Despite my overall disappointment, there were some things I liked, especially the science fictiony "Goliath" (inspired by the Matrix movies) and "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". The American Gods novella, "Monarch of the Glen", also had some good parts, which leads me to believe that the novels really must be far better. The poetry did not appeal to me, except for "Instructions". I also really enjoy Gaiman's perspective and unique way of seeing the world and everything in it. I like his ability to effortlessly maneuver his readers right into the position we need to be in for maximum effect, and when we get there, he flips everything, so we're left wondering just what happened and how we got where we are when obviously we were just on our way to somewhere else. The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch" is wonderful. Sinister and mysterious and weird. 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.

So in terms of entertainment value (and the ability to keep things fresh and interesting across pieces) this scores very highly. No two stories are the same and none really follow a particular pattern or system. The idea of grouping them under a title seems a little absurd. A few of them, though, did feel like they belonged in the same world as American Gods. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if he wrote some of them at the same time as working on his magnum-opus; there are certainly parallels. I believe we owe it to each other to tell stories. It’s as close to a credo as I have or will, I suspect, ever get. THE PROBLEM OF SUSAN Feeders and Eaters – two old acquaintances are reunited and one of them is so dramatically altered. This is the story about what happened to him. Scary, very scary! (3 stars) Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire" – gothic story published in the anthology Gothic! Good Boys Deserve Favors – inspired by a statue by Lisa Snellings-Clark of a man holding a double bass (3 stars)Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot. Por lo que entendí, este relato son fundamentalmente pequeñitas historias acerca de vampiros y otras criaturas. It was a grand plan, which would have taxed the imperial treasury to its limits to accomplish. It would have needed more men than the mind can encompass, men to map and men to measure, surveyors, census-takers, painters; it would have taken model-makers, potters, builders, and craftsmen. Six hundred professional dreamers would have been needed to reveal the nature of things hidden beneath the roots of trees, and in the deepest mountain caverns, and in the depths of the sea, for the map, to be worth anything, needed to contain both the visible empire and the invisible. 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. And then he paused. Far away in the gardens they could hear the sound of a nightingale. But this map land, confided the emperor, is still only the beginning. For even as it is being constructed, I shall already be pining for and planning my masterpiece.

October in the Chair. Creo que este relato es uno de mis favoritos. Nos cuenta una historia dentro de una historia, sin dar mucho contexto ni explicación, y con un final abierto que sólo te hace suponer lo peor, que algo horrible ocurrió, pero no lo sabes. Comentario al margen: tengo la teoría que la historia que cuenta October es su historia, él es el niño pequeño que escapa de su casa. It was some months before I could think clearly enough to write, and this was the first piece of fiction I attempted. It was like learning to walk all over again. It was written for Al Sarrantonio’s Flights, an anthology of fantasy stories. I'm counting this in for Award Winning Challenge as a couple of the stories in this collection are award winners or mentions.The problem of Susan. Este relato se parece un poco al primero, en el sentido que el autor toma un clásico, como son las Crónicas de Narnia, a partir del cual narra una historia. En este caso, qué ocurrió con Susan, después de la muerte de su familia. It is recorded that the emperor died in his sleep, and that is true, as far as it goes—although it could be remarked that his death was not entirely unassisted; and his oldest son, who became emperor in his turn, had little interest in maps or mapmaking. I may not like the whole poem or story, but I take some beautiful lines with me, and that's all I seem to need. Unless we are talking about stories/poems like "A Study in Emerald", "October in the Chair", "The Flints of Memory Lane", "Instructions" or "Other People". Those are really good.