I had high hopes for this story collection, and I think it might just be a case of this not being right for me as a reader. After a couple of stories early on that I was intrigued by, the collection lost steam. I found myself forcing myself to pick it up, which is never something I like.

Things I liked: some of the ideas here are super unique and fun. There are some unique characters as well. Loved the Queer rep in so many stories.

The writing itself was not my favorite. I think her more casual style was not for me. And there were a lot of random Smurf references?

Anyway, DNF’d at 40%

Even Greater Mistakes is a compilation of short stories spanning Charlie Jane Ander’s career. These stories are mostly science fiction (with a bit of fantasy thrown in). I’ve never read this author’s work before and I think this collection serves as a great introduction. As with all story collections, some were stronger than others, but all of the stories compiled here are highly imaginative and well-crafted. Charlie does a great job of creating interesting and complex characters, most of whom have unique backgrounds. The LGBTQ+ representation is also really great throughout.

My favorite stories from this compilation include:
As Good as New: post-apocalyptic tale complete with genie, three wishes and all of the Facts of Life
Rat Catcher’s Yellows: a woman struggles with her wife’s illness. A new video game allows her to control some parts of her mind, even as the dementia progresses.
The Time Travel Club: a group of friends explore time travel (with mixed results).
Power Couple: explores the lengths a couple with go through to be together at the right time (definitely felt like I was watching a black mirror episode while I read this one).

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for an advance copy. I can’t wait to check out more by this author.

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.

This is a diverse collection of surprising, quirky, mostly speculative short stories. I admire Charlie Jane Anders’s creativity as experienced in her novels and hadn't realized that her short fiction had not yet been collected. For new readers this is a good introduction to her work. And for her fans there are stories set in worlds created and explored in her novels. Something for everyone!

I am a massive fan of Charlie Jane Anders and the fantastic fictional worlds she creates. Naturally, I was tickled to hear that she has written an anthology, Even Greater Mistakes. If you're looking for a wild collection from various worlds and ideas, this is the perfect read for you.

Included within Even Greater Mistakes, you'll find nineteen short stories (assuming I counted right). All of which are listed and reviewed with more detail down below. I honestly adored this collection. But, as with anything, there were a few standouts that came to mind. As Good As New, If You Take My Meaning, and The Time Travel Club were three of my favorites.

This anthology runs the gambit from solarpunk-esque science fiction, where there's a genuine feeling of hope infused into the words, to more earthly tales that feel so very human. While they are all significantly different, they do have one thing in common: they're all brilliantly written.

"Short stories are dangerous: tiny sparks of pure narrative fire that burn hotter because they snuff out sooner.”

As Good as New
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
As Good as New is an imaginative take on both post-apocalyptic tales and – believe it or not – genies. It was extremely clever, if a bit traumatic at times (the descriptions really bring the story home, sometimes in horrifying detail). I really do mean it when I say that this is probably my favorite from the collection. And no, I'm not just saying that because it is the first.
“The real world was in here, in the panic room-out there was nothing but an afterimage of a bad trip.”

Rat Catcher's Yellows
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
In some ways, Rat Catcher's Yellows broke my heart. It was also insprising in many other ways. It constantly amazes me how much emotional and force Charlie Jane Anders can write into her work. This short story is proof of that! This short tackles diseases and the loss of memories/minds, and how we hold onto what is left.
“No matter that all the hip teens and twentysomethings are playing Divine Right of Cats right now.”

If You Take My Meaning
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I distinctly remember reading If You Take My Meaning years ago, when it was first made available (online, I think?). I still loved it this time around, and with good reason. Actually, looking back at my previous rating – I think I liked it more this time around! That's interesting.
If You Take My Meaning is set following the events of The City in the Middle of the Night. So if you’ve found yourself wondering what happened next, this is a short story worth diving into. If You Take My Meaning was a brilliant read, albeit a short one. I honestly would have happily read a hundred more pages (or more) of Alyssa’s story. But then again, I’ve always been desperate to see more of this world that Charlie Jane Anders has created.
“All three of them had their own brand of terrifying dreams, but they'd gotten better at soothing each other through the worst.”

The Time Travel Club
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Time Travel Club was another favorite of mine. This is a concept I had ironically been thinking about recently, so it really resonated with me here. In this short story, Charlie Jane Anders ponders the practicality of time travel, which has a slightly humorous twist thanks to a blunt acknowledgment of physics.
“Nobody could decide what should be the first object to travel through time.”

Six Months, Three Days
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
I feel like I've read this short story somewhere, but I can't quite remember where. Either way, it resonated with me then, and it did so again here. Six Months, Three Days tells the story of two very different people who can see into the future. However, they both see a different future. How do people such as this reconcile their differences, you might ask? Well, that is the question.
“What if two people both saw the future, but they saw it very differently?”

Love Might Be Too Strong a Word
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Love Might Be Too Strong a Word is set on a spaceship full of different humanoids – all of whom serve a particular purpose within their unit. It was an interesting read, though it is also a bit of a mind bend – in the best ways possible.
“The softness startled me so much, it took me a moment to realize the hand had seven fingers, three more than mine.”

Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Oh my goodness did this one get me laughing! Fairy and werewolves, and karaoke, oh my! But seriously, Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie is really a battle of the voices, as they duke it out via karaoke. It is so original and highly entertaining to read, that much I can promise you.
“The oak door at the bottom of the stairs will only open if you've got the right kind of mojo.”

Ghost Champagne
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ghost Champagne is another highly inventive short story. Though at this point I imagine that isn't too much of a surprise, huh? I really enjoyed the descriptions and train of thought that unraveled in this one.
“I wish I could just reach into someone's chest and pull out their beating heart and show it to them, like a movie villain. (And then I would put it back and their chest would seal up and they would be fine. I'm not a monster!)”

My Breath Is a Rudder
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
I'm starting to think that I really did love (or at the very least highly enjoy) every short in this collection. My Breath Is a Rudder blew me away with it's descriptive nature, as many of the lines tugged at both my heart and mind.
“I'm standing on Ocean Beach, but I can't see the ocean.”

Power Couple
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
I think the thing I love the most about Power Couple is that Charlie Jane Anders didn't go into it intending to write a science fiction short. There's something very compelling about a story that forces it's own genre, don't you think? Anyway, I feel like this a short that many people can relate to, as it refers to two people torn between their careers and their love for one another. I'm not going to lie, the ending to Power Couple absolutely wrecked me.
“His name was John, and he was going to change the world.”

Rock Manning Goes for Broke
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Rock Manning Goes for Broke is one hell of a ride, I can tell you that much. It starts of feeling like one sort of story, and before you know it you're in an entirely different story. I loved it for that reason. I'm struggling to describe this one, so I'm just going to describe it as a cross between existential crises and stunt double passion.
“From my dad, I learned there were just two kinds of bodies: falling, and falling on fire.”

Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
There is something so beautiful and hopeful about Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy, it broke my heart and inspired me all at once. I think this is going to be one of those stories I come back and read again at a later time.
“At times I fancied the candlelight could filter down onto streets and buildings, the old automobiles and houses full of children's toys, all the waterlogged treasures of long-gone people.”

Captain Roger in Heaven
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
While the title made me laugh a little bit (I immediately thought of Steve Rogers, sorry, not sorry), I'll admit that the whole concept had me highly amused. There's a lot of thought that went into Captain Roger in Heaven, as it deals with cults, sex, life, and death.
“Marith didn't mean to start a sex cult, she just wanted to feel sexy for once.”

Clover
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Much like If You Take My Meaning is connected to one of her novels, so is Clover. Clover is the followup to All the Birds in the Sky, and it answers the very important question: what happens to the cat? Naturally, I devoured this one.
“This is Berkley,” he said. “If you take him into your home, you'll have nine years of good luck.”

This Is Why We Can't Have Nasty Things
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
This Is Why We Can't Have Nasty Things feels like a love letter in remembrance. It's a treasured memory of a place long gone. While the title is humorous, the story feels very somber to me. Very real, you know?
“I have something to tell you. I'm leaving. I still love you, but I can't love this city anymore.”

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime is apparently part of a series of short stories written by Charlie Jane Andres. Currently there are only two (I think?) in the series, but it sounds like there are plenty more bouncing around in that brilliant mind. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing more of Kango and Sharon, so clearly I'm going to have to track down that other short story.
“The worst discomfort of all was having to pretend to be the loyal servant of a giant space blob.:

Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
Oh my heart. This one hurt guys. Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue is absolutely brilliant, but it is also gut-wrenching and at the same time all too real in such a horrifying way. I'm not going to describe this one – no words I have would ever do it justice.
“The intake process begins with dismantling her personal space, one mantle at a time.”

The Bookstore at the End of America
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
The Bookstore at the End of America is very much a political read, and this is not what I would consider light reading. And yet it is an essential read, one that digs into the heart of so many people, turning our thoughts into story.
“Nobody knew how many books were inside that building, not even Molly, the owner.”

The Visitmothers
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
The Visitmothers is arguably the best story for this anthology to end on. It's absurd and entertaining, and helps end things on a happier note. Like many of Charlie Jane Anders' works, this one is a bit brain breaking, but in a good way.
“Four Visitmothers descend from the sky, but also seem to glide sideways, as if they were on a conveyor belt coming from someplace off to the side of the hill.”

Even Greater Mistakes collects an assortment of mostly SFF short stories by the talented Charlie Jane Anders. While not every story was a hit for me, the collection is, on the whole, a solid winner, showcasing Anders's gift for sharp, inventive ideas and plots. There's a lot going on here, and the collection is jampacked with clever conceits, but always with an eye toward character - people, in all their glory, not just ideas.

A great introduction to a significant voice in contemporary science fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for the advance review copy!

as with all collections, some of these stories are markedly better than others, but all in all it's a wonderful inventive collection from a very original voice, and some of the best writing in SF.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in return for a fair and honest review.

I've very much enjoyed Anders's novels, as well as her nonfiction work. My first read of hers was All the Birds in the Sky, which I enjoyed tremendously, enough to read it twice.

Short stories, of course, tend to be more hit or miss. Some in this collection I really loved, while others I thought were meh!

Fortunately, the collection started out with a story that I thought was one of the strongest in the book, As Good as New. It had a fascinating premise and a nice twist. I loved the setup, with the fancy panic room, the appearance of a genie, and the elaborate attempts of the main character to tailor her wishes - we've all read plenty of stories in which a wish gets twisted, and it was fun to see the elaborate gaming out of the wording!

If You Take My Meaning was another story I enjoyed very much. I have read The City in the Middle of the Night, but I didn't remember it well enough to really appreciate the connection. However, the big point here is that that didn't matter - the story stands beautifully on its own. I do want to go back and re-read the City in the Middle of the Night, now!

Another story I really enjoyed was Six Months, Three Days. The story did twist me around a bit, trying to figure out exactly how all this would work, but I very much enjoyed that.

Some of the stories are quite political, which was fine with me, and I enjoyed them as well - Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue and The Bookstore at the End of America fall in this category. I particularly enjoyed The Bookstore at the End of America, because it seemed to offer a tiny bit of hope, and through books!

Overall, like any short story a mixed bag, but the stories I really enjoyed far outweighed those that just didn't do it for me. I do think I'll go back and read this again - I found that my second read of All the Birds in the Sky showed me things I missed the first time around, and I suspect that some of these stories will be the same.

A very enjoyable read overall, and I was definitely glad to read it!

This was a good introduction to Charlie Jane Anders for me. I like short stories as an introduction, as it give me a range of how a writer will be. I'll look forward to reading more from Charlie Jane Anders. #EvenGreaterMistakes #NetGalley

This was my first time reading Charlie Jane Anders' work and having steadily become more fond of the short story, I felt that this collection would be a good place to start.

There's an interesting mix of stories here - most, if not all of them, falling into the SFF bracket. Some I did skip either because of the content warnings that the author provided in the introduction to each individual story or because certain stories did not work for me. However, the ones that I did read were great.

The character development and world building was really well done throughout and the stories were engaging.

The ones I most enjoyed were:
- As Good As New
- Rat Catcher's Yellows
- The Time Travel Club
- Ghost Champagne
- The Bookstore at the End of America
- The Visitmothers

Overall, I think this collection will be great for fans of Charlie Jane Anders' work as well as fans of SFF and short stories.

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

Even Greater Mistakes is a wide-reaching collection of stories that will have something for everyone. Anders is just so good at cutting to the heart of our humanity with bravery and compassion.

For you if: You like short stories with speculative elements.

FULL REVIEW:

Thank you, Tor, for providing me with an electronic advanced copy of this book! I am a big fan of Charlie Jane Anders, as a person and as a writer, and I jumped at the chance to read her first official story collection.

As you might expect from a prolific SFF writer who hasn’t published a story collection before (what?), this book is absolutely packed — truly, there’s something for everyone here. Perhaps my favorite was “Six Months, Three Days,” in which a girl who sees many futures and a boy who sees one future fall in love, despite knowing it won’t end well. It raised so many questions about free will. There are also follow-up stories to Anders’ novels The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky (which is one I especially loved). She also gives introductions and background on each story, which added an extra touch I really appreciated.

Anders cuts to the heart and humanity with clear-eyed compassion. These stories are not always comfortable (see trigger warnings), but the discomfort is always purposeful. She explores themes of transness and queerness, choice and identity, love and friendship, and so much more. I didn’t love every single story in this book, but I loved many and liked the rest.

If you’re a fan of speculative fiction, pick this one up!



CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Transphobia and violence against trans people; Dementia (having a loved one suffer from it); Depression (acute metaphorical description of suffering from it); Addiction/alcoholism (recovering from it); PTSD

I've read most of Charlie Jane Anders's published novels but this was my first time reading her shorter work. I enjoyed the characters and settings, and the range of different ideas and focuses in the different stories. The introductory material at the beginning of the stories is interesting. Like all of Anders' work, even the darker themes are approached with a light touch and the stories end up being uplifting even when not everything works out. This was a fun and enjoyable read.

I'm not a big fan of short stories. These are LGBT oriented and have a viewpoint that I am mostly unfamiliar with. Some were great, my favorite was "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue." The rest were fine. An interesting read.

I've always been moody when I've read Charlie Jane Anders's novels, for whatever reason was going on in my life (fever, PMS, pandemic, the usual), and that's always worked for me, but the Charlie Jane online is always such a breath of fresh air...so I'm glad this collection of short stories exists to highlight all the sides of her imagination: the joyous and the weird, the dark and gloomy, the insightful and the adventurous. I almost wish I'd read this before Victories Greater Than Death, that I had seen all of her before putting Adult Novel expectations on YA. Charlie Jane Anders contains multitudes, and that's a wonderful thing for us readers.

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor/Forge for the ARC of this in exchange for my honest review.

This was such a well done collection of short stories, that vary greatly in type of science-fiction and fantasy. There was time travel and aliens and post apocalyptic settings, diversity of characters, all with different feelings being evoked. The ones I struggled with were based on the author’s other works, which I haven’t read yet. My favorites were the last two which kind of felt a little more hopeful than the other stories. I’m definitely planning to go back and read more of the author’s books!

Even Greater Mistakes contains nineteen different short stories featuring all kinds of genres: contemporary, science fiction, fantasy, dystopian, and a bit of horror. They all contain queer love, and mostly queer joy. There’s sapphics, trans people, polyamorous couples. It’s really a treat.

As Good As New: a strange fungus has caused the world to end and only Marisol has survived.

Rat Catcher’s Yellows: Shary has leptospirosis X (Rat Catcher’s Yellows) and her wife Grace is adapting to a life with a young wife with dementia. Soon, a kitty video game changes the odds.

If You Take My Meaning: I skipped this one because I haven’t read City in the Middle of the Night yet, and it contains spoilers.

The Time Travel Club: young adults get together and form a club to discuss time travel, when a professor shows up with a real time machine.

Six Months, Three Days: both Judy and Doug can see the future. Judy can see multiple outcomes, while Doug can only see one.

Love Might Be Too Strong a Word: Dot, a pilot, falls madly in love with Mab, a daily, who is much farther below in the cultural standing of the ship.

Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie: exactly what the title says. Antonia left her family due to her condition, and she starts singing at Rachel’s Bar.

Ghost Champagne: Gloria is a comedian, and she’s being followed by her own ghost.

My Breath is a Rudder: the first story in a dystopian San Francisco where Julie needs to paint a mural on the wall protecting them from the Pacific Ocean.

Power Couple: John and Willa were both studying for careers with long-term education. They decide to freeze themselves for seven years while the other gets their education. It may not go as planned.

Rock Manning Goes for Broke: a dystopian story with people trying to fight the system.

Because Change was an Ocean and We Lived By Her Mercy: we return to dystopian San Francisco, instead following Jaconda and Miranda.

Captain Roger in Heaven: Marith accidentally creates a sex cult, and years later it’s grown exponentially.

Clover: Anwar and Joe receive a strange cat named Berkley that brings them nine years of good luck, until the cat Patricia shows up.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nasty Things: follows the closing of a queer bar, the Glamrock.

A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime: Sharon is a monster, spying on The Vastness and its cult members.

Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue: Rachel is taken to the Love and Dignity for Everyone center, which “fixes” people. TW for transphobia/conversion camps.

The Bookstore at the End of America: Molly owns a rare bookstore between two countries: one liberal and one more conservative.

The Visitmothers: Cait calls on the Visitmothers to help give her the body she was meant to have.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Books, and Charlie Jane Anders for the chance to read this advanced review copy!

This might be the best single-author collection I've ever read. Even if there's another collection I'm forgetting, floating around somewhere in my brain, EVEN GREATER MISTAKES is certainly very high on the list. These stories are funny and poignant and incredibly human, with delightful and powerful speculative touches throughout, and each one has a laser-tight focus on its own emotional core. These stories know what they are about. The collection also exhibits extraordinary breadth. Only two of these 19 stories didn't do it for me, and I'm not even going to tell you which ones they were.

I'm hard-pressed to even pick favorites, but I particularly loved:
- As Good As New
- Rat Catcher's Yellows
- Power Couple
- Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue

I received an e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What I love about short story collections is that you get smaller, more condensed, more tightly edited stories that have to get across what they have to say or whatever message they want to convey in a much smaller amount of pages than a book would, and often it seems to me that a short story can seem much more satisfying in many ways to a book when you are looking for something to make you think. (Novellas do much the same thing, sometimes.)

Charlie Jane Anders is no stranger to science fiction, no stranger to short stories, and certainly no stranger to combining both. As such, it’s unsurprising that this collection is outstanding. I’ve long admired her work, and I think the manner in which she approaches science fiction (especially when it comes to gender, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexuality) is truly the perfect combination of something omnipresent and futuristic. We’re told science fiction has led to a lot of what has become science fact, and with her musings on everything from how robots might have gender and sexual orientations once they have sentience to how MMORPGs run by people whose brains work differently could be used to possibly solve global issues speak to questions scientists have only began to touch on, which makes these stories even more interesting to read.

There are a few stories that verge closer to horror or fantasy in here, including one laugh-out-loud funny TV vampire drama parody that had me snickering like crazy, but mostly this collection stuck to the science fiction path.

It was a well-rounded collection, with only one story I had to skip because Anders admitted that if you hadn’t read another title of hers you wouldn’t get it (probably). As always, her skills as a writer grow, and they’ll continue to grow. I look forward to it.

Charlie Jane Anders astounds again with Even Greater Mistakes, a collection of short stories. Anders is in her prime with this collection, spinning tales into worlds not easy to leave.

While I haven’t read any of Charlie Jane Anders’ novels, I’d read a lot of her work on Tor, and very much enjoyed her bookstore short story that I’d read as part of a year’s best anthology. I’ve loved anthologies since I was a kid, as the yearly SFF anthologies were one of the few genre things my small childhood library could be guaranteed to carry. It’s how I got introduced to many of my favorite authors, and even today it’s a favorite way of mine to find new and different voices. So I was absolutely ticked when, in the introduction, the author refers to anthologies as speed-dating with authors! In that case, as this is a set of nineteen short stories spanning the author’s career, this is more like yearly coffee dates perhaps. Each story is preceded by a short introduction that explains what inspired it, as well as content warnings.

“Short stories are dangerous: tiny sparks of pure narrative fire that burn hotter because they snuff out sooner.”


The first story, “As Good as New”, was one of my favorites, telling the story about a woman at the end of the world who discovers a genie in a bottle. But the genie actually used to be a theatre critic and the woman gave up her dreams of being a playwright for pre-med, and anyway, it’s the end of the world, so maybe they should just sit around and binge watch The Facts of Life. It’s the sort of quirky mix of humor and horror that Anders navigates well, and it was the perfect opener for this anthology.

As for stories that didn’t work as well for me, two of the stories, “If You Take My Meaning” and “Clover”, are actually follow-ups to her novels. I found the first a bit hard to get into – it was obvious there was a lot of backstory I was missing – but ultimately enjoyed it, while the second I felt like I never quite got the point of. “Rat Catcher’s Yellows” was interesting, a shorthand version of The Speed of Dark where people with a certain illness retreat into themselves but excel at a complicated kingdom building game, but parts of it scratched me wrong.

“All my life, there had been a giant empty space, a huge existential void, that had needed to be filled by something, and I had never realized that that thing was the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, with its sleek red hot-dog battering ram surrounded by a metal bun.”


And then you have the stories that appear to be absolutely ridiculous (or just bizarre) fluff that cover a deeper meaning. “Rock Manning Goes for Broke” is about a self-trained stunt guy who does, well, stunts-gone-wrong slapstick videos, and then tries to, you know, speak out against a tyrannical government with one. As one does. “A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime” is along the same vein, two space rogues just trying to make enough money to buy gas by robbing giant sentient divine blobs. (Also as one does?) “Captain Roger in Heaven” somewhat goes along with that vibe, as the initial take is “oops I started a sex cult” but then turns into musing on the calcification of religion.

“Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue” is a complete change of pace from most of the stories, about a forced gender reassignment, and was predictably written in response to, uh, everything about the past four years. It’s a raging, unquiet story, very much unlike the rest of the stories that fool you with quirky characters and then wallop you over the head with the moral. The message, of defiantly holding tight to your self-identity, struck a chord with me, and it’s definitely a story I’ll be thinking about for a long time. “Love Might Be Too Strong a Word” plays with some of the same gender identity issues, but in a much more fanciful way, complete with star-crossed lovers set among the actual stars.

“I’ve got my eye on this one future, this one node way off in the distance, where I die aged 97, surrounded by lovers and grandchildren and cats. Whenever I have a big decision to make, I try to see the straightest path to that moment.”


As a romance lover, “Six Months, Three Days” was a favorite, telling the story of the relationship between a woman who sees all possible futures and a man who sees only the future as it will happen. They’ve both been looking forward to meeting the other for their entire lives, but they also both know that their inevitable breakup will be painful. The emotions – the love, the despair, even the contempt – leapt from the page.

“I think that’s what makes us such good time travelers, actually. [..] We are very experienced at being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and at doing whatever it takes to get ourselves to the right place and the right time.”


But my absolute favorite was “The Time Travel Club.” A recovering alcoholic stays after her meeting and meets a motley group of people, who are all pretending to be time travelers. There’s some fun science, but my favorite part was the assertion that you could be known through the stories you chose to make up as well as you’re known through the ones that are real. They are, in a very real sense, just as true.

“Falling in love with a community is always going to be more real than any love for a single human being could ever be.”


For all the different genres and silliness, most of the stories would be characterized as hopepunk, positivity – or at least, the insistence that things can change – in the face of even a dystopian end of the world. There’s also a large focus on community, on found families and partners and pets (or sentient bicycles), as the antidote for hopelessness and loneliness.

Overall, this collection is an assorted chocolates box of stories, where even if you don’t like one or two flavors, you’re sure to find at least one keeper. Highly recommended!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.