Fragile Things // Neil Gaiman {Audiobook}

Why I'm reading
Neil Gaiman is fantastic.

Where I got the book
Audiobook from Greenwich. Again.

So how was it?

A collection of short stories and poetry featuring Gaiman’s unique mixture of spooky, creepy, morbid, snarky, dark horror. Also includes lots a little tidbits of poetry interspersed between the chapters, and introductions/context in the foreword. The audiobook is read by Gaiman as well -- he’s brilliant.

The Mapmaker 
I wasn’t really sure about this one. It’s the story of a Chinese emperor who creates a miniature map of China in his garden. It’s extremely accurate and a huge drain of resources; then he dies, and the map is abandoned and grows over. Something about transience, maybe, and the whims of people in power.

A Study in Emerald 
Oh. my. god. Oh my god. I can’t even. This is a retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet within the Cthulhu universe, where the ruling class consists of Lovecraftian monsters. That’s right: Gaiman wrote crossover fanfiction, and it is fantastic. Sent me into mental cascade failure by the end. I made Alan listen to it, it was so good. Read it here!

October in the Chair 
The seasons tell stories around the campfire; October tells an oddly peaceful horror story about a young runaway boy playing in a haunted graveyard. The framing (i.e. the seasons) was more memorable than the individual stories. There was a moment where the ghost’s story reminded me of Bradbury’s "Yes, We'll Gather at the River" -- sure enough, it’s dedicated to him.

Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire 
An author struggles to write realistic fiction, in a world where elaborate Gothic horror constitutes ‘realistic.’ A fun little turn-up of expectations.

The Flints of Memory Lane 
A tiny little story where the author -- like several of these, I’m not entirely sure if it’s really Gaiman, a fictional Gaiman, or just an arbitrary fictional author -- encounters a chilling gypsy woman. There’s no real backstory or follow-up, and that seems to be the point; some things are just unexplained and creepy.

Closing Time 
A few pub (club) goers tell ghost stories before closing up shop for the night. The main ghost story follows a young boy who falls in with three slightly older and more delinquent boys; they find a creepy old playhouse, and the older boys disappear inside. Turns out the youngest of the three is in the club. Nothing is really resolved. I’m not sure if it’s an allegory for loss of innocence, child abuse, or just the scattershot nature of stories.

Bitter Grounds 
A man drops his life and picks up another one at random, following where it leads, until he ends up at an anthropology conference in New Orleans and … something something something zombies? It’s a rambling story that actually makes sense as you read, but doesn’t have a cohesive plot.

Other People 
A man is tortured until he understands why he deserves to be tortured. Creepy and sad, although it’s hard to feel one way or the other about the main character without knowing why he deserves torture.

Keepsakes and Treasures: A Love Story 
A story about a (psychopathic?) young orphan overcoming his terrible upbringing, meeting the mysterious and insanely wealthy Mr. Alice, and becoming his devoted right-hand man. Surprisingly nasty; disturbingly satisfying in a way that’s seriously Not Good. No, despite my vocabulary, this is nothing like Sherlock!

Good Boys Deserve Favors 
Strangely endearing, I can’t really call this one ‘horror.’ It’s the story of a boy who takes up playing the double bass, although he has no particular passion for it -- and has one spontaneous moment of connection with the instrument. There wasn’t anything about this story that really stood out, but I liked the sense of having one perfect in-the-moment experience.

The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch 
The narrator is invited to entertain his friends’ standoffish acquaintance; they all go to a really weird circus performance. Well written and entertaining (of course) but I didn’t really connect with this one.

Harlequin Valentine
I like Harlequin type characters (incidentally, Harley Quinn was my Halloween costume!) so I enjoyed this quasi-mythical take on the character/archetype of Italian theater. The story is sad if you empathize with the male main character, but delightful and fun if you consider Harlequin the main character -- exactly the kind of dark humor you want from a Harlequin. And his seamless transition into real life was so cool.

The Problem of Susan 
Another sort-of-fanfiction, this time in the Narnia universe. Not being familiar with Narnia, the source of her turmoil isn’t quite clear to me -- but I always appreciate fanfiction that goes for a darker, realistic, more complicated interpretation of simple/idealistic stories.

Instructions 
A poem with instructions on what to do if you find yourself in a fairy tale. Similar to The Evil Overlord List.

How Do You Think It Feels? 
A weird little story about a guy who cheats, falls in love with his young mistress, gets his heart broken… and makes a gross little stone demon? I didn’t connect with this one at all. Also, holy shit, this was porny! I mean, hey, I regularly listen to worse podfic, but Overdrive occasionally plays snippets before switching over to headphones, and I was listening to this at work D:

Feeders and Eaters 
A weird not-quite-zombie story with this undercurrent of unhealthy compulsion. It doesn’t quite make sense -- shouldn’t there be a more straightforward way to eat? -- but somehow that makes it creepier.

In the End 
Genesis in reverse; the last book of the Bible. Weird.

Goliath 
A little side story set in the Matrix universe, following one human as the war causes glitches in the Matrix. I loved the experience of a mostly regular human within a glitching Matrix!

Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky 
A circular, dizzy adventure that feels like something between heatstroke and time travel.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties 
Two teenage boys -- your typical extrovert and introvert -- wander into a party full of alien tourists, looking to hit on girls. Apparently this is going to be a movie! I don’t think it has enough plot to be a movie, but John Cameron Mitchell is directing, so it can’t not be great.

The Day the Saucers Came 
I’ve heard this one before; it’s cute. As the world falls into elaborate and redundant ruin, the author is preoccupied with his love life.

Sunbird 
The gastronomical adventures of the Epicurean Society, an ages-long society dedicated to eating everything you could possibly eat. They’ve run out of new things to try, when one of the older members suggests the mysterious sunbird in Egypt. As fanciful as it was, this one felt weirdly reassuring.

Also, I couldn’t help but picture the character Methos from Highlander.

Inventing Aladdin 
The inner thoughts of Scheherazade -- the “author” of stories like Aladdin and Arabian Nights -- as she invents new passages every night so her sultan husband won’t behead her. Exactly as I’ve always pictured her; what an awful situation.

The Monarch of the Glen
A crazy, blurry take on Norse? pagan? mythology, (apparently) part of his American Gods novel. It follows Shadow, a reincarnation of a Norse hero, as he wanders into a small town. He ends up playing bodyguard -- and then the entertainment -- at a strange pagan party.

Dirk Gently // Douglas Adams

First of all: I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB! Signed the offer letter today, and I'm handing in my resignation letter tomorrow. 

The pros are... it's in a library (cataloging). It's a big library. I'll be making just about the same amount of money, maybe a teensy bit less depending on if I get 18 or 19 hours. And I'll only be working three days a week! And best of all, I'm leaving my secretarial job that I've had for five years. It's sad, but it's really, really, really time to go.

The cons... It's in a library... an hour and twenty minutes from where I live. Yeah. That's gonna be fun.

Why I'm reading
Everyone knows Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and if you don't, you should). I've read them a few times. But I've never read anything else by Douglas Adams! This must be rectified.

Where I got the book
eBook format, from... places.

Expectations
Great writing, quirky humor, randomness. Douglas Adams! Retrospectively, I was expecting a much more likeable, sexy detective Dirk Gently...

So how was it?

Dirk Gently actually comes in three books: Holistic Detective Agency, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, and The Salmon of Doubt. {Err... sort of.} The books loosely follow the private ("holistic") detective Dirk Gently, but honestly he's just one of a group of characters. That's the great thing about Douglas Adams: you don't get a story resolving around one heroic main character; everyone is the protagonist in their own personal story. I can't even explain what the plot of these books. They're complicated and full of coincidence, and eventually resolve themselves into a story, if not necessarily a plot.

They're also sci-fi without trying to shove the sci-fi down your throat. That was probably the biggest difference between this series and the Hitchhiker series... err... not that Hitchhiker really shoves anything down your throat, it's just much more sci-fi oriented. Because the Dirk Gently books take place entirely on Earth, you get to experience Adams' writing style in a more mundane setting. Of course, I don't mean to suggest that Hitchhiker's shoves the sci-fi down your throat, either; it can't help being set in space.

Recommendation
Douglas Adams is required reading for fans of sci-fi, but you might want to start with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy first. Witty, intelligent writing like Terry Pratchett, Isaaic Azimov, and Neil Gaiman. According to Wikipedia the Dirk Gently character began with Doctor Who serials written by Adams, which -- hello -- yes! Great for fans of Doctor Who.

Feels
Relaxing, with a teeny tiny hint of gentle mind-blowing.

Favorites
The writing, of course. In terms of the individual books, I have to say I enjoyed the first one much more than the second. My favorite character was absolutely the Electric Monk.

Least favorites
I didn't find the worlds or characters as engaging as Hitchhiker's, but this is a "weakness as strength," since it showcases his fantastic writing style.

Writing style
FanTAStic. I'm not even good enough to describe how good it is. Every once in a while he gives you these brilliant gems that are strange, witty, a little cheesy, out there, and absolutely perfect.

The Sandman // Niel Gaiman

Illustrated by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, Michael Zulli, Todd Klein (lettering), Dave McKean (covers)

Where I got the book
My local library has copies of all the bound collections!

Why I’m reading
Another one of those “I’ll get around to reading it eventually” books. I finally decided to give it a go after I saw Boyhood with a friend, and we got to talking about manga and graphic novels. We also talked about a manga called The Gamer that I'm following now. He specifically told me about one small storyline that sounded awesome: a guy in a bar is bragging that death is for suckers and he’s having none of it; Dream and Death decide it would be fun to go ahead and give him immortality. Dream meets up with him every hundred or so years, and eventually people notice and start thinking they’re some sort of mythical conspiracy. In retrospect, I think my friend made it out to be more ‘hilarious hijinks’ than it actually was.

Expectations
90s goth sensibilities, lots of eyeliner, hijinks and messing around with mortals.

So how was it?

First of all, I may have been hopped up on Vicodin for the first few books. I powered through them in a day and a half after getting my wisdom teeth taken out. I’ve eaten mostly baby food and spaghetti-os for the last week. Fun times.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, even though it was less “fun” than I was expecting. I was worried it would be over-dramatic and full of dull tropes, which it wasn’t. I should trust Gaiman at this point, I don’t know what I was thinking.

The graphic novels focus on Dream, the sandman, who is one of seven entities called the Endless. The other six are his family: Desire, Delirium, Despair, Death, Destiny, and Destruction… wow, I just realized they all started with a “D.” They exist as anthropomorphic representations of patterns or concepts in the human psyche. Dream isn’t just involved with sleeping dreams; hopes, creativity, waking dreams, etc., are also his jurisdiction.

The story follows Dream’s capture and escape from a sorcerer, righting his past wrongs, searching for his brother, and defending the dream world. His siblings are major characters, along with his servants and several humans. It’s also a story about stories, with all sorts of interwoven side characters and side stories; sometimes you’ll go an entire chapter barely seeing Dream or one of the other Endless.

The artwork is great: creative, imaginative, without getting to “comicbooky.” Dream is so much 90s Trent Reznor it’s not even funny. With maybe a dash of Alan Rickman for flair. It threw me a little that the artwork changes depending on the story, but once I noticed it was happening, I loved it. It’s very subtle. Dream’s clothes were probably the coolest, especially his cape; not sure how I felt about his helm, it was a little too sci-fi buggy.

Recommendation
For fans of mythology, traditional Gothic and Romantic literature. 

Feels
Somber and introspective, but not depressing. Loving. Sometimes funny.

Favorites
It’s the family dynamic between the Endless that really makes the story, especially Dream’s relationship with Death, Delirium, and Destruction. The characters are anthropomorphic concepts whose behavior is based on what they represent; but at the same time, it’s a very real family dynamic, not some attempt at philosophizing. Gaiman also gets really deep into itty bitty side characters, making them just as interesting and real as the main characters.

In terms of actual characters, I didn’t fixate on just one, which is unusual for me. I loved Dream, but Delirium, Death, Lucien (the librarian!) and Fiddler’s Green were also favorites. Matthew the crow ended up being a surprisingly touching character, as did Despair.

Least favorites
I wouldn’t say that there was anything missing, but I wanted to see the main character, Dream, go wild at least once. The artwork was fantastic, and the conceptualization of Dream’s powers were so imaginative and cool, and we do see him using it in a lot of creative ways. But… I don’t know, I wish there was a chapter or two where we could just see him create. Dream felt a little fenced in, which is entirely keeping with his character, but seeing him let go for a while could have created contrast and would have been satisfying for me as a reader. Basically, I think it could have benefited from a few more artwork-heavy pages with swirly capes.

For characters, there were a whole bunch that I didn’t necessarily connect with, but that’s fine. The only one that was actually a little disappointing was Desire; I felt like we don’t get much insight into the character or the concept, even though s/he gets a lot of screen time. Despair felt deeper, despite having much less screen time and sort of boring powers.

Writing style
Subtle, very subtle. There was a lot left unsaid, lots of little details, intertwining plots, and the story never spoon-fed you meanings or feelings.

Related reading

• William Shakespeare is actually a side character; Dream commissions his plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. The folklore fairies Titania and Auberon are characters.
• The Sandman is one of only a few graphic novels to make it onto the New York Times Best Seller list, along with Maus, Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns.
• Several other DC comic book characters appear, including John Constantine, Batman, and several Justice League characters.