I love to dip into sc0fi now again and this collection of short stories was just what I needed at the time. As with all compilations there were some that I preferred but they were all really enjoyable, there wasn't a weak story in there at all.

I will definitely be looking out for more of this author's work!

Its always difficult to review Short story anthologies as they tend to have stories that I love and keep thinking about and others that I just don't connect with so they always end up with a middling rating. This collection was no exception to that rule but I will say overall it is an exciting and diverse collection of tales.

I found a lot of them had real emotional resonance, I loved getting to read Ander's introductions as to why each of these stories was written, the mindset behind each one really added to the stories themselves. All of the stories were really creative and interesting. Some of them had great joy and laughter to them, such as The Time Travel Club and the Visitmothers which left you with a real heartwarming feeling. Others stories touched on elements such as grief, climate change and the trans experience in ways that were thought provoking, emotional and raw. Some Stories were dark, some were hopeful, some had whimsy, some chose violence but all in all they were entertaining.

If you are a fan of Ander's Writing then this is a book you will enjoy. It is also a good way to sample a writers many varying styles so you can suss out which books, if any, of theirs you might like so I would especially as Charlie Jane Ander's writes both Adult and YA books you can get a feel from those styles from these stories. So if you haven't read any of Ander's work this might be a good place to start.

So it’s safe to say that I am now, as of this moment, a gigantic Charlie Jane Anders fan. I’ve been meaning to read her books for ages and I have at least one (possibly two?) on my ereader, waiting. But then I saw this short story collection on Netgalley and thought aha! Book plus motivation! So I requested it, then realised that it was being published just a week or so later, and started reading it immediately. And oh, how I loved it!
This wasn’t the sort of short story collection where most of them are fine, a few are just not to your taste and one or two have you punching the air. Nope, pretty much all of these stories had me punching the air. I fucking loved them. There’s a zest and aliveness to Charlie Jane Anders’s writing, a joy and ferociousness. Like, we only have so many days here and we must LIVE them. A couple of the stories were really hard to read, but there was still that fierce resolve to LIVE. I’m thinking particularly of Don’t Press Charges And I Won’t Sue, which is about severe violence to trans people and was incredibly difficult to read as a queer person. But even there, the fierceness and fury of the main character made it a powerful story.
On that note, I really really appreciated that Charlie Jane Anders included trigger warnings in her author’s notes at the beginning of each story, and I wish more publishers would encourage this. Those notes meant I could anticipate things that were coming that I might find hard and made it much easier to trust and enjoy the collection.
I’d love to talk about each story in this collection and what I enjoyed about it, but there are nineteen stories and that would be an incredibly long review, so I’ll just pull out a few that I particularly loved.
The first story, As Good as New, was so fun and delightful, and a great story to open the volume. The lighthearted style of the storytelling together with the earnestness of the protagonist and the severity of the literal apocalypse was just super fun and entertaining.
Then there’s The Time Travel Club, which reminded me irresistably of the much derided Doctor Who episode Love and Monsters (which personally I love but whatever). There was something very sweet about this story, from the original origins of the Time Travel Club to the inept attempt at sort of fraud to the final scene, with what seems to be a final triumph but is really a lovely promise for the future.
I also adored Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie, with its delightfully self-centred protagonist, comedy violence, over the top monsters and hilarious and perfect conclusion. And I have to mention Rock Manning Goes for Broke, which is violent and sad and funny and touching, and also the longest, by a lot, story in the collection.
The last three stories were all absolutely spectacular. First the aforementioned Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue, which was so hard to read but will stay in my mind for a long time. Then The Bookstore at the End of America, which is about a bookshop that spans the border between America and California, two nations at war. It’s sad and poignant, but also hopeful, and bookshops just are magic.
And then there’s the last story of all, which is also one of the shortest. The Visitmothers was the perfect tonic after the pain and horror of Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue, and the quiet sadness of The Bookstore at the End of America, and it brought actual tears to my actual eyes. It’s so short and so pure and beautiful with just the right amouth of beautiful poignant silliness and I hope I never ever forget it, and also I really really want fan art.
And now all that remains for me to say is that this short story collection is gorgeous and beautiful and I recommend it to everyone who wants fierce, joyful, funny, queer, and occasionally horrifying speculative fiction. Charlie Jane Anders is amazing and I do intend to read everything she’s ever written if I possibly can (although, given the number of short stories she’s written and published all over the place, I absolutely can’t).
With thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

We often have readers asking what is more important to you – the world, the plot, or the characters? For me the personal dimension of the characters tends to be the attraction but a writer who combines all of these is always one to watch. Charlie Jane Anders has created an excellent spell-bounding anthology of short fiction in Even Greater Mistakes and gave me a beautiful reading experience were often a brilliant world is melded in a double helix to create a wonderful plot combined with Ander’s amazing ability to tell a story.

Amongst the stories I enjoyed were

As Good As New – the opening story tells us of the last human to survive the apocalypse and them meeting a genie. It’s a tale about the importance of art to survive and give us hope. Immensely satisfying and ultimately hopeful which is a hallmark of this collection.

Rat Catcher’s Yellows – this story has a heart-breaking core of a young woman talking about her wife’s early version of a disease similar to Alzheimer’s. Anders captures the fear of losing the person you love in a slow terrifying way but importantly this story explores how a simple VR game allows a sufferer to at least enjoy life in a different way. Its not a tale of a magical cure but one filled with love and communication.

The Time Travel Club – an offbeat tale of a club where people for various reasons like to pretend they’re time travellers and then one day a new guest wants to talk about the time machine they create. What pulled me into this tale is the focus on the club members who we see need this escape and release for their own lives such as Lydia who is celebrating her first year of sobriety. Interestingly we see also some real thought into time travel and the mechanics of space but at its heart its doing something for the right reasons not just for a quick buck.

Six Months, Three Days – One of the best tales in the collection is this tale of the world’s two clairvoyants starting to date. One can see all possibilities for her action and one sees exactly the future that will come to pass. It combines that joy and fear a new relationship creates that this will be the best thing ever or is bound to pass ad no one can ever be sure which is the case. I loved the relationship’s highs and lows and we as reader try to find out if this future is fixed and is it just our charcter’s mindsets creating these worldviews? Ultimately relationships will always shape us good or bad and this is a beautiful ride of a story.

Love Might Be Too Strong A Word – This science fiction tale tells us a of a relationship ona far off future ship on its mission. Anders throws a multitude of gender concepts and sexualities into this story and the key point is we readers can still tell what the story is about and appreciate the differences because we are human and love may eb the only thing keeping us alive all alone in the endless night of space.

Fairy Werewolf Vs Vampire Zombie – I’ve read this before it’s excellent but come on tat title alone should pull you in!!!

Ghost Champagne – I love this story because while everyone will admit their past haunts them its equally possible to be haunted by our worry of who we become in the future and in this tale a woman throughout her life gets haunted by her ghost. Something that slowly hardens her and makes her prone to saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment. This tale creates a reckoning for our main character but I also love the wider world and the dabbling into horror as a wedding leads to a final conclusion to the tale.

Power Couple – This story is another favourite and it is about unrealistic expectations especially when we are young. It focuses on two young students one a would be doctor and another a would be lawyer who completely fall in love but soon become aware their career choice will likely mean they won’t have time for a relationships. Their alarming idea is lets cryofreeze each other for several years to each allow the other to reach their career high then they can become a perfect couple. Its clear this is a bad idea but Anders explores how people change as they grow up and how our own dreams of our future lives can lead to massive changes we never anticipate.

Because Change Was The Ocean and We Lived By Her Mercy - among the collection are several tales of San Francisco and this one set after the apocalypse manages to be hopeful watching a community surivive and start to thrive after the waters consume the city but also talks about how we move communities as we grow – some relationships fade and others tragically just end. Anders carefully paints the community’s way of life, factions, and feuds which all communities and friendships can pass through. Anders makes us ask will we ourselves be the same person at the end of such experiences is always uncertain but the experience itself always shapes us.

Rock Manning Goes For Broke – this novella length tale comprises three short stories and in some ways feels very different and especially violent but also carries Anders’ trademark sense of humour and social commentary. Rock loves dangerous stunts and falls into a new world of creating insane short videos with his friends such as cycling a burning exercise bike off a rook. But the story also notes an ever darker world where war and many nasty things lurk outside of school and college. Comedy and strange art has a power of release but can also inspire and provoke authority in ways you cannot expect. Brutal, funny, sharp and kind I loved it!

This Is Why We Can’t have Nasty Things – an unusually non speculative tale but one about the last night in a watering hole and the end of its resident queer community that uses it and in particular a relationship between two characters. Warm, raucous, and bittersweet with a twist of hope I love the way this place came alive in just a few pages

Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue – This story is a dark and disturbing horror story, and it tells us a of a world where they attempt to ‘cure’ trans and non-binary characters in a truly horrible way. It’s a tale of growing up and also exploring who would become the person happy to work in such a place. A reminder behind all the dictators are people who see this as a job hey can justify doing bad things for some ‘greater good’ and monthly pay.

The Bookstore at the End of America – Molly and her daughter Phoebe have run a bookstore set between the ultra-liberal land of California and the ultra-conservative country of America. It’s customers both buy books but never cross paths and yet a wider war of hostility grows ever nearer. Anders covers America’s descent into two worldviews and the inability for either to engage and where that may lead but it also [praises the ability for people to talk things through and why books and stories may be the best way to ever help that situation improve in future generations. I loved the satire and the hopeful message this sends about books!

This is a dazzling varied collection, and I loved all the stories within this. We get to see Ander’s ability to handle stories light and dark in any sub-genre of speculative fiction. That focus on the character’s humanity (even when they’re alien or non-human) shines in each tale and as all good literature does it helps us look at ourselves and our world in different ways. A truly awesome collection I strongly recommend!

PS - did i mention you also get bonus short stories set in the worlds of both All The Birds In The Sky and The City In The Middle of The Night? Not like I meant to tempt you but….

tl;dr A mixed bag of stories that can shine when illuminated by passionate anger or neon-lit frivolity. But the constraints of the short story format don’t give Anders enough time to build the nuance she’s often shooting for, and too many pieces end up feeling formulaic in spite of her considerable talent.

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How to feel about an oversharing magician? The initial trick is engrossing, having it explained to you feels like a privilege, and the next is just as delightful. But eventually it’s hard to feel like you’re just swapping tie-dye rabbits for ravens, or a storm of cannon-launched disco balls for smoke, and the enchantment dissipates in the bright light of legerdemain.

That’s not exactly how I feel after reading Even Greater Mistakes, but it’s close. There’s still quite a bit of magic left in Anders’ writing by the end, and her enthusiasm to explain what makes her stories tick — often through the themes and incidental details of those stories themselves — is truly generous. But watching the wonderful ambiguities and throw-it-at-the-wall aesthetic of All The Birds In The Sky diagrammed out for you through the medium of slightly-to-significantly-less successful pieces definitely frays the rainbow, even if it doesn’t fully unweave it.

Anders’ very first words in the collection are to explain that she’s fond of stories that use crises in the external world to resolve characters’ personal issues, and she’s definitely not wrong about her tastes. Some sort of vaguely SFnal unravelling looms over most of the collections’ stories, and although these threatened dooms are often inventive, Anders is clearly less interested in apocalypse mechanics and more in how we manage to overcome and survive. And to be clear, this is great the first couple times. But the thing is, we’re always hearing from survivors here, so much so that the repeated invocation of The End loses almost all its force over the course of the collection, because only the extras get hurt. I get that Anders is trying to emphasise resilience over doom-mongering, but it’s weird to have Armageddon almost always be something that not only happens to other people but is a great opportunity for (purely personal) growth besides.

Given how little time we have to get to know our characters in a short story, it’s also not always the case that their growth and learning is all that compelling. “Love Might Be Too Strong a Word”, “Captain Roger In Heaven” and “Six Months Three Days” all have plot developments with really interesting social or ontological implications, but they’re sidelined in favour of pretty standard nostrums about interpersonal connection and the importance of sharing stories. I know we’re all bored with the end of the world and maybe SF has historically cared too much about ideas and not enough about people, but handling catastrophe by getting an upper-deck love nest or a wild weekend away sometimes feels like cope.

More interesting are the stories where Anders just lets her anger or joy out to play. “Don’t Press Charges” is queasy as hell but unquestionably gripping, while “A Temporary Embarrassment” and “Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie” are pure disposable gimmickry in the best possible way. Anders has clearly seen some s**t yet retains an incredible, fizzing imagination, and it’s delightful to see both those aspects work themselves out freely on the page with awful puns and razor-bladed anger and blue-skinned party monsters. Other stories like “Rat Catchers’ Yellows” follow the doom-to-growth template of some of the less successful outings, but the threats match to the individual scale of the stories, and all the better for it.

The final pair of stories nearly sums up the joys and frustrations of the collection. “The Bookstore At The End of America” combines looming disaster, some half-hearted NPR-esque bothsidesism, a few heavy-handed metaphors and a bold commitment to resolving our irreconcilable political differences through book clubs. It’s not awful, but it’s about as daring a piece of science fiction as a mid-series episode of “Star Trek: Voyager”. “The Visitmothers” seems to continue this unfortunate trend by setting up a heavy, possibly didactic story about identity, but instead we end up going somewhere…else. Somewhere a lot less obvious and a lot more fun. More of this next time, please.

4.5 stars

From apocalyptic wastelands with genies to intense karaoke battles between Zombie Vampires and Fairy Werewolves, Charlie Jane Anders’ new collection of short stories is irresistibly immersive and utterly moreish—I absolutely loved it!

The world building was incredible and in several of the stories exceptionally creative, we’re talking future dystopias, colonised alien planets and even a talking cat! The originality and creativeness is just superb.

I don’t often read short stories unless they’re written by an established author whose work I’m already utterly obsessed with but for a new to me author, Anders’ skill in developing such richly detailed worlds and characters was astounding, I’m definitely gonna check out more of her work.

I really enjoyed these shorter stories which are perfect for anyone who loves sci-fi and fantasy but never manages the time to read. With these all you need is 15-20 mins here or there and I promise you’ll fly through them in no time. And with nineteen (yes nineteen!) to choose from there’s definitely something for everyone.

I loved the vast width and breadth of topics and beautifully crafted social commentary about soo many different issues like; the moral and ethical uses of technology (such as mind reading or timetravel), gender identity, politics and mental health as well as philosophical discussions such as fate vs. free will.

They’re full of humour, life,tragedy and heartbreak but each story is utterly unique and most importantly, unforgettable.

I’d definitely recommend to Sci-fi and Fantasy fans and anyone who love short story anthologies.

Also thanks to Titan Books and Net Galley for the e-arc.