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A review by gurudyne
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman
3.0
I found this a lot better than most of Gaiman's work, especially his long fiction. But it still suffers from some of his narrative problems (or maybe they're quirks of his-- I don't know, but they're awkward and hurt the story for me), key among them the dispassionate narrator. So many of these stories involve the fantastical happening to a normal man where the events are met with little more than a shrug and some half-hearted naval gazing while the story plays out.
In one story, a man finds out he is under attack by some otherworldly forces that intend to kill him and his loved ones. The first line of the following paragraph describes how he went to the grocery store to get some food. Much later, towards the end, the tone of his viewpoint could be described as "Gosh, I hope this gets better." Such underreactions plague this book and undermine the drama of genuinely interesting predicaments.
In one story, a man finds out he is under attack by some otherworldly forces that intend to kill him and his loved ones. The first line of the following paragraph describes how he went to the grocery store to get some food. Much later, towards the end, the tone of his viewpoint could be described as "Gosh, I hope this gets better." Such underreactions plague this book and undermine the drama of genuinely interesting predicaments.