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    Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One: 4 Short Fictions and Wonders
    Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One: 4 Short Fictions and Wonders
    Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One: 4 Short Fictions and Wonders
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    Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One: 4 Short Fictions and Wonders

    By Neil Gaiman

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    “A prodigiously imaginative collection.”

    —New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

     

    “Dazzling tales from a master of the fantastic.”
    —Washington Post Book World

     

    Fragile Things is a sterling collection of exceptional tales from Neil Gaiman, multiple award-winning (the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Newberry, and Eisner Awards, to name just a few), #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and the groundbreaking Sandman graphic novel series. A uniquely imaginative creator of wonders whose unique storytelling genius has been acclaimed by a host of literary luminaries from Norman Mailer to Stephen King, Gaiman’s astonishing powers are on glorious displays in Fragile Things. Enter and be amazed!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 3, 2009
    ISBN9780061848698
    Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One: 4 Short Fictions and Wonders
    Author

    Neil Gaiman

    Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and multi-award winning author and creator of many beloved books, graphic novels, short stories, film, television and theatre for all ages. He is the recipient of the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. Neil has adapted many of his works to television series, including Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett) and The Sandman. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College. For a lot more about his work, please visit: https://www.neilgaiman.com/

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    Reviews for Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One

    4/5

    116 ratings133 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Definite high points and low points, but even the low points were good. Worth re-reading.
    • 3/5
      A thematic set of short stories that focuses on intimate and revealing moments. The collection is full of so many conflicting feelings, expectations, results, disturbing details, and effluence. It's Gaiman attempting to reach for something literary-- and that is always to be commended.

      3.5
    • 5/5
      Another Gaiman. I am slowly working my way through them all. I was over halfway through this book of short stories when I got the audio book and started over. There's something about the author reading his own words that makes them more meaningful. Plus, I'm a sucker for British male narrators.

      Anyways, this collection is very diverse, with poems and funny ones and mystery ones and ones I'd never read before, and everything with that little (or huge) twist I've come to expect. There are some, like "The Problem of Susan" that I'm not very happy about, but I know they will stick with me as only the best sci-fi short stories can. You know that creepy way Bradbury or Twilight Zone stories come back to haunt you every time you hear about virtual reality or fly on an airplane? Only this one is about children's books. There are some, like the novella featuring Shadow, the main character from American Gods, that are just plain good stories. They hit all the right buttons and leave you with a feeling that something amazing just happened but you missed how the magic trick happened. If I ever have a long road trip, I'm putting this back in the queue for sure.
    • 5/5
      Some excellent shorts. My favorites was shadows.
    • 4/5
      Another pick-up-put-down-pick-up-again collection of short stories.....
    • 4/5
      Love it, love it, love it.
    • 4/5
      I tend to prefer my supernatural fiction "vintage", by which I understand that it should be written before 1950 and/or in the style of the classic ghost, gothic or horror story. Nevertheless, I do enjoy the occasional foray into the "New Weird". In December 2014 I had read with pleasure China Mieville's "Looking for Jake and Other Stories". Over Christmas this year I opted for another anthology of short fiction: Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things. I can't say I know these two authors well enough to compare them but, if forced to do so, I'd say Mieville strikes me as grittier and more politically committed, his style owing as much to noir and thriller genres as to the tradition of supernatural fiction. On the other hand, Gaiman seems more fascinated by the world of faerie, folk tale and myth; by the sometimes subtle, sometimes shocking intrusion of the weird into everyday life. Another recurrent inspiration in this collection appears to be the act of "writing" and "creating" itself. Not only is the anthology preceded by an introduction in which Gaiman explains the genesis of each of the pieces, but some of the stories themselves are either *about* writing, writers and storytellers, or else reinterpret known literary works. For instance, in the opening story - "A Study in Emerald" - the worlds of Conan Doyle and Lovecraft combine as Sherlock Holmes is placed in an alternative 19th Century ruled by "Old One" Queen Victoria. It's the sort of divertissement which shouldn't work but ultimately does. "The Problem of Susan" presents a more disturbing and abstruse reinterpretation of characters from the Chronicles of Narnia. "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire" veers between parody and pastiche and features an author living in a typical candle-lit Gothic world of crumbling castles and stormy nights who is suffering from a particularly acute case of writer's block. A critic described this tale as "facetious nonsense" (which it probably is), but it is hilarious - after all, parody has always been an element of the Gothic tradition. A highlight of the collection is "October in the Chair", in which, at a story-telling reunion between the months of the year, October relates the tale of a bullied boy who befriends a ghost. A prototype for The Graveyard Book , it is touching and unsettling at the same time.In other tales we meet child zombies, haunted playrooms, beautiful aliens and magical instruments. There is a return of "Shadow" from "American Gods" in the novella "Monarch of the Glen", where the protagonist finds himself pitted against a Grendel-like monster of old. In this story there is also a cameo appearance by the repulsive "Mr Smith and Mr Alice", who also get their own story - "Keepsakes and Treasures" is violent, quite revolting but strangely fascinating.With such a varied anthology there will be entries which do not work for you. In my case, I didn't particularly like the poetry and there were stories which lost me because they seemed to lack an internal logic. Gaiman points out that supernatural tales are rarely "story-shaped", so others may actually relish the feeling of being "bewildered" by a seemingly illogical tale. I don't.I must make a mental note to venture into "New Weird" more often - possibly starting with some of Gaiman's and Mieville's full-length novels.
    • 3/5
      Didn't like too many of these short stories or poems which surprised me since I do enjoy Neil Gaimen's books.
    • 4/5
      A splendid collection from one of my authors. Will give mini-synopses/reviews of the stories.

      A Study in Emerald - Wow! I don't know if I've ever read a better short story in my life. Written for an anthology of stories where the world of Sherlock Holmes meets the world of H.P. Lovecraft, Gaiman's take gives The Ancient Ones the sanity-crumbling horror I'm used to and gives Holmes the brilliant see-everything-at-once deductive skills that we expect. A best-of-both-worlds story that's scary, thrilling, and surprising.

      The Fairy Reel -

      October in the Chair

      The Hidden Chamber

      Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire

      The Flints of Memory Lane

      Closing Time

      Going Wodwo

      Bitter Grounds

      Other People

      Keepsakes and Treasures

      Good Boys Deserve Favors

      The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch

      Strange Little Girls

      Harlequin Valentine

      Locks

      The Problem of Susan

      Instructions

      How Do You Think It Feels?

      My Life

      Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot

      Feeders and Eaters

      Diseasemaker's Croup

      In the End

      Goliath

      Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky

      How to Talk to Girls at Parties

      The Day the Saucers Came

      Sunbird

      Inventing Aladdin

      The Monarch of the Glen
    • 4/5
      A bunch of short stories and poems which concludes with a novella. I don't tend to read a lot of short fiction but have been picking at this one for quite a while. For me it was quite a mixed bag so far as quality goes but you can't argue with the quantity as there are nearly 30 entries included in this collection.. There are also introductions to each piece located in a separate section at the beginning of the book. My favourites were Monarch of the Glen (the novella which features Shadow from American Gods), Sunbird (a club set on sampling all the world's gastronomic delights), Bitter Grounds (Ghost story with voodoo element), Keepsakes and Treasures (Introduces a couple of villains who also appear in the novella) and The Hidden Chamber (possibly the creepiest poem I've ever read). Most of the rest were at least enjoyable to a certain extent even if some were instantly forgettable.
    • 4/5
      I really just love listening to Neil Gaiman read, whether I'm actually paying attention to the story or not. Short stories have never been my favorite medium, but there were several interesting ones in here, and combined with Neil's performance, I enjoyed this. My biggest problem in looking back at the list of stories is not really being able to say which ones were my favorites, because I'm not entirely sure which ones they were! lol! I'm pretty sure that Bitter Grounds was one with an Anthropology/Voodoo/Missing Person spin. Also there was another that had a Matrix-esque premise of the world you feel is real actually being a simulation that I liked quite a bit.

      I think at some point I would like to read this physically, since I retain them better when I'm reading visually than when I'm listening, but I will always listen to Neil reading, always. :)

      I'm counting this in for Award Winning Challenge as a couple of the stories in this collection are award winners or mentions.

      Study in Emerald
      short story : 2004 Hugo W
      novelette : 2004 Locus W

      The Monarch of the Glen
      novelette : 2004 Locus/2

    • 5/5
      Loved it!Proper review to follow.Why did I read it? Well, I had listened to two other books by Neil Gaiman: one being a collaboration with Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens"; and the other being the 10th anniversary edition of "American Gods", which I truly enjoyed. Given this was a selection of short stories, and prose, I thought it would be entertaining for my commute. And, so it was!What's it about? Bizarre tales, short stories, the odd poem, and, finally, a little epilogue to "American Gods". A rather odd collection, though nicely set out, which I imagine can be dipped in an out of at random (if you have the hard copy, and aren't listening to Neil Gaiman narrate them himself). Tales of mythical creatures, legends, and some snatched from fragments of folklore. Included are stories from Neil Gaiman's early writings revised, edited and included here; one is a birthday gift to his daughter; and each is a wonder tale.What did I like? Every, single story, and poem. Really, I did! This collection kept me engaged, wanting to listen to every word, and not miss a moment. Neil Gaiman is a writer of the odd, the unusual, the supernatural, the otherworlds and so his tales have twists not found in other stories, but once found in the myths of old.There is a sense of humour to be found in the works, as well. Sometimes authors forget to include this in darker tales, but life, or indeed fantasy, is not just one dimensional - or shouldn't be. Neil Gaiman incorporates the whole of life, death, and everything in between in these tales.Neil Gaiman is also rather good at narrating his own work. This author knows how to bring a story to life, and doesn't seem to falter in his delivery. It's kind of refreshing to hear an author read his own words, even if you will never hear him do so live.The audio version, provided by Audible, was clear, and without fault.What didn't I like? Nope. Can't think of anything.Would I recommend it? Oh yes! To anyone who has read Neil Gaiman's other works, or even those of Terry Pratchett. If you want to read something a little different, this is it. I'll definitely be listening again.
    • 4/5
      fantasy fiction horror anthology favorites
    • 5/5
      Fragile Things is a diverse collection of stories and poems by Neil Gaiman. Showcasing his ability to write in a wide variety of voices, genres and styles, one doesn't get bored with this collection. There were several stories and poems here that made an impression on me:A Study in Emerald is a mash-up of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. In Gaiman's hands it works extraordinarily well - he even throws in some great twists. This is a very strong story, one of my favourites.October in the Chair features the months of the year telling stories. October's story is about a little boy who is picked on by his older brothers and runs away from home, only to befriend a ghost. This is a theme that has appeared in Gaiman's other work - The Graveyard Book, and one of the Sandman stories. This is a great tale, though sad.The Hidden Chamber is a poem about a modern Bluebeard who's empty house still holds dark secrets.Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire is a very funny story about a frustrated writer. He is determined to write great, literary fiction that reflects life, but the world he lives in seems to be straight out of a supernatural Gothic horror story. His secret passion is for fantasy fiction - stories that tell of such escapist fantasies as stockbrokers, taxis and soap commercials. Closing Time is a story that gives me the chills every time I read it. I first read it several years ago and it has stuck stubbornly in my head ever since. Four little boys find an abandoned playhouse with a demonic imp knocker . . . Bitter Grounds starts off as the story of a man trying to escape his life. He assumes the life of an anthropology professor on his way to a convention in New Orleans, to present his paper on the Haitian coffee girls - who may have been Voodoo zombies. Keepsakes and Treasures is a disturbing story, to say the least, but it certainly leaves an impression. Here, Gaiman writes in the voice of a thoroughly unlikeable character - a mobster and pedophile who works for a very, very rich man known as "Mr. Alice." Mr. Alice wants the most beautiful man in the world for his lover - a mythical being called the "Treasure of the Shahinai." The Shahinai themselves are a legendary race who's only evidence for existence is a few lines in ancient writings, but what Mr. Alice wants, he gets. I wouldn't say this is one of my favourite stories, but the imagery and the mythology in it stuck in my head.The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch features a mysterious and occult circus. A group of friends go there, trying to entertain a stern and unfriendly guest, but the show becomes steadily more fantastic and bizarre. Not everyone in their group goes home after the show is done.In Harlequin's Valentine the Harlequin pines for his Columbine and nails his bleeding heart to Missy's door, but she turns the tables on him in a surprising and satisfying way.The Problem of Susan - another of Gaiman's short stories that stuck in my head very strongly for years after the first time I read it - The Problem of Susan revisits C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia from an adult perspective. For those who don't know/remember, in the final Narnia book, The Last Battle, the character Susan is excluded from the 'happily-ever-after' in Narnia that all the other young heroes get to enjoy. Gaiman has the guts to write a dark!Aslan - an amazing and powerful story. Goliath was originally written as a companion for the first Matrix movie, but regardless of whether you have seen the movie or not, this is a very good science fiction story. I thought Gaiman did an amazing job weaving in the world of the Matrix films and bringing them to life. The collection closes with a novella-length sequel to American Gods, titled The Monarch of the Glen which features Shadow traveling in Scotland where he is hired by a mysterious little man to act as a bouncer for a strange private party.
    • 4/5
      Another great collection of short stories from Neil Gaiman. I was a bit underwhelmed by "The Problem with Susan," possibly just because I've heard it praised so highly, but even average Gaiman is beautifully crafted.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book, though not as much as Smoke & Mirrors. It was interesting to read the history of how each story had been conceived (or at least, for what purpose it was written).The stories were all of good quality, but none really stood out.Recommended for fans of Neil Gaiman.
    • 4/5
      A fantastic set of short stories by Neil Gaiman. Many of the stories have been published in the past, but there are some that were written long ago but never published. Majority of them have a horror or spooky theme. Many of them I loved and would want to read more, some are satisfying, and some are mostly enjoyable. I don't think any of the stories are bad. If you are fan of Neil Gaiman, then this is definitely a collection to check out.
    • 4/5
      I don't think I have read anything by this author that I didn't thoroughly enjoy. If you've never read Neil Gaiman and you want to meet this talented story teller...then these short stories are a perfect way to go. You'll find these little jewels dark and magnificently creepy...but easy and quick reads. There are a few pieces that are on the weak side...but that's okay, as there is plenty to pick and choose from here.
    • 4/5
      Overall I enjoyed it, but some stories were too short and others were really creepy. The story of Shadow at the end was really good.
    • 3/5
      The Shadow story was my favorite part of this collection.
    • 4/5
      I don't normally like short stories, but this is the exception. Each is exquisitely crafted and most are disquieting. He is a master of his craft.
    • 4/5
      In short, this is another great installment from Neil Gaiman. Some of the stories blew me over (A Study In Emerald) and others were forgettable. But the entire time, I was lost in the world of Neil Gaiman's imagination (which has no competition). This story collection is worth picking up just for the American Gods story featuring Shadow.
    • 4/5
      A bit of a mixed bag; some of the stories didn’t really do it for me - mostly these are because this isn’t my usual genre and I therefore didn’t get some of the references; the stories linked to Tori Amos’ albums or tours missed the mark for me too, because hers isn’t my kind of music. But on balance, the good stories are superb. I loved The Monarch of The Glen, the American Gods novella that rounds off this collections, and while I’m not in general a huge fan of poetry, the poems in this collection are delightful.
    • 5/5
      These stories are wonderful flights of fancy but what gets me is how very 'complete' they are. There is a meat, a complexity, that usually only comes from a skillful telling of a true story. There's no excess backstory but the structure of the telling shows so much more than the words themselves express. Wonderful.
    • 3/5
      A very enjoyable read, except for two of the stories which I found rather distasteful. An Audible book which was read very capably by the author.
    • 4/5
      Oshit! I didn't even know this existed 'til I was wikisurfing and came across a reference to The Monarch of the Glen! Sealed the deal rather quickly.
    • 4/5
      Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (short stories) - some better than others from good to very good

      Ah, it seemed such a good idea when I was wandering round Penicuik Library: two books by two of my favourite authors. Only when I got home did I realise that both were Short Stories. Now I like short stories, but you can't sit and read them continuously, you need to read a novel for that. So, this took me some time to finish.

      As you would expect with Neil Gaiman, each of the stories was quirky and interesting, some appealed more than others, all were worth reading. Of course, all lacked depth/substance because some of them were only a few pages long. I particularly enjoyed the return of Shadow from American Gods: it was nice to see how he progressed post novel! It was also one of the longer stories and therefore had time to develop. In fact I think the ones I enjoyed the most were the longer stories for that very reason. Having said that, I did enjoy the poems.

      In general, this is one of the collections that proves Pauline's dislike of the genre. some interesting ideas, but not enough development to really capture the imagination.
    • 4/5
      I love short fiction and I love Neil Gaiman. What an unbeatable combination this book provides.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable collection, although a number of the pieces aren't really stories, just atmospheric literary pieces. I most enjoyed "Feeders and Eaters", "Goliath", and "How to Talk to Girls at Parties"
    • 4/5
      Excellent collection, though I wish that the American Gods novella had come first. It's my little OCD that I have to read everything in order. I also enjoyed the explinations at the beginning of how each story or poem came to be. "The Problem of Susan" spurred me on to re-read the entire Narnia series, though I'm already so irritated I don't know if I'll make it. (See review on The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)

    Book preview

    Selections from Fragile Things, Volume One - Neil Gaiman

    Selections from Fragile Things

    Volume 1

    Neil Gaiman

    For Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison,

    and the late Robert Sheckley,

    masters of the craft

    Contents

    Introduction

    Mapmaker

    A Study in Emerald

    Fairy Reel

    October in the Chair

    About the Author

    Other Books by Neil Gaiman

    Credits

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    INTRODUCTION

    I think…that I would rather recollect a life misspent on fragile things than spent avoiding moral debt. The words turned up in a dream and I wrote them down upon waking, uncertain what they meant or to whom they applied.

    My original plan for this book of tales and imaginings, some eight years ago, was to create a short story collection that I would call These People Ought to Know Who We Are and Tell That We Were Here, after a word balloon in a panel from a Little Nemo Sunday page (you can now find a beautiful color reproduction of the page in Art Spiegelman’s book In the Shadow of No Towers), and every story would be told by one of a variety of dodgy and unreliable narrators as each explained their life, told us who they were and that, once, they too were here. A dozen people, a dozen stories. That was the idea; and then real life came along and spoiled it, as I began to write the short stories you’ll find in here, and they took on the form they needed to be told in, and while some were told in the first person and were slices of lives, others simply weren’t. One story refused to take shape until I gave it to the months of the year to tell, while another did small, efficient things with identity that meant it had to be told in the third person.

    Eventually I began to gather together the material of this book, puzzling over what I should call it now that the previous title seemed no longer to apply. It was then that the One Ring Zero CD As Smart as We Are arrived, and I heard them sing the lines I had brought back from a dream, and I wondered just what I had meant by fragile things.

    It seemed like a fine title for a book of short stories. There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.

    A STUDY IN EMERALD

    This was written for the anthology my friend Michael Reaves edited with John Pelan, Shadows Over Baker Street. The brief from Michael was I want a story in which Sherlock Holmes meets the world of H. P. Lovecraft. I agreed to write a story but suspected there was something deeply unpromising about the setup: the world of Sherlock Holmes is so utterly rational, after all, celebrating solutions, while Lovecraft’s fictional creations were deeply, utterly irrational, and mysteries were vital to keep humanity sane. If I was going to tell a story that combined both elements there had to be an interesting way to do it that played fair with both Lovecraft and with the creations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

    As a boy I had loved Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton stories, in which dozens of characters from fiction were incorporated into one coherent world, and I had greatly enjoyed watching my friends Kim Newman and Alan Moore build their own Wold Newton–descended worlds in the Anno Dracula sequence and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, respectively. It looked like fun. I wondered if I could try something like that.

    The ingredients of the story I had in the back of my head combined in ways that were better than I had hoped when I began. (Writing’s a lot like cooking. Sometimes the cake won’t rise, no matter what you do, and every now and again the cake tastes better than you ever could have dreamed it would.)

    A Study in Emerald won the Hugo Award in August 2004 as Best Short Story, something that still makes me intensely proud. It also played its part in my finding myself, the following year, mysteriously inducted into the Baker Street Irregulars.

    THE FAIRY REEL

    Not much of a poem, really, but enormous fun to read aloud.

    OCTOBER IN THE CHAIR

    Written for Peter Straub, for the remarkable volume of Conjunctions that he guest-edited. It began some years earlier, at a convention in Madison, Wisconsin, at which Harlan Ellison had asked me to collaborate with him on a short story. We were placed inside a rope barrier, Harlan at his typewriter, me at my laptop. But before we could start the short story, Harlan had an introduction to finish, so while he finished his introduction I started this story and showed it to him. Nope. It reads like a Neil Gaiman story, he said. (So I put it aside and started another story, which Harlan and I have now been collaborating on ever since. Bizarrely, whenever we get together and work on it, it gets shorter.) So I had part of a story sitting on my hard drive. Peter invited me into Conjunctions a couple of years later. I wanted to write a story about a dead boy and a living one, as a sort of dry run for a book for children I had decided to write (it’s called The Graveyard Book, and I am writing it right now). It took me a little while to figure out how the story worked, and when it was done, I dedicated it to Ray Bradbury, who would have written it much better than I did.

    It won the 2003 Locus Award for Best Short Story.

    THE HIDDEN CHAMBER

    Began with a request from two editors, the Nancys Kilpatrick and Holder, to write something gothic for their anthology, Outsiders. It seems to me that

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