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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
My first introduction to Gaiman was through Spawn as a guest writer in it's early stages, and then later in the Angela spin-off. There I saw him do more for the characters that weren't his than the creators did for them.
Smoke and Mirrors is my introduction to his original ideas, and his characters. And he shines. His work, his imagination, it's brilliant. Each story is different, it's alive, and original. Even using backdrops of Lovecraft creation his work stands out as if he came up with it himself. They aren't horror, or fantasy, or erotic, they are everything and anything in between. I may be raving about this far more than I should, but to me it was something different that I didn't even know what I was craving.
There isn't much to say other than I shall be looking for more of his books.
P.S, be sure to read the introduction or you'll miss out on a wedding gift.
P.P.S, Murder Mysteries was my favorite and the one I found to be most beautifully written and constructed in the most perfect way.
Smoke and Mirrors is my introduction to his original ideas, and his characters. And he shines. His work, his imagination, it's brilliant. Each story is different, it's alive, and original. Even using backdrops of Lovecraft creation his work stands out as if he came up with it himself. They aren't horror, or fantasy, or erotic, they are everything and anything in between. I may be raving about this far more than I should, but to me it was something different that I didn't even know what I was craving.
There isn't much to say other than I shall be looking for more of his books.
P.S, be sure to read the introduction or you'll miss out on a wedding gift.
P.P.S, Murder Mysteries was my favorite and the one I found to be most beautifully written and constructed in the most perfect way.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
dark
Favorites are "The Price", "The White Road", "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale", "Murder Mysteries", and "Snow, Glass, Apples". It seems I enjoy Gaiman's darker stories.
Listened to the audio version. Gaiman does great narration. Not all the stories were winners, but still very good.
A few of the stories were very good, some were pretty good, a few were decent and one or two I did not really enjoy. The rating is for the overall collection, but I would still recommend this book to any Neil Gaiman fan; you will likely find a few gems in it.
It took me so many attempts and fifteen years, but I finally read the damn thing. I wasn't really cut out for short story collections back in the day, especially one with so many poems (woe be upon you who likes ABAB rhyming! Heh). But it's a great collection of his early work, written when he was more famous for his comics than American Gods...and a little "hungrier."
Actual rating: Bit difficult for a short story collection, I'll go from a 0 to 3.5
I'll start with the ones I enjoyed. Chivalry had a kind of nonsense humour about it that was a pleasant read, We Can Get Them for You Wholesale was spooky but oh so clever, with the right mix of funny bizarre and horror bizarre. Snow, Glass, Apples means that I will never look at Snow White in the same way again.
However, those were pretty much it. The poetry I'm not properly in a position to judge as I generally skimmed or skipped a lot of it, but the rest of the stories I just didn't enjoy. As a whole this collection was a lot darker than I had been expecting, with weird horror and kinda brutal ugly sex-related stuff which is not really my cup of tea, but on top of that it was also that there were a fair few that I read and just went "well, what was the point of that?"
All in all not one I would recommend or come back to.
I'll start with the ones I enjoyed. Chivalry had a kind of nonsense humour about it that was a pleasant read, We Can Get Them for You Wholesale was spooky but oh so clever, with the right mix of funny bizarre and horror bizarre. Snow, Glass, Apples means that I will never look at Snow White in the same way again.
However, those were pretty much it. The poetry I'm not properly in a position to judge as I generally skimmed or skipped a lot of it, but the rest of the stories I just didn't enjoy. As a whole this collection was a lot darker than I had been expecting, with weird horror and kinda brutal ugly sex-related stuff which is not really my cup of tea, but on top of that it was also that there were a fair few that I read and just went "well, what was the point of that?"
All in all not one I would recommend or come back to.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated