Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

A lot of the stories were great. If your personal values don’t allow you to read about sex, I wouldn’t suggest this for you. But I thought it was a great book. Not for children tho. Definitely for adults.

I first met Gaiman's storytelling craft and writting style a long time ago through his Sandman comics. To that work I give five-plus stars. After that I read some of his novels. His books Neverwhere, American Gods and Good Omens were good, but to my opinion not superb. I gave them 3 stars. I thought his comics were better than his novels. And then I decided to try his short stories. Something told me that those would be better. I bought Smoke & Mirrors (along with Fragile Things), and it took around one week for delivery. I read Smoke & Mirrors in less time that it took to be delivered. It is not that I am such a fast reader or Amazon too slow delivering (at leas not always), but I just wanted to read more stories. I think that his style is suited better for short stories than for long novels. Even though Gaiman is a strange mix of Stephen King and Edgar A. Poe (within an Allan Moore), he is more a Poe. His short stories are very good. and now I'm reading Fragile Things. I still think of Gaiman as an excellent comic writter, thats the reason I only give 5 stars to his comics and stick to 4 for his short stories. My favorite stories were the last tale in the book (Snow, Glass, Apples), and also the tales: Murder Mysteries, Change, Nicholas was... (very very very short story but equally good), Babycakes and a story that is hidden in the introduction called Wedding Gift (don't miss reading the introduction!!!). I also liked his poem White Road. Pretty "upsettling", as Humpty Dumpty would have said. Enjoy

This was a really fun little collection of short stories and poetry. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, but if I'm forced to read it, then I will take Neil's poetry over any one else's. I'm not going to pick and choose which stories were good and which ones were grand, but I will say that there is a little something here for everyone. BEWARE however, for those that have read many Gaiman novels, many of these shorts include themes not included in his longer novels, namely sexual intercourse. There are a few of these that are pretty sexually explicit, which is a change from the typical Neil Gaiman stories. I can't really say anything bad about this collection, and really enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading more Neil Gaiman shorts.

Make no mistake, I very much appreciate and admire Neil Gaiman. I was delighted when "The Graveyard Book" won the Newbery. "Neverwhere", "Coraline", "Stardust" - all marvelous. And Gaiman has written some fabulous short stories. Some of them appear in this book. But only some of them, and those that are included are surrounded by stories that aren't very special and aren't particularly satisfying. Every reviewer has a favorite in the book. Some like "Snow, Glass, Apples"; some like "The Goldfish Pool..." or "Troll Bridge". I'm partial to "Chivalry". But there is a lot of fill here. Many of the best stories have appeared elsewhere. Also an overlong introduction and a rather indulgent piece that reads like a collection of blog entries on each story tend to dampen one's enthusiasm. For what it's worth, some of the best stories, ("Troll Bridge", "Chivalry", etc.), were reprinted ten years after this book was released in the collection titled "M is For Magic". That book, also available on Amazon, has a much better selection than this one does, so if you can only swing one Gaiman short story collection, you might want to consider that.

I have been reading Maggie's work for the better part of a year now, and I am thrilled to own a copy of her first book. I have found her poetry to be substantive and satisfying. She covers many topics with a unique eye for description that invariably transports the reader into her world; a world that can be funny, sad, full of wonderment, or bitingly harsh. Her writing is never forced nor formulaic. It is fresh and revealing. What makes Smoke & Mirrors even more special is that she designed it from cover to cover. Now every time I pick up her book to read, I feel as if I am holding a bit of Maggie in my hands. RIP Maggie. Jeff

In praising Neil Gaiman, author of the award-winning Sandman comic book series, Stephen King called him "a treasure house of story". For those who only know the inimitable Mr. Gaiman from his comic book works, this collection represents a treasure trove of the author's prose work, with a generous helping of verse thrown in to boot. The stories contained within Smoke and Mirrors range from straight horror to wild fantasy. While the stories range widely in quality, the 337 pages of this collection fly by, and even where Gaiman misses the mark, he makes an impression. I highly recommend "Murder Mysteries," a tale of a murder investigation in Heaven before Lucifer's Fall (or was he pushed?); "Troll Bridge," concerning dark happenings beneath a highway bridge; and "The Price," a story about a cat's sacrifice which I believe Mr. King found quite wonderful. Gaiman thoughtfully includes a detailed introduction wherein he describes the genesis of these stories. Fellow writers will find this section fascinating as a window on the author's creative process. Short story collections are of necessity a mixed bag, but even casual Gaiman fans will find Smoke and Mirrors rewarding.

I started this book a few months ago while on an airplane. I was reading it on my kindle and got to about p20 and gave up. It seemed that other than the wedding gift story that opened the book, it was filled with vignettes about how this or that story came about. I came back to the book a few days ago and discovered that the introduction chapter was 33 pages! Each of the stories described in the intro are in the book. I would have preferred that the story of how each story came to be be placed directly ahead of the actual story. I read the stories that way, using the "go to page.." feature to return to the introduction before reading each of the stories. The stories are pretty good, well told. Adult themed, some vampire stuff which isn't my thing, but good tales nevertheless. The wedding gift was my favorite. If you like Neil Gaiman's writing, you'll like Smoke and Mirrors.

I loved this selection of short stories and, as with Good Omens, I wonder why I waited so long to read it! A little of everything from Mr. Gaiman (I'm a fan of Sandman and The Graveyard Book and American Gods ... well everything of his I've read so far). Some very dark material here, but also some funny stuff, and some darkly funny stuff, and some short things and some longer things. Read it, it's entirely worth the time and money. I may actually buy a hard copy now (I originally purchased it for my Kindle).

Per la verità devo ancora leggerlo, ho avuto modo solo di sfogliarlo, ma adoro Neil Gaiman e se questa raccolta è come le altre vale sicuramente la pena di leggerla. Per quanto riguarda spedizione e consegna, sempre eccellenti (arrivato anche un giorno in anticipo). Il libro in sé è arrivato in ottime condizioni.

Para ler em viagens e sem pressa. Gaiman é um gênio e cada texto dele te leva para um mundo diferente. Vale cada centavo

Boring.

Love this author

Neil Gaiman is one of the most prolific storytellers of our times, and THIS is the best collection of his stories. It contains those stories which exemplify his strengths (and weaknesses) in the boldest strokes. Much like life, his stories are something that we can immediately connect to, and simultaneously tend to keep some aspects of their presence somewhat distant, out of fear, disgust, suspicion, or envy. My choice, among all the stories in this collection (several of which had already been read by me in a far superior-looking collection brought out by Subterranean Press, named "M is For Magic"), would be "Chivalry", "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories", "The White Road", "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Mrs Finch", "Changes", "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar", "Only the End of the World Again", "Bay Wolf", "Fifteen Painted Cards from the Vampire Tarot", "Desert Wind", and "Murder Mysteries". There are several other fascinating stories here, including the weird and tortuously pointless "Snow, Glass, Apples". However, with so many glittering jewels (most of them bearing colours of brightest poisons) in this collection, if you are thinking of having only ONE representative collection of Gaiman's shorter works, don't look anywhere else. Highly Recommended.