So You Want to be a Robot

Sun Lords of the Principality #- Tomorrow When We See the Sun

by A. Merc Rustad

Step one: forget the convention and disregard the binary. Gender? Sexuality? Old words unsuited for new consciousness. The twenty-one stories in this book challenge the imagination as only acclaimed author A. Merc Rustad can. Pages of robots and AIs constructing lives and exploring "humanity"; wasted worlds with monstrous cityhearts; assassins and the perils of enchanted labyrinths; and always the raw truths of love, loss, and devotion. Step two: read these science-fiction and fantasy tales as if they are the only stories you will discover on your bookshelf this day. Step three: dare to feel.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Queer, Fiction, LGBT, Anthologies

359 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2017

Reviews

[Kaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually rate story collections five stars, because there are always at least a few stories that don't quite achieve that rating. Even though I enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, for instance, there were several that weren’t quite as amazing as the rest. However, So You Want To Be A Robot is more than just the sum of its parts. The stories come together to create an amazing book about humanity, gender, trauma, and recovery. There's a lot of darkness in many of the stories, but I think ultimately it's a very hopeful collection.

My favorite story was "How to Become a Robot in Twelve Easy Steps." I'd read it previously, but even the second time it nearly made me cry. This is a story that cut my heart to pieces, stomped all over those pieces, and then managed to restore it even stronger than it was before.

Highly, highly recommended.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“This Is Not A Wardrobe Door”: I enjoyed the Monster’s Inc. / Narnia vibes getting twisted around and reimagined. The story was a little too pat overall for me.
My favorite story in the collection was “Tomorrow When We See The Sun.” I want 3 novels and a movie and I want to reread it until my eyeballs are bleeding. It is sad and angry and happy and there is so much packed into it.
Another of my faves was “The Sorcerer’s Unattainable Gardens”: I loved the two intertwined stories, and this was my favorite use of 2nd person in this collection (yes there are several!).
“The Android’s Prehistoric Menagerie”: After the end of the world, there are dinos and robots and they make beautiful lives for themselves.
I didn’t like “For Want of a Heart,” but it did a beautiful job of slowly building up a nice solid Dread.
“Once I, Rose” was another one that seemed a little too pat, but the concept was fascinating!
“Where Monsters Dance” was another story that felt like it packed in an entire novel. I love everyone in this bar!
“A Survival Guide for When You’re Trapped in a Black Hole”: I hate dog stories, but Merc made this one a bit more palatable than usual.
“Thread”: When you’re enslaved by aliens made of light, darkness is suddenly very hopeful and cozy.
“Under Wine-Bright Seas”: This was the only one where I felt like the description dominated all other parts of the story so much that I don’t have an opinion on the story itself. But I like the world.
“Of Blessed Servitude”: Another favorite of mine that includes redemption and sacrifice and bravery in the face of sun-demons.
“To The Knife-Cold Stars”: I’ve rarely read anything so desperately determined to grasp hope out of terrible circumstances. It’s also a sequel of sorts to “Of Blessed Servitude.”
“Finding Home” was a really cool contrast between those always escaping and those who stay.
“Winter Bride”: This story did NOT make me rethink my desire for all Fae to die in a trash fire.
“To The Monsters, With Love”: An ode to all the monsters, monster-lovers, and monster-makers out there.
“BATTERIES FOR YOUR DOOMBOT5000 ARE NOT INCLUDED”: It’s like a super-hero story, except about the super-heroes (and villains) after they’ve gotten out of the business and are still dealing with the aftermath.
“….Or Be Forever Fallen”: YIKES. This was Elizabeth-Bear-Level of heartrending and oh-no-oh-no realizations and grim decisions to keep going.
“Iron Aria”: Kyru can talk to metal, and the mountain full of iron is hurting. I LOVED the wordsmithing in this one.
“What Becomes of the Third-Hearted”: It’s good. I’m nervous that saying anything about it will spoil the effect.
“The Gentleman of Chaos”: This was possibly the Merc-i-est story in this collection. I love Merc stories because they’re so often about finding hope in places/situations where there is absolutely no hope at first (or second, or third) glance.
“So You Want To Be a Robot”: Partway through reading this, the story grabbed me and made me cry and wouldn’t let me go. But in a good way.

Overall, I loved this collection. It’s well-written, with lots of surprises both in the stories and in the word-choice – I LOVE the surprising ways Merc describes or shows things in the words they use. There are several stories that not only use second person but SUCCEED with it, although this both a praise and a quibble because a little second person goes a LONG way with me.

Recommended for: any SciFi/Fantasy reader!

[Netanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am following the "Sun Lords of the Principality" series, which contains a story herein. But damn, this collection is devastatingly good!

[Bogi Takács]

This book was the winner of my first Patreon vote on what I should review next!

It is a strong collection I would recommend. Lengthy review on my site, Bogi Reads the World:

http://www.bogireadstheworld.com/book...

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this collection because I enjoyed the author's contribution to A PEOPLE'S FUTURE OF THE UNITED STATES so much. (It was one of the highlights of an otherwise mostly bleak anthology.) I'm really glad I did! This collection is full of hopeful, positive, and very queer stories. There's so much good SFF queer rep here: just about everything is shown, from lesbian and gay couples, to bisexual and (many) transgender characters, and ace/aro characters. In addition, there are autistic characters, and a little bit of disability rep. (I don't think the autism is called out, but it's pretty obviously there in a few places.)

This is one of the rare short story collections where I didn't dislike a single piece. Sure, I liked some of the stories more than others, and there were a few that I don't think I fully understand, but I enjoyed reading each piece.


"This Is Not a Wardrobe Door"
I hadn't expected the collection to start with a fantasy piece, but I'm a huge fan of portal fantasy so I loved this story. I really liked getting to see both sides of the portal, and appreciated the ending a lot.

"Tomorrow When We See the Sun"
This story unfolds as it goes, with a lot of the world building spaced out through the piece. I liked where it went, bittersweet ending and all, and am very curious to read the other stories published in this world.

"The Sorcerer's Unattainable Gardens"
I really like this one, and the storytelling style. I think it's best to read it without spoilers, so I won't explain why I liked the style. Just read it for yourself. It's not too long, and it's both sweet and imaginative.

"The Android's Prehistoric Menagerie"
Super sweet story! I thought in the first chapter or two that this was going to be a dystopian, but it's filled with too much hope and life to be called that (even though it's set after the world as we know it ends). I really liked this one. While I would like to see the characters more, I think this is the perfect length story.

"For Want of a Heart"
I'm not sure what exactly to think of this story. I really like the concept and the worldbuilding, but the resolution was not exactly what I would have liked. Honestly, while I can see the main character behaving the way she did it was also a very selfish act and that makes it hard for me to properly say I "liked" it since I didn't like the MC.

"Once I, Rose"
The way this story unfolded was really neat. I'm not going into details because it's best to discover it for yourself, but there are two main ways to see the ending playing out (after the story ends) and I choose to believe the happy version.

"Where Monsters Dance"
This sweet "not a fairy tale" actually is a fairy tale, kinda. One where the monsters are the good guys, and some "good guys" are monsters. I really liked this story. (Nice LGBTQ+ rep too, with a lesbian MC and trans love interest.) CW: misgendering of secondary character

"A Survival Guide For When You're Trapped In A Black Hole"
God, how to describe this one? Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Worth a read, but be sure you're in a mentally good place first—especially pet owners. CW: pet illness and death

"Thread"
Neat concept and set-up, though I only partially understand the actual setting. I liked it even though I can’t really describe what happened or why.

"Under Wine-Bright Seas"
Very cool almost-mermaid story! I loved the mix of gender fluidity and disability rep in this even though it’s short.

"Of Blessed Servitude"
This one is weird, kind of a Western/Spec Fic combo. It also throws in some anti-LGBTQ+ dytopia-ish laws (used against the good guys) and it gets a bit gory in places. Neat to read but weird and hard to describe.

"To the Knife-Cold Stars"
This story follows on after the previous story in the collection, but focuses on the other character in that story. This one is less gory, but has more depressing thoghts as a result of an offscreen death of a loved one. The MC is not quite suicidal, but is close at points.

"Finding Home"
Sweet short about finding home and family, and what that means. This one proves that I can enjoy portal SF as much as portal fantasy.

"Winter Bride"
This is a fairly classic faerie story using the Wild Hunt as a backdrop, though it doesn’t always go in the direction I expect. I enjoyed it a lot.

"To the Monsters, With Love"
A fun short that flips the good guys and bad guys around. I wasn’t surprised by the direction this one went, but it was still entertaining to read.

"Batteries For Your Doombot5000 Are Not Included"
Very sweet short about retired superheroes and supervillains trying to save a friend. I liked this one a lot, and would happily read more stories about these characters. Possibly my favorite story in the collection... it was fun and happy and sentimental and just very good.

"…Or Be Forever Fallen"
Weird and a little creepy. Minor body horror. And I am a bit confused about what happened, but it was neat to read.

"Iron Aria"
I've read stories before that anthropomorphize natural objects, but this story is one of the better ones. I love the way the ocean and the mountain had personalities and how their thoughts were there but not human. I also liked Kyru as a character, and his journey toward being who he truly is.

"What Becomes of the Third-Hearted"
This is an interesting take on the end of the world, but it felt more fantasy than science fiction. (Not a problem, I just always got surprised when this collection took a fantasy turn given the title and cover.) I appreciated the weirdness and the hopeful tone. CW: brief mentions of cancer and death of a parent

"The Gentleman of Chaos"
I really enjoyed this one! It's a great story of growth and self discovery and how being who you truly are can be freeing. Highly recommended (though it gets a bit bloody at times).

"How to Become a Robot in 12 Easy Steps"
I really enjoyed this story a lot; it was easy to connect with the MC's difficulty fitting into a society that expects one thing when you feel another. Even though the MC is depressed for most of the story, this was still a hopeful note to end the collection on, since they're surrounded by a large support group of side characters. CW: depression, suicidal thoughts, homophobia

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of (mostly) dark SFF. The themes seem to me to revolve around monstrosity, violence, and the reach for freedom from oppression. There are so many beautiful stories, with such an edge to them. I had read many of these when they appeared originally, but there were lots of news ones for me too, including the (basically) titular story, which closes out the collection and is just a devastating, triumphant read. I went in expecting a slightly...lighter tone than I found, so fair warning, this was often difficult to read, but so well worth it. Loved the two-part story and would love to see more of the weird SF stories collected in one place because there were so many tastes of that setting that I wanted more. A great read!

[Bridget Mckinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only discovered A. Merc Rustad in January when I read their lovely story, “This is Not a Wardrobe Door,” at Fireside, but I loved that story so much that this collection was at the top of my to-read list as soon as I found out about it. So You Want to be a Robot and Other Stories collects that story and twenty more in a showcase of Rustad’s consistently good ideas and solid execution. Personal favorite stories in the collection include: “The Android’s Prehistoric Menagerie,” “Where Monsters Dance,” “Finding Home,” and “BATTERIES FOR YOUR DOOMBOT5000 ARE NOT INCLUDED.”

Read more reviews at SF Bluestocking.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit, based on the title, I expected this to be more parody. It's one reason I waited this long to start reading. Once I started, though, I plowed through it. I'm sure I'll go back and revisit a few of these stories later (especially To The Monsters, with Love). Beautifully written stories, comparable to collections by Neil Gaiman. Very much recommend.

[Emmeline Solomon · Rating 5 out of 5]

😭💖

[Carina Stopenski · Rating 5 out of 5]

an incredible collection that spans the wide horizon of speculative fiction. rustad captures both human ennui and transhumanist longing in these stories, with a sort of vulnerable tenderness that is not typical of the genre. my personal favorite stories in the collection were “tomorrow when we see the sun,” “the android’s prehistoric menagerie,” and “where monsters dance.” definitely a collection worth the read for trans sci-fi and fantasy fan.

[Avery (Book Deviant) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avg overall rating was 3.73 stars
Rounded up to 4 stars
Favorite stories were:
- The Sorcerer's Unattainable Gardens
- Under Wine-Bright Seas
- BATTERIES FOR YOUR DOOMBOT5000 ARE NOT INCLUDED
- Iron Aria
- The Gentleman of Chaos

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please read this and have sweet trans feelings with me.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

So You Want to Be a Robot was a moving, thought provoking collection of short stories that really highlight the ability of speculative fiction to explore the complexities of human experience and consider it in new ways, from the exciting to the disconcerting. After reading their story “Our Aim Is Not to Die” in A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers, I was curious to read more of Merc Fenn Wolfmoor’s work, requesting their debut collection from the library. They will definitely be someone whose work I will continue to look for in the future.

Wolfmoor really has a knack for tackling a wide variety of genres, ideas, and tones, from the dark urban fantasy of “For Want of a Heart” to the post-apocalyptic sci-fi of “The Android’s Prehistoric Menagerie,” and the fantasy of “Iron Aria,” but using them to touch on deeper questions of existence in a way that really appealed to me. Their connection to themes that thread throughout the stories are impressively strong, in particular that of the titular robots, as well as monsters, linking them to questions of gender identity in ways that feels very effective and compelling.

This is especially the case in the collections strongest work, the namesake story, a greatly affecting piece that really made me question how I feel about how society forces conformity in ways that hadn’t occurred to me before. In any case, it will be interesting to see their writing continue to evolve and what other places they will take us.

[asmalldyke · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Merc Rustad's Hot Mess. I was all ready to adore this one, because LOOK at that blurb. "Forget the convention and disregard the binary." "Pages of robots and AIs constructing lives and exploring "Humanity","Dare to feel". Suffice it to say I feel shortchanged, even lied to, for a wide variety of reasons;

Firstly, transhumanism is pretty much not a thing in the vast majority of these shorts. There are only even like, two or three honest-to-goodness artificial life constructs throughout the first 20 shorts here. I do, in fact, want to be a robot, Rustad! A surprising majority of the shorts here are folktale or fantasy, which is not a problem on its own, but look at the title! Robot! Bodily autonomy in the cyberpunk future??? I was hoping for Fisting Androids, or like The Pros and Cons of Shedding Your Flesh. Gestalt consciousness, extended lifespans, the implications of having been built. Alas, none of that really arrives in Robot here.

Surprisingly enough, representation is more than a small problem with this anthology. I'm almost having flashbacks to The Topside Collection. There do in fact be various trans leads and other characters in these shorts(it/its pronouns, even), but the only significance to it is generally beating you over the head with transphobia. You've got Where Monsters Dance, in which girlfriend Ashley's job is to get called a BoYfRiEnD by the evil dad emperor(I know), and generally be excluded along gender lines. You have Under Wine-Bright Seas and also Iron Aria, the twin sad-trans-boy stories which both have A) scenes of binding and B) WHY HAVENT YOU FOUND A HUSBAND YET MY DAUGHTER type shit. The usual, casual deadnaming and misgendering. Elsewise it's just a fun-fact and mostly irrelevant to the plot, failing to inform the leads' experiences, like in Finding Home or The Sorcerer's Unattainable Gardens. Most of it could be chopped from their respective shorts without losing anything.

Some of these are also just plain badly written, though. More than once Rustad uses YOU as a pronoun, as if addressing the reader, as if inserting them into the story. Winter Bride is guilty of this, as is Where Monsters Dance. It's like, Red is her own defined character, separate from the viewer, as is the winter bride, so what on earth is the point of this? It's cludgy, and makes my brain work hard to find-and-replace on the fly, even in the comp's best moments. There are also just plain queer clichés, like in Iron Aria when our lead boy sees this transfemme in the king's army(he can tell, gender is marked by a symbol, harr), he's all SHE IS LIKE ME ONLY OPPOSITE and I'm like Wow dude, that's fucking profound, a watershed moment. Real incredible powers of observation, sir.

I want to draw special attention, however, to Under Knife-Cold Stars, for very petty reasons. At one point in this short, a character is described as having to adjust his metal eye to the darkness, and the line is written as such;

"He focuses, slowly accustoming his senses to the new perception."

I had to check the Merriam-Webster, and this is apparently a word. However, there's no reason to not have used "adjusting" or "acclimating" in its place, because for a real word it's one of the clumsiest and most awkward turns of phrase I have seen. Shit sounds awful. Blame the autism if you want, but this absolutely burned a hole in my brain, it was terrible.

There are a couple bright spots; Mere is a cool flesh construct and the centerpiece of Tomorrow When We See The Sun, being a "sexless wraith" brought to life on the marble-ized souls of a kingdom's fallen dead and executed. Upon escaping it follows its guilty creator to put those hundreds of souls to rest, and it's bitching honestly. Really good, weird mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

If you can get past the transphobia--always the best qualifier--then you might find Where Monsters Dance to be as affecting and optimistic through its dark, fantastical rendering of familial trauma as I did. Monster was cool, Red's a total chad. I was surprised with how this one redeemed itself.

This whole collection did not, though. By the last couple of shorts, bright spots or no, Robot had become a slog for me. I was honestly planning on dropping it, especially during the dragging The Gentleman Of Chaos, which has a bunch of unpleasant hetero sex and pregnancy. There are more than zero heterosexuals in this book, and look, I'm not AGAINST straight people, just as long as they KEEP QUIET ABOUT IT! Sarcasm. Anyway, I'm actually glad I didn't drop it then, because I would have missed 12 Easy Steps To Becoming A Robot.

This short is probably what the collection was named for(maybe even why it was compiled) and in a word, it fucks. Taken as thirty or so brief pages on its own, 12 Easy Steps is pretty much everything the blurb promised and more, a neurodiverse exploration of human sociality, ruminating on the weakness of flesh, depression through the lens of circuits, feeling wrong within the constraints of humanity, and how exactly one Becomes A Robot. I love Tesla, she's such a great protagonist and the story is packed with characterisation for something so short. I really did feel it, every time her lists ended in Self Terminate. It is effective both on literal and allegorical levels. It is superb.

Having read 12 Easy Steps at the end, though, it feels like all of this other junk was collected just to fluff out the pages. It's actually not funny how much better 12 Easy Steps is than every other short here. The blurb technically does not lie, because the last 5% of the comp is what's on the tin.

Robot is still a collection, though, so I have to judge it as a whole. Of the entire three short comps that I've ever read, this is easily the worst. Worse than Topside's The Collection? Qualitatively and quantitatively it's about the same, but I feel like Robot's blurb tricked me. I waited like 200 pages for actual robot-becoming. How dare. I really don't love ragging on independent queer authors like this, but damn dude. It makes sense to me that these were gathered from various previous Rustad publications, instead of all written around a theme for this specifically. But then, why is this not called "A Merc Rustad's Various Fantasy and Sci-Fi Ventures"?

They're clearly a talented author, but you wouldn't know it to read most of Robot. Sad.

[Rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading this short story collection, it occurred to me that I would be marking this as a favorite book here on Goodreads. So many of these stories hit close to home in such meaningful ways, exploring gender and trauma and relationships and being human.

Or not being human.

Which was, honestly, very touching and relatable as someone who, for many reasons (neurodivergency, trauma, gender, etc.), can find solace in relating to non-human entities and characters, and has for a long time.

Although I can't say every story was 5 stars, as a whole, this collection felt perfect to me. The mixture of fantasy and science fiction throughout worked so well, and the worlds felt so whole - it was like visiting these gorgeous, fully-realized realities. These worlds were not created just for the story that took place within them.

The characters, the writing, the worlds - all of this was so well-done that I have to give this 5 stars and a place on my favorites shelf. So many of these stories felt like unspoken words from my own heart and it was cathartic and wonderful to read, even if some hurt; it was an experience and one that meant a lot to me.

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, moving, queer SFF stories that made me cry in public more than once. These stories touch on some of my favorite themes of found family, queer folks supporting queer folks, and choosing love even when it's difficult. And Merc's writing is vivid, clear, and imaginative, too. There's some great representation of autism, as well.

I've read some of Merc's short fiction outside of this collection, and I adored every story, and this collection only solidifies them as one of my very favorite SFF writers. I'm going to recommend this book to all of my friends.

[Katie Spina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't been fond of short stories in a long time. I've felt like they were commercial length, when I wanted something with more guts.

These short stories are incredible. I laughed. I cried. A lot. They absolutely gutted me and made me feel less alone in the world. I loved all of them.

READ THESE STORIES! SHARE THEM WITH THE WORLD!

[Clara Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love stories that offer new perspectives, and this book can bend your mind--and bend it again with each successive story. I liked the last story best (How to Become a Robot in 12 Easy Steps), but I think I appreciated it more for having bent my mind around the other stories that came before it. Definitely worth reading as a collection.

[Patrick Ropp · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of stories, some of which I had the great pleasure of rereading, and others I had the privilege of encountering for the first time.
Merc has a gift with prose. Their stories are gorgeous and have real heart. I always look forward to reading more of their work.

[Danni Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was REALLY REALLY GOOD and also REALLY REALLY messed with my head. Based on the title and the first story, I was ready for a book of stories that would be really good and also make me feel...happy. This, in fact, was a book of stories which were extremely good and also made me feel...like curling up in a ball and hiding under the bed forever. Get ready to feel every possible emotion and then a few impossible ones, and then to realize maybe you actually are a robot after all when all your circuits overload.

Overall I absolutely loved this, I came away feeling like I dearly would love to be friends with the author, and I'd love to read anything else they ever write (even if I need to cry for a week after reading it).

There was a lot of very heavy content in here and I didn't make notes on everything to warn for, but some content warnings include: graphic physical and psychological violence, child abuse, intimate partner abuse, transantagonism (in the context of characters who are villains displaying transantagonistic behavior to show how bad/evil they are), suicidality, one story where a dog dies, and one where sexual violence is described but does not actually occur.

[Collin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I put my thoughts on each of the stories in my updates, or at least most of them, because by the time I hit "...Or Be Forever Fallen" I was completely out of shits to give. I strongly disliked that story, "Iron Aria," and "What Becomes of the Third-Hearted," that's all I have to say. "The Gentleman of Chaos" wasn't just bad, it was stupidly contrived, too. "How To Become a Robot in 12 Easy Steps" should have been my jam but, again, 0 shits in the tank.

I saw someone mention that there was aro/ace rep in these stories, and, my sibling in Christ, WHERE. A few sentences out of a nearly 250-page book do not aro/ace rep make.

I still think "Tomorrow When We See the Sun" is moderately incredible, and there's some easy harmless fun in "Batteries For Your Doombot1500 Are Not Included." Other than that, I just did not like this collection. Part of it's the style, part of it's the way queer themes are used, and I do mean "used" as in the way you use a hammer or an ax.

(And part of it is the unceasing use of parentheses to create drama.)

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast read indeed!
Twenty-one pieces have been brought together in this collection. However, not all of them can be called stories. They belong to a wide variety of various shades of sff, but almost all are concerned with the themes of violence, pain, cruelty, death...
and love.
It's that one redeeming thing that kept the srtories in this collection pulsating with life. Otherwise this would have become just another collection concerned of agenda-driven literary efforts.
And it contains one fantastic scifi that lifts the whole book to another level— The Android's Prehistoric Menagerie. I would recommend reading this collection for just that one story.
The rest is... as I have already stated.
It's a good book. But there are better, much better works out there, except that one story— maybe.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this is some gorgeous writing! I’m adding it to my queer women protagonists lists because some of the characters id that way but this is an excellent for NB/trans rep as well as some lovely, beautifully crafted sf, f and h short stories. Read it for the representation, read it for the stories and read it for the craft. Highly recommended!

[Naseem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Merc is one of the best short story writers I've ever read. These stories were ABSOLUTELY what I've been asking for in speculative fiction regarding queerness, which is to say: that it's there and unexplained and unapologetic and a natural part of the worldbuilding/story/everything. My heart is so full.

[Forestofglory · Rating 3 out of 5]

I let this go back to the library half-finished. These stories are really well written but many of them are very grim and I had trouble motivating myself to read more. Sorry all the lovely people who recommended this to me.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these stories were just not doing it for me, unfortunately. Too much worldbuilding in short spaces and/or stories that felt more YA than my taste typically runs. I did think "Finding Home" and "How to Become a Robot in 12 Easy Steps" were standouts.

2.5/5

[Moira-ji · Rating 5 out of 5]

these stories are needle-sharp.

they will stitch you up;
they will pierce you through.

[Buzz51]

Got bored ngl

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this collection, but it just wasn't my thing.

[Siavahda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite, flawless, every single story in the collection is a KNOCK-OUT. Instant fave. Cannot get over how glorious this author's imagination AND prose is!!!