But why include it in this form? Why not write it? Weird, and I found it wasteful and disappointing.Īn aptly titled collection of stories, where Gaiman does indeed use sleight of word and a bit of magic to make the unbelievable feel just about real. And it could be a fascinating, controversial, and complex novel. It's laid out almost as author notes for a novel. One note on 'Changes', it's a creative story idea about the cure for cancer having the side effect of gender change which society turns into recreational use. I always appreciate short story collections where the author reveals a bit of their motivation, inspiration, or background of the stories. For example, in the particularly sexually graphic story “Tastings,' Gaiman admits that the story took him four years to write, largely because he was embarrassed by it. I found myself flipping back and forth to this section after each story. The book includes an Introduction which gives a short description of the inspiration or background of each story.

Of course, this book was originally published in 1998, when navigating these waters were a little less turbulent than today.

In this collection, Gaiman is daring, taking on explicit sex, politics, pornography, and even sex change. filled with things with too many legs and other things with no legs at all.” It’s the little things like referring to crabs and fish as “. This ability also really stood out to me in a different book - “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.' I can’t help but admire his mind. A good example of this is “The Price”, where Gaiman story about stray cats turns from reality to supernatural in an instant. He's so deft with his word choice that these transitions happen with ease. One moment the story feels like an honest recollection of his past, and the next we're interacting with angels, trolls, and werewolves. One of my favored aspects of Gaiman is his ability to slip seamlessly between realism and fantasy. Some of my preferences were “Chivalry”, “Changes”, “We Can Get Them for You Wholesale,' and “Snow, Glass, Apples.' I enjoyed a majority of these stories and Gaiman continues to be one of my favorite authors. It’s not his best work, but as a collection it’s imaginative and provocative. They run the gamut from sci-fi to very short parables to fantasy to magical realism. Gaiman is literary bacon - short stories, young adult, fantasy, adult fiction - he’s good in anything! “Smoke and Mirrors” is a collection of 30 or so short stories.

Smoke and mirrors neil