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chillvamp 's review for:
Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions
by Neil Gaiman
I'd read some of the stories in this collection before (some, like "Other People", several times, because damn that circular structure) but this is the first time I've gone through it from beginning to end.
There were some stories that I enjoyed, some that I found underwhelming in the way they ended, and some that I had to go back and read again after I was done the first time because I loved them so much.
"Other People" is still one of my favorites, but I think "Chivalry" has stolen first place, because it's a story that's funny and serious at the same time (the operative adage here being, as Terry Pratchett would have said, that "the opposite of 'funny' is 'not funny'"); then would be "Only the End of the World Again", because it hits all my noir/myth buttons; same for "Murder Mysteries", which I read feverishly because a whodunit story revolving around the hierarchies of Heaven was just incredibly cool; "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale" made me cackle because of its grim humor, and how the ending lined up so perfectly; and "Snow, Glass, Apples" was delightfully disturbing.
All in all, this was a lovely little collection, & I will probably be revisiting some of these in the future.
There were some stories that I enjoyed, some that I found underwhelming in the way they ended, and some that I had to go back and read again after I was done the first time because I loved them so much.
"Other People" is still one of my favorites, but I think "Chivalry" has stolen first place, because it's a story that's funny and serious at the same time (the operative adage here being, as Terry Pratchett would have said, that "the opposite of 'funny' is 'not funny'"); then would be "Only the End of the World Again", because it hits all my noir/myth buttons; same for "Murder Mysteries", which I read feverishly because a whodunit story revolving around the hierarchies of Heaven was just incredibly cool; "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale" made me cackle because of its grim humor, and how the ending lined up so perfectly; and "Snow, Glass, Apples" was delightfully disturbing.
All in all, this was a lovely little collection, & I will probably be revisiting some of these in the future.