Ratings139
Average rating3.8
From one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved storytellers of our time comes a major new collection of stories and verse "We each have our little triggers . . . things that wait for us in the dark corridors of our lives." So says Neil Gaiman in his introduction to Trigger Warning, a remarkable compendium of twenty-five stories and poems that explore the transformative power of imagination. In "Adventure Story"—a thematic companion to the #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane—Gaiman ponders death and the ways in which people take their stories with them when they die. "A Calendar of Tales" is comprised of short pieces about the months of the year—stories of pirates and March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey." Also included is "Nothing O'Clock," a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the beloved series in 2013, as well as the never-before-published "Black Dog," a haunting new tale that revisits the world of American Gods as Shadow Moon stops in at a village pub on his way back to America. Gaiman, a sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, entrances with his literary alchemy and transports us deep into an undiscovered country where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday is incandescent. Replete with wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of literary delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul.
Reviews with the most likes.
Gaiman's third collection of short fiction is, as usual, a delight. There's no over-arching theme just a collection of great stories, oddments and poetry from the last six or seven years. Gaiman has been doing this a long time now and is a master storyteller, so if you've read him before, you'll know what to expect. If you haven't, a collection like this is a great place to dip your toe in the water.
So what do we have? Gaiman has always liked to play with form, twisting well known tropes to breathe fresh life into old stories. He does that here with The Sleeper and The Spindle, which posits the question “what if the story of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty happened at the same time....?”
Elsewhere there are tributes to the works of Ray Bradbury and Jack Vance, A Calendar of Tales wher Gaiman wrote a story for each month of the year inspired by tweets, and best of all a new American Gods story featuring Shadow (if you haven't read American Gods go order it now, stop reading this and come back when you have!).
Recommended.
Not Gaiman at his best. The intros are getting way too long (we get it, you spend a lot of time on the internet) and these stories were just sub-par. I guess I just prefer his novel-length work better.
Loved some, didn't love others. The American Gods short sequel made the whole thing worth reading.
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