Even Greater Mistakes: Stories
Charlie Jane Anders
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Even Greater Mistakes: Stories
Charlie Jane Anders
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
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.
With Even Greater Mistakes, she precisely unpicks what is behind the choices writers make available to their characters.
With boldly realized worldbuilding in a fraction of the space that many SFF novels take up, these stories feel almost too short—they often end with the reader blinking back a powerful afterimage, followed by the urge to immediately read anothern.
Charlie Jane Anders is an inventive writer with a dazzling skill for short stories, and her new collection, Even Greater Mistakes, is a thoughtful and frequently hilarious delight, with deep goofiness running alongside potent examinations of depression, loss, and institutional bigotry. Resistance and persistence are woven through these nineteen stories, along with the power of change, the importance of community, and a rich and empowering imagination.
... a slantwise and clever look at climate, loneliness and relationships, identity, human foibles, and the vast possibilities that stretch out before us—the terrifying and the thrilling.
If settings are often a colorful backdrop for stories whose main focus is elsewhere, there are some themes that Anders repeatedly circles around, as if trying to test different angles of vision.
... a panoply of virtuosic world-building, inventive approaches to unpacking relationship quandaries and full-on hilarious scene crafting. Also, be on the lookout for some artfully disguised (but decidedly pointed) political commentary thrown in for good measure..
This book's 19 stories travel to the edges of speculative fiction and back, demonstrating Anders's skill in introspection, humor, and immersive storytelling.
Readers will fall in love with its zany, dark weirdness.
Although there are no stories original to this collection, there are plenty of delights for Anders' fans and those new to her writing.
... powerful and emotional.