Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

Written by Neil Gaiman

Narrated by Neil Gaiman

In the deft hands of Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion... and anything is possible. In this, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders -- a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under ""Pest Control,"" and where a frightened young boy must barter for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks. Explore a new reality -- obscured by smoke and darkness, yet brilliantly tangible -- in this extraordinary collection of short works by a master prestidigitator. It will dazzle your senses, touch your heart, and haunt your dreams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062291233

Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and multi-award winning author and creator of many beloved books, graphic novels, short stories, film, television and theatre for all ages. He is the recipient of the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. Neil has adapted many of his works to television series, including Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett) and The Sandman. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College. For a lot more about his work, please visit: https://www.neilgaiman.com/

Reviews for Smoke and Mirrors

[Bex · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

LISTEN TO CHAPTER 1 THEN SKIP FORWARD TO CHAPTER 4 - the inspirations for each story are all gathered at the beginning for some reason

[Sandy Topzand · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Something wrong with the version I got. Only the introductions to the stories. No stories. Huge disappointment.

[Atticus Foster · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Honestly a really great collection of stories. The thing I really love about Gaiman's stories is they don't beat you over the head with their message, they unfold in their own time. Gaiman himself reads this one, and his voice is basically asmr.

[Jessica Logan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like it so much, but I could only get to the first story. Technically the second, bc he wrote one short in the intro. Aside from the first intro the intros to each story are too much. Way more of that than actual short story.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't normally like short stories, but Neil Gaiman has them down to an art. His short stories don't feel like shrunken down versions of a novel: they feel like short stories. My favourite story in the whole thing is actually the story in the intro, the wedding present. Well worth reading.

[estellechauvelin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Neil Gaiman has the rare ability to be equally brilliant in short and long form. His prose style and his invention stand out among contemporary fantasy/SF authors. This collection of short stories is presented with brief notes on each one in the introduction, as well as a bonus short story in the introduction.

[ca8bookwyrm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Some of these stories I really liked... others not so much. Pretty typical for a book of short stories in that, to me.

[lynleys-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read most of these stories a couple of years ago, and came back to finish it off for completion's sake. I'm glad I did because the last story is a wonderfully creepy retelling of Snow White (which is a fairytale I have rewritten myself, only in comic style).Gaiman has a mixture of different voices: naive, conversational and faux-historical for the folklorish tales. My favourite of his are set in a contemporary world which just happens to have some sort of supernatural element in it. If I was trying to write a story like his I'd be caught up on the whys and wherefores -- Gaiman is a great example of a storyteller who weaves whatever the hell he wants into a story without needing to explain why.Or maybe I'm just not reading enough fantasy.

[Jerry Weis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The problem with collections like this is that they put the best stories in the beginning, and then the stories get worse and worse as you read. Or at least that was my opinion. I liked the first couple stories, but the rest of the stories, save the very last one, were meh.

[mialro_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of short stories (which I expected) and some poems (which I did not). Gaiman's poems are lovely and creepy, like his fiction. Some pieces were interesting (like the one about an author trying to negotiate with Hollywood people wanting to make his book into a movie and the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired pieces about the coming of Cthulhu and a werewolf) and some were too disturbing or confusing for me. I'd give it an average of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[zoes_human · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would have preferred for the blurbs telling something of the writing and inspiration for every tale and poem have been at the start of the individual stories rather than being lumped together at the beginning of the book as part of the introduction.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illustrations collects short stories and poems that Gaiman previously published elsewhere. Among the more stand-out works are “The Wedding Present” – which Gaiman included in the introduction – “Chivalry” – about the Holy Grail, “Troll Bridge,” “The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories,” “Queen of Knives,” “Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar,” “Only the End of the World Again,” “Bay Wolf,” “We Can Get Them For You Wholesale,” “One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock,” “The Sweeper of Dreams,” “Vampire Sestina,” “Murder Mysteries,” and “Snow, Glass, Apples.” The works are all haunting and sweet; they take the reader to new places and leave them changed after the reading. Two stories reference the works of Lovecraft, one the works of Michael Moorcock, and a few have been adapted into other works. Both “Troll Bridge” and “Snow, Glass, Apples” later became graphic novels, “Murder Mysteries” became both an audio drama and a comic book, and “We Can Get Them for You Wholesale” has been adapted a few times as independent films. Gaiman fans will love this collection of his early work.

[bobbybslax · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quite the mixed bag here. I enjoyed about 4 or 5, was ambivalent about most, and against a few, so overall a moderate success, I think.

[melrailey-412132 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's no secret I'm a Neil Gaiman fan. Love the man. And his audiobooks are always fantastic and Smoke and Mirrors is no exception. Gaiman's narration is spot on. As always when I listen to him tell a story, it feels like he's letting me in on a secret. You know, telling me a special tale that not many people know. I'd heard many of the stories in this collection in other places; but lots were brand new to me. They also opened up some new insights into Neil Gaiman that I hadn't seen before. This collection highlights Gaiman's unique talent and masterful ability to tell a story.

[linyarai · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A great read by one of my favorite authors.

[HenyusSalas · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's a book full of different stories that will keep you hooked; I consider it recommendable. ✌️ (Translated from Spanish)

[aratiel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

At that moment, Neil Gaiman became her favorite author of all time.

[Edd62 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A lovely collection of stories by Neil Gaiman, showcasing the great influence of E A Poe, but we also find a bit of everything, from poetry with convoluted verses, a story about angels, several tales that seem autobiographical, a woman who sucks memories through sex; in short, I liked it and it was quite entertaining. (Translated from Spanish)

[FranciscoVonrov · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gaiman's work is beautiful. He has an immense imagination and uniquely combines his stories with mythological creatures and legends that we all know. As always, I emphatically recommend reading the graphic novel that made him famous, The Sandman, which is the best thing I've ever read in my life. I'm not exaggerating. (Translated from Spanish)

[forevermasterless · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While looking back through the various short story collections I've read, I realized I hadn't wrote any sort of review for this one, even though I did write a review for Neil's second collection, Fragile Things. I don't know how I let that slide.

Well, I'm writing the review now. I think this is one of the most even collections I've read. I don't know that it has the highest concentration of great stories, but it was by far the most consistent, with none of the stories being bad or forgettable. I also thought the poems were generally better than those in Fragile Things, even though that collection has the poem Instructions, which is my favorite of all Neil's poems.

To prove it, here are my personal top five from this collection, presented in the order that they appear, using memories that are fast approaching three years of age.

Chivalry
One of the best things about Gaiman is how he uses folklore and myth to tell modern tales with modern sensibilities. This is one of the best examples of that. This is a story about a knight seeking the holy grail, and the old lady who has it on her mantlepiece. A fantastic 'what if' sort of story that shows what it might be like if all the magical objects of power from our myths and legends really existed, and how unimportant they might be if pulled from the realm of myth, despite their powers.

Troll Bridge
A bittersweet story about a boy who runs into a troll and gets away by convincing the troll that he'll be 'tastier' if he leaves and comes back with more life experience, only to eventually give himself up to the troll when his life doesn't work out the way he expected. The best thing about this story is how it makes you really feel the passage of time. It's like how you sometimes dream that you've lived out an entire lifetime, even though you've really only been dreaming for minutes. Gaiman is uniquely gifted in being able to make that come across with the written word, but I think this story is the one that did it best.

Changes
What if you could take a pill to change your sex at will? Do I really need to say anything else to make you want to read this?

Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
A story about the Lovecraft mythos that is oddly compelling, despite the fact that I had never read any of Lovecraft's work before reading this. In fact, this story is what made me buy an omnibus of his work, and while I still haven't read the whole thing I still consider myself a Lovecraft fan, and this story is what turned me into one.

We Can Get Them For You Wholesale
A story about a man who wants to kill his girlfriend because she's been cheating on him. He looks through the phone book to find an assassin, and winds up with a number that he really shouldn't be calling.

[altheaann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Initially read in 1999 or thereabouts. Not reviewed at the time.

Upon re-reading:

***** “The Goldfish Pond and Other Stories” by Neil Gaiman
I'm usually not that interested in the whole 'glamour of Hollywood' theme, but this is probably the best commentary on it I've ever read.
Clearly partially autobiographical, this tells the story of a British writer who's flown out to L.A. to talk about converting his bestselling novel into a movie. A shifting cast of film execs gradually morph his story past recognition. Meanwhile, he gets to know the elderly groundskeeper at his decaying hotel, who tells him stories of the glory days of silent films.
Multi-layered, ironically humorous, but ultimately poignant. Beautifully done.


_____

Other included pieces (from the wiki).

"The included stories and poems are different between some of the editions. The US, UK, and eBook editions have some differences in the stories they contain (see table to right):

† Not in US print version
‡ Not in eBook version
* Appears in eBook version as Apple
Reading the Entrails
The Wedding Present
Chivalry - written for an anthology by Marty Greenberg
Nicholas Was...
The Price
Troll Bridge - retelling of The Three Billy Goats Gruff written for the anthology Snow White, Blood Red by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
Don't Ask Jack
Eaten (Scenes from a Moving picture) †‡
The White Road - A narrative poem
Queen of Knives - A narrative poem
The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch †‡
Changes
The Daughter of Owls
Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
Virus - Written for the anthology Digital Dreams by David Barrett
Looking for the Girl - Commissioned by Penthouse for their 20th anniversary issue
Only the End of the World Again
Bay Wolf - A story poem retelling Beowulf
Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot †
We Can Get Them For You Wholesale
One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock - Written for an anthology of Elric stories by Michael Moorcock
Cold Colors
The Sweeper of Dreams
Foreign Parts
Vampire Sestina - A poem originally published in Fantasy Tales and later reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Vampires by Stephen Jones
Mouse - written for Touch Wood, edited by Pete Crowther
The Sea Change
How Do You Think It Feels? †‡
When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, age 11¼
Desert Wind
Tastings - Included in Sirens by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
In the End †*
Babycakes
Murder Mysteries - written for the anthology Midnight Graffiti by Jessie Horsting
Snow, Glass, Apples

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

From Book Jacket:

The distinctive storytelling genius of Neil Gaiman has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. Now in this new collection of stories--several of which have never before appeared in print and more than half that have never been collected--that will dazzle the senses and haunt the imagination. Miraculous inventions and unforgettable characters inhabit these pages: an elderly widow who finds the Holy Grail in a second-hand store...a frightened little boy who bargains for his life with a troll living under a bridge by the railroad tracks...a stray cat who battles nightly against a recurring evil that threatens his unsuspecting adoptive family. In these stories, Gaiman displays the power, wit, insight and outrageous originality that has made him one of the most unique literary artists of our day.

My Thoughts:

Neil Gaiman doesn't write horror stories... he writes magic...stories that wrap you up in what your parents told you for years was impossible or unreal. Some of the samplings that I really enjoyed were..."Snow, Glass, Apples"....this is not your grandmother's Snow White, and Gaiman himself states that he hopes the reader will not read the original fairy tale the same way ever again. He succeeds. "Chivalry"... a brilliant, extremely funny look into the mind of an elderly woman who has found the Holy Grail in a secondhand store and think it's a perfect doo-dad for her mantel, never mind that Arthurian knight who keeps hounding her for it. A tip to anyone who is in the habit of skipping book introductions....Gaiman actually hides a story within the introduction of this book as a payoff to those who religiously read the introduction. That sort of cleverness suckers me in every time.

[benkline · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another good selection of short fiction from Neil Gaiman.

[chris_el-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A book of Short stories. I liked the one about the chap trying to hire an assassin for his ex the best. Gaimen is a author that throws twists in his writing that you don't see coming. :)

[edward.lorn · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

SMOKE AND MIRRORS Review, or My Final Review For a While I'm a Neil Gaiman fanboy. I've loved all of his novels and a great deal of his short fiction, but this collection was marred with either lackluster outings or poems I couldn't enjoy because I personally don't understand what makes them poems. The latter is my own fault, and I do not hold it against the author. The former, on the other hand, is all Gaiman's fault. Many of these stories lack purpose, are nothing more than words compiled into sentences and paragraphs. I can dig tales that have no definitive ending, or open endings, as it were, but when a piece of fiction has no reason whatsoever I fail to understand how or why it made it to print. Gaiman goes into great detail about how each of the stories in this collection came to be, and I can't help but wonder if the editors who requested a number of these stories only paid for them because they'd asked Gaiman for something and he delivered. Then, said editors felt responsible, perhaps thinking, "Well, we did ask for... something, and he did deliver." The biggest culprit here being the first outing, "Chivalry", wherein nothing happens other than a knight decked out in full armor (in modern times, mind you) trying time and time again to procure the holy grail from a stubborn old woman. In the end, Good Knight Galaad gets his grail and the reader's left wondering exactly what the hell was the story's purpose? There's no conflict, no tension, no drama, no twist, and not even a hint of climax. "Chivalry" accomplished nothing aside from making me slam my forehead into my desk in an attempt to knock the banality of the tale from my conscious mind. I think that, had I read SMOKE AND MIRRORS instead of listening to the audio book, I would have disliked far more of these stories than I did. Gaiman brought a certain whimsical panache to lesser tales, making them a great deal more interesting (e.g. "Troll Bridge", "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" and "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale"). I think this came from knowing how the author felt the dialogue and prose should be read in order to get the most from the verbiage.

The stories that made me want to stick ice picks in my ears were: "Chivalry", "Don't Ask Jack", "The Daughter of Owls", and "One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock". I didn't simply dislike these stories, I downright loathed them. Even Gaiman's narration seemed dull, as if he were apologizing for their existence by phoning in his performance.

The tales that stood out are as follows: "The Price", "Troll Bridge", "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories", "Changes", "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" (which didn't have a purpose either, but was enjoyable nonetheless because of the odd characters), "Only the End of the World Again". "Bay Wolf", "We can Get Them for You Wholesale", and "Mouse". Basically, half the collection was worth my time. Everything else was either meaningless or downright boring. Still, not a single entry in SMOKE AND MIRRORS matched the brilliance of his novels. I was hoping for short stroies on par with CORALINE or THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE or AMERICAN GODS. Sadly, I was disappointed.

All other stories not mentioned above were wholly unmentionable or entirely forgettable. Meaning, I couldn't even be bothered to complain about them.

In summation: If you're looking for a collection packed with amazing short stories, you can do far better than this. SMOKE AND MIRRORS is not the worst short story collection I've read, but it comes close. When Gaiman is on, he's terrific and magical and wonderfully creative, but when he's bad, sweet baby Tom Cruise, he'll make you want to castrate him with a rusty battleaxe then boil the dismembered bits in a vat of acid. Still, this grouping of fiction is well written. Even the worst of these tales are readable, which cannot be said for every short story author. Instead of this, I recommend ANANSI BOYS, THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, AMERICAN GODS, CORALINE (and, no, it's not only a children's book), THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE, or any of Gaiman's other novels. I highly recommend his series of SANDMAN comics, if you can get your hands on them, that is. If you would like a better collection from a different author, try BOOKS OF BLOOD, by Clive Barker (in my opinion, Barker is much better at short fiction than he'll ever be as a novelist), SKELETON CREW, by Stephen King, and any collection by Ray Bradbury.

2.5 out of 5 severely disappointed stars. (If you're reading this on Goodreads, I've rounded up to three.)

[ladypembroke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This collection is one that I never got around to reading when it was first published years ago. I am sorry I took so long to do so, and it reminded me anew that short stories are really in Neil Gaiman's wheelhouse. It amazes me how such short pieces can leave you breathless with fear, sorrow, laughter, shock. But they did. I don't want to pick a favourite because I made sure to read them all one at a time, taking breaks in between, so that they were each savoured for what they were. I can no more claim a favourite story than I can a song -- each had its own meaning and flavour. Each tasted wonderful.

More please.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As with many of Gaiman's works, I found myself loving some of the stories in this collection, feeling "meh" about most, and loathing a couple of them. The few I loved were magical, entertaining, causing me to ask, "What if?" These were:
A Wedding Present
Chivalry
The Price
Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
We Can Get Them for you Wholesale
Vampire Sestina
Snow, Glass, Apples
A couple of the stories I was in love with until the end, which made either no sense to me, or was a great let down.
When We Went to See the End of the World
Murder Mysteries
The rest of the stories either left me cold or nauseated me because they focused on the grime, the dirt, the sickness of the human condition without any hope or thought of the glory of it. When I read the Sandman series, my daughter edited them for me, knowing my aversion to hopelessness. I should have had her pre-read these as well.

[flying_monkeys_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rating: 3 of 5

I borrowed Smoke and Mirrors primarily to read "Snow, Glass, Apples," which turned out to be a brilliant retelling of Snow White from the Evil Queen's POV. I gave it 5 stars!

The rest of the collection, however, was just okay. The only other story that really engaged my interest was "Don't Ask Jack" which supported my reluctance to ever play with a Jack-in-the-Box. I'd give that one 4 stars. "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale" was a black comedy about obsessive bargain hunters. I could so picture extreme couponers in that scenario. "Babycakes" would be best appreciated by vegetarians, vegans, and animal rights activists. Or anyone who connects with that saying about judging a nation by how it treats its animals.

My favorite thing about this collection - other than the excellent "Snow, Glass, Apples" - was the Introduction in which Gaiman offered up a bit of background for each story.

[comfypants · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There are two or three good stories, but it's mostly filler. It reminds me of Douglas Adams' Salmon of Doubt: a lot of half-finished drafts and things found lying around - a collection of enough things to make a book, not a book of things written to be in a book.

[delta351 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have read several of the more popular Gaiman books, but this is my first anthology. In no particular order, these are my favorites: Chivalry- comical
Troll Bridge- strange
Mouse- Guard cat
Murder Mysteries- very clever, would like to read again