Smoke and Mirrors
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Good, but he does best with a larger canvas
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Jay
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 11:46AM)
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Jul 30, 2007 05:05PM

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It's still a pretty good collection of short stories though.

But a short story, or prose, is a beautiful thing in and of itself. A concept that would be tired in 50 pages, he attacks, toys with, and completes in mere pages, sometimes just a few paragraphs.
I love reading a short story between larger novels, like a pallet cleanser for the mind.

I was surprised to find lust and sex to be a theme that kept cropping up in many of the stories, almost making me uncomfortable reading them at some points.
You could almost describe Smoke and Mirrors as a kind of brain dump of story ideas. snippets of characters and themes all swimming around, jostling for attention in the writers head.

I..."
I totally agree that "Snow, Glass, Apples" was my favourite and in my opinion one of the best stories in the compilation. I also found the one about the black cat to be quite interesting.
I do think that his longer works are, generally, better (I am currently reading Sandman for the first time and am really impressed so far), but I wouldn't say that this compilation is noticably worse. Especially as Gaiman explains how/why he wrote the stories.


However, I do agree that his longer works are better.

But a short story, or prose, is a beautiful thing in and of itself. A concept that would ..."
I prefer his short stories, too. They're little bursts of creative genius, and I don't think most of them would survive if stretched out any longer. Honestly, I think those are his best pieces.


But a short story, or prose, is a beautiful thing in and of itself. A concept that would ..."
To compare short stories and novels is like comparing apples to tire irons. They both have their place in the sun. I happen to like Smoke and Mirrors very much and think the book is very well written. I also think short fiction is much harder to write than novels due to constraints of length and Neil Gaiman does a wonderful job.
The comments about novels developed characters better and liking his longer work is valid, but also that you have to appreciate the short story for its own sake as stand alone.
Both forms of the writing art have their place and both are valid.
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