- Hardcover: 339 pages
- Publisher: Avon Books (1 Jan 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380973642
- ISBN-13: 978-0380973644
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.5 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 741,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Best known for his Sandman graphic novels about Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, Neil Gaiman has also written the standalone books Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Never Where from his BBC TV series revealing a fantastic realm under London, and Star Dust, a poignant fairy tale. His shorter fantasies are regularly picked for Year's Best collections. Smoke and Mirrors assembles 36 of his favourite stories, prose poems, and verse pieces. Among the imaginative inventions here are a murder mystery set among angels in heaven; the discovery of the Holy Grail at Oxfam; warped retellings of fairy tales and folklore, including a Snow White that's black beyond belief; several clever variations on vampirism; a firm of contract killers with a very remarkable discount scheme; homages to Michael Moorcock and H.P. Lovecraft (one splendidly funny) that avoid mere pastiche; an SF world of rapid and reversible sex changes; Beowulf retold as a Baywatch episode; a tasty amalgamation of computers and black magic; a new final book of the Bible; and the grim wedding present that's simply a manuscript telling a bleakly different story of the recipients' unfolding marriage. SF/fantasy professionals themselves envy Gaiman's perpetual flow of new ideas and ability to put a fresh spin on old ones. Smoke and Mirrors is a dazzlingly varied and rewarding collection. --David Langford
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"[Gaiman] is, simply put, a treasure house of story, and we are lucky to have him in any medium."--Stephen King"An exhilarating display of the work of one of our most entertaining storytellers." --"Kirkus Reviews (starred)"A box of bonbons for dark fantasy fans." --"Booklist"Short stories guaranteed to excite the senses and inflame the imagination . . ." --"Book Alert"Poe would love him." --"Booklist"The intriguing world behind these pages is indeed smoke and mirrors, just a step or a word or a story away from our own."--"Publisher's Weekly"Highly imaginative . . . readers will find echoes of H.P. Lovecraft, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, but the voice is all Gaiman.""Dallas Morning News
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Neil Gaiman is a master story teller, IMHO, and this selection of short stories by him is the perfect showcase for his talents. An incredible assortment of tales awaits the reader in this marvelous book - an old lady that finds the Holy Grail in an Oxfam shop for 30p - a little boy that meets a troll - the shortest but most haunting Xmas story I've ever read - the Jack-in-the-box that no-one played with......oh, so many and all are pure genius. My personal favourite is the very last in the book, which is a re-telling of Snow White and because of N G's version I will never think of her in the same light again. I feel that several of these stories have the potential of becoming full length novels one day - I'll just have to wait and see. One warning, if you haven't read any of Gaiman's work before you will soon become addicted after reading this book.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a collection of some of Neil Gaiman's short works. You could say there were poems and stories in the book, but saying there is prose, a rondel, long verse, short verse and some peculiar mixtures of obscure types of writing would be a better description.
A few of the stories are the conventional type but many of them are not. Most of the stories have a fairly dark subject matter - indeed some of them are truly horrible - but all are marvellously written, and most extremely original.
There's also a long introduction to the book with a small commentary on each piece plus an extra bonus story.
This isn't a book I'd buy as a present for someone unless I knew their tastes extremely well. It's not the type of book that everyone would enjoy - there are sexual stories, there are dark deeds and just the layouts of some of the pieces make them more different than some people would feel happy with - but I thought it was brilliant. Not every piece will hit the mark, but it's not the type of fluffy read you'll wonder why you bothered with. It's full of stories that stay with you for a long time.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is something so absolutely compelling about everything that Neil Gaiman seems to write. I don't know quite how he does it, but I always find myself picking up one of his books and being drawn into regardless of my own freewill or choice. Here in this collection of Short stories stands a fine example of something that many writers these days do not always succeed in - Gaiman shows us how a story should be told. These tales may be short but each of them is complete in their own way, and even at their darkest they can be amusing, and totally engrossing.
I would recomend to anybody with a few hours to kill that picking up this volume would be a couple of hours very well spent. Right from his introduction Gaiman makes the reader feel a part of these little worlds he's created and somehow you just have to read them all. If you haven't discovered this guy yet - it's about time you did.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Review
An excellent compendium of short stories from this masterly storyteller.
Full of his ready humour,dark forebodings and his ability to not take his reputaion too... Read more
Full of his ready humour,dark forebodings and his ability to not take his reputaion too... Read more
Published 2 months ago by B.Graham
Not great...
I know an awful lot of people love Neil Gaiman's work, and I started reading this really wanting to like it, but it's so twee and self-consciously 'kooky' it almost defies you to... Read more
Published 4 months ago by stilllovereading
Good for fairy tale fans
Enjoyed this, although it wasn't consistently amazing anyone who loves fairy tale inspired stories will enjoy the ones that fit into that category a lot. Read more
Published 6 months ago by ANV
Grrreat
Really nice collection of stories with various themes and characters, all of them a kind of dark but its totally Gaiman's style. Read more
Published 6 months ago by AJW
Shoddy and Boring
Certainly not up to Gaiman's usual standard. I agree with other comments that this looks suspiciously like a money-making potboiler of a book; the stories are poorly written,... Read more
Published 7 months ago by TPD
Great
This was the first NG book I read. It has great short stories.
After reading it I decided to buy more books from the author.
After reading it I decided to buy more books from the author.
Published 19 months ago by JRocha
Amazing book, but...
I would absolutley recomend reading this book, but don't buy this copy. Mine fell apart as soon as I started reading, and now almost all tha pages has fell out. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Espen
Brilliance
A fantastic book from a fantastic mind. The introduction hides a heart wrenching tale within it depths, and the rest of the book follows through in brilliance. Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by A. J. Crosland
A fun and varied collection of literary illusions
This is a collection of short stories by Gaiman published 10 years ago, mainly reprints from magazines he has submitted to in the past. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2009 by L. R. Richardson
Smoke and mirrors - a review
The breadth of subjects in this collection of short stories is truly impressive and shows Mr Gaiman's imagination at its very best. Read more
Published on 8 July 2009 by sb
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