Even Greater Mistakes

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. [em]Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary. (Nov.) [/em]