There were 2 poems and many great short stories in here. I think this is his best collection of stories I’ve read so far. I think I have read them all so far. Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story" – began as a comic for Oscar Zarate's collection, It's Dark in London illustrated by Warren Pleece. Contains the characters Mr. Alice and Mr. Smith, a pair of dubious men who also appeared in a Gaiman novella called The Monarch of the Glen, suggesting that this tale is a part of the American Gods universe as well. I want to thank all the editors of the various volumes in which these stories and poems first appeared, and particularly to thank Jennifer Brehl and Jane Morpeth, my editors in the U.S. and U.K., for their help and assistance and, particularly, their patience, and my literary agent, the redoubtable Merrilee Heifetz, and her gang around the world. I have not read Neil Gaiman's novels but I've heard good things about them. This collection is obviously not a good place to start reading his work. First off, the intro was irritating. The self-satisfied aren't-I-wonderful? name dropping tone was kind of overbearing, and probably put me in an extra-critical mood.

How to talk to Girls at Parties. Me esperaba más de uno de los cuentos que menciona el libro en la contratapa. No me pareció inquietante ni particularmente interesante. Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot" (1 star)- No. I just read that thing twice and just rolled my eyes.Al principio, no sabía cómo reseñar este libro. Al final, lo que decidí fue mencionar cada uno de los relatos, aunque excluyendo los poemas (porque no sé interpretar poesía, no la entiendo y honestamente, tampoco me gusta). Lo que sí debo decir es que es la primera vez que leo a Gaiman, y aunque varios relatos me gustaron bastante, la verdad es que no creo que llegue a atreverme con otro de sus libros, al menos en el corto plazo.

I may try this again another day. Maybe not, though; I'd already read/heard/seen about half the stories anyhow so I'm not sure that I really need to go through it all again.A wodwo, or wodwose, was a wild man of the woods. This was written for Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow’s anthology The Green Man. BITTER GROUNDS And then he paused. Far away in the gardens they could hear the sound of a nightingale. But this map land, confided the emperor, is still only the beginning. For even as it is being constructed, I shall already be pining for and planning my masterpiece. I was asked for a story for an anthology themed about gargoyles, and, deadline approaching, found myself feeling rather blank. The problem of Susan. Este relato se parece un poco al primero, en el sentido que el autor toma un clásico, como son las Crónicas de Narnia, a partir del cual narra una historia. En este caso, qué ocurrió con Susan, después de la muerte de su familia.

So all in all definitely a mixed bag I am sad to say. 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. I have already read "Coraline" and "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" twice this year. Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire – Gaiman makes fun of the kind of reader I was at 14. I don't take offense, it's a good story (4 stars)Other People. A pesar de su escasa extensión, creo que ha sido una de mis historias favoritas, porque creo que retrata de alguna forma "las vueltas de la vida". Sunbird" – written as a birthday present for Neil Gaiman's daughter, a story in the style of R. A. Lafferty Such marvelous creations and more, including a short story set in the world of The Matrix and others set in the worlds of gothic fiction and children's fiction, can be found in this collection, which showcases Gaiman's storytelling brilliance as well as his entertaining (and dark) sense of humor. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most unique writers of our time. Every morning, in the pale light before dawn, a hundred men would wade and swim out to the island and would carefully repair and reconstruct any feature of the landscape which had been damaged by the weather or by wild birds, or taken by the lake; and they would remove and remodel any of the imperial lands that had been damaged in actuality by floods or earthquakes or landslides, to better reflect the world as it was. 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. What should be mysterious is merely another plot for a reality TV show. The writing itself is not that good, and uses an awful lot of cliches, in a kind of casual, isn't this amusing? way. If Gaiman is trying to parody pop culture, it falls flat for me. It's just not different or new or clever enough.

I don't know if I want to talk about the stories individually, except to say that I don't think there's any that I actively dislike, though I'd have to say that Harlequin Valentine is probably my least favorite. But I do want to say that one thing I love about almost the entire collection is the interpretability of the stories. They all have layers that just work so beautifully together, and you can see them in the way that makes sense to you.October in the Chair" (5 stars)-This was a great story involving the months as we know them coming to life and telling stories.