“I believe we owe it to each other to tell stories. It’s as close to a credo as I have or will, I suspect, ever get.”
~Neil Gaiman, Introduction to “Locks”

With summer-like temperatures dominating our Mid-western days, it feels as if October has abandoned his chair in favor of June or July. Nevertheless we press on, embracing the spirit of autumn in our reading and our viewing. We’ve passed the half-way point in our reading of Fragile Things, but we still have several great stories to read and to discuss, including this week’s offerings.

For those of you who have not been following along, there will be spoilers in the conversation after the jump.

Continue reading Fragile Things Group Read, Week Five →

(Cave Girl, by Frank Frazetta)

Fear not, you are in the right place. Trust me, the image of the savage beauty is indeed relevant for this week’s discussion of the assigned stories for the group read of Neil Gaiman’s short story collection, Fragile Things.

Last week’s reading was my journey through the darkness, as that section of the book is among my least favorite. And yet all told there were things in 3 of the 4 selections that I really liked and not surprisingly the discussion for last week’s selections was rich and rewarding. As an avowed Neil Gaiman fan it was fun to actually explore some of his stories that just don’t do it for me and it was equally enjoyable to see how some of those stories stood out to the other readers. This joint reading experience has been a rewarding part of my September and I hope it has been for everyone else as well. And we have one more month of Gaiman short story conversations.

Life is Good.

Consider this your OSW: Obligatory Spoiler Warning.

Let’s talk short fiction.

Continue reading Fragile Things Group Read, Week Four →

I am a fan of Neil Gaiman. If you’ve been around this blog for any length of time, that much is obvious. But I am a fan of him because of his work, not a fan of his work simply because it is written by Neil Gaiman. That is an important distinction. There is (gasp!) work that Neil Gaiman has done that I am not a fan of, for one reason or another. His collaboration with Michael Reaves, Interworld, comes to mind. As do some of the short stories in his collections Angels and Visitations, Smoke and Mirrors, and this one too.

While I do not understand it when anyone says that Neil Gaiman is a “bad writer” (a position I find indefensible) I do understand completely when people say that they cannot connect with him or his stories. I understand that when I read some of his short stories that do nothing for me. I understand it even more when his short stories make me angry (you’ll have to wait for a coming week to find out about that). This week’s selections are far from my favorites. I will readily admit that in my normal re-readings of Fragile Things I often skip these altogether. I am truly hoping I am a rare exception in this and that some of you liked these and will talk them up. If not, please know that the collection does turn around. There are great stories to come. And if you did like these, don’t be shy, tell us all why that is the case.

Do I have to remind you that there might be spoilers ahead? Yes I do, because I want to be a conscientious blogger.

And here we go.

Continue reading Fragile Things Group Read, Week Three →