Highly imaginative . . . readers will find echoes of H.P. Lovecraft, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, but the voice is all Gaiman.
Neil Gaiman (The Sandman and Neverwhere) apparently possesses a bottomless magic well of imagination and his recent collection, Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions, provides a brimming dipper from it for readers thirsty for unique fantasy. A dozen of the thirty or so stories and poems in Smoke and Mirrors -- including the memorable lead story "Chivalry," the tale of an unflappable widow who finds the Holy Grail in a secondhand shop -- first saw print in his award-winning Angels and Visitations, a small press miscellany of stories, poems, essays, articles, and reviews, originally published for the 1993 World Fantasy Convention. Some stories -- like "Snow, Glass, Apples," a retelling of "Snow White" -- are already fairly well-known through popular anthologies and reprintings in "year's best" collections. Familiarity, in Gaiman's case, breeds only further admiration, but Smoke and Mirrors contains plenty of newer stories, too -- such as the darkly erotic "Tastings" and "Bay Wolf," a combination of "Beowulf" and, er, "Baywatch." Gaiman's incantatory storytelling ignites both the bitter and the sweet and its smoke twists and seeps into dark corners, wafts into the light and amusing, even wends poignantly into the heart: nothing he writes should be missed.
A whopping collection of 30 stories, narrative poems, and unclassifiable briefer pieces from the peerlessly inventive British-born co-editor/creator of The Sandman graphic novel series and last year's terrific fantasy Neverwhere. Gaiman, who's also provided a disarmingly genial introduction, calls these tales "messages from Looking-Glass Land and pictures in shifting clouds." Though they're often derivative of both traditional folk materials and acknowledged favorite writers (such as John Collier, H.P. Lovecraft, and Michael Moorcock), the volume's numerous successes put an engaging spin on even more-than-twice-told tales. "Nicholas Was," for instance, offers in scarcely half a page a hair-raising revisionist look at the benevolent figure of Santa Claus. The poem "The White Road" deftly reimagines the English ballad about the innocent virgin fated to be sacrificed to her vulpine fiancé ("Mr. Fox"). "The Daughter of Owls" is a fiendishly compact revenge tale told in the manner of ("as by") 17th-century antiquarian John Aubrey. Elsewhere, Gaiman offers amusingly lurid images of "swinging" London in the '70s ("Looking for the Girl"), Hollywood's past and present "wild days" ("The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories"), and sex in the age of AIDS (the very erotic "Tastings"). And, at his best, he makes something daringly new out of the stories we think we know best: "Baywolf" memorably combines the narrative and pictorial elements of the real Beowulf and of TV's Baywatch; "Snowglass, Apples" retells the story of Snow White from the viewpoint of the exasperated "evil queen"; and two tales ("Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" and "Only the End of the World"), set respectively in the Innsmouth ofEngland and of New England, pay hilarious homage to Lovecraft's Ctulhu Mythos and the conventions of the classic horror film. Gaiman miscalculates only in leading off With "Chivalry," the unforgettable tale of a placid widow who discovers the Holy Grail in a secondhand shop. Nothing later on matches it in a volume that's otherwise an exhilarating display of the work of one of our most entertaining storytellers.
Readers will find echoes of H.P. Lovecraft, Harlan Ellison, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, but the voice is all Gaiman . . . highly imaginative.” — Dallas Morning News
“I read [Smoke and Mirrors] while adjectives like glorious, magical and weird-but-fascinating leapt through my head, then gave up, outclassed . . . [Gaiman’s] artful ruminations stretch from dreamlike folktales to darkly futuristic science fiction . . . a fine introduction to his varied work.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Superb . . . haunting in a disturbing way and often witty and perversely humorous at the same time.” — Richmond Times-Dispatch
“An exhilarating display of the work of one of our most entertaining storytellers.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Superb . . . haunting in a disturbing way and often witty and perversely humorous at the same time.
I read [Smoke and Mirrors] while adjectives like glorious, magical and weird-but-fascinating leapt through my head, then gave up, outclassed . . . [Gaiman’s] artful ruminations stretch from dreamlike folktales to darkly futuristic science fiction . . . a fine introduction to his varied work.
He is a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him.
This Neil Gaiman sampler offers further proof that he’s an outstanding storyteller and a strong narrator. The collection of 34 short works, some new and some previously published, includes science-fiction, creation, erotic, and horror tales. The stories are often reminiscent of “Twilight Zone” episodes. Gaiman performs each one with fervor and apt character portrayals. His narration is ethereal and enthralling as it brings his imagination to life, the only distraction being the varying success he has employing American accents. Skip the story introductions until after listening to each title. The author’s reflections on the origins of each tale are more meaningful after having experienced the work. K.C.R. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
This Neil Gaiman sampler offers further proof that he’s an outstanding storyteller and a strong narrator. The collection of 34 short works, some new and some previously published, includes science-fiction, creation, erotic, and horror tales. The stories are often reminiscent of “Twilight Zone” episodes. Gaiman performs each one with fervor and apt character portrayals. His narration is ethereal and enthralling as it brings his imagination to life, the only distraction being the varying success he has employing American accents. Skip the story introductions until after listening to each title. The author’s reflections on the origins of each tale are more meaningful after having experienced the work. K.C.R. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
