Smoke and Mirrors
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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.
Time Out
‘Funny, scary and perverse by turns... A class act and a rich and interesting read’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unsettling but enjoyable,
By Migratory (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions (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.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Treasure Trove!,
By
This review is from: Smoke and Mirrors (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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Waiting for Gaiman,
By A Customer
This review is from: Smoke and Mirrors (Hardcover)
Smoke and Mirrors is, as accurately pointed out by the author, nothing more than smoke and mirrors...if you're into magic, then you believe the illusion. But otherwise... I have to commend Gaiman on The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories which is the best short story by a contemporary author that I've ever read. BUT, most of the other stories seem pointless and even dull at times. Perhaps the story in the introduction set me off on the wrong foot with Gaiman, but through it, and most of the other stories, I was plagued by a constant notion. It felt like characters actually put in these situations would probably not react in the manners portrayed. That is to say, although the scenery, the secondary characters, and even the fantastic elements of the stories all seemed right on, the main characters of many of the stories reacted peculiarly to their surroundings.I do think Gaiman is an author worth checking out (his prose is beautiful and his work IS innovative at times), but for a little more substance, Hawthorne or Gogol probably push the stronger literary tides.
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