Even Greater Mistakes: Stories

by Charlie Jane Anders

Overview

In her short story collection, Even Greater Mistakes, Charlie Jane Anders upends genre cliches and revitalizes classic tropes with heartfelt and pants-wettingly funny social commentary.

The woman who can see all possible futures is dating the man who can see the one and only foreordained future.

A wildly popular slapstick filmmaker is drawn, against his better judgment, into working with a fascist militia, against a background of social collapse.

Two friends must embark on an Epic Quest To Capture The Weapon That Threatens The Galaxy, or else they’ll never achieve their dream of opening a restaurant.

The stories in this collection, by their very outrageousness, achieve a heightened realism unlike any other. Anders once again proves she is one of the strongest voices in modern science fiction, the writer called by Andrew Sean Greer, “this generation’s Le Guin.”

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250766519
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	528,467
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS is the former editor-in-chief of io9.com, the popular Gawker Media site devoted to science fiction and fantasy. Her debut novel, All the Birds in the Sky, won the Nebula Award for Best Novel and was a Hugo Award finalist. Before that, her story, "Six Months, Three Days," won the Hugo Award. She has also had fiction published by McSweeney's, Lightspeed, and ZYZZYVA. Her journalism has appeared in Salon, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and many other outlets.
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Victories Greater Than Death, the first book in the young-adult Unstoppable trilogy, along with the short story collection Even Greater Mistakes. Her other books include The City in the Middle of the Night and All the Birds in the Sky. Her fiction and journalism have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, McSweeney's, Mother Jones, the Boston Review, Tor.com, Tin House, Conjunctions, Wired Magazine, and other places. Her TED Talk, "Go Ahead, Dream About the Future" got 700,000 views in its first week. With Annalee Newitz, she co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.

Editorial Reviews

07/12/2021

Hugo and Nebula award winner Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) collects 19 speculative shorts in this powerful and emotional volume. Marisol, the playwright-turned-medical-student protagonist of “As Good As New,” weathers the apocalypse in a panic room where she discovers a genie who happens to have once been a New York Times theater critic. The misfits of “The Time Travel Club” meet to report their imaginary journeys through time and grapple with the messy physics of a constantly expanding universe. Then they get their hands on a time machine. Gloria, the acerbic comedian narrator of the tender and darkly humorous “Ghost Champagne,” is haunted by her own future ghost. In dystopian novella “Rock Manning Goes for Broke,” teenage Rock performs dangerous stunts in classmate Sally’s online videos. A few years later, Rock seeks out Sally in film school and they revive their productions with stunning political impact. A trans woman’s consciousness is forcibly transferred into a male body in the fascist America of “Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue,” and even her childhood best friend, who runs the operation, refuses to help. Each tale immerses readers completely and effortlessly into the tense scenarios Anders imagines. The result is both rewarding and impressive. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Irresistible and observant . . . Whatever mood you’re going for, there’s a story in “Even Greater Mistakes” to match it.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“There are plenty of delights for Anders' fans and those new to her writing . . . An essential Anders treasury.”— Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“This fascinating, emotional collection is a welcome addition showcasing Anders' range and prose.”—Library Journal

“Anders’ rich sense of humor and genius pacing make sure that even the darkest of post-apocalyptic stories glimmers with sparks of hope—Anders is an author who finds an exciting, riotous joy in invention, and that passion breaks through into each and every story.”—Booklist, starred review

“[A] powerful and emotional volume. Each tale immerses readers completely and effortlessly into the tense scenarios Anders imagines. The result is both rewarding and impressive.”—Publishers Weekly

“In Even Greater Mistakes, Anders enlivens bold conceits with verve and often dry wit.”—AV Club

“At turns funny, thought-provoking, and emotional, these stories depict the breadth of Anders’ imagination.”—Buzzfeed

From the Publisher

10/01/2021

Nebula- and Hugo-winner Anders (Victories Greater Than Death), well known for her novels, here returns to the short story form that first catapulted her from journalism into fiction. This book's 19 stories travel to the edges of speculative fiction and back, demonstrating Anders's skill in introspection, humor, and immersive storytelling. The collection begins with "As Good as New," about what happens when an apocalypse survivor discovers a genie; the story's "three wishes" dilemma spans playwriting, medicine, and the destruction of the world. "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" looks at friendship and authoritarianism through the eyes of Rachel, a trans woman in a fascist United States, whose consciousness is being transferred into a male body by her childhood best friend. American dissolution reappears in "The Bookstore at the End of America," in which the nation splits into two countries with disparate beliefs. Each of Anders's stories is preceded by an introduction and content warnings. VERDICT This fascinating, emotional collection is a welcome addition showcasing Anders's range and prose.—Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Library Journal

★ 2021-10-13
Novelist Anders showcases the roots of her fiction with this wide-ranging set of short stories.

Although there are no stories original to this collection, there are plenty of delights for Anders' fans and those new to her writing, including the darkly frenetic, apocalyptic novella Rock Manning Goes for Broke(published as a stand-alone in 2018) and stories set in the worlds of her novels All the Birds in the Sky (2016) and The City in the Middle of the Night(2019). The mood of these works runs the gamut from the outrageously silly (the title “Fairy Werewolf vs. Vampire Zombie” tells you almost everything you need to know except for the climactic karaoke battle) to exuberant (unearthly beings fulfill a lonely trans girl’s wish in an unexpected and beautiful way in “The Visitmothers”) to mournful tinged with hope (“Rat Catcher’s Yellows” concerns an online adventure game providing an unusual outlet for people suffering from early-onset dementia) to depressed and angrily frustrated (“Ghost Champagne” features an aspiring comedian haunted by her own ghost) to utterly wrenching (a trans woman resists a puritanical corporation’s gruesomely invasive attempt to “fix” her in “Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue,” which was also selected for The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018). Anders also explores the relationships of (literally) out-of-sync couples, such as in the Hugo Award–winning novelette Six Months, Three Days, in which the two psychic participants have diametrically and tragically opposed ways of seeing the future, and “Power Couple,” in which two ambitious people believe cryonics will help them balance their personal and professional lives. Some stories seem to be sheer “what-if” exercises—always a fruitful jumping-off point for SF—but the fully developed characters who carry out these thought experiments prevent these tales from becoming clinical, as they might in the hands of other writers.

An essential Anders treasury.

Kirkus Reviews