To prove it, here are my personal top five from this collection, presented in the order that they appear, using memories that are fast approaching three years of age. I also thought the poems were generally better than those in Fragile Things, even though that collection has the poem Instructions, which is my favorite of all Neil's poems. I don't know that it has the highest concentration of great stories, but it was by far the most consistent, with none of the stories being bad or forgettable. I think this is one of the most even collections I've read. While looking back through the various short story collections I've read, I realized I hadn't wrote any sort of review for this one, even though I did write a review for Neil's second collection, Fragile Things. That sort of cleverness suckers me in every time. A tip to anyone who is in the habit of skipping book introductions.Gaiman actually hides a story within the introduction of this book as a payoff to those who religiously read the introduction. a brilliant, extremely funny look into the mind of an elderly woman who has found the Holy Grail in a secondhand store and think it's a perfect doo-dad for her mantel, never mind that Arthurian knight who keeps hounding her for it. Some of the samplings that I really enjoyed were.'Snow, Glass, Apples'.this is not your grandmother's Snow White, and Gaiman himself states that he hopes the reader will not read the original fairy tale the same way ever again.

he writes magic.stories that wrap you up in what your parents told you for years was impossible or unreal.

Neil Gaiman doesn't write horror stories.

In these stories, Gaiman displays the power, wit, insight and outrageous originality that has made him one of the most unique literary artists of our day. Miraculous inventions and unforgettable characters inhabit these pages: an elderly widow who finds the Holy Grail in a second-hand store.a frightened little boy who bargains for his life with a troll living under a bridge by the railroad tracks.a stray cat who battles nightly against a recurring evil that threatens his unsuspecting adoptive family.

Now in this new collection of stories-several of which have never before appeared in print and more than half that have never been collected-that will dazzle the senses and haunt the imagination. The distinctive storytelling genius of Neil Gaiman has been acclaimed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King.

Smoke and mirrors gaiman book