Smoke and Mirrors (1998) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Benjamin Lannister: Protagonist of "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar." Texan travelling along the British Coast.
• Mrs. Whitaker: Add a description of this character.
• Talbot: Werewolf investigator in "Only The End of the World Again" and "Bay Wolf"

Quotes edit see section history

• “Once every year they forced him, sobbing and protesting, into Endless Night. ~ Nicholas Was . . .”

• “That cat, my wife had said, when he first arrived, is a person. And there was something very person like in his huge leonine face. ~ The Price”

• “Trolls can smell the rainbows, trolls can smell the stars," it whispered sadly. "Trolls can smell the dreams you dreamed before you were ever born. Come close to me and I'll eat your life." ~ Troll Bridge”

  The Troll

• “She managed a pitying look, of the kind that only people who know that books are, at best, properties on which films can be loosely based, can bestow on the rest of us. ~ The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• (Fairy tales, as G. K. Chesterton once said, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.)

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

• Stories are, in one way or another, mirrors. We use them to explain to ourselves how the world works or how it doesn’t work. Like mirrors, stories prepare us for the day to come. They distract us from the things in the darkness.

  Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers

• “Trolls can smell the rainbows, trolls can smell the stars,” it whispered sadly. “Trolls can smell the dreams you dreamed before you were ever born. Come close to me and I’ll eat your life.”

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• (When I was a child, adults would tell me not to make things up, warning me of what would happen if I did. As far as I can tell so far it seems to involve lots of foreign travel and not having to get up too early in the morning.)

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

• But I didn’t touch her. She was my dream; and if you touch a dream it vanishes, like a soap bubble.

  Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers

• My memory is a patchwork of occurrences, of discontinuous events roughly sewn together: The parts I remember, I remember precisely, whilst other sections seem to have vanished completely.

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• People talk about books that write themselves, and it’s a lie. Books don’t write themselves. It takes thought and research and backache and notes and more time and more work than you’d believe.

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• PERFECTBOUND SPECIAL FEATURE: Three stories not available in the print edition of this book EPIGRAPH But where there’s

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• I saw her chewing gum, when I was thirteen, and I fell for her like a suicide from a bridge.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

• It is good for children to find themselves facing the elements of a fairy tale—they are well equipped to deal with these.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London
• England
• Charlotte
• Hollywood
• America
• Dark
• Los Angeles
• Innsmouth
• Hall
• Nsu
• New York
• China

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Neil Gaiman (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Bram Stoker Award (Finalist, 1998: Fiction Collection)
• Geffen Award (2004: Best Translated Fantasy Book)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Authors, A-Z › ( G ) › Gaiman, Neil
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary