This is a collection of short stories and poems that Neil Gaiman has either written for publication elsewhere or had lying around for other reasons and collected in this volume. The stories are extremely varied, many are dark and involve magic (as one might expect), and there are even a few fairy tale retellings. A few of the stories pay homage to other writers and the explanations for these are given in the introduction, which is extremely helpful as one goes on.
I found this collection to be a bit of a mixed bag. I really enjoyed a lot of the stories, but I’m not a huge fan of poetry, and these didn’t strike me as particularly good. This may just be my own personal defect, but I enjoyed the prose short stories much more. I found myself at a disadvantage occasionally because I hadn’t heard of the author Gaiman was imitating or honoring, but for the most part these were interesting selections.
I haven’t read Gaiman in a while and I was surprised by how sexual some of his stories were, too. One was particularly explicit, describing virtually everything that goes on in a bedroom scene, and I hadn’t really expected that at all. Another one is about a man obsessed with finding a girl photographed naked in a magazine, always aged nineteen no matter when the pictures appear. I didn’t remember if this was typical of his work or if he’d just made exceptions here. A lot of the stories were creepy and had dark or ambiguous endings. As I was going along, I thought this would be perfect for the RIP challenge, even though it’s a long time until the next one.
I don’t really have any deep thoughts about this collection, but I think it speaks volumes that while I normally take forever to read short story collections (I’ve had a different one going for a couple of weeks), I finished this one in a couple of days. The stories are often very short, two to three pages, and Gaiman writes well. The stories go oddly well together, often picking up on themes, like magicians’ magic (hence smoke and mirrors) and using various bits of mythology to make his reader think.
Overall, Smoke and Mirrors is recommended, especially if you enjoy short stories and creepier fantasy.
I am an Amazon Associate. I borrowed this book from my local library.
I’ve read only one Gaiman so far and it was for youngsters — no sex!
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I haven’t heard too much about this one until now. This collection definitely sounds like quite a variety. I’ve had the chance to read two Gaiman books so far and they were so different from one another. He’s got such range when it comes to writing. Thanks for your great review, Meghan!
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Wow, that doesn’t sound much like the Gaiman I have read- I’ve read three of his books and have Graveyard Book on my shelf to read next. Though that is YA, so don’t think it will be very full of sex or graphic stuff. I think short story collections can go really well or just fall flat. Seems like this one is the latter, unfortunately. But Gaiman is brilliant!
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This sounds interesting, but the poetry would be over my head too.
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I’ve only read one short story from this collection–the one that combined Sherlock Holmes with HP Lovecraft (can’t remember the title atm). It was pretty good.
I completely understand you being thrown off by the sex–for some reason I do not expect that in a Neil Gaiman book. I was totally blindsided by it in Stardust.
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Ooh…this sounds like it could be just my kind of book. Great review, thanks
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I have Gaiman ebook here ; but i have not read it yet. This sounds good to me coz’ i love short stories a lot!
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And I thought Gaiman writes only for youngsters.I haven’t had a chance to read even a single Gaiman’s book.
I like reading short stories when I am done with a big book.Completely my type, apart from the poetries..they are tangent to the circle !
Great review for all the stories.
Some of the Sandman graphic novel series was disturbingly dark and some sexual, too. Just recently I read/ listened to “The Graveyard Book,” which is YA (from the library). It was fantastic. I’m going to get it now so I can read it again on Halloween
Hmm…I might try some more of his novels before reading this. Thanks for the review.
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