Neil Gaiman let me down with Fragile Things
Written: Apr 12 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: There is a story based on American Gods
Cons: Not a single one stood out as being really good
The Bottom Line: This is the worst thing Neil Gaiman ever published.
|
|
|
| phungus's Full Review: |
I consider myself a Neil Gaiman fan and have read and enjoyed all of his books. I was, however, very disappointed with Fragile Things. This is a collection of short stories which seem to me like the literary equivalent of table scraps. Despite a few decent stories, as a whole this book was a huge let-down.
The book begins with a lengthy introduction where Gaiman tells how and why he wrote the stories found here. Several of them were written while he was in the middle of something else, just like he was bored and started doodling in words. Others were his contributions to other collections, including several that were liner notes in Tori Amos albums. My overall impression of this collection is that his publisher scrapped together everything he ever put his name to, and pushed it out just for a quick sell.
The book begins with a short story called A Study in Emerald. It won the Hugo award in 2004 for Best Short Story. This one was decent, as it put a twist on a Sherlock Holmes type story. There’s some poetry in between some of the stories, and some of it is good and some not. The next short story is called October in the Road, and it won the Locus award in 2003 for Best Short Story. It’s a weird tale about the months of the year sharing stories. It was originally written for a volume of Conjunctions that was edited by Peter Straub.
The rest of the stories tend to deal with subjects like death, sex, ghosts, and monsters. There’s even one called Goliath that is based on the movie The Matrix, and it was good if you were into the movie. I found too many of these to be anti-climactic, so much that their lack of a good ending ruined the story. Stephen King is really bad about this, and I hope it is not becoming some trend for authors to not feel obliged to give their books a proper ending.
The book ends with a novella called The Monarch of the Glen, and it is based on his best-selling book American Gods. This story is actually pretty good, though you need to be familiar with the characters in American Gods to truly enjoy it. Shadow and Jenny are back for another little tale here, and it has a little bit of action in it. This story at least gave this collection a strong ending.
I found Gaiman’s writing to be pretty good through most of this collection, but the stories themselves were mostly weak. As always, the dialogue between characters is full of wit and one-liners. I was halfway through the book before I read one that I actually liked a lot, and found myself speed-reading through the rest of it just to get it done. In the end, there wasn’t a single story which I felt stood out above the rest. It’s like getting a new CD from a band you like, and realizing none of the songs are going to be hits because they’re all kind of ‘blah’.
Neil Gaiman’s fans, myself included, are very passionate about his work. When I look inside the cover at the couple of pages of praise for this book, I can’t help but wonder if the praise is more for Gaiman than the book. Did any of them actually read this whole thing? To coin an English term, it’s rubbish. Had Fragile Things been put together by some no-name author, it probably never would have gotten published.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
phungus
|
 in Games |
 in Movies, Books |
 - Top 100 |
|
Member: William Fulks
Location: Biloxi, MS
Reviews written: 2420
Trusted by: 427 members
About Me:
My short story, When Dragons Sleep, now on Amazon - visit http://www.wfulks.com for more info.
|
|
|
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.