Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions (1998)

Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illustrations collects short stories and poems that Gaiman previously published elsewhere. Among the more stand-out works are “The Wedding Present” – which Gaiman included in the introduction – “Chivalry” – about the Holy Grail, “Troll Bridge,” “The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories,” “Queen of Knives,” “Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar,” “Only the End of the World Again,” “Bay Wolf,” “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale,” “One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock,” “The Sweeper of Dreams,” “Vampire Sestina,” “Murder Mysteries,” and “Snow, Glass, Apples.” The works are all haunting and sweet; they take the reader to new places and leave them changed after the reading. Two stories reference the works of Lovecraft, one the works of Michael Moorcock, and a few have been adapted into other works. Both “Troll Bridge” and “Snow, Glass, Apples” later became graphic novels, “Murder Mysteries” became both an audio drama and a comic book, and “We Can Get Them for You Wholesale” has been adapted a few times as independent films. Gaiman fans will love this collection of his early work. ( )

Unsettling in the best way. ( )

Some of these stories I really liked... others not so much. Pretty typical for a book of short stories in that, to me. ( )

Quite the mixed bag here. I enjoyed about 4 or 5, was ambivalent about most, and against a few, so overall a moderate success, I think. ( )

It's no secret I'm a Neil Gaiman fan. Love the man. And his audiobooks are always fantastic and Smoke and Mirrors is no exception. Gaiman's narration is spot on. As always when I listen to him tell a story, it feels like he's letting me in on a secret. You know, telling me a special tale that not many people know. I'd heard many of the stories in this collection in other places; but lots were brand new to me. They also opened up some new insights into Neil Gaiman that I hadn't seen before. This collection highlights Gaiman's unique talent and masterful ability to tell a story. ( )