In California, while going to college I picked up more reading as I had to travel to get to school on a daily basis, which meant an hour on the bus. One of the things that captivated me was Neil Gaiman’s writing. I spoke about The Sandman series as being pivotal in a visual sense, but I didn’t stop myself from checking out the other portions of his writing.

So with a few bucks I bought Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman. At first I was kind of bored by the presentation, being used to the illustrations and story lines within Gaiman’s world of illusion, I had to take a moment and soak it all in, but once I started reading more and more, the book grew on me and my imagination took over whatever doubts I had about the author.

According to Amazon -

This anthology of short stories, and the occasional story poem, is vintage Neil Gaiman: quirky, sometimes very funny, often dark and disturbing. Most have been published before, but are hard to find elsewhere and cover all of Gaiman’s writing life. As Gaiman says in his introduction, “most of the stories in this book are about love in some form or another,” but not requited love. The stories in Smoke and Mirrors touch on all of Gaiman’s themes: sex, death, dreams, and the end of the world. From “Chivalry,” about the Holy Grail and where it finally ended up, to “Troll Bridge,” a very adult version of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff”; from “Bay Wolf,” a story poem that melds Beowulf and Baywatch, with interesting results, to “Murder Mysteries,” which is about a murder, but also about angels, God’s will, and Evil, these stories leave lasting impressions. Fans of Ray Bradbury’s short stories and of Gaiman’s other works will enjoy this collection. –Nona Vero .

This is not just some comic book fantasy, and if you’ve read his other books, you’ll probably expect that, like I originally did. But overall, in this book, Gaiman really stretches the craft of writing beyond measures of just a fantasy writer and offers some chilling details to themes like marriage, loss, love and so much more.

It’s definitely one of my favorite books from my college era of reading, and if you like Neil Gaiman, you’re going to love this book. It’s not a novel, so you won’t have to dedicate a long portion of your time to it, but it’s definitely worth a read.

The best part of it all is that the book is now available for cheap, if you pick it up from Amazon.com it’s like 8 bucks, well worth the price. Click Here to check that out, I recommend it. Without going into spoilers, I truly do think it’s up to par with some of the major writers that are popular right now…dare I say….even as good as Stephen King….but that’s pushing it. For more reading, I suggest American God’s by Neil Gaiman as well, now that’s a novel, my favorite novel of all time. Click Here to get your hands on that thing, I bought 2 copies in my life and even have the audio book. Well worth it.