Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Fragile Things (Short Fiction Fantasy)

My first reaction after I finished reading Fragile Things was to wonder why I hadn’t read more by Neil Gaiman.So far, I had only read The Graveyard Book and American Gods. As demonstrated by Fragile Things, Gaiman is a master storyteller. In most of the stories, the details come together in just the perfect way, with a wonderful twist at the end. The styles of the stories vary. Some are more traditional; others are shaped more like poems. One story is a novella. In “Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot,” Gaiman tells fifteen microstories. One story won a Hugo; another won the Locus Award. “A Study in Emerald” is a fresh twist on the time-honored Sherlock Holmes tale. “Goliath” is a heartfelt twist on the Matrix. Some of the stories, I confess, I didn’t quite understand. While the stories are from the science fiction and fantasy genres, most of them are thoughtful.

Fragile Things left me with such a good feeling that I want to read more by Gaiman.

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