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Tarfumes.com - Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders (P.S.)
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.92
Your Save: $ 4.03 ( 27% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780061252020
ISBN: 0061252026
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2007-10-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2007-10-02
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews:
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A mysterious circus terrifies an audience for one extraordinary performance before disappearing into the night. . . . In a Hugo Award–winning story, a great detective must solve a most unsettling royal murder in a strangely altered Victorian England. . . . Two teenage boys crash a party and meet the girls of their dreams—and nightmares. . . . These marvelous creations and more showcase the unparalleled invention and storytelling brilliance—as well as the terrifyingly dark and entertaining sense of humor—of the incomparable Neil Gaiman. By turns delightful, disturbing, and diverting, Fragile Things is a gift of literary enchantment from one of the most original writers of our time.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Free SF Reader
Comment: The longer stories here are reasonable in general, and there are some fine pieces like 'A Study in Emerald' but there are quite a few really short bits of no consequence whatsoever.
There are also several poems included in this volume.
Fragile Things : A Study in Emerald - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : October in the Chair - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of
Fragile Things : The Flints of Memory Lane - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Closing Time - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Bitter Grounds - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Other People - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Keepsakes and Treasures - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Good Boys Deserve Favors - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Strange Little Girls - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Harlequin Valentine - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : The Problem of Susan - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : How Do You Think It Feels? - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Feeders and Eaters - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Diseasemakers Croup - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : In the End - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Goliath - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Fragile Things : Somewhere Between Tulsa Oklahoma, and Louisville Kentucky - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : How to Talk to Girls at Parties - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : Sunbird - Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things : The Monarch of the Glen - Neil Gaiman
Old One vaudeville and some monstrous advertising.
4 out of 5
Monthly avatar stories that most of them don't even like.
2 out of 5
Writing supposed to be less funny, have less monsters.
3.5 out of 5
Real ghost story.
3 out of 5
Diogenes Club, inferior.
2.5 out of 5
Coffee girl presentation.
3.5 out of 5
Yeah, you'll get to like this demon whipping stuff.
3.5 out of 5
Procuring the rare boy.
3.5 out of 5
Bad music.
2.5 out of 5
Save us from the sabretooth, leatherwoman.
3 out of 5
Too many of.
3 out of 5
Heart consumer.
3 out of 5
Narnia eating out.
3.5 out of 5
Memory girl gone.
3.5 out of 5
Vampire shorts.
3 out of 5
Wrist tastes like chicken.
3 out of 5
Enlarged symptoms.
3 out of 5
Nameless Eden.
3 out of 5
Processing upgrade's rocky outlook.
4 out of 5
Scarlet search.
3 out of 5
Ordinary party and alien chicks = run away.
3.5 out of 5
"I have a presentiment of doom upon me," ..."And I fear it shall come to us with barbecue sauce."
4 out of 5
Huldersave.
3 out of 5
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Collection
Comment: If you are a fan of Gaiman, this is a brilliant collection of shorter works, varied in tone and pace, and even the lesser efforts don't overstay their welcome. Gaiman himself claims that he was unpaid for the poetry in the book, so those who aren't interested in it can skip it without shedding a tear. It was free.
On the other hand, if you are a fan of Sandman or American Gods or another specific Gaiman work, and not his ouevre as a whole, this is probably not for you. Many of these stories were written for a specific market (such as the Sherlock Holmes meets Lovecraft piece, or the Matrix story, or background material for a Tori Amos concept album, or a literary tribute to R.A. Lafferty, among others). As such, they are departures from his normal style, characters, or tone, and can be jarring to those who think of Gaiman as synonymous with Morpheus.
The genres represented run the gamut as well, so folks coming into this with hopes for flights of fantasy will be disappointed or horrified by "Goliath" and "Keepsakes and Treasures." Those looking for horror, will be bored by "The Problem of Susan" or "Sunbird." It's a mixed bag, so be prepared to change gears from one story to the next.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mish-mash of Story Ideas and Thoughts
Comment: In this collection of stories and poems by the master of the macabre, there is little that excites. Generally, Neil Gaiman is a master storyteller, and his fiction and graphic novels have garnered high praise for good reason. But, except for a few notable exceptions ("A Study in Emerald" and "Sunbird"), the tales found here are a mish-mash of ideas, incomplete thoughts and half-baked concepts. Although all the works found here have been previously published, more likely they found publication because of the name in the byline, not the high quality of the tales.
This collection is good for fans of Gaiman looking for completeness in their library, but is inadequate for readers approaching this often marvelous storyteller for the first time.
Reviewed by: John Ottinger III
Customer Rating:
Summary: ... Amazing.
Comment: I was a little sad to see the negative reviews here -- frankly, I loved this collection more than any of his books (which is certainly not to say I dislike them!) and was not only unable to stop thinking about what I had already read, but anxious to read more.
I don't agree with the thesis "stupid people are the only people that won't like this book," but many of the stories are problematic, by which I mean you have to think about them for a while to appreciate them. Many do not have clear-cut resolutions. If you prefer to have your books all wrapped up in the end -- into your life and neatly out of it, as it were -- I do not recommend this book for you. If you believe that all stories should be happy, sexless and violence free, then (apparently) this book has the power to distress you, and that can't be good either.
That said, there is really only one story that had any graphic sex, and the violence is, for the most part, not that violent, and I found none of it to be gratuitous. I enjoyed all the stories and poems (admittedly, some more than others). Although I got my copy from the public library, I can assure that I will buy it in the future. These are great stories that I will read again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Blown away
Comment: I heard the audio version first, and sometimes that affects the way I feel about a book. More often than not, for the worst. But Neil reads his own work better than anyone else I've heard. I loved everything about it, a rare happening for me. Standouts were Harlequin Heart (Titles? I only have the audio but I'm about to buy the kindle version) and the story that seems to be the groundwork for The Graveyard Book, which he mentions. Near perfection. When a story can make me cry, take me to strange, new places and touch the essence of what it means to be a human being with all its joys and sorrows, I know I am in the presence of a master.
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