Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Dec 30, 2008

Matt rated it:

'Smoke and Mirrors' is the first of two short story collections written by Neil Gaiman. This title was first published in 1998, while 'Fragile Things' came out in 2006. Having read 'Fragile Things' mere months ago I was doing quite a bit of comparison between the two as I worked my way through 'Smoke and Mirrors'. While there are a lot of similarities between the two, there are also many differences.

Both collections involve Gaiman doing what he does best, that is taking our own myths More...

34 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Jc rated it:

This collection of short works, some not quite complete, is maybe a must read for real Gaiman fans who read everything he does (4 stars for them), but not really for anyone else (only 1 star for the general audience). And I say that as one of those fans. I really like what Gaiman does, both in traditional and graphic novel form, but Smoke and Mirrors is not representative of his best work. Basically, it is a collection of things he never bothered to give a final polish to. Much of S&M is thi More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

Latharia rated it:

Wow. I have to say that just about every story in this collection was highly engaging, and I had strong emotional reactions to several of them, and many "gotcha" type moments. Gaiman is, indeed, a master storyteller. Some of my favorite bits, without giving too much away for those of you who need to add this to your "to read" stack:

- the sad workings of Peter's mind in "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale"
- the explanation of those who've spurned " More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Having read M is for Magic and Fragile Things I have encountered some of the short stories that Mr. Gaiman has written. I found this collection to be one of the most eclectic. Happy stories, sad stories, chilling stories, and erotic stories, but as he introduces them - all a product of smoke and mirrors. We're not to believe any of this, as it is all just an illusion. So why do I walk away feeling like it was all a bit too real?

I enjoyed the very experimental feel to this book. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2007

J rated it:

A note: I expect more than I should from this author. I find him to be a brilliant idea man with little substance.

-Suggested Reading Order:

Murder Mystery
Tastings
Snow, Glass, Apples
Only the End of the World Again
Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar
We Can Get Them for You Wholesale
Chivalry
Cold Colors
The Price

Chivalry- an old woman buys the Holy Grail. A full-armored knight comes to seek the Grail. Cute, long-run and dry. More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2008

Misarweth rated it:

Tant d'étagères, pour un recueil de nouvelles absolument splendide, maîtrisé et qui boursouflerait d'envie n'importe quel soufflet au fromage se prenant pour un auteur.
C'est à la fois tout, dans tous les sens et à la fois il en émane une unité, une cohérence, de structure, d'idée, qui vous mène là où vous ne le vouliez pas.

Neil Gaiman quoi.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2008

Mikey marked it as to-read

Just finished introduction and he blew me away! I didn't realize there is a short story in the introduction! I think I'm going to like him a lot. Will read the first short story tonight called "Chivalry"

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 16, 2008

KristenR rated it:

I really liked This eclectic collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman. What kept me from giving this 5 stars were several stories written in verse that just didn't grab me.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2008

Amitai rated it:

I am actually not a big short story person, but I love Gaiman's. They're really little treats, some quite amusing, other really rather hair-raising. Much fun.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 08, 2011

Paul 'Pezski' rated it:

As with most short story collections, Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors is something of a mixed bag. When he is good he is sublime, and there is plenty in this volume that fits that description, but there are also a few stories that seem little more than jottings of ideas meant to be fleshed out or perhaps left over from longer works. There is also some laudable inventiveness which, for me, doesn't always quite work - for example his triptych of narrative poems - but nonetheless shows the writer's grea More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2008

Amang rated it:

Neil Gaiman practiced his best illusion tricks to me and he done it best with his short stories. I read Neverwhere once and quite amaze how he tries to picture Down London as a magical realism setting that lives together with Upper London. His fantasies are beyond words.

I love "Troll Bridge" -- a story about a person who at the end of his life choose to be a troll who lived under the bridge. He switched his body with the body of earlier troll and trapped himself to be a tr More...

24 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2008

Alex rated it:

This is a collection of short stories/poems, mostly with a "it's not what it seems" type theme. Because it's a collection, it's always difficult to rate. Most of the stories rate a strong 5 stars, but a few were only so-so, which dropped the rating.

Some of my favorite stories were "Murder Mysteries," "Snow, Glass, Apples," "Changes," "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale," and "The Sweeper of Dreams." Not necessarily in that o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2008

Nicolas rated it:

Signalons que, outre l’évident intérêt de ces nouvelles, qui s’étalent sur toute la carrière de l’auteur, on a droit pour chacune d’entre elle à une petite introduction (toutes rassemblées en tête du livre) où il explique d’où lui est venue l’idée, comment il l’a écrite, et ainsi de suite, bref, c’est une plongée fascinante dans l’univers de Neil Gaiman, que je ne connais finallement pas si bien que ça. Les nouvelles sont en elles-mêmes assez bien, mariant de nombreux styles et genres littéraire More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 14, 2007

Joy rated it:

after reading american gods, i wanted to read some more of gaiman's work, so i picked up this book of short stories. i was actually a little underwhelmed. he writes some sci-fi/fantasy poetry stories that really didn't work for me. i still like his style, i just don't think he is as good of a short story writer, as a novel writer.

that said, i loved two of the stories. the final story, called "murder mysteries", about raguel, the angel of vengeance, and the murder of an ange More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 10, 2007

Kelly rated it:

Obsession, identity, werewolves, trolls, Hollywood corruption, distorted fairytales, sex, irony, angels, illusions: such is the mix of Neil Gaiman. A master of scenarios, Gaiman is terrifically imaginative and evocative in the stories and poems of Smoke and Mirrors.

Gaiman manages to integrate elements of fantasy into the real-life settings of dirty streets and motel rooms. Ninety-five percent of the time, he does this without being corny. In one story, a woman finds the Holy Grail in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 27, 2008

Maurean rated it:

I enjoyed this collection very much; no suprise, as I have enjoyed everything I've read by him thus far ("American Gods" is one of my all-time favorites).

It looks as tho SqueakyChu and I share some of the same "favorites" from this compilation;

Chivalry was ironically funny. I luved the final line.

Troll Bridge was a fresh & interesting take on an old well-known tale, as was Snow, Glass, Apples ...I'll never think of those fairy tales the sa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 28, 2009

Teenchill rated it:

There are some really great stories here. The only reason this didn't get more stars is simply because this is a collected fictions and I didn't love all of them. The ones I did love were too short! Ha.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 04, 2012

Paulina rated it:

I always pick this book up and read a story when I feel like I'm going to crumble. Not that it necessarily picks me up or makes me feel much better. But it's as if within 'Smokes and Mirrors' Neil Gaiman has created pockets, sewn in little flaps between the wor(l)ds of these stories. Here one can just curl up and feel something familiar and close. It's very much like that feeling in your childhood when you hear a bedtime story you've heard over and over again and you know it's the one that makes More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 11, 2011

Klytia rated it:

Smoke and Mirrors , un'antologia di poesie e racconti, pubblicati per diverse case editrici, finalmente raccolti in un unico volume.
Fantasiose reinterpretazioni di miti e favole e spaventose visioni dell'Impossibile, storie oscure, inquietanti, talvolta anche agghiaccianti, ma sempre intelligenti e argute, queste sono le caratteristiche dei 34 racconti, più uno, riuniti in questa straordinaria raccolta.
Con il suo stile semplice, scorrevole è tuttavia potentemente evocativo, Gaiman riesce a racco More...

0 comments like

Jan 29, 2011

Tancredi rated it:

Stories are, in one way or another, mirrors. We use them to explain to ourselves how the world works or how it doesn't work. Like mirrors, stories prepare us for the day to come. They distract us from the things in the darkness.

E' proprio come dice Stephen King: Gaiman è uno scrigno pieno di tesori preziosissimi. Non che avessi dubbi, ma ora ne sono più certo che mai: il racconto è la forma di narrazione ideale per Neil Gaiman. E' nello stretto spazio del racconto che Gaiman riesce ad aprire uno More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 23, 2009

Nicholas added it

http://nhw.livejournal.com/530031.html[return][return]Lots of good stuff here; we start with the Holy Grail turning up in an Oxfam shop, and finish with Snow White, as told from the stepmother's point of view; and the Cthulhu mythos as it might have been interpreted by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in a strange English coastal resort:[return][return] The beer had the kind of flavour which, he suspected, advertisers would describe as full-bodied, although if pressed they would have to admit that More...

0 comments like

Jul 30, 2011

Isidore rated it:

As others have pointed out, this is an uneven collection. Some of the stories fall flat, often those which were written as "pieces d'occasion" to fulfill the requirements of an anthologist. However, there are also quite a few successes, and the range of Gaiman's imagination is never in doubt. My picks would include "Troll Bridge", "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories", and "The Wedding Present" (hidden in the introduction, oddly enough). "Only the More...

0 comments like

Jul 27, 2011

Jenny Sparrow rated it:

"Дым и зеркала" - это очередной сборник рассказов и стихотворений Нила Геймана, но более ранних, чем собранные в "Хрупких вещах". В целом, этот сборник понравился мне меньше, чем Вещи. Я не поклонник стихотворной формы, а тут ее, на мой взгляд, даже многовато. Да и не все рассказы мне понравились/были понятны. Но есть среди них просто замечательные, ради которых стоило прочитать всю книгу. К примеру:

1. Первый же рассказ - "Рыцарство" - просто прелесть. Нач More...

0 comments like

Jan 27, 2011

Alex rated it:

While few of you may be familiar with English author Neil Gaiman, he is a writer for any of those who enjoy reading horror in the vein of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. And what better way to experience and enjoy a new author than with a short story collection, giving a broad spectrum of Gaiman’s abilities.

Smoke and Mirrors does not have any running, horrific theme, or any specific aim; it is not horror or fantasy, science fiction or an erotic collection . . . and then again it is al More...

0 comments like

Apr 26, 2010

Bertrand rated it:

Neil Gaiman est connu en France principalement pour ses romans (Neverwhere, American Gods…) et dans une moindre mesure pour son comics « Sandman ». Pourtant il a toujours été un novelliste très productif, et le recueil présent en rend compte, permettant au lectorat français de découvrir une facette - non négligeable - de son talent.
On commence par une introduction où N. Gaiman décrit les pour chaque nouvelle les conditions dans lesquelles il l’a écrite. Les textes réunis ici sont tout à fa More...

0 comments like

Jan 07, 2010

Jessica rated it:

I have avoided the short story genre for as long as I can remember reading. I just never get into them, or worse I really start to get into it and then it ends and I'm frustrated. I couldn't see past that to appreciate the style. Well, then Gaiman came along and since I have loved everything else of his I've ever read I thought if I was going to give short stories one more try it would be one of his.

I had a very enjoyable time reading this book. The stories were varied and intere More...

0 comments like

Sep 23, 2011

M rated it:

I love short stories. I love Neil Gaiman's writing. Does it follow, then, that I love Neil Gaiman short stories?

Some of them, yes.

Smoke and Mirrors covers a lot of ground: humor, erotica, whimsy and horror. Included are several poems, some flash fiction pieces, and a number of conventional short stories. The tone, regardless of what mood or emotion a given story is going for, tends toward the straightforward. Unadorned, no-nonsense, but clear and effective.

Gai More...

0 comments like

Jun 25, 2011

Katie rated it:

My friends have been trying to get me into Neil Gaiman for a while. Good Omens, which he co-authored with Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite books. I eventually tried American Gods and hated it. Don’t get me wrong, the premise is great, I loved his ideas and his world building but the plot kind of disappeared at a few points during it and I found the characterisation woeful. I find it hard to believe that the main character, Shadow, after just being released from prison, finding he has nowhe More...

0 comments like

Apr 18, 2009

Erin rated it:

There were a few great stories, but most were just good. The biggest surprise was that the best story, "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories", wasn't even genre, but a semi-autobiographical account of trying to get a novel adapted into a screenplay. Ironically, it would make a hell of a movie.

I also enjoyed "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar", "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale", "Murder Mysteries", and "Snow, Glass, Apples". In addition, I f More...

0 comments like

Oct 01, 2011

Shannon rated it:

My thoughts, in no particular order:

Mr. Gaiman writes in a very personable style. When he writes in first person, you believe these things actually happened to him. It's very cozy, like having having tea and sandwiches with an old friend (but less old-fashioned).

If you're a writer or interested in Neil Gaiman's writing process, you'll enjoy his Introduction. (I don't normally read Introductions until I finish the book. I hate spoilers—accidental or otherwise.)

There More...

0 comments like

reviews