Six Months, Three Days, Five Others
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Before the success of her debut SF-and-fantasy novel All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders was a rising star in SF and fantasy short fiction. Collected in a mini-book format, here--for the first time in print--are six of her quirky, wry, engaging best:
In -The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model, - aliens reveal the terrible truth about how humans were created--and why we'll never discover aliens.
-As Good as New- is a brilliant twist on the tale of three wishes, set after the end of the world.
-Intestate- is about a family reunion in which some attendees aren't quite human anymore--but they're still family.
-The Cartography of Sudden Death- demonstrates that when you try to solve a problem with time travel, you now have two problems.
-Six Months, Three Days- is the story of the love affair between a man who can see the one true foreordained future, and a woman who can see all the possible futures. They're both right, and the story won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
And -Clover, - exclusively written for this collection, is a coda to All the Birds in the Sky, answering the burning question of what happened to Patricia's cat.
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Anders writes such pretty stories. I'm not usually a fan of short stories, I like getting to know the characters and befriend them, but these worked well. I would absolutely read a longer book of most of them, but I'm happy with it as is.
Charlie Jane Anderson makes me angry because she writes stories that should be hackneyed and stupid but turn out delightfully absurd. Genie Theatre Critic? Should be dumb. Is my favorite short story in a long time. Bio-engineered family seeking to inherit dad's body parts? Should be ridiculous. Is refreshingly complex and touching.
Also, we find out what happened to Patricia's cat, and the story made me need to hug my cat for much longer than he prefers.
So good!! Truly unique science fiction stories, plus a short story resolving a tiny unresolved thread from All the Birds in the Sky. I think I have a new favorite author to add to my list. ;-)
