“The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains..." by Neil Gaiman

[[deleted user]]

This is our discussion of the short story....

“The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains..." by Neil Gaiman

From the anthology Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman. See Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances discussion hub for more info on the anthology and pointers to discussion of its other stories.

[Jim]

I really liked this one. It developed well, a drop of new fact here & there that changed the characters. Good ending, too.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I liked this one, although it seemed to drag on a little longer than it needed to. It was obvious that Gaiman was setting up a twist ending, which I partially guessed but not all of it. It would be interesting to have seen the live performance - I was hoping to find it on YouTube but no luck.

[Donald]

I love this story intensely, but feel it actually suffers for me because I was incredibly lucky to inadvertently being at the first performance of this, it being in Sydney and me being an existing fan of both Neil's and Fourplay's at the time. It feels a bit "grey" (almost like the fogs of Skye) without the beautiful artwork and the music.

On the pacing, I think that was a result of the live performance angle as well - a bit of drag on the page was just some extra filler between musical interludes.