Stories, Neil Gaiman informs in the introduction, are fragile things made up of 26 letters (more if you want to use phonetic symbols), ink and paper. You think you know all there is to know about her immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is wrong. A Locus Award winning collection of short stories and poetry that includes the Sherlock Holmes pastiche "A Study In Emerald". I first read Fragile Things back in my first year of university, after which I promptly lent it to a friend, who gave it back to me three or four years later—as can sometimes happen when I lend out books. I like how human professor Hastings is when she talks about tragedy and how is clashes with Brenda's insistence in believing that the author has moral authority in the world he created.

Some of us claim that he was a messiah, and some think that he was just a man with very special powers.Sunbird" (4 stars)- I liked the whole thing about this elusive eating club getting their just desserts. They all have layers that just work so beautifully together, and you can see them in the way that makes sense to you.

Gaiman just has such a special way of putting words on paper, it’s like he’s drawing in my mind instead of writing a story and I absolutely love that about his writing style. I had my doubts at first on whether I should read it, considering I have yet to read American Gods and might inadvertently run into spoilers, but threw caution into the wind, anyway. Yet if you do a true analysis I think you'll notice that the grown up Lucy does go to Narnia in the end. A Study in Emerald' is perhaps one of the most enjoyable stories, a riff on Sherlock Holmes solving a crime for the alien royalty, told in traditional Doyle style. The Flints of Memory Lane – a real life ghost story has no resolution I'm not happy that a Romani woman is again presented as someone people should be afraid of.

In a novella set two years after the events of American Gods, Shadow pays a visit to an ancient Scottish mansion, and finds himself trapped in a game of murder and monsters. Bitter Grounds", "How to Talk to Girls at Parties", "Keepsakes and Treasures", and "Harlequin Valentine" were all favorites too.

The Problem of Susan" (5 stars)- Disturbing as anything, but it does give a different perspective as what became of Susan Pevensie and why she turned her back on all things Narnia. There were tricks we did with eggs, as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load-bearing marble halls; while the beat of the wings of a butterfly in the right place, we are told, can create a hurricane across an ocean. More recently, although I was happily buried in a pile of Christmas reading, I purchased his second collection of short fictions, Fragile Things, to revisit this infectious voice and break away from heavier reading into his eerie landscapes. Gaiman stated that the books we read in our childhood always reside in our hearts and help shape who we are, and also enjoying fiction at a young age helps ensure we continue to pursue literature throughout our lives. This also allows the author to add a touch of autobiography, as is the case in Closing Time, where he admits that more of the story is ripped from reality than he would like to admit.The Problem of Susan briefly discusses a history of children’s fiction, moving from books where children were just miniature adults to ones that are more ‘pure’ and ‘sanctimonious’, and dealt with issues that befall children in the way they perceive and react to them. Maybe the real world has made me too cynical or jaded, but what is meant to be scary or sinister seems here to be instead pathetic and old. Here's what I think: Gaiman is successful because he is popular and slightly pushes boundaries in a currently fashionable, ie. Also, Gaiman is so brilliant and creative but he's also sometimes gruesome and occasionally really off-putting.

I have loved everything else that I have read of Neil Gaiman's though I did only find Good Omens to be okay/good and have no intention of re-reading it. As with all short story collections (especially inconsistent ones) there are good stories and then there are bad stories often involved.A few of the stories can be shrugged off as well, but do not be discouraged as there is an abundance of juicy tales. Gaiman seems to admire science fiction, horror, and fantasy, but his attempts to emulate them failed to engage me. Doesn't let me get too comfortable in Neil's work, because there's such a huge range of it that you never know which way he'll go next. October in the Chair' has an interesting concept at it's base and ends up being a story within a story, the source of The Graveyard Book.