering what you missed when it comes out of the blue at the end of the story. But her writing reminds of a bit of Ray Bradbury, and she mostly gets her points across.

I think I just do not mesh with her style. Her idea of what it means to "do the right thing" is painfully Euro-centric (liberal leaning) and completely lacking in self-examination. Her characters are all neurotypical, and all humanly flawed such as to be nearly uniform. I just couldn't really care about any of them. Except the Shoggoths and the blacksmith.

Bottom line: Elizabeth Bear's longer works are not making it onto my reading list this day.

[Gustavo Muñoz (Akito) · Rating 4 out of 5]

People don't joke when they call Elizabeth Bear one of the most prolific writers today. She knows exactly what makes stories work, and she plays around that knowledge like a drunken musician; sometimes the amazing happens, sometimes the not-so-amazing does, but it's always interesting to see.

This is one varied collection, ranging from Shoggoths, to singing endangered dragons, to a sex robot blamed with murder (Dolly, one of my favourites) and I just have to mention the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.

This book is a must-read for anyone looking into (very) refreshing takes on both science-fiction and fantasy with just the right amount of crazy, all with very sharp, precise writing.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my “short story collections acquired at Readercon” selection that I have a copy of Elizabeth Bear’s Shoggoths in Bloom. I like the Elizabeth Bear novels that I’ve read, although I also have a couple more novels of hers that are still on the TBR shelf through no fault of their own.

Shoggoths in Bloom has a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, and overall they’re all pretty good–some I liked better than others, obviously, but I don’t think I’d call any of them duds. We got a few stories set in larger worlds from her novels–there’s an Eternal Sky story, and a story from the POV of One-Eyed Jack, the genius of Las Vegas–and of course the titular “Shoggoths in Bloom” dips into the Lovecraftian mythos. There are twenty stories in this collection, which is challenging for me to review. The stories tend toward the serious; when there is humor, which is with reasonable frequency, it tends toward the dry. A few of the protagonists are cops/investigators/otherwise law-enforcement-adjacent of some kind; one is a sort of magical detective that has to work around the regular kind. This seems to be more for the ease of facilitation for mystery-solving plots than any particular ideological affiliation with cops on Bear’s part; even some of her cops are kind of down on cops. The more important thing is that the mysteries are good, solid short story mysteries with satisfying little twists at the end.

Overall, this is a good collection that might provide me with some extra impetus to also read one of the three unread novels by the author that are still on my shelf.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 Stars)

There are a few...iffy stories in this one, but what was good made up for it. Almost. Cryptic Coloration was my least favorite story and it was one of the longest. Fortunately, three of my favorite stories were as long or a little longer (In the House of Aryaman a Lone Signal Fire Burns, Forge of the Gods and the other one set in the same world).

[Xan Rooyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Some stories I loved. Some stories I just didn't get. Always the way it is with an anthology.

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of stories, almost all of which are potent medicine. If the best way to describe a writer is to compare her with another, better-known, writer, then my first instinct is to say: "Elizabeth Bear writes like Harlan Ellison, with less shrillness and more commitment to having her stories proceed logically from their premises (which, admittedly, are often quite weird)". Of the twenty-two stories in this volume, I would say that eight or so of these stories dwell near or masterpiece level, and only two disappointed me.

That's pretty darned good odds for a short story collection.

We have here the story of a sapient tank, wounded but technically victorious, mourning her human companions (whose loss, I believe, makes the victory merely technical), and trying to memorialize them properly before her own death at the end of her power-cells' capacity.

We have a murder mystery set in a near-future India where the fuel has run out but biotech is taking its place.

We also have a story set in a similar future America, also a murder mystery.

We have a dragon, the last of his line, nearing death, making a deal to keep his hoard intact.

We have a princess in a tower who manipulates matters almost as well as her mother, whose wealth comes from creatures that eat rock and excrete metals. This one is particularly weird.

We have an alternative Abigail Adams.

We have something that seems to be a reply to Asimov's "The Last Question" (which he considered one of his two or three best stories).

We have many other things, all written with tightly controlled passion and exquisite skill. The stories that disappointed me may not disappoint you. (They disappointed me not because they were bad, but because the weren't excellent.) Some of the stories I find brilliant, you may find puzzling or trivial.

Oh, and the title story? It's about a Black professor in the '40s, coming to Maine to study the shoggoths that breed, mostly peacefully, there. It's one of the subtler "deconstructing Lovecraft's racism" stories that have been coming out in the last while and a half.

[Kate O'Hanlon · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories have been festooned with awards, honourable mentions and places in years best anthologies. Rightly so, Bear is a master of short fiction. As with her first collection, Shoggoths in Bloom spans a variety of genres and sub-genres, there are battle robots mourning fallen comrades, politically savy princesses in eastern inspired fantasy worlds, scientists in near future labs, blacksmiths forging hearts, corporate spies, personified cities, broken down boxers, and hard choices.

She loves her hard choices does Bear.

Story-by-story reviews may come later. In the meantime, if you like short fiction read this book. Easy/.

[Luca Cresta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grande racconto di SF moderna, nella collana curata dal vate Sandro Pergameno, che ci permette la lettura di testi sempre interessanti. Un vero gioiello, con strizzatine d'occhio al grande Lovecraft. Praticamente perfetto!

["Sil" · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stelle

[John Rennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed these stories. They span a wide range of genres and styles from simple sentimental stories that will really tug your heartstrings to high concept stories that will give your brain cells a good workout, so there is something for everyone here.

I find short story collections can be a mixed bag. Some authors seem to feel obliged to write short stories of such baffling complexity that you wonder if even the author knows what they are about. Fortunately Elizabeth Bear has resisted this temptation and even the harder stories in this collection are still accessible. Not everyone likes this approach and you'll see some negative reviews from people complaining her stories are insufficiently sophisticated. All I can say is that as a veteran SF reader I really enjoyed them and I can recommend this collection to all SF fans.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because Levar Burtorn read "Tideline" on his podcast and it was amazing. I liked the variety of subjects that Bear writes about, everything from boxing and sport climbing to magical creatures and genetic engineering. I seriously liked a couple of the stories them but I struggle remember much about the rest. My favorite besides "Tideline" is "In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns".

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, it's hard to give a short story anthology a grade - some stories are really stellar and some are just ok. I did enjoy this volume overall - a lot of really good and interesting stuff here.

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is not a review yet.

Tideline - A powerful story of a machine of death which chooses to care.

Sonny Liston Takes the Fall - This one is all in the title. You know which fall they're talking about before you even start in on the story. What is the line between a dive and a sacrifice?

Sounding - Another story of sacrifice, this time in a New England fishing family.

The something-Dreaming Game -

The Cold Blacksmith - Weyland puts too much of himself into his attempts to mend a broken heart.

In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns - A sci-fi locked room murder mystery which is also a story of addiction and the limits of filial duty. It's so many slashes it should be cut to nothing, instead it shines like a cut jewel.

Orm the Beautiful - A story of dragons and the origins of their legendary hoards of jewels.

The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe -

Love Among The Talus - I wanted more of the Talus. I would say I wanted less of love, but there was already so little of that.

Cryptic Coloration - "Matthew supposed there were worse deaths for a chicken." An adolescent crush turns to dark suspicion in the minds of three young women who begin to notice hidden sides to their English professor. Doctor S, as they think of him, does have secrets, and dangerous ones for students turned stalkers amateur detectives to even be around.

The Ladies - Thomas Jefferson takes Abigail Adams up on her advice to her husband asking him to "remember the ladies", and challenges her to run for the presidency against her husband. This is an epistolary short story, and I felt my Canadian ignorance of American politics, while reading it.

Shoggoths in Bloom - Oracupoda horibilis; better known as the common surf or jeweled shoggoth. Oracupoda dermadentata; the black Adriatic shoggoth. If the shoggoths of Lovecraftian New England did exist, this is how they would be described in libraries, or so we learn from Dr. Harding, a junior African-American professor of marine biology (one assumes) looking for tenure in the wind-up to World War II. How do they reproduce, he wonders. How do they die, short of violence? Or do they?

The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder -Em was a Warlord, once, but that was back in the 80s. Now the Warlords are broken up and broken, all. Em comes to a reunion, of sorts, bitter and old and soft, and looking for a reason not to be.

Dolly - Dolly is a personal android, although that's not its name. "Dolly" is slang for a sexbot. This Dolly murdered its owner, in a locked room; the exact opposite of a stone whodunnit. But androids are a long way from the positronic mind of Asimov's imaginings, hence the inanimate moniker. Was it hacked externally, and if so, by who? And if it did it for its own reasons, does that make it intelligent enough to stand trial?

Gods of the Forge - "Athena, the goddess of wisdom, had been born from the head of the god Zeus after the lame god of the Forge, Hephaestus, smashed it open with an axe to relieve a blinding headache."

Annie Webber -A bunch of the regulars at a local coffee shop all share the same frequent customer account. They all answer to the name Annie Webber.

The Horrid Glory of Its Wings - Desiree has been HIV+ since birth. Positive, and alone, and on the precipice of her eighteenth birthday, her State support will end. She has a foster mother and a priest and a doctor, but the closest she has to a friend is the harpy that lives in the alley, and she's still no friend at all. This story kicked me in the balls and then went for my heart with Sylvia Plath's owl's talons.

Confessor - Sanchez is a licence cop, a future analog of the US Marshals of the Old West, sent into the wilds of the Pacific Northwest to investigate a murder, and to check up on another licence cop who has been in the field for too long.

The Leavings of the Wolf-Dagmar Sorensdotter's divorce has been finalized, except for the ring on her finger. She takes up jogging again to help her slim her fingers down, but shedding the weight of her marriage is not so easy.

The Death of Terrestrial Radio - This is a story about SETI and the nature of getting what you wish for.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"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*

[Pop Bop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sample Bear's Range and Diversity

Here's the thing about anthologies, and about attempts to review, describe or comment on anthologies - well intentioned blurbers and reviewers give you one sentence summaries of the most remarkable stories, or even of each story. Depending on whether they liked the collection or disliked the collection they can easily make each story sound fascinating or tedious and derivative. The summaries are helpful, of course, and can be tasty come-ons, but it's hard to gauge exactly what you're getting into.

The task is easier here, because the multiple award winning story "Tideline" is so good that it justifies the purchase of the book, and so everything else is just gravy.

Elizabeth Bear is a fine writer; you will not find fault with her technique or her skills. More problemattic is her choice of subjects and themes, and the treatment she gives some fairly old-school topics, (mind control, robot rights, racial equality, genetic engineering). All of her stories are worth reading; some of them you will find particularly rewarding. None of them will disappoint.

Bear has already created an estimable body of work. If you aren't familiar with her this collection is a fine and fairly representative sampler. Think of it as a tasting menu and you won't be disappointed.

Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.

[Cameron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought this because of the mention of one of Lovecraft's famous monsters in the title. Unfortunately, that is the only story in the bunch that is Lovecraftian. I wish there were more because she did an excellent job with it, but the remainder of the stories are mostly sci-fi, with a couple urban fantasy. I was quite surprised to find myself enjoying the urban fantasy yarns ("Cryptic Coloration" and "The Horrid Glory of Its Wings") because I've never had much interest in the genre. I need to dig through her bibliography to see if she's written any novels that jive with the short stories that I liked.

One other odd thing about this collection: I frequently found myself thinking that she was leaving the curtains open a little on her personal life. All the best authors write about what they know, but there were times when I felt a bit voyeuristic when she was addressing certain subjects, especially online lives, infidelity, and body image. Her website is basically a blog and a quick perusal through it confirms for me that in many of these cases, she was in fact writing about herself. Nothing wrong with that and I'm sure she's okay with sharing since she published it - just thought it was interesting.

I gave this book 2 stars because most of the stories didn't interest me; not for quality or the author's skill. For someone who is more into the subject matter I can easily see it being rated a 4 or 5.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of some good, some very good, and a couple of really excellent stories. There are both science fiction and fantasy works, all very densely written, serious, and well thought-out, in which not everything is always explained clearly; some of them are quite challenging and thought-provoking. "Tideline" and "The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder" were probably my favorites; there were a couple of stories that didn't do much for me one way or the other, but there were none that I would single out as not worthwhile. I could have done with just a little touch of humor or whimsy in places to lighten the mood a bit, but perhaps that's just me. Bear clearly is quite knowledgeable about the roots of the field, and I thought I caught occasional interesting influences; for example from Clifford Simak in "Tideline," Frederic Brown in "The Death of Terrestrial Radio," Isaac Asimov in "Dolly," and, of course, Lovecraft in the titular story. The biggest drawback of the book has nothing to do with Bear, but rather that there are many, many typographical errors throughout the text. I think that instead of line-editing someone may have just run a spell-check which resulted in the wrong word appearing quite a few times. Despite that problem it's still a very good collection.

[V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Tideline" and "In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns" are still good stories, but none of the rest is remarkable. And even those two, the reason why I picked a collection by Bear, are not stories that burned themselves deep into my memory. The rest ... there are neat ideas and great language, but somehow, they are lacking. None of the worlds created are coherent - I read science fiction and fantasy a lot, I am used to suspend my disbelief a lot, but there are too many things that are not thought through, where taking it even one step further than the surface of the story makes me realize that this could not work - and there are so many places that invite me to take a step further. It's a pity, really. There is a lot of potential here.

Also, and this is less about the stories and more about the editions: I do NOT want to read introduction by the romantic partners of a given author. No. No, no, no.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If we assume for a moment that Lovecraft was a long way from the best Lovecraftian author, we must then ask ourselves: who was/is? This collection bring Elizabeth Bear into the same league as Ligotti and more than a step above Lumley in that competition. Her work evokes a sense of brutal hopefulness in which there is only light that lets you see how terrible the odds stacked against our existence are, and her characters explore the dark corners of this shadowy hope in new ways in each story. The title story deserves the praise it has received for the subtlety with which the horrific realizations were made, but I would argue that "The Horrid Glory of It's Wings" is the greatest accomplishment of this collection.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

There wasn't a story in this book I didn't enjoy. Some of them were outstanding - Tideline, Shoggoths, and In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns - all knocked my socks off, and the opening paragraphs to Leavings of the Wolf were almost worth the price of the book. Bear manages to pull an exceptional SF murder mysteries in Aryaman, which is a nightmare to do well. I clearly need to get more of Bear's short stories if this is the caliber of her work in this form. Highly recommended.

[gingey reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this through Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth's Lovecraft Reread over on Tor. I've been on a Lovecraftian kick this week, touched off by reading Emrys' Winter Tide. Shoggoths in Bloom took me an initial read and then a second, more thoughtful read to really absorb, but it's really good.

(This review isn't finished, but I need to articulate some more thoughts, especially after reading Emrys' and Pillsworth's excellent Tor commentary.)

[Ria Bridges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short story collections vary in their quality. That’s pretty much a given, an acceptance that just about everyone has when they start reading. Some will be better than others, some you may want to skip to get to better things ahead, others are so dull they may tempt you to put the collection down entirely.

This wasn’t the case with Shoggoths in Bloom.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that all the stories in here are written by Elizabeth Bear and aren’t a collection from multiple different authors with multiple different styles. That helped immensely. True, there still were a couple of stories in here that interested me less than others, but I mean that very literally. 2. 2 stories out of 20. And there were far more that were awesome enough to make up for a couple of duller moments.

Bear’s range is evident in this collection, as she presents futuristic sci-fi, historical speculation, straight-up fantasy, all of the stories thought-provoking and all highly creative. From The Something-Dreaming Game that deals with kids and auto-erotic asphyxiation (and the admission that even in kids it can be erotic) to Dolly and its exploration of whether emerging sentience in machines means they can be criminally tried, to stories that defy categorization but still make you go, “Whoa!” like Annie Webber, Bear takes readers on a ride that will stretch minds and imaginations alike in ways that make me eager to read more of her work.

This was my introduction to her writing, and I’m not sure I could have asked for a better one. This was a light buffet instead of a feast, getting to sample things in small amounts rather than diving right in, with less pressure to enjoy than if I’d just launched myself into a full novel. Not that a novel would be a bad thing. I discover many amazing authors that way, obviously. But sometimes one finds themself in the mood for lighter fare, and this catered to my appetite and made me hungry for more.

So whether you’re a fan of Bear’s work and have been for years, or else you’re just curious to try something new, this is a book you ought to be reading. I can’t recommend this enough. Rarely does it happen that I rate a collection so highly. Rarely am I ever so satisfied with a short story collection. Shoggoths in Bloom, I think, will end up being the standard by which all other collections are judged.

(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)