First things first: I love short fiction. There’s something wonderful about reading exquisitely crafted pieces that are not one word longer than they need to be. Maybe it’s 5,000 words, maybe it’s 500 – whatever it takes to tell the tale.

And while short fiction operates in the context of all genres, I’d argue that no genre is better suited for it than speculative fiction; the idea-driven nature of it allows for significant flexibility regarding how the stories are designed to play out.

Now, I’m a fan of anthologies, to be sure – there’s a lot of fun to be had when the works of a score of disparate authors is collected under one figurative roof, after all – but there’s nothing quite like sitting down to read an assemblage of short works by a singe author. You get to see the writer’s stylistic quirks and ideological idiosyncrasies laid out over the course of 10 or 12 or 15 tales, a snapshot of their ethos along with their stylistic strengths.

And in that respect, “Even Greater Mistakes” by Charlie Jane Anders definitely delivers.

The complexity of the concepts explored through the work of Anders makes for thought-provoking reading, to be sure – the author is unafraid to challenge the reader. She is particularly fascinated by the fluidity of gender and the interpersonal dynamics that spring from that fluidity; she also has a knack for finding the (admittedly dry and dark) humor inherent to various flavors of apocalypse. Her ability to wield genre tropes and generalizations in unconventional ways makes every story contained herein an absolute treat.

Take the very first story in the collection, titled “As Good As New.” It’s the story of a young woman who, through pure good fortune of circumstance, survives an apocalyptic event. Upon venturing out of her bunker, she happens upon a bottle – a bottle containing a genie. What follows is a thoughtful and quietly hilarious unpacking of wish logistics and the unanticipated consequences even the best of intentions might carry with them.

Another highlight is the marvelous “Six Months, Three Days,” a story about the perfect couple that also happens to be diametrically opposed. Specifically, Judy is able to look ahead and see all possible futures laid out before her, while Doug is able to view with precision the one and only true future. Sweet and sad and utterly paradoxical, it’s an unusual love story, yes – but it is definitely a love story.

In the collection’s longest work – a novella, really – we have “Rock Manning Goes For Broke.” Now, this story is a lot of things, but basically, imagine if Johnny Knoxville of “Jackass” fame became a favorite filmmaker of the masses in a bleak authoritarian future. The slapstick stunting – inspired by legends like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd – becomes an object of interest to both sides in an ongoing and ever-expanding culture war. A war with brutal societal consequences.

And on and on we go. What if a group of time travel cosplayers stumbled into a situation that involved actual time travel? Check out “The Time Travelers Club.” How about if, in a future, fractured America, a bookstore straddled the unsteady border between two new nations? “The Bookstore at the End of America” lays it out for you. Ever wonder what would happen if a werewolf bit a fairy and a vampire was zombified and then the two fought? Here’s the aptly-titled “Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie.”

“Even Greater Mistakes” is an exquisite collection, an assemblage of outstanding short fiction. Anders is a gifted prose stylist, one with a vast imagination to go with her technical craft. The worlds in which these stories operate are rich and vivid, beautifully realized without tiresome minutiae. With just a few sentences, Anders can clearly and concisely convey her vision of place; it’s a rare talent indeed, but one that she with which she is generous.

She’s also unafraid to delve into cultural complexities without handholding. Perhaps the best example is in “Love Might Be Too Strong a Word,” a story set in deep space that nevertheless revolves around the difficulties that can arise when a society’s genders and sexualities are rigidly hierarchized; Anders offers up assorted genders and pronouns without feeling the need to spell it all out for the reader. It’s indicative of a respect both for the reader and for the subject matter.

Of course, while the commitment of Anders to the dissemination of ideas and to thoughtful prose construction is certainly admirable, none of it works unless the stories themselves are compelling. Unsurprisingly, Anders is a hell of a storyteller as well, folding these wonderful concepts and ideological deconstructions into top-notch speculative narratives. Challenging as they may be, these stories are a hell of a good time, propulsive and darkly funny.

“Even Greater Mistakes” is a best-case scenario for a reader such as myself, a wide-ranging collection of stories that are equal parts intellectual stimulation, comedic interlude and rip-roaring yarn. You probably don’t need me to tell you how unusual such a combination is. So if you’re a fan of high-quality speculative short fiction, tuck into some Charlie Jane Anders.

Oh, and if you’ve never experienced her before? You’re welcome.

"Even Greater Mistakes" is an eclectic collection of short stories by Charlie Jane Anders. Her wry voice shines through in most of the stories, and her deep fantasy world-building dominates much of this collection. Spanning her entire career (thus far), there are a few low-key entries and a few more bombastic, even outrageous, stories (see: "Rock Manning Goes for Broke," a laugh-out-loud journey into adulthood). Some moments are a bit confusing (all the numerous pronouns in one story of engineered species on a generation ship), but others are clear and heartfelt. Most of all, Ms. Anders reaches through our uncertainty of the future by latching on to individuals and their emotions as demonstrated through relationships and a willingness to personal expression, primarily through art or (seemingly omnipresent) sexuality (content warning for, ahem, strange alien sex practices?). In pieces, the individual stories have their merits and varied appeals. Collected, Ms. Anders' stories are just right for a 21st-century commentary on loosening up, letting go, loving who you want, sexing who you want (not necessarily the same people), and expressing your individual place in a world that so often seems to tend toward the strange, oppositional, warped and fractured.

This is a diverse collection of surprising, quirky, mostly speculative short stories. I admire Charlie Jane Anders’s creativity. The stories were interesting and often amusing, but too often, the endings didn’t work for me. I don’t regret spending time reading these stories, but I didn’t love them as much as I wanted to. Some of the ideas and imagery will stick with me though.

Thanks to Tor Books for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley, which I volunteered to review.

This is an interesting collection of short fiction. There is creativity and abstract concepts galore in this anthology of science fiction shorts. The length of these shorts do tend to be on the longer side of the concept of "short fiction", but I genuinely didn't mind; they were well written!

The split bookstore was one of my absolute favourites from this collection, and I reread it several times, just because I enjoyed it a lot!

There's a lot of LGBTQIA+ representation in this anthology, and I love it. I also liked that there was commentary from Anders prefacing each story.

Rating: 3/5

I very rarely pick up short story collections from a single author and this book was a big reminder to me that I need to do that more! I had read a fair amount of CJA's other works (some of which have stories that relate to them in this collection), but I hadn't ever really taken the chance to explore her short fiction up until this point.
Not only are the stories in this collection amazingly written, but I felt as thought I got a better insight into how Anders writes and the issues and themes about which she cares. I left feeling like I wanted to go back and reread all her other works with all these new insights I have.
The stories themselves are similar to a lot of Anders' other works, mainly in the fact that they are gloriously LGBTQIA+ and also fantastically weird. I've often said this about The City in the Middle of the Night but would extend it to this whole work : don't read this if you aren't ready for something more than a little surreal.
I appreciated Anders' commentary that comes before each story, giving that additional insight and background to where the story came from, it again adds to that sense of getting to know an author better.
I'll definitely be looking out for more of Anders' short fiction in the future. I think if I had to pick a favourite from this collection it would be 'If You Take My Meaning' which adds to the world of City in the Middle of the Night which I now need to go and reread multiple times!

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for an ARC.

I've been a fan of Charlie Jane Anders' short fiction for years, and it's great to have all of these stories (some of which I've read in other anthologies before) under one roof, so to speak. There's a couple themes throughout, and this has that thing I think any short story collection has where some are going to be your thing and others just aren't, but it's a solid collection from one of the best sci-fi short fiction writers working today.

Thank you so much @tordotcom for this free copy of Even Greater Mistakes!

I love Charlie Jane Anders. I don’t know how to explain what a ray of sunshine she is in the pandemic dampened reality we live in. There’s always kindness, support, a smile, a laugh and an uplifting dance and of course, excellent writing there for you whenever you need it.

I feel like this anthology of short stories, each introduced with context in how they were inspired and what time in her career they were written, is a most welcome and uplifting escape.

Each story is unique, quirky, imaginative..I can’t even choose a favorite!

It’s really difficult for me to put my feelings on this book into words other than to say: it’s important and it’s amazing just like it’s author.

Additionally, the LGBTQIA+ rep is inspiring. I love when stories have rep and it’s the norm in the world, and the focus of the story is the character development and the storyline. It’s just *chef’s kiss*.

Most of the stories are based in sci-fi or speculative fiction, but I think there’s a story for everyone and something relatable to enjoy. Even if that’s not your regular genres, it’s well worth a read!

Charlie Jane Anders' short story collection Even Greater Mistakes is brimming with heart, sometimes even moreso in the stories where characters are callous or cruel. I haven't read Anders before so I was nervous when I didn't connect with the first story As Good As New, then delighted when I fell in love with the second story Rat Catcher's Yellows. Other standouts are Power Couple, Six Months, Three Days, The Last Bookstore in America, and Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue. I didn't resonate with the stories that were extras from Anders' novels and, very uncharacterically, the fanfiction vampire/wolf/faerie campy romp really didn't do it for me. The baby gay in me was delighted by the mirroring in This Is Why We Can't Have Nasty Things and Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy. While there is a lot of violence and pain in the pages, I found it a rather cozy late-pandemic winter read and maybe you will too. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the ARC.

The thing that struck me about Ander’s short story collection, the thing that all the stories had in common, was how imaginative, cleverly crafted and fantastically bizarre they all were. While I didn’t always connect with each story, some were just not for me, I always admired Anders ability to create characters and world-building that felt fresh and new.

I also really enjoyed her commentary before each story, telling readers where the story first appeared and a little about her writing inspiration. In her intro Anders talked about how she had over 600 rejections and 93 stories published within the past 10 years. It was in the process of writing these stories that helped her master beginnings and endings, world building and character creation.

While I still enjoy Anders novels more than her short stories- I believe her strengths work better in novel form- I’m glad to have read these stories since there were a few standouts for me that I will remember for a long time.

Here is a brief description of each story and the individual ratings I gave:

1. 3.5 stars- As Good as New- A playwright who decides she can make more of a difference in the world as a doctor meets a genie during the apocalypse and must carefully decide her three wishes. Thoughtful-provoking.

2. 4.5 stars - Red Catcher’s Yellows-Is about a character with dementia who finds a degree control over her life through a cat role playing game and how her partner finds a connection with her through the game, even if it wasn’t what she imagined. Very poignant for me after having a father and father-in-law with dementia.

3. 3 stars - If You Take My Meaning- Takes place after Ander’s novel The City in the Middle of the Night. You won’t get the full effect without reading the novel first, but you can still understand what is going on. My favorite part? How memories are shared through tentacles.

4. 3.5 stars -Time Travel Club- A unique way to approach time travel-considering displacement of space due to the Earth’s moving orbit so you can’t land in exactly the same place. While I liked the dry humor, there was an abrupt ending and I wanted more development of main character.

5. 4.5 stars- Six Months, Three Days -One of my favorites of the collection. I love the dilemma of whether it would be better to know one fixed future or be able to see a variety of possible futures and how would you live life differently depending on which type of future you could see. This type of story and its themes are what make me love the sci fi genre!

6. 3 stars -Love Might be too Strong a Word- Interesting world-building and commentary on gender. Not my favorite plot or characterization.

7. 3 stars- Fairy Werewolf Vs. Vampire Zombie- Reads like fun, campy, urban fantasy fan fiction. Not really my thing, but it kept me entertained.

8. 3.5 stars- Ghost Champagne-A woman is haunted by a ghost of herself from the future. Loved the premise, buildup of the character, and the strong ending, but I wanted more of an exploration of the idea of making peace with the past.

9. 2 stars - My Breath is a Rudder-One of my least favorite in the collection. I liked where the story was going with the theme of repression and the proximity to danger-of how people secretly want to be in close proximity to dangerous behavior or ideas because they can’t explore those things themselves- but the execution wasn’t there for me. Not enough focus and too an abrupt ending.

10. 4 stars- Power Couple -A woman and man agree to go into cryogenic sleep until each finishes their schooling and starts their career. Well-though out commentary on the pressure high paying jobs and how people put their life on hold for a decade only to find out it’s not all they thought it would be.

11. 4 stars- Rock Manning Goes for Broke - I gave most of these 4 stars to Andres for crafting a highly creative slapstick story with a lot of heart underneath.

12. 2.5 stars- Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy - A near future story that felt underdeveloped and would have worked better as a longer piece of work.

13. 2 stars - Captain Roger in Heaven -A woman inadvertently starts her own sex cult. Not my type of story, but props for originality.

14. 3.5 stars - Clover-If you’ve read All The Birds in the Sky, you’ll enjoy learning what happened to Patricia’s cat, Berkeley. If you haven’t read it, it’s still a fun read.

15. 2 stars- This Is Why We Can’t Have Nasty Things- A seven page story about a group of friends displaced from their usual hangout. It’s about change and the meaning of home, but it was too short for me to make any connection with the characters or care about the plot.

16. 3.5 stars - A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime -Creative world building and a zany plot. It felt more like an episode of a larger work, though, than a complete story in itself.

17. 2.5 stars - Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue- Just ok for me.

18. 5 stars - The Bookstore at the End of America-Of course a story about bookstores is gonna be my favorite! But I also love the discussion of the way books can bridge divides and bring people together in ways other media cannot.

19. 3 stars -The Visitmothers-A modern day Cinderella-type story that felt like it needed to be fleshed out just a little bit more-but great concept!

*Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review

Charlie Jane Anders has published three science fiction novels, all quite different from one another, and all great. All the Birds in the Sky deftly takes the tropes of fantasy and of science fiction, and sets them against one another (but also asks how they might positively relate). The City in the Middle of the Night is set on a planet tidally locked to its sun, so human beings can only live along the terminator (one side is too hot, the other side, too cold). Using this framework, it asks questions about social organization and political power, about misplaced love and sexual desire, and about what it means to confront the truly alien, and whether we would even be able to recognize an intelligence radically different from our own. Victories Greater Than Death is the first volume of a YA space opera trilogy; its a lot of goofy fun, and I wrote about it here.

Anders’ latest volume, Even Greater Mistakes, is a collection of her short stories. She has published a lot of them, and the new book provides the author’s selection of her favorites. The variety here is just as wide as among her novels, perhaps wider. The stories range from angry and despairing to utterly whimsical, with a lot of other in between tonalities as well. I had read several of them before online, but most of them I hadn’t. The stories include short semi-independent sequels to her first two novels, conceptual explorations, and just plain silliness. I was sad that one of my favorite of her stories wasn’t included: “The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model,” which I talked about this past summer at the (online) conference of the Science Fiction Research Association. But otherwise I have no complaints about Anders’ self-selection.

The longest piece in the volume is an amazing novella, Rock Manning Goes for Broke, which I have published an article about. It’s a story about a guy who just likes to make people laugh with idiotic slapstick routines; but these come to carry a deep political charge due to the times we live in. I see this novella as almost the definitive statement of what it was like to live under the regime of Donald Trump; but Anders reveals that she started writing it long before, at the start of the Iraq War; and in fact is was first published in 2016, that is to say, before Trump even took office. It just goes to show how science fiction works to think about futurity (which is not the same thing as actual prediction of the future).

Other stories deal with such politico-philosophical dilemmas as whether the future is fixed in advance, or open to multiple possibilities (“Six Months, Three Days”), the paradoxes of time travel (“The Time Travel Club”), and the relation between gender positions and social hierarchies, set in (“Love Might Be Too Strong A Word”). But Anders always embodies these issues in the dilemma of concrete and rich characters, who are sometimes poignant and sometimes just silly. She is rarely able to resist detours into goofiness, which is welcome when you consider the serious import that some of these stories would have otherwise. In “The Bookstore at the End of America,” she writes about the division between the two Americas, the Trump/Christian one, and the California/Queer one, with both an awareness that these divisions are artificalLY too extreme (there are many Christians who are not homophobic bigots, for instance), and the Rodney King-esque hope that somehow we can all get along. But she can also write, with equal care and attention, a story like “Fairy Werewolf Vs Vampire Zombie,” which asks the question (one that is certainly important to at least a certain subset of fanboys and fangirls), as to, if you are both a zombie and a vampire, which of these two identities will win out? Do you want to suck blood, or gobble brains? Most of these stories are funny, but a few of them are disturbing and even downright terrifying, like “Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue, which envisons a world in which the transphobes completely take over, and medical technology has progressed to the point that the most sadistic forms of mind/body control are now routinely carried out.

Even Greater Mistakes is a triumph of queer and trans sensibilities; but the real point it makes is that such sensibilities are not ever just one thing. There is an incredible amount of variety and creativity in the world, which would be unleashed to a far greater extent than is the case now, if only we could free ourselves from the stupidities of binary-gender normativity. Several of Anders’ stories point toward such utopian possibilities, most notably “Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy,” which envisions the possibilties for creative, collective expression in a post-global-warming, post-sea-level-rise San Francisco, where the tops of some of the hills are the only parts of the city not permanently under water. This story, in particular — although it contains its share of conflict and shitty behavior — gives me a sense of hope, and even a poignant sense of community (rarely evoked in a misanthropic old-codger hermit such as myself) — in the face of the coming ecological and political catastrophes.

This is one of the most interesting short story collections I've read in a while!
There's a wide array of sf stories, discussing themes such as gender, sexuality, anti-capitalism, and global warming, which are themes I usually enjoy. The stories themselves were also super original, and the authors imagination is off the charts! This is my first time reading anything by this author as well, so I will definitely be checking out her other works!

My favorites were these:

As Good As New - A story about a woman who is the seemingly sole survivor of the apocalypse, and a genie she meets outside her bomb shelter. Fun and touching story about the mistakes of humans, and how we always try to fix them eventually.

Love Might Be Too Strong a Word - This is set in an alien world, where love and genders works in much the same way as here, and the people in it who try to subvert it. It is also very much about queer love.

Power Couple - This is about a typical power couple - a doctor and a lawyer - and how they try to navigate their relationship and their expectations to themselves and each other. They decide to each to into frozen suspension for 6 years at a time each, so that when they finally are done with kick-starting their careers, they can focus on each other.

The Bookstore at the End of America - America is not what it once used to be, as California has become its own country. A bookshop sits right on the border, with one entrance in each country. Lovely story about what might separate a country, particularly the US, in the future, but about how stories will, ultimately, keep us all connected.


Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Charlie Jane Anders is prolific. If you have somehow managed to not encounter her work before, I urge you to pick up this collection. Even Greater Mistakes is a collection of almost twenty stories, covering a plethora of topics and genres, unbelievably written by the same talented human.

Where do I even begin? The collection opens with As Good As New, a gorgeous story about a woman in her panic room with a genie in the form of a theater critic. It is absolutely hilarious, and as Anders’ states in her introduction to the story, you can find a glorious reading by LeVar Burton on his podcast.

Anders can make me weep with the beauty of her prose. Rat Catcher’s Yellows is an unexpectedly moving story about a dementia-like disease, and a video game. It wonderfully captures the life of caring for a loved one. Clover is a magical story about a couple and their lucky cat. In The Time Travel Club, a group of misfits band together to try and travel through time. The ending literally had me weeping happy tears, and definitely my favorite story in this consistently wonderful collection.

Another highlight is The Bookstore at the End of America, about immigration, the power of literature, and Californians (as an adopted California, I found some of Anders’ descriptions of stereotypical sun-dwellers hilariously accurate).

There are some incredible, unconventional love stories in this collection, such as Six Months, Three Days, Power Couple, and the strangely arousing Love Might be Too Strong a Word.

As well as the stories themselves, Anders offers a hugely insightful introduction not only to the collection, but to each individual story. She shares her experience as a writer, and a person, and offers some fantastic advice for budding authors.

Anders is a fantastic writer. She is funny, profound, and incredibly imaginative. I loved pretty much every story in this collection. And with titles such as Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie, you cannot possibly go wrong. Highly recommended for fans of SF, Douglas Adams, N.K Jesmin, and Ursula K. Le Guin. Anders is one the best SFF authors around, and this collection perfectly demonstrates her awesomeness.

“Even Greater Mistakes” by Charlie Jane Anders ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Short stories: Speculative Fiction/ SciFi. Location: Across time and space/many in San Francisco, CA, USA. Time: current and future.-
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This short story collection covers the author’s many years of writing. Before each, Anders explains why it was written, for whom, and the stage of Ander’s writing journey. I found these explanations very interesting and honest. The predominantly LGBTQ+ stories are set in worlds of divergent genders and circumstances. In some, gender/identity just is what it is. In others, gender/identity is the pivotal story line.-
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Like most collections, some stories engaged me more than others. This does not detract from the beauty of the book. Anders is a powerful, gut-wrenching, fascinating writer of wildly creative stories. There’s no way to describe the book except by noting some I loved:-
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⭐️”Six Months, Three Days” tells of two people who see the future. They begin a relationship, knowing it won’t end well.
⭐️”Love Might be Too Strong a Word”. Six types of body and brain-modified humans staff a spaceship. An ethereal, romantic Pilot falls for a snarky low-level Daily cleaner.
⭐️”Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie”. A friendship between two very different women that may be a bit of an homage to the Vampire Diaries.
⭐️”My Breath is a Rudder” Climate change sends the ocean into San Francisco, so a huge wall is built. What kind of mural do you paint on it?
⭐️”Clover” Whatever happened to Berkley the Cat from “All the Birds in the Sky”?
⭐️ “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” A Guardians of the Galaxy- type space opera. Sharon, a monster, and Kango, a one-celled organism, fight scary enemies in their spaceship named “The Spicy Meatball”.-
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This book should be read by all types/genders/identities! It’s 5 true stars from me with thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the copy. Publication date: 11/16/2021.

I'm a huge fan of Charlie Jane Anders, and I have to say--this collection of short stories by her was so much fun! Her cleverness of plot elements is only outweighed by her skill at generating memorable characters. Every single story in this collection grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. I felt like I had to race through each one to run straight into the next. This book was fantastic, and I STRONGLY encourage you to pick up a copy.

I would like to thank Tor Books for providing me an advance copy of Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders via NetGalley.

If you had asked me a couple of years ago if I read short stories, I would have told you no. If I was going to read, I wanted a meal (300+ pages) not a snack. My best friend, who also happens to love short stories, kept trying to entice me. Ultimately, I read Press Start to Play, a collection of short stories about gaming. I LOVE gaming, and it was a good place to start with short stories. I enjoyed those stories immensely. In that collection was Rat Catcher's Yellows by Charlie Jane Anders. I can't describe for you how that story made me feel other than to say I felt I found someone who could understand me. I want to play The Divine Right of Cats so badly. Someone needs to make that game! I started collecting every short story I could find by Charlie Jane. I don't read them right away. I keep them in a folder. I swear it is not as creepy as it sounds. When I need a palate cleanser, to feel understood, or a boost of serotonin, I read one. When times are very dark, I read Rat Catcher's Yellows again.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Even Greater Mistakes. I knew I would want to read it, but I was so surprised to find it included all of my favorite stories from Charlie Jane, including the aforementioned Rat Catcher's Yellows. Plus, there were stories I hadn't read yet that I now love so much and led me to find the related stories mentioned in the intros of each chapter. I found myself pausing between stories because I wanted to draw out the book for as long as possible even though I was eager to read the next one.

It is amazing to have one book that holds all the things you love together. A place I can always go to escape the rest of the world. I treasure this so much I even pre-ordered a hard copy to keep on my book shelf, rare in these days of digital books. I hope I have convinced you to do the same.

Bonus points for the inclusion of Clover which I read long before All the Birds in the Sky and loved even more this second time around.

Even Greater Mistakes is a career-spanning collection of 19 speculative fiction stories by the award-winning Charlie Jane Anders an amazingly inclusive writer. Charlie Jane is masterful at packing maximum impact and emotion into a minimum number of words. So good!

A wonderful collection of diverse stories. Six Months, Three Days has stuck with me long after reading. I'm not usually a sci fi reader, but these stories are infused with so much humanity they are less gimmicky and more literary (in a very accessible way).

"Even Greater Mistakes" by Charlie Jane Anders is in no way a mistake. It is in fact a wonderful collection of thoughtful, philosophical, entertaining, humorous, and sometimes terrifying tales of speculative fiction along with informative and interesting author-written introductions.

Before picking up this collection, I was most familiar with Anders as the author of the Hugo nominated The City in The Middle of the Night. As I read through these stories I was surprised to find that I already read a number of them. The remaining stories feel comfortably familiar. Although the topic of gender issues is an undeniable foundation to most of these stories, the underlying emotions are very understandable to any human with half of an empathy neuron regardless of gender preference and identification. (I say this from the viewpoint of a fairly boring straight guy.)

Each of these stories deserves a detailed and witty analysis. Yet, I would like to conclude by offering appreciation to Anders for an excellent collection. I look forward to reading many more. (And am also appreciative of the pointers to other similar works in the introductions. In particular I can't wait to read the next story in the light and wacky space opera series started with the story "A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime".)

I am very appreciative to the author and publisher for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this collection.

This was an interesting collection of stories and while I couldn’t connect with a couple of them, it was overall very thought provoking and unique.

These were almost all very good -- I don't really resonate with Rock Manning, it's well written but I just don't enjoy the setting or character. The rest of them I read even though I've read many of them before. Several different voices and tones and a good picture of what the author can do, plus cool intros to most of the stories too.