"Smoke and Mirrors" by Neil Gaiman

Here is the rundown of stories:

“A Rondel”
“An Introduction” (which includes the story “The Wedding Present”)
“Chivalry”
“Nicholas Was …”
“The Price”
“Troll Bridge”
“Don’t Ask Jack”
“The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories”
“The White Road”
“Queen of Knives”
“Changes”
“The Daughter of Owls”
“Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar”
“Virus”
“Looking for the Girl”
“Only the End of the World Again”
“Bay Wolf”
“We Can Get Them for You Wholesale”
“One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock”
“Cold Colors”
“The Sweeper of Dreams”
“Foreign Parts”
“Vampire Sestina”
“Mouse”
“The Sea Change”
“When We Went to See the End of the World: by Dawnie Morningside, age 11 1/4″
“Desert Wind”
“Tastings”
“Babycakes”
“Murder Mysteries”
“Snow, Glass Apples”

To be truthful, I skipped a few stories. Probably half a dozen. The reason: I had read them before. Though more truthfully, two of them (the last two stories) are in audio book form. They are a part of “Two Plays for Voices”. What is cool about this collection is that each character has a different actor/actress voicing them. Brian Dennehy plays angel Raguel in “Murder Mysteries”, a story about the death of an angel before the creation of the world. And Bebe Neuwirth plays the Queen in “Snow, Glass Apples”, dealing with the inhuman daughter of the late King. Both were excellently done in audio form.

To get back on track, for those not familiar with Neil Gaiman, he is a British modern fantasy author who now lives in Minnesota. His novel “Neverwhere” is one of my favorites, and he won the Hugo and Nebula awards for “American Gods”. He is also the man behind the “Sandman” graphic novels. His style is filled with humor, but they tend to be very dark and maddening. Or just weird and strange.

“Chivalry” is a great way to start the collection, if you skip introductions (the reason he put “The Wedding Present” within it). It is about an elderly English woman who always goes shopping at the local thrift store and one day happens to by the Holy Grail. Soon Galaad shows up for it, wanting to take it back to King Arthur. It shows the more humorous side of his work.

“The Wedding Present” was a great look at how he can stay with a very modern theme and add his twist of darkness to it. This one was less fantastical, yet it really stuck out. It is a rather heartbreaking story.

All the other stories are good to excellent. There are twists of humor (though again still dark) with the likes of “Bay Wolf” where a Beowulf like character lives near the bay in southern California, where he hunts down Grand Al (Grendel). “Virus” pokes fun at those obsessed with video games. “Changes” was very sci-fi like, where a doctor discovers a way to cure cancer, but it changes the sex of the person. Soon it becomes a black market drug that people use, and eventually everyone uses it. “One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock” is a nice little tribute to author Michael Moorcock. (As a matter of fact, it made me want to start reading more of his Elric series.) And “Nicholas Was …” is a hilarious rendition of the truth behind Santa Claus. If it wasn’t for the fact that I could get in trouble, I would seriously post the whole story, since it is only 100 words long.

Like everything that I have read of Gaiman’s, there was so much to enjoy about this. Some of the stories weren’t wonderful, but everything was at least good. He has to be one of the most original writers in the game today. Even if he borrows themes. Because most authors in fantasy do borrow bits. But Gaiman does so much more with them.

9/10