I adore Neil Gaiman's work, so I jumped at the chance to review this new collection of his nonfiction. I've read bits and pieces of his graduation speeches and stuff like that and it always makes me stand up and cheer, "Yes! This! This man gets it!" And that should probably tell you where my expectations were. The collection [...]
Reviewed September 7, 2009 Busy week + training + overtime=forgettable review. Sorry, guys. These stories/poetry were pretty dark. But then it's been a while since I read any Gaiman, so maybe I've just forgotten how dark he can be. I would really put this on a dark fantasy/horror lite shelf, but that's fine by me. As in all short story collections, some of these were winners and some were okay. Some that stood out were "A Study in Emerald"--A fun take on the classic Sherlock Holmes format. "October in the Chair"--Memorable more for the framework than the actual story, although that was pretty good too. "Bitter Grounds"--Pretty creepy "Other People"--I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares after reading this one. But that really has more to do with my own buttons than the story. "The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch"--Just might be my favorite. He stops in just the perfect place and tells just enough. Loved it. "The Problem of Susan"--Should have come with a warning a la Stephen King and The Dark Tower. He has a point, but I will never look at Aslan the same way again. "Feeders and Eaters"--I hate to pick on The King again, but I really think this one would have done him proud. Super creepy. "Goliath"--Absolutely perfect for what it was written for "The Monarch of the Glen"--I can't honestly say that I remember all that much about American Gods, except that I liked it. Still, it was fun to check in on Shadow. One last thing. There are a few poems scattered throughout the book. I did not care for the earlier ones, but as I continued reading, they improved, and I genuinely enjoyed "The Day the Saucers Came" and a few others. Highly recommended for Gaiman fans.…
When I was offered a copy of Neil Gaiman's newest short story collection, Trigger Warning, for review, my first thought was to jump on it. I adore Neil Gaiman's work. He is one of only about three authors who get their own shelf name on my GoodReads account. And then I remembered that I wasn't particularly happy with The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I know I'm in the minority and I've never even written a review for it, but all I can say is that it was too weird, even for me. I hate feeling honor-bound to review a book that I didn't love so I wavered. Then I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did! Overall impression: It started off with a couple of stories that I didn't particularly care for so I was getting worried. I'd read the third story earlier (In George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois's Songs of Love and Death) and enjoyed it, but still, it was a re-read. The fourth story started to catch my attention and by the fifth, I was hooked. There were probably one or two others I didn't care for in the remaining nineteen stories, but the collection overall is fantastic. And because I find it impossible not to mention what I think of every single story in a collection, here's where I get long-winded. "Making a Chair"--A poem about--you guessed it--making a chair. I assume Gaiman was pushing through some writer's block with this one. Haven't we all been there? You have a million real things to do but something unimportant proves to be a welcome distraction? "A Lunar Labyrinth"--Normally short horror stories scare me to death. So much is left unsaid. I can generally read Stephen King novels and sleep like…
In a hospital in England, the anti-Christ is born, making unlikely allies of the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale. They've both spent quite a bit of time on Earth and they actually kind of like the place. They're not ready for the End of Days. So they set out to make sure it doesn't happen. I read this book about half a lifetime ago, which makes me feel a little old. I really enjoyed it. When I saw that it was going to be adapted for radio by the BBC and we could stream it on our side of the pond, I was excited. I think I was a little distracted as I was listening to it. I only listened to it around the house so I could stream it over our wifi. And of course I was puttering around as I listened. I laughed in all the right places but it felt disjointed to me. I think that's at least partly because I would get focused on whatever I was doing for a minute or two and then try to pick up the thread of the narrative again. Also, the BBC app is terrible. I could only listen to five minutes at a time before the audio started whistling at me, so then I'd have to exit completely out and go back in to listen to the next five minutes. That shows some sort of dedication on my part, doesn't it, that I listened to the whole thing like that? Also, (I'm afraid to say this), I tend to love Neil Gaiman's books but I've never been a huge Terry Pratchett fan. My sister has tried to get me to read the Discworld books forever. I've read a few. I enjoyed one and the others were just too…
4 Stars. As with almost any anthology, there were stories that I loved and some that just didn't do anything for me. I was a little afraid that it would start to get depressing (star-crossed love just doesn't sound happy, now does it?) but there was a good balance of happy and sad endings. Favorite story: "Hurt Me" by [...]
Twelve-year-old Odd doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his village. He crushed his leg when he was younger and that's left him with a limp. He'd rather be carving alone in the woods than hanging out in the hall with the other villagers fighting and telling stories. His stepfather is just awful. So Odd just leaves one day. He's going to stay in the shack his dead father left behind. On his first day alone, he comes upon a bear, a fox, and an eagle who need help. As one must in fairy-ish stories, Odd helped them. Then he discovered that they needed more help defeating a frost giant that has taken over their home and made it eternally winter in Odd's village. Can the boy with the limp save the day? I really liked this very short book. Odd is such a little fighter. Oh, not in the ways that the rest of his village fights, but just fighting for what he believes in and what's right. Fighting to grow into the man he wants to be, not the man he's expected to be. While the story itself is good, I liked what I took away from it more. Odd never really let his crushed leg hold him back. He learned to work through problems rather than walk away from them. There's the art of compromise as well, and possibly a little about forgiveness. The illustrations by Brett Helquist fit the story perfectly. A little rustic, they fit right into this story of Norway in the days of the Vikings. I love the book itself as well. A perfectly-sized little cloth-bound book, I could just hold it for hours. Do you have books like that? Ones that just feel like they're made for your hands? Recommended for…
Nobody Owens is being raised in a graveyard. His "parents" are two ghosts. His guardian is a man who only comes out at night and who seems to be neither dead or alive. His real family was murdered and the murderer is still looking for Nobody. As long as he stays in the graveyard, he's safe. But what growing boy isn't curious about the wider world? He has lots of adventures and near-misses, both in and out of the graveyard. Honestly, I loved this. It was a fun, imaginative book with a hugely loveable main character. Think a tiny bit of "The Boy Who Lived" mixed with a slightly bigger bit of Odd Thomas but a charm that is all his own. Nobody made this book. The other characters were all slightly screwball and they each added to the book in his or her own way. For example, there's the poet Nehemiah Trot who took revenge on a critic by refusing to publish his (Nehemiah's) poems and having them buried with him. He's still waiting on the public to exhume him to publish his lost work. He's been dead over 200 years. So, mostly this book was character-driven for me. But the stories were fun and interesting too. My biggest complaint is that I could have used a little more explanation as to why Nobody's family was killed in the first place. There is an explanation, but it felt a little weak to me. Maybe there will be a sequel? This book definitely stands alone, but there's always room for a sequel. I would definitely read it if one was published. I recommend this to anyone who thinks the synopsis sounds interesting. If it sounds like a silly premise for a book, you probably will never enjoy it. Reviewed December…
Young Tristran Thorn (who's birth is maybe not as...aboveboard...as Victorian society would like) is desperately in love with Victoria Forester. He screws up his courage one night to ask her to kiss him or marry him or just--something! He is met with laughter. In desperation, he offers to slay dragons and bring back treasures for her, each adventure more outlandish than the last. Finally, as they see a shooting star, he offers to bring back the fallen star for her. She accepts. And so Tristran goes over the Wall for which his village is named and into Fairyland. Tristran is woefully unprepared for what he finds there, but he's an adaptable boy. Maybe suspiciously adaptable? He finds the star and sets off with her toward home and Victoria. That's right--her. In fairyland, the stars are beautiful young women. Tristran's particular star is named Yvaine, and she is unwilling to help him on his quest for true love. Other, more sinister, people are looking for her as well, and many an adventure and near-miss follow. I have loved this book since I first read it when it was a new book at my local library. I had to have my own copy, and this has to be at least the third or fourth time I've re-read it. I love the adventure and the unexpected romance, the ghosts of Stormhold, the desperate witch, the humor, the quirky inhabitants of Fairy, and the way that wishes granted rarely turn out as we expect. Tristran grows so much as a character. He goes from a shallow boy whose head is turned by a beautiful face, to a man who places others' happiness before his own. He follows Gaiman's own Instructions about offering aid or accepting help as the situation dictates and finds that things…
This is Neil Gaiman's poem, "Instructions" bound as a picture book and illustrated by Charles Vess. I love this. I have to admit that when I first came across Gaiman's poem in Fragile Things, I read it, thought it was pretty cool, and moved on, both in the book and in my head. It wasn't until I met Charles Vess at a book signing for Drawing Down the Moon and he told us about this project that I really got excited about the whole thing. He had prints of his artwork for us to look at. As I flipped through them, I knew this was going to be something special. And it is. Basically instructions for surviving a fairy tale, Gaiman weaves many themes into this short-ish poem. Help who you can. Don't trust those who seem untrustworthy. Trust yourself. Come home at the end. And suddenly you realize that he could be (is?) talking about how to live your life well. And you are reminded again what a master Gaiman is. As for the illustrations--perfection. I love Vess's artwork. It has such a perfect fairy tale feel to it. And when you sit down to really look at just one of these illustrations, you are blown away by the amount of subtle detail worked in. I highly, highly recommend this. Children will love it, and so will readers of any age who understand that the truest advice can be found in "children's books." Find author Neil Gaiman on his website for young readers, his blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Buy Instructions at Malaprop’s | Better World Books I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop's, my local independent bookstore, and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on…
I'm trying out audio (again), this time during my commute to work. My commute isn't bad, about 30 minutes, so a collection of short stories, written and read by Neil Gaiman no less, seemed like a good place to start. I was right! I'll say first of all that I love Gaiman's voice. I could listen to the man all day. I don't really have any other narrators to compare him to, but just the fact that I actually finished this audio book should be a testament to his greatness! I've read a lot of these stories in print, but I have to say that hearing Gaiman read them himself added a little something to the story. For example, I would never have "heard" the troll speaking in such a gray, tired voice if I had read it on my own. Hearing Gaiman's take on that really paved the way for the ending of that one. There were more examples, but that's the most striking. "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" reminded me a lot of Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series. It's a very tangled, nursery rhyme noir PI story, which sounds like a big mess but was actually a lot of fun. "Troll Bridge" was a little eerie. I did not see the ending coming, but it made sense. It reminded me a little of another story of Gaiman's that I read in Fragile Things. I like this take on the theme better. "Don't Ask Jack" was probably my least favorite, just because there wasn't much story. It's a goose-bump-inducing little vignette though. "How to Sell the Ponti Bridge" was another I wasn't that crazy about. It was sort of a fantasy version of a ballsy scam. Not exactly my thing. "October in the Chair" is a story that I really…