A review by lucrezi
Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
3.0
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?