Fragile Things

Thirty-one stories and poems by Neil Gaiman fill this 2006 collection, subtitled Short Fictions and Wonders. Most of the pieces first ran in magazines, in anthologies and in the booklets that came with Tori Amos albums.

The mood shifts from one piece to the next, moving between horror, whimsy and melancholy. "A Study in Emerald" is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche set in a Lovecraftian world. Near it sits a story inspired by Narnia that follows Susan Pevensie, along with a retelling of Goldilocks and a vampire tarot told in verse.

"How to Talk to Girls at Parties" is the one story written new for this volume. The closing novella, "The Monarch of the Glen", returns to the world of American Gods.

Gaiman introduces the book by explaining how each piece came to be written, so the reader gets the origin of every story before or alongside the fiction. Short pieces and longer ones mix freely, and no two neighbours need share a genre. The collection won the 2007 Locus Award for Best Collection.