Reviews - Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

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1.07k reviews for:

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

Neil Gaiman

3.93 AVERAGE

breadandmushrooms's review against another edition

3.5

dark emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

proffy's review against another edition

4.0

In Smoke and Mirrors, Gaiman tells a collection of stories which overlap thematically or through characters or through plot, one after another like watching a family slideshow where each slide is from a different family vacation, the connections come out. Each story is a good read in its own right, some better than others, but the collective whole is oddly (and simultaneously) comforting and disturbing.

The characters in these stories have unusual reactions to the supernatural events that surround them - they don't react. It is all taken in as being normal. This non-reaction is what blows the smoke across the mirror, allowing the reader to see that what is happening in the story, the monsters and gods and almost-but-not-quite-entirely-abnormal people are a thin sheet of ice away from reality.

tamnhauser's review against another edition

3.0

So varied, so imaginative, so epic!

I can't stress enough how much I love Gaiman and particularly his style. There are few authors who immediately show off their unique approach to storytelling from the very first page.

It's also fascinating to see how certain ideas are thought up in short form, and how they clearly go on and build into larger works.

Loved it!