Neil Gaiman’s latest collection of short stories, Fragile Things, arrived on bookshelves Tuesday, September 26th and I wasted no time in rushing out to purchase my copy. Despite any good intentions I might have had, all books were laid aside while I sat at the feet of the master. Short story collections are something of an enigma. I have read a fair number of short story collections this year, and while some were fantastic from start to finish others contained stories ranging from the very good to the very average. Fragile Things occupies this latter category.

This was not really a surprise and as such was not a disappointment. Neil Gaiman’s other short story collections, Angels and Visitations and Smoke and Mirrors, were exactly the same. Having read both books in their entirety and then gone back to read only the tales that I liked (many times), I consider them both excellent books. There are some really great stories in Fragile Things. And there are stories that did absolutely nothing for me. This weird dichotomy is something I have only experienced with Gaiman’s short story collections and I believe I know the reason why.

Neil Gaiman is a bit of a cult hero among those who revere his work. He is not the most well known writer and is certainly a genre writer but as such has won numerous prestigious writing awards. He is good, there is no denying it. Very good. Great! What happens among Neil’s fandom, however, is a clamoring for whatever one can get their hands on. Neil Gaiman is a relatively young writer and is, in my opinion, not the fastest author as far as publishing books goes. However he is always working and always at work on multiple projects. In addition to short stories that get published in numerous other volumes there are snippets of stories that people request and poems that he writes and music lyrics, etc. And fans want to see this stuff, often without having to chase down every little volume that Gaiman’s work may be in. Neil Gaiman is good to us, he rewards us with collections that have a bit of everything in them. While some authors may gather together a group of their short stories to publish, weeding out the lesser works and only including those they think best, Gaiman throws it all in. As he said in this volume in regards to the poetry, the book would have been the same price without them, they are free. So there are things that I didn’t particularly find myself enamored of in this volume. I read them once and may never read them again. However, there are some really good stories in this volume that I will return to again and again for my Neil Gaiman fix. Here are some words about a few of them:

A Study in Emerald: An homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.P. Lovecraft. Reads like Sherlock Holmes with a bit of Mike Mignola sprinkled around the edges. Very good. An excellent start to this volume.

October in the Chair: The months are sitting around a campfire telling stories. October’s tale is fittingly a creepy one. I liked this one alot as well.

Hidden Chambers: Stories with the Bluebeard mythology as their foundation are one’s that I tend to like. They tend towards the murderously creepy. This is a poem in that vein and I really liked it. I enjoyed reading it over once I knew what it was about. A seemingly sweet poem with very sinister undertones.

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire: I loved this one. Having just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale and being in the process of reading Woman in White I found this tale just perfect. I wish it existed as a single volume so I could send it to everyone in the R.I.P. challenge. Funny in an understated way.

Closing Time: A ghost story. Liked it.

Bitter Grounds: Wasn’t my favorite of the stories in this collection that could be deemed ‘scary’ but I did like it well enough.

Other People: chilling. Hellishly chilling.

Good Boys Deserve Favors: A true story from Gaiman’s childhood. It is a very innocent, good hearted story that I really enjoyed reading. Nothing much happens but it is told in an anecdotal sort of way that makes you feel like you are listening to your dad telling a story about his youth.

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch: I really liked this one. Also a creepy tale. Any story that features a weird, underground carnival has to be good, right? This one is.

Harlequin Valentine: This one has appeared as a graphic novel. As such is was okay. I think it reads much better as a short story and I’m glad he included it in this collection. A bit of mythology and romance. Ever so slightly dark. Very good.

Locks: A poetic reworking of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, written for his daughter Maddy when she was two. As the father of a daughter I really liked this one. Short but touching.

Instructions: A poetic set of instructions of what to do if you’re caught in a fairy tale. I have read this one somewhere before. It reminds me of the ‘things I learned in kindergarten’ story that went around years ago. This is one I will read again and again because it conjures up images and feelings of all the fairy tales I have read as a child and adult.

Feeders and Eaters: Ugh…eerie. Tales from the Crypt eerie. I liked it. I won’t read it when I am eating.

Goliath: Another one I really enjoyed. Liked the main character. The story had a Matrix feel to it, thus I was not surprised to learn that it was written upon request after Gaiman had read the script before the film was finished. It evidently was for The Matrix website and has remained on there.

The Day the Saucers Came: A fun little weird romantic science fiction nonsensical poem.

Sunbird: Feels like a companion tale that belongs in the American Gods universe. Good.

The Monarch of the Glen: This is a novella featuring the character Shadow, two years after the events that took place in the novel American Gods. It is great and is the perfect bookend to A Study in Emerald.

There are other stories that were okay and some that did nothing for me. Those are the ones I really liked. And now a comment on one I didn’t which had a powerful effect on me:

The Problem of Susan: I have to admit that I have only read the first 4 or 5 of the Chronicles of Narnia series. I like them. I like the recent movie adaptation. Until reading this story I didn’t realize that Susan essentially misses out on going to heaven by choosing instead to focus on lipsticks and clothes and frivolous things. As I started reading this that fact really bothered me. As an adult who fully understands the allegory in Lewis’ work I understand what he was trying to say with this but I don’t like the way he went about doing it. I applaud Lewis’ for the courage to do what many authors won’t: allowing something bad to happen to a lead character. I’m not sure that I in anyway agree with the way he did it. As I was reading this story what happened to Susan was really bugging me. On top of that Neil Gaiman occasionally writes very adult short stories with sexual imagery that is dark and icky. This story had that. I didn’t like it. It made me feel bad inside. I then turned to the intro to read his explanation of why he wrote it. He found ‘the problem of Susan’ to be intensely irritating when he reread the Chronicles as an adult. As such he set out to write a story that was equally irritating from a different point of view to, as he said, point out the power of children’s literature. He succeeded, he really did. I was very irritated by the story. He is a very good author. Out of all the stories that I liked and will read again this one that I didn’t like at all has had me thinking about it and the subject matter for days. Well done, Neil. Well done.

In the end I don’t recommend this book if you have not read Gaiman. Pick up Neverwhere or Stardust. If you would rather read short stories pick up Smoke and Mirrors first. The good tales in that book are much more powerful and accessible. Though it may come across different I am not disappointed with this book. Far from it. It is Neil Gaiman after all and his worst writing is, in my opinion, often much better than many other authors. It was what I needed, more Neil Gaiman. I am anxiously awaiting the next book.

There were enough scary stories in this one that I am counting it as an R.I.P. bonus book!