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Smoke and Mirrors | 
 enlarge | Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Headline Review
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.24
You Save: £4.75 (59%)
New (27) Used (7) from £3.00
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 7338
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0755322835
EAN: 9780755322831
ASIN: 0755322835
Publication Date: September 19, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book dispatched from stock in the UK
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Best known for his Sandman graphic novels about Morpheus, Lord of Dreams, Neil Gaiman has also written the standalone books Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Never Where from his BBC TV series revealing a fantastic realm under London, and Star Dust, a poignant fairy tale. His shorter fantasies are regularly picked for Year's Best collections. Smoke and Mirrors assembles 36 of his favourite stories, prose poems, and verse pieces. Among the imaginative inventions here are a murder mystery set among angels in heaven; the discovery of the Holy Grail at Oxfam; warped retellings of fairy tales and folklore, including a Snow White that's black beyond belief; several clever variations on vampirism; a firm of contract killers with a very remarkable discount scheme; homages to Michael Moorcock and H.P. Lovecraft (one splendidly funny) that avoid mere pastiche; an SF world of rapid and reversible sex changes; Beowulf retold as a Baywatch episode; a tasty amalgamation of computers and black magic; a new final book of the Bible; and the grim wedding present that's simply a manuscript telling a bleakly different story of the recipients' unfolding marriage. SF/fantasy professionals themselves envy Gaiman's perpetual flow of new ideas and ability to put a fresh spin on old ones. Smoke and Mirrors is a dazzlingly varied and rewarding collection. --David Langford
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 The Good The Bad and the Crappy March 19, 2008
B. J. Crossley (England)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
the story with the terrorized cat was good, another about -very short this one- JACK was its name, that was good. Another which starts out being about Venereal disease but has a twist. that one was good. A lady who picks up the holy grail was good too. The rest were either bad or very bad.
 Spellbinding July 20, 2007
C. L. Askew (Edinburgh, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Just fabulous.
It was this book that first pitched me headlong into the strange and scary world of Neil Gaiman's writing -- now I am a huge fan. I would recommend this to anyone, whether you like fantasy/sci fi or not, because Neil Gaiman's writing has more to do with how fantasy imitates real life than how it deviates from it.
The people who "didn't get" this book were obviously in the bathroom when the imagination van came around.
 Upon Reflection - A Little Disappointing June 30, 2007
Mr. John Frank Herbert
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Reading the good reviews I thought to myself - at last some short stories with teeth!
How wrong could they be? Many of the tales begin OK, and build up nicely, only to let us down at the end with a "non-ending" - which I hate. You know the ones - they just leave you hanging nowhere, unfinished, and you silently mouth the words "AND?"!!!
It was an interesting mix of poetry etc, and the introduction, showing us how he wrote each tale, was quite novel.
Where oh where has the satisfying short story gone?
I don't get it November 12, 2006
Mathilda (UK)
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
Lots of people have raved to me about Neil Gaiman. I love Good Omens, but I bought it because I am a huge Pratchett fan. I thought I'd give this short story collection a whirl and, having read it from cover to cover, I just didn't get it. The ideas are either derivative, boring or weird. The trumpeted Snow White retelling 'Snow, Glass, Apples' has been done better by other writers and with less bizarre misogyny. Some of the stories were just 'some stuff that happened to me in LA' or 'I know Jonathan Ross and his wife'.
Maybe I'm missing something, but it's staying missed.
Treasure Trove! March 5, 2006
kehs (Hertfordshire, England)
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
Neil Gaiman is a master story teller, IMHO, and this selection of short stories by him is the perfect showcase for his talents. An incredible assortment of tales awaits the reader in this marvelous book - an old lady that finds the Holy Grail in an Oxfam shop for 30p - a little boy that meets a troll - the shortest but most haunting Xmas story I've ever read - the Jack-in-the-box that no-one played with......oh, so many and all are pure genius. My personal favourite is the very last in the book, which is a re-telling of Snow White and because of N G's version I will never think of her in the same light again. I feel that several of these stories have the potential of becoming full length novels one day - I'll just have to wait and see. One warning, if you haven't read any of Gaiman's work before you will soon become addicted after reading this book.
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