YMMV / Harda Horda

• Alternative Character Interpretation
  • O. from Dear Mr. M. was either oblivious to what he is and how she's sicing him on her own sister... or did so in cold blood, hating her sister for being happy with her life.
  • Is Lilijas a Pragmatic Hero or a callous monster, tempting Noah into evil? The ambiguity of her ultimate demand is fully intentional and is never brought up in follow-up stories with the two characters.
• Broken Base: Despite being an anthology of short stories, it ended up being quite divisive:
  • Sycamore, both the story itself and its placement as the first one in the anthology. People either complain about it being a generic Stranger Things ripoff or fawn how awesome it is because of that. And depending on their stance on the above, they either see it unfit to be the "face" of the whole anthology or consider it a good opening.
  • Speaking of which: there is absolutely no consensus which story should be the opening one.
  • There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to Green Revenge - people either are madly in love, or find it just puzzlingly average. The big takeaway is whether one was already a fan of the characters from it (since it's part of a much bigger, pre-existing series) or just a casual reader who stumbled upon it. This is particularly visible in reviews that trash the entire anthology... but still stop to praise Jadowska's story.
  • Anywhere, But the Head is either seen as distasteful and cliché, or a badly needed Breather Episode among rather bleak stories that precede and follow it. Its status as the only outright comedic story is also highly contentious.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The narrator of Fiery Tail wonders who was the first person to spot the asteroids heading towards the Earth, what they felt and what sort of decisions were made afterwards. She also mentions the resulting anarchy of the final days of Earth. Which is all the plot of Don't Look Up, playing the whole thing as a nihilistic Black Comedy, just in tune with the cynism of the narrator.
• Fridge Brilliance: They Don't Watch From Above is a meaningful title, as without satellites, nobody can see the sea activity from above and notice the underwater megastructures.
• Narm: Fiery Tail really tries to be insightful and profound, but all its pompous metaphors and comparisons are just hilariously over-the-top and at the same time, the story itself is very choppy and hard to follow with its episodic nature, making it all unintentionally hilarious rather than deep.
• So Okay, It's Average: The anthology is all over the place when it comes to the quality of the stories, and the base can't even decide which ones are the good ones and which are the bad ones. What people do, however, agree upon is that when taken as a whole, the anthology is pretty average: any highlight will be instantly balanced out by a failure of another story.
• Tear Jerker: The middle part of Spiritlessness is easily the most gut-wrenching part of the whole anthology, going through Death of a Child along with a depressed, suicidal and eventually dead wife, her soul refusing to return to life, being more happy in the afterlife... up to the point where Marek is willing to sell his soul to the devil, simply ceasing to exist in case of death, just to try bring his wife back here and now.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The anthology was written as a promotional tool, for a group formed as a marketing device, too, heavily using the image of a Dirty Dozen-like female collective. As a result, just about everyone assumed and still insists it has to be at the very least all about girl power, if not outright Straw Feminism. Ironically, not a single story even looks in those directions.

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