If you read nothing else this week...

Smoke and Mirrors

by Neil Gaiman

When asked to write a book review for Felix, I found it incredibly difficult to choose what to write about. My favourite books are classics, but since coming here I’ve had little time to read anything but articles and I’m sure that most other people feel the same. As Imperial students, few of us have time to read a full length novel, which is why I’ve decided against recommending one. Smoke and Mirrors is a collection of short stories and poems that possess a subtle elegance that is often lacking in longer books. Neil Gaiman’s stories are often dark and disturbing with a hint of the occult. It’s hard to imagine that the same author writes children’s fantasy or has co-written with Terry Pratchett.

The stories in Smoke and Mirrors are reprints from anthologies, so are incredibly varied. Most are a mix of fantasy, horror and the occult, drawn together in Gaiman’s entrancing style of writing, but some, like The Goldfish Pool, are more real and vivid. Whether it’s a disturbing version of Snow White or We Can get them for You Wholesale, a sinister story about assassins who offer discounts for large orders, the book is bound to have something in it for everyone. My personal favourite is The White Road, a chilling poem about Mr Fox and the murders he committed.

In Smoke and Mirrors, Gaiman gives a glimpse of another world that is not so different from our own, where the surreal is treated as ordinary. It can be read in those few moments a student has to spare. Whether you’ll want to read them again is for you to discover, but I urge you to give them a try at least once. You may find that you like horror after all.