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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
2.5 rounded up to a 3 because I did like some of the stories but damn a lot of them were just bad. I’m a big Gaiman fan so that was disappointing.
I picked this up as a teenager and, to be honest, it has set my standard for short stories ever since. I.e., I put it on a pedestal. I was expecting to be blown away by it again, but a decade of experience and reading other things can really change what you think.
I didn't realize how many stories there were. I didn't realize that majority of these stories were drabbles. Not to say that drabbles are bad; they just aren't my thing except for a rare few.
These were the really good stories:
1. The Wedding Present - I thought putting a story in the introduction was such a spicy twist.
2. Chivalry - So quaint. It was charming like a Ghibli movie, but in book form. A real pleasure to read.
3. The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories - When I was younger I wasn't very into this story, though there was a tingle of something I knew I didn't quite get. Now I get it.
4. Queen of Knives
5. Looking for the Girl - Like Humbert Humbert but instead of nymphets, he is fixated on barely-adults.
6. We Can Get Them For You Wholesale - I was reading a Reddit thread about having the unwanted urge to min-max when playing RPGs, and someone recommended picking a single rule, a specific and set-in-iron trait that your character must always follow to ensure the roleplay is preserved. And other than that rule, they can be whatever the fuck else. Peter Pinter is like the character you make in an RPG, with Greed (or should I say love of bargains) as the stat that Neil Gaiman the player pooled all his points in.
7. One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock - Among the more fantastical tales, this slice-of-life story about a boy yet to catch up with his classmates in puberty weirdly struck a chord in me.
8. Murder Mysteries - Angels and Biblical shit always get me going.
If the collection were just these 8 stories, it'd be a 5; they were the ones I always recalled vividly through the years. My brain just forgot about the drabbles that served as the fat around that juicy meat. Taken altogether, it's a 3.
P.S. Don't you just get the sense Neil Gaiman calls up his exes a lot?
I didn't realize how many stories there were. I didn't realize that majority of these stories were drabbles. Not to say that drabbles are bad; they just aren't my thing except for a rare few.
These were the really good stories:
1. The Wedding Present - I thought putting a story in the introduction was such a spicy twist.
2. Chivalry - So quaint. It was charming like a Ghibli movie, but in book form. A real pleasure to read.
3. The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories - When I was younger I wasn't very into this story, though there was a tingle of something I knew I didn't quite get. Now I get it.
4. Queen of Knives
5. Looking for the Girl - Like Humbert Humbert but instead of nymphets, he is fixated on barely-adults.
6. We Can Get Them For You Wholesale - I was reading a Reddit thread about having the unwanted urge to min-max when playing RPGs, and someone recommended picking a single rule, a specific and set-in-iron trait that your character must always follow to ensure the roleplay is preserved. And other than that rule, they can be whatever the fuck else. Peter Pinter is like the character you make in an RPG, with Greed (or should I say love of bargains) as the stat that Neil Gaiman the player pooled all his points in.
7. One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock - Among the more fantastical tales, this slice-of-life story about a boy yet to catch up with his classmates in puberty weirdly struck a chord in me.
8. Murder Mysteries - Angels and Biblical shit always get me going.
If the collection were just these 8 stories, it'd be a 5; they were the ones I always recalled vividly through the years. My brain just forgot about the drabbles that served as the fat around that juicy meat. Taken altogether, it's a 3.
P.S. Don't you just get the sense Neil Gaiman calls up his exes a lot?
Absolutely adore the first short story, nothing short of brilliant. In terms of a short story collection it's a truly bizarre mix. Some are funny, some distrubing, some both.
Perfect airplane reading. Gaiman is a master storyteller yet I’ve always enjoyed his short stories more than his novels. These are imaginative and fun and spooky and quirky, and some are super short while others you need to put up your feet and sink into. I really enjoyed the introduction, too, where he writes about how the stories unfolded or whom they were written for. This collection is almost 20 years old...yet timeless.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Not as good as his full length novels I think, but I did like the story about the troll...
This collection of short stories was good.
One of the short stories, "Changes" was one of the most interesting short stories I have read in a very long time. "Changes" is about a cure for cancer but the side effect it that it swithches your sex (from male to female or vice versa)
There were 2 or 3 stories that reference, [a:H.P. Lovecraft|9494|H.P. Lovecraft|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1263313703p2/9494.jpg], so now I have to go read [b:The Shadow Over Innsmouth|7844254|The Shadow Over Innsmouth|H.P. Lovecraft|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1286924328s/7844254.jpg|10946333]so I'll understand.
There was one story in which the Gaiman combined [b:Beowulf: A New Verse Translation|52357|Beowulf A New Verse Translation|Unknown|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170387470s/52357.jpg|189503] and Baywatch into "Bay Wolf".
There was a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where Snow White is a Vampire.
There were many other delightful, frightful, digusting, explicit, bizarre stories. A warning, many of these stories are not for the faint of heart.
One of the short stories, "Changes" was one of the most interesting short stories I have read in a very long time. "Changes" is about a cure for cancer but the side effect it that it swithches your sex (from male to female or vice versa)
There were 2 or 3 stories that reference, [a:H.P. Lovecraft|9494|H.P. Lovecraft|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1263313703p2/9494.jpg], so now I have to go read [b:The Shadow Over Innsmouth|7844254|The Shadow Over Innsmouth|H.P. Lovecraft|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1286924328s/7844254.jpg|10946333]so I'll understand.
There was one story in which the Gaiman combined [b:Beowulf: A New Verse Translation|52357|Beowulf A New Verse Translation|Unknown|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170387470s/52357.jpg|189503] and Baywatch into "Bay Wolf".
There was a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where Snow White is a Vampire.
There were many other delightful, frightful, digusting, explicit, bizarre stories. A warning, many of these stories are not for the faint of heart.
Not just for Neil Gaiman fans. This included more than just stories, it came with a succinct prologue to each of the stories, a small glimpse into the idea, the reason, or the intent that either did or didn't work out the way he thought it would. And while I didn't love every story, the last 3 were enough to make reading the whole book worthwhile and gave me a chance to understand him better, or at least attempt to.
Not a fan of the narrative poems - and there are quite a few - but fuck me Neil Gaiman really knows what he's doing. His short stories are super creative, super cool, and his voice and style are truly some of my favourite.
Another recommendation from Nhung, are we surprised? No? Good.
Instead of a proper review, I will try to give my reaction/opinion on some short stories. We all know Gaiman's skills in writing, another insufficient person praising him will not make any differences.
Fairy tales, as G. K. Chesterton once said, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.
THE WEDDING PRESENT is only an introductory story and already it FUCKED ME UP. It went The Picture of Dorian Gray without me even realizing.
“I’d spent days staring at a blank screen, occasionally writing a word like the and staring at it for an hour or so and then, slowly, letter by letter, I’d delete it and write and or but instead. Then I’d exit without saving.” (isn't it all of us)
“NICHOLAS WAS older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.” This story got my attention and broke my heart with like 100 words.
“People talk about books that write themselves, and it’s a lie. Books don’t write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and more time and more work than you’d believe.”
Time for me to preach about something unrelated and probably never mentioned again in this book. but i don't believe in 'If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.' Of course you will work, of course you will pour your life and soul into your project. Work is work, even if it's something you enjoy doing. It takes time and effort. It doesn't come easy.
QUEEN OF KNIVES is so interesting. Wtf. I was waiting for things to happen and then it came like a fucken wave and then it was over...
Just exactly what went through Gaiman's head when he wrote CHANGES? i just want answers.
Is THE DAUGHTER OF OWLS about Annabeth Chase because it's written in such a weird way I think I'm having dyslexia... or it's just my epub hahah but I doubt it.
SHOGGOTH’S OLD PECULIAR is my favourite story in this book.
LOOKING FOR THE GIRL is really.... scary to me, I don't know. The story is about the male gaze and THAT itself is already icky to me but the story actually made me put the book down for a while....
FOREIGN PARTS is trippy... BRILLIANTLY TRIPPY. I don't know what to feel or what to get or how to explain this damn story !!!!!
Some stories are super good and very Black Mirror-like (or Black Mirror is more like this one), which really draws me to it. But some are not as good. Overall super enjoyable. Easily binged but not easily understood.
Instead of a proper review, I will try to give my reaction/opinion on some short stories. We all know Gaiman's skills in writing, another insufficient person praising him will not make any differences.
Fairy tales, as G. K. Chesterton once said, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.
THE WEDDING PRESENT is only an introductory story and already it FUCKED ME UP. It went The Picture of Dorian Gray without me even realizing.
“I’d spent days staring at a blank screen, occasionally writing a word like the and staring at it for an hour or so and then, slowly, letter by letter, I’d delete it and write and or but instead. Then I’d exit without saving.” (isn't it all of us)
“NICHOLAS WAS older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.” This story got my attention and broke my heart with like 100 words.
“People talk about books that write themselves, and it’s a lie. Books don’t write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and more time and more work than you’d believe.”
Time for me to preach about something unrelated and probably never mentioned again in this book. but i don't believe in 'If you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.' Of course you will work, of course you will pour your life and soul into your project. Work is work, even if it's something you enjoy doing. It takes time and effort. It doesn't come easy.
QUEEN OF KNIVES is so interesting. Wtf. I was waiting for things to happen and then it came like a fucken wave and then it was over...
Just exactly what went through Gaiman's head when he wrote CHANGES? i just want answers.
Is THE DAUGHTER OF OWLS about Annabeth Chase because it's written in such a weird way I think I'm having dyslexia... or it's just my epub hahah but I doubt it.
SHOGGOTH’S OLD PECULIAR is my favourite story in this book.
LOOKING FOR THE GIRL is really.... scary to me, I don't know. The story is about the male gaze and THAT itself is already icky to me but the story actually made me put the book down for a while....
FOREIGN PARTS is trippy... BRILLIANTLY TRIPPY. I don't know what to feel or what to get or how to explain this damn story !!!!!
Some stories are super good and very Black Mirror-like (or Black Mirror is more like this one), which really draws me to it. But some are not as good. Overall super enjoyable. Easily binged but not easily understood.