Shoggoths in Bloom by Elizabeth Bear
My rating: 3/5 cats
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
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