Review by Booklist Review
This new collection features 18 short stories and one novella by science-fiction author Anders (The City in the Middle of the Night, 2019). Readers will fall in love with its zany, dark weirdness. A playwright survives the apocalypse in a panic room, and when she finds a genie, she must figure out how to wish the world back to rights without being caught in a trap. A woman is haunted by her own steadily solidifying ghost in a nerve-wracking tale of self-destructive depression. Anders' rich sense of humor and genius pacing make sure that even the darkest of post-apocalyptic stories glimmers with sparks of hope--such as the novella "Rock Manning Goes for Broke," in which a comedian entertains a world mired in violence, and the story "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue," in which a woman has to break free of a lab trying to "fix" her gender nonconformity. Stories touch on found family and queerness, on the ominous horrors of being pursued or policed, and on gentrification and finding the places where you belong, however weird they may be. Anders is an author who finds an exciting, riotous joy in invention, and that passion breaks through into each and every story.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
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
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
