Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil GaimanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
To me, Neil Gaiman is one of the best modern writers out there. He's certainly the most structurally sound and poetic. There's a rhythm and magic to his writing, a lyrical quality that makes even his prose feel poetic and makes everything he writes a joy to read. Yeah, you can tell I'm a big fan. I've loved his anthologies before, but this one, I hate to say it, disappointed. The problem for me this time around is that, as lyrical and poetic as Gaiman is, he's also that esoteric at times, and there were some stories or works here that I just didn't get. His fault or mine, I can't be sure. Also, with one or two exceptions, none of the stories really jumped out and grabbed me the way past Gaiman stories have. One exception is the novella at the end, Black Dog, an adventure of perhaps Gaiman's most famous non-comic character, Shadow Moon from American Gods. But even that story felt too simple too me, and a large part of my enjoyment of it came from the nostalgia factor. Perhaps I just set my sights too high this time to make anything possible other than disappointment in reality. But still, even a bad Gaiman effort is better than most author's great works, and it's good enough to net three stars.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment