Synopses & Reviews
"A master absurdist...Highly recommended."
The New York Times
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.
Review
“Charlie Jane Anders is ridiculously brilliant.” Rachel Swirsky, Locus
About the Author
Charlie Jane Anders is the former editor-in-chief of io9.com, the extraordinarily popular Gawker Media site devoted to science fiction and fantasy. Her SF and fantasy debut novel, All the Birds in the Sky, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel and was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award's Best Novel category. Her Tor.com story "Six Months, Three Days" won the 2013 Hugo Award and was subsequently picked up for development into a NBC television series. 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.