|
| Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: Neil Gaiman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.00
You Save: $12.95 (87%)
New (44) Used (27) from $2.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 20592
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0061252026
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780061252020
ASIN: 0061252026
Publication Date: October 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Enh. December 6, 2006
7 out of 22 found this review helpful
I like the review by the guy who hasn't read the book yet but gives it 5 stars. Nice.
Most of the stories and all of the poems feel thin and tossed off. Sure, there are a few gems here (Sunbird, A Study in Emerald), but the rest leave me saying, "So what. Big deal. That's the pay off? Whatever."
In particular, stories like Closing Time. OK...and...? Let's leave things all vauge and mystersious!!! Ooooooh. Sorry, just too many like that. Blah. Yeah, I get the whole let-the-reader-do-the-calculus-in-their-head approach, but most of these one-trick-pony stories add up to less than zero. Like the one where the kid sees a creepy ghost. That's it.
I think the tissue book cover will wear very poorly. Yeah, fragile, I get it. Better cover it in mylar or something.
 Reimagined Tales, Inventive, Magical Stories November 5, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
My sweet boyfriend, knowing my penchant for all things Neil Gaiman, bought me Fragile Things almost the moment it came out. The book is a collection of stories, poetry, and whatnot that I have to recommend incredibly highly -- but you have to be ready for things to be not quite what they seem and for the need to actually think as you read. I happen to love how he turns stories on their heads and always has a twist that you're not precisely ready for. Of course, the difficulty for me in reviewing these stories is to show their brilliance so you'll go read them, without giving away any of the fun of reading them.
First, I've got to say that I'm entranced by the cover, which is translucent white paper over a white cover with, well, fragile things on it, such as a butterfly, a snowflake, and a human heart. Notice how that last one sneaks up on you? What a perfect warning (or appetite whetting) for how Gaiman's stories sneak up on you.
As a fan of his earlier work, American Gods, I started with the novella "Monarch of the Glen," which picks back up with Shadow, the main character of that novel. Shadow's been doing some travel and has ended up in middle-of-nowhere Scotland. As you might imagine if you've read American Gods, someone improbable asks Shadow to take a job as a, well, let's call it security enforcer. Except of course that the castle in which he's supposed to perform this task for a large party of very wealthy people isn't on any of the survey maps. Add to that a woman named Jennie who isn't what she seems and doesn't want Shadow to take this job, and we're already on the way to another scrunched up forehead, feverish reading moment.
In "Sunbird," we get to meet the members of the Epicurean Club, including Augustus TwoFeathers McCoy (and his daughter Hollyberry NoFeathers McCoy), who ate and drank enough for many men; Professor Mandalay, who one was never quite sure was really there; Jackie Newhouse, a descendant of Casanova; Virginia Boote, a now-ruined beauty; and, of course, Zebediah T. Crawcrustle, the poorest member of the club, who'd been around since, well, nobody's quite sure. At the moment when the club is sure they've tried every food there is to try, from vulture, to beetle (although not quite every kind of beetle), to panda and mammoth, Crawcrustle suggests that grilled Sunbird hasn't been done in a long time, and they would definitely enjoy it. So, they make preparations to go catch and eat the Sunbird (one has to go to Cairo to do so, you know), but Crawcrustle may have left out one or two small details in how the whole process works.
Don't miss Gaiman's take on the legend of Bluebeard in "The Hidden Chamber." One of my favorite types of book or story to read is one that takes a myth, legend, or tale that we all know, in one version, and goes farther or deeper with it. I think part of what I like is knowing some background - I like feeling intelligent after all -- but not reading exactly the same story over again. Gaiman is a master at this -- "Monarch of the Glen" does it in more ways than even the obvious one of the Norse legends that Shadow and his boss Wednesday arose from, "The Problem of Susan" and "Inventing Aladdin" do this in another way, and "The Hidden Chamber" takes yet another direction in re-imagining Bluebeard.
Many of the stories are not brand new, although they've not been collected together before and you would have had to go far and wide to capture them all. One favorite example is "The Problem of Susan," which pays homage to, and deals with some difficult issues in, C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. I also enjoyed getting reacquainted with "A Study in Emerald," which combines Gaiman's sense of humor and the irrationality (as he puts it) of H.P. Lovecraft, with the utter rationality (again, Gaiman's sense) of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. The story won a Hugo, which was quite enough recommendation for me, but also evokes a just slightly not our Victorian England in a way that made me think of the best of "Doctor Who" or Robert Heinlein.
In any case, all the stories I've savored have been delicious and the Epicureans would've been coming back for seconds or thirds had this been on their plates. Enjoy.
An impressive collection of short stories that runs the gamut of emotions November 23, 2006
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
It should come as no surprise to find that Neil Gaiman dedicates FRAGILE THINGS to Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison and the late Robert Sheckley. After all, they are undisputed masters of the writing world in the science fiction and fantasy genre, occasionally gaining acceptance from the outside writing universe as well. Of these three, Bradbury is the most successful beyond the barrier that is still upheld between Literature and lowly genre fiction. It is no small thing, then, to declare that Neil Gaiman is our generation's Ray Bradbury.
Much like Bradbury, Gaiman has a lyrical way with his stories. When you pick up a Neil Gaiman work, be it a novel or even FRAGILE THINGS, what you readily discover is that Gaiman is not just an author; he does not merely place his words on a page for you to look at. Rather, he has the same incredible ability as Bradbury to pull you close and make you feel as if the two of you are sitting beside a fire in a warm and dimly lit chamber, and he is recounting the story for you. Gaiman is, above all things, a storyteller, and that is a great deal different from being a mere writer.
The stories collected in FRAGILE THINGS run the gamut of emotions, but all will leave you impressed. And lest you immediately pass off on this collection simply because it is classified as "fantasy," be assured that you will find plenty to enjoy that seems much like any of your standard literary fiction escapes. Gaiman is not about sword-swinging, dragon dueling epics, though he could probably pull it off with great flair. His work is about legend, myth and the spaces in between, about relationships and dreams and the magical realism that also can be found in a magician's sleight-of-hand trick. He will make you shake your head in disbelief, make you say "wow!" at the turn of a phrase, and make you laugh. All the while, you and he are on the same level ground; he is no more than a friend talking to you and sharing his visions.
FRAGILE THINGS is a collection of award-winning short stories and a smattering of other less fortunate tales and poems. Its opening story, "A Study In Emerald," was a Hugo Award winner and is a brilliant combination of H.P Lovecraft's monstrous horror and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It is an astounding murder mystery with a touch of the supernatural that immediately immerses you in what Gaiman can do. But this is not all he has to offer, for he can impress you just as well --- and slightly more deeply --- with his one-page take on the end of the universe. In his story "In The End," God gives the entire world to Mankind save for one garden, and the events of Genesis play in reverse, with the Man giving the Woman an apple that she gives to a Serpent who returns it to the tree, and ultimately all is good again. It ends with a heartwarming and likewise heartbreaking line, "And after that there was nothing but silence in the Garden, save for the occasional sound of the man taking away its name from another animal."
Gaiman also includes his novella, "The Monarch of the Glen," which takes up once again with Shadow, the main character from his awe-inspiring AMERICAN GODS. It has been two years since the end of that work when we find Shadow taking a vacation in Scotland only to be wrapped up once again in the shape of things being manipulated by forces beyond mankind. It is a great teaser for what could come in the future should Gaiman return to the AMERICAN GODS world and give us more in the life of Shadow.
While all of the stories are worthy of reading, what is just as worthy is the introduction. As he did with SMOKE AND MIRRORS, Gaiman invites us into his head and along the road down which the stories are forced to walk from birth to print. His dialogue and his explanations are as much a story and wholly entertaining as any other story between the covers, and he also tells us of the great necessity for each of us to tell stories to others. "There are so many fragile things, after all," he says. "People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts."
The people are real enough to reach out and touch, and it is possible to read his words and to feel the soul that each of the characters bare, as they expose their hearts and their dreams with each page. At the same time, you can also feel Gaiman's own dreams and his own love for the craft of storytelling left within each line to thrill you, to entertain you and, most importantly, simply to share with you.
Just like Bradbury.
--- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard
A big disappointment April 27, 2007
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
Except for the two stories "Goliath" and "The Monarch of the Glen", a big disappointment. I'd expected better from the author of the excellent "Neverwhere", "Stardust", "American Gods" and "Sandman". Too many pointless or strange stories and literary experiments.
 First Foray into Gaiman January 9, 2007
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
I freely admit to buying this book based on Pratchett/Gaiman's Good Omens -- I like anything Terry Pratchett writes. Unlike Pratchett, who solidly delivers, I found this book to be unevenly jumpy, allowing for the fact that it is a collection of short stories over a period of time.
An intro of over 20 pages strikes me as a rip-off considering some of the work. Sorry, Mr. Gaiman, you sold 'em and that's certainly sufficient, any other self-interest is more than I want to know. The book is sub-titled "Short Fictions and Wonders", apparently a way to smooth over the fact that they are not all short stories, some of the 'wonders' are prose poems -- fair warning, they ain't wondrous.
An attempt at A. Conan Doyle's style, in A Study In Emerald, is not amusing nor anything except a waste of space -- Gaiman is not Doyle, and I doubt his readers spend any time wishing he were. The fantasy work is probably an acquired taste, and my taste runs to Beagle or Pratchett, both masters in the field. So, the stories, some of them better than others, seem mostly forced or too over the top.
This is maybe not his best work, but at the price of books today, I'm going to think long and hard before I venture to purchase another. A short story collection should give you at least one to mark for rereading, and this doesn't deliver.
pat chapin [...].
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
