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Bound With These Titles
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Summary
Summary
Multiple award winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before published American Gods story, "Black Dog," written exclusively for this volume.
In this new collection, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well "Black Dog," a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.
Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghosts stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In Adventure Story--a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane--Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience A Calendar of Tales are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year--stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale The Case of Death and Honey. And Click-Clack the Rattlebag explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we're all alone in the darkness.
A sophisticated writer whose creative genius is unparalleled, Gaiman entrances with his literary alchemy, transporting us deep into the realm of imagination, where the fantastical becomes real and the everyday incandescent. Full of wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul from one of the most unique and popular literary artists of our day.
Author Notes
Neil Gaiman was born in Portchester, England on November 10, 1960. He worked as a journalist and freelance writer for a time, before deciding to try his hand at comic books. Some of his work has appeared in publications such as Time Out, The Sunday Times, Punch, and The Observer. His first comic endeavor was the graphic novel series The Sandman. The series has won every major industry award including nine Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, three Harvey Awards, and the 1991 World Fantasy Award for best short story, making it the first comic ever to win a literary award.
He writes both children and adult books. His adult books include The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which won a British National Book Awards, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel for 2014; Stardust, which won the Mythopoeic Award as best novel for adults in 1999; American Gods, which won the Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus awards; Anansi Boys; Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances; and The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction, which is a New York Times Bestseller. His children's books include The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish; Coraline, which won the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla, the BSFA, the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Bram Stoker awards; The Wolves in the Walls; Odd and the Frost Giants; The Graveyard Book, which won the Newbery Award in 2009 and The Sandman: Overture which won the 2016 Hugo Awards Best Graphic Story.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane) again delivers masterful compositions and style in his third collection. His decision to include poetry is vindicated by the concrete images in "Making a Chair" and the mournful tones of "Witch Work." Among the prose pieces are two works of stark horror: "'The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains...'" and "My Last Landlady." The experimental "ORANGE" and the collected internet project "A Calendar of Tales" represent the rewards of Gaiman's fearlessness in storytelling. He also includes shared-world tales, revisiting Sherlock Holmes in "The Case of Death and Honey" and Doctor Who in "Nothing O'Clock." In "Kether to Malkuth" Gaiman creates a new mythology with the flavor of science fiction, while "The Sleeper and the Spindle" is a delightful fusion fairytale that subverts tropes and creates a new sense of wonder. Both enthusiasts of short fiction and fans of Gaiman's longer works may approach this volume with confidence. Full of small and perfect jewel-like tales, this collection is a thrilling treasure. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gaiman here breaks his own rule of anthology structure. The 24 entries are a willy-nilly hodgepodge of contemporary horror, classic fantasy, poetry, and general imaginative musings sketched out by one of our time's most celebrated fantasy authors. For this, Gaiman asks the reader's indulgence and forgiveness in his equally meandering and captivating introduction (including perhaps one of the best and shortest of his stories). This collection will surely be absolved and thoroughly indulged in, as all but one of the included stories are previously published favorites that chill and enchant with worlds of meaning, serendipity, and intent. Black Dog is the lengthy newcomer here, taken from a director's cut of Gaiman's novel American Gods. The story caps off Gaiman's folktale-fed narratives by following a mysterious traveler through an English countryside still quietly ruled by the spirits of old religion. Those who want to greet and shake hands, or settle in for a conversational catch-up with Gaiman's delightfully dramatic minstrel's-tale-by-the-campfire style will love everything in Trigger Warning, naturally.--Francis, Chris Copyright 2015 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
EMPIRE OF COTTON: A Global History, by Sven Beckert. (Vintage, $17.95.) With gathering force in the 19th century, as plantations proliferated across the American South, the production of cotton has linked millions of people to the slave trade, fueled the Industrial Revolution and shaped the modern economy. Beckert illuminates this commodity's violent history in his study, one of the Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2015. ALL THE OLD KNIVES, by Olen Steinhauer. (Picador/Minotaur, $16.) Still brooding over a terrorist attack that occurred six years earlier, Henry Pelham, a Vienna-based C.I.A. operative, comes to California to visit a former agent (who is also a former lover). Both were working in Austria at the time of the attack, which some believe was executed with the help of someone inside the agency. Steinhauer presents all the action of this taut espionage thriller through their intimate dinner conversation. MY LIFE AS A FOREIGN COUNTRY, by Brian Turner. (Norton, $15.95.) Turner has written about his years in the Army, including deployments to Bosnia and Iraq, in two earlier poetry collections. In this lyrical and empathetic memoir, composed as a series of brief vignettes, he pairs his own wartime recollections with the imagined experiences of other veterans. THE GIRL WHO WAS SATURDAY NIGHT, by Heather O'Neill. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.) Nouschka and Nicolas are the twin children of a French Canadian singer celebrated for his quirky lyrics and heralded as an emblem of Québécois identity but who is an inept father. O'Neill's novel unfolds in gritty, bohemian corners of Montreal as the twins meet an eager filmmaker making a documentary about their family and attempt to escape their fame. THE LAGOON: How Aristotle Invented Science, by Armand Marie Leroi. (Penguin, $18.) Before heading his own school in Athens, the philosopher, whose contributions to science are often overlooked, lived on Lesbos, off the coast of modern Turkey, and was enthralled by the natural world. In this travelogue cum history, Leroi returns to the Aegean island and shows that a great deal of modern zoology and biology can be traced to Aristotle's observations and writing on the subjects. TRIGGER WARNING: Short Fictions and Disturbances, by Neil Gaiman. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $16.99.) Drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources (including Sherlock Holmes and tweets from his fans), many of Gaiman's collected tales are "lovingly steeped in established fictional worlds while artfully nudging them into unexplored territory," our reviewer, Andrew O'Hehir, wrote. BETTER THAN BEFORE: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits - to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life, by Gretchen Rubin. (Broadway, $16.) A greater awareness of habits - those powerful, unconscious behaviors that Rubin calls the "invisible architecture of daily life" - can change lives in profound ways.
Guardian Review
Around the beginning of my career I was sent guidelines on writing short fiction for one of the thinner women's weeklies. "Please," it said, "do not write the kind of story in which the person nervous about their first day at school turns out to be the teacher, or where the narrator turns out to be a cat or a dog." I was startled by this. Weren't these kinds of magazines supposed to be the last refuge of this sort of thing? But it seemed that "No Cheap Tricks" was now a decree shared by both women's weeklies and Raymond Carver, who apparently had these words written on an index card pinned above his desk. The "twist in the tale" had become unfashionable. But this hasn't always been the case, and in fact the twist, reversal or peripeteia, as it is properly known, has a rich literary history. Done properly, as Aristotle teaches us in the Poetics, it is the moment towards the end of a story where two plot elements are switched in a way that is logical but nevertheless defies expectation. The cleverest reversals are both inevitable and astonishing. One feels not cheated, but satisfied. Neil Gaiman is probably one of the best twist-writers at work today. This vivid and readable collection is full of them. In "The Thing About Cassandra" a man hears that his first girlfriend has been in touch with a friend on Facebook. The only problem is that he originally made up the girlfriend to impress his friends. And that's only the first reversal. One of the 12 "Calendar Tales", inspired by suggestions on Twitter, features a genie who emerges from a lamp to find a woman who doesn't want any wishes. "The Sleeper and the Spindle" is a feminist fairytale in which a queen sets off with her sword and a company of three dwarves (all that remain of the original seven) to rescue a sleeping beauty whose sickness is infecting everyone. The cluster of surprise reversals at the end of this story works beautifully. But even the more guessable stories twist and turn nicely. "Click Clack the Rattlebag" opens with a young boy asking his sister's boyfriend, a writer who appears to be babysitting him, to tell him a story: "I don't think it should be too scary, because then when I go up to bed, I will just be thinking about monsters the whole time. But if it isn't a little bit scary then I won't be interested." The young man struggles to find a story to tell. "Do you know any stories about Click Clack the Rattlebag?" asks the child, who then begins to tell such a story himself, as he leads the writer up the stairs. It turns out that Click-Clacks take you away and drink your insides. As you may have guessed by now, this doesn't end well for the young man, who probably should have noticed that his girlfriend doesn't have a little brother. Here, as in a few other stories, the neatness of construction takes something away from what should perhaps be a more edgy reading experience, especially given the title of the collection, a contemporary term implying content that may invoke the reader's deepest, darkest memories. The story is scary, but only "a little bit". In fact, many of the stories in this collection don't need trigger warnings at all, but could instead be labelled "suitable for all ages". This is not necessarily a bad thing. But the best stories here are the most grown-up, not because they are more gruesome but because they don't snap so neatly shut at the end. They also have twists, but less symmetrical ones. Perhaps the most haunting of these is the award-winning "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains", which tells of a dark act of revenge as two men travel in search of cursed gold. Another great success is the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Case of Death and Honey", in which Holmes not only writes his own story for a change but takes on the "crime" of death itself. Although almost all of these stories have been published before, Gaiman fans will be delighted to find a new American Gods tale, "Black Dog", set in the Peak District. Perhaps because many of them are commissions, Gaiman's short stories are not always as complex as, say, Kelly Link's, but his range is admirable and this is an impressive collection. Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr Y is published by Canongate. 352pp, Headline, pounds 18.99 To order Trigger Warning for pounds 15.19 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. - Scarlett Thomas Here, as in a few other stories, the neatness of construction takes something away from what should perhaps be a more edgy reading experience, especially given the title of the collection, a contemporary term implying content that may invoke the reader's deepest, darkest memories. The story is scary, but only "a little bit". In fact, many of the stories in this collection don't need trigger warnings at all, but could instead be labelled "suitable for all ages". This is not necessarily a bad thing. But the best stories here are the most grown-up, not because they are more gruesome but because they don't snap so neatly shut at the end. They also have twists, but less symmetrical ones. Perhaps the most haunting of these is the award-winning "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains", which tells of a dark act of revenge as two men travel in search of cursed gold. Another great success is the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Case of Death and Honey", in which Holmes not only writes his own story for a change but takes on the "crime" of death itself. Although almost all of these stories have been published before, [Neil Gaiman] fans will be delighted to find a new American Gods tale, "Black Dog", set in the Peak District. Perhaps because many of them are commissions, Gaiman's short stories are not always as complex as, say, Kelly Link's, but his range is admirable and this is an impressive collection. - Scarlett Thomas.
Kirkus Review
The third collection of short fiction from a beloved modern mythmaker. Everything that endears Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane, 2014, etc.) to his legions of fans is on display in this collection of short stories (and the occasional poem): his gift for reimagining ancient tales, his willingness to get down into the dark places, his humor. Most of these stories have been published elsewhere, except for the new American Gods story "Black Dog" (which does not disappoint), but the collection as a whole does add up to something bigger than it seems (only partly because there's a TARDIS in it). Even the weakest of these tales have something to recommend theman image, a turn of phrase, a mood. And the strongest are truly extraordinary. There's the grim implacability of "The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains," walking steadily on to its inevitable yet unexpected ending; there's the absurd Wodehouse-an charm of "And Weep, Like Alexander"; the haunting power of "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury"; and the skin-crawling, slow-building creepiness of the love letter "Feminine Endings." Sherlock Holmes is here, explaining the real reason he started keeping bees, and Sleeping Beauty, twice, and our old friend Shadow, and even David Bowie, in a way. Full of all manner of witches and monsters and things that creep in the night, this collection will thoroughly satisfy faithful fans and win new onesif there's anyone out there left unconverted. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
In this compilation, Gaiman (The Graveyard Book) brings together poems and short stories, some original and some built inside of existing fictional universes (including Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, American Gods, and others). In his typical hauntingly beautiful and well-paced style, Gaiman bewitches listeners, crafting exquisitely detailed worlds and guiding us along the unfamiliar paths of familiar archetypes. Though every narrative is different, and at times some feel slightly out of place, each holds its own in captivating listeners and nudging the boundaries of natural and supernatural realities, leaving us with questions about the worlds into which we've glimpsed. Gaiman narrates his own work, which makes it feel particularly authentic, every pause and tonal shift deliberate and meaningful; unfortunately, some sections are very quiet, requiring occasional fiddling with the volume. VERDICT Both dedicated fans and those new to Gaiman's work will delight in the unexpected twists and turns of this collection.-Jeremy Bright, Georgia State Univ. Lib., Atlanta © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.