Collin’s Reviews > So You Want to be a Robot and Other Stories > Status Update

20. "The Gentleman of Chaos": 1/5. haven't been keeping track of these anymore because I don't care but oh my goddd this one was so bad.

16. "Batteries For Your Doombot1500 Are Not Included": 4/5. oh my god is it a story I genuinely enjoyed?? HELL YEAH. Good retiree superhero/supervillain cheese. I do Not understand why there has to be sex in nearly every story, I'm genuinely irritated at allo queer authors in general about this, but still. It's cute. It's self-contained. It's funny. Nothing groundbreaking but cute.

14. "Winter Bride": 2.5/5. It's... fine. But I'm thoroughly over the overuse of parentheses for dramatic effect. (Like this.)

13. "Finding Home": 1.5/5. sounding like a broken record now but: cool concept, wretchedly boring execution. The way the suspense is broken not with a bang but a whimper is almost funny. it's eight pages long and felt like 3 - just, no substance to these things. what do people enjoy about both writing and reading stories like this???

12. "To the Knife-Cold Stars": 2/5. a sequel to the previous story, with the interesting setting and characterization drained away.

11. "Of Blessed Servitude": 3/5. cool concepts, mildly compelling POV character, extremely annoying habit of saying "'round" instead of "around" in narration, not dialogue, as in "wrapped a hand 'round the open cuffs." ugh. the over-the-top Puritan naming symbolism was... a choice.

10. "Under Wine-Bright Seas": 2/5. It's just pure fantasy wish-fulfillment for the author with no real interest for me personally. Like... I've read this story before, there's nothing new, there's nothing of particular value here. Not to be crass but it's affirmation porn.

9. "Thread": 3/5. I guess. The bare frame of the idea is intriguing, and the aliens are even more so, but, as usual, there's just not enough here to care that deeply.

8. "A Survival Guide For When You're Trapped In a Black Hole": -/- about the death of a pet and I simply Cannot right now.

7. "Where Monsters Dance": 1.5/5. half cliche and half word salad. It probably deserves higher but I just dislike it, partly because of the tired "this isn't a FAIRYTALE it's DARK and ANGRY (but I'm gonna use a bunch of surface-level fairytale imagery/language anyway)" schtick.