Book Review: Fragile Things (Neil Gaiman)

There are currently only a few authors whose books I'd pick up the INSTANT I see it on the bookshelves, never mind if it means me eating roti kosong for the rest of the month - Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb, and the newest addition to the list, Neil Gaiman.

I finished Fragile Things a few days ago, so I suppose I'll just review it here. Damn, I AM getting more efficient at this Weekly-Book-Review thing, aren't I?

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Title: Fragile Things: Short Fiction & Wonders
Author: Neil Gaiman

Synopsis:
How the heck do you write a synopsis to a collection of short stories? Anyway, this is Gaiman's second book of short stories (after Smoke and Mirrors), and includes quite a good variety of short stories and poems, including ghost stories, Sci-Fi, fantasy, horror, and even Tori Amos sleeve notes...

What I liked:

• A Study in Emerald
  
• Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire
• Bitter Grounds
• Harlequin Valentine
• Locks
• The Problem of Susan
• Goliath
• Sunbird
• The Day the Saucers Came
  

What I didn't like:

• Diseasemaker's Croup

Summary:

The stories I listed in the what I like and what I didn't like sections above are my favorites and my least favorite. As you can see, there was only one 'story' in the book that I didn't really like that much (probably because it reads like an entry in a medical journal, which, actually WAS meant to be the case).

(BTW, this doesn't mean that those that I didn't mention aren't any good, but they range in the middl, between being my 'favorites' and 'least favorites').

Anyway, this is a satisfying set of stories, for me at least. The stories in here are varied enough to be interesting, but still retain that 'Gaiman' feel to it.

Piece of advice though. Try NOT to read the prologue at the start of the book before you start on the stories, because Gaiman writes introductions to each story, at times giving away the essense of the story (although not the actual plot of the story itself).

It was more fun for me to FIRST start reading the stories, and THEN going back to the prologue after each story to see what Gaiman was thinking or the circumstances behind each particular story. Got some pleasant surprises that way as well.

I have a weird habit of always trying to ration out the individual stories accordingly whenever I read a collection of short stories that I like, just so the book can kononnya last longer lah (and so all the stories don't meld together into one confused mess of different plots and characters).

Happily, I was compelled to do the same thing with Fragile Things' stories and poems as well, because I didn't want to run out of stories too soon.