Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

Why would fans of Neil Gaiman want another compilation? Read it for the forward by Marlon James, another fan of Gaiman, who eloquently expresses why Gaiman's work is so important, and how it's not just for us "maladjusted misfits".

A good recommendation for people who liked the series Good Omens or American Gods and are wondering what else this dude has done.

Audiobook is excellent, and I firmly believe any Gaiman novel is better when the author narrates it. He's a wonderful writer, but an amazing storyteller.

A wonderful Neil selection and overview, as per usual! Neil is an auto-read for me, so I was pleased when this showed up on Netgalley. Thank you!

As someone who loves Neil Gaiman's work, I was pleased to see such a great collection in one book. It is a collection of 52 works, including excerpts from five of his novels. It was obviously disappointing that it was just excerpts included, but I understand that there has to be a limitation. It is a great recommendation for someone who has read some Neil Gaiman, but would like to read more of his work and can sample it this way.

Neil Gaiman's writing is always a delight. The only improvement on the written work is an audiobook read by the author.

It's strange. I’ve bought every Neil Gaiman short story collection over the years. And yet many of these feel brand new to me, as if I’m reading them for the first time.

Part of that may be that I've yet to reread any of those books. So, if I’ve read any given story more than once, it's because I’ve encountered it more than once. In some cases, that's because I’ve read a particular various authors anthology--Legends II, for example. In others, it's because I’ve read the graphic novel adaptation. There have certainly been a lot of those over the years …

(Aside: Taking a peek at my Neil Gaiman books on the shelf, I notice one particular short story collection--or at least, that's what I recall it to be--that isn't listed among his collections on the Also by Neil Gaiman page: Angels and Visitations. Odd. I wonder why that is?)

Part of that is simply Neil’s gift for writing. His work is so irresistible and compelling that it feels fresh and new every time.

There's also a sense of … I don't know … inevitability? Some of the stories--particularly the fairytale retellings--feel more discovered than written. It's as if they were always there, just waiting for someone with just the right cast of mind to come along and suss them out.

Gaiman’s use of language and tone often put me in mind of Harlan Ellison or Ray Bradbury. Like them, he has a similar knack for blurring the line between fantasy and reality in a way that approaches poetry.

If you’ve never read Neil Gaiman before, this book is an excellent place to start, with short stories and excerpts from some of his novels spanning his entire career. Highly, highly recommended!

At long last, there’s finally one giant volume of Neil Gaiman’s short stories and miscellany! I’ve enjoyed Gaiman’s work over the years, and his short stories and poems were always sort of hidden gems that no one ever talked about. He has had several volumes published over the years and they always get sidelined by his novels or comics. So it’s great to see his best all in one spot.

On top of being a great read, I think this volume will be invaluable to scholars, students, and librarians who can use it as a tool for their essays and criticisms. It’s a great addition to both a personal library or a public/academic one as it will get used for more than one purpose.

This collection of stories by Neil Gaiman is an incredible collection of his best work over the decades. From the very first you're completely blown away by the magnanimity of Gaiman's craft and talent therein.

This is an enormous assortment of Neil Gaiman's writings dating from 1984 to 2018, including excerpts of five novels. Gaiman himself has said this is primarily intended as a sampler for readers who aren't familiar with his work. It seems like quite a hefty time investment for someone who just wants to try this Gaiman bloke people seem to like so much, but I hope it works. I think another audience is readers who want ready access to a number of novellas published in anthologies. A third use is a doorstop or a method of squishing other things flat: at a hefty 750 pages, I'd only take it traveling if I had the e-version.

Experiencing some of my favorite Gaiman short stories again was a true pleasure. "Chivalry" in particular one of my all-time favorites, though the short story collection it's from (Angels and Visitations) is out of print. Other favorites include "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale", "Snow, Glass, Apples", and "A Study in Emerald." A friend of mine maintains that Gaiman's true strength is as a short story writer, and experiencing the best of the best en masse was a delight.

An obvious gap here is the lack of comics. Gaiman is the writer of the extraordinary and genre-breaking (and defining) series The Sandman, and it's such a shame that none of it makes an appearance here.

I was also less enchanted with most of the novel excerpts. Picking a short section of a novel to entice someone to read the rest is a challenging thing to do. I think the Neverwhere excerpt works really well. However, the sections selected from American Gods seem disjointed: a short tale about the old Norse gods ending up in North America, and then a few scant pages about Shadow preparing for a spaghetti dinner. Including something about Shadow seems necessary given "Black Dog" and "The Monarch of the Glen", the two novellas that continue Shadow's story, are included here, but it doesn't flow well and I don't think it would be particularly enticing to a new reader. The intro to American Gods is so good that I wish it had been selected instead. Ditto about Stardust

Nevertheless, such a treat to read!

This is a hefty read, but it’s one that can be taken in bits and pieces, a short story here and a shorter one there. Every bit is wonderful, from Gaiman’s earliest works to those from the past few years. A few of them, such as “The Sleeper and the Spindle” and “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” have grown into other forms beyond a short story, but they are absolutely fantastic in their original form.
This collection is well suited for anyone from a Neil Gaiman novice to a reader who’s been following his entire career. Those already familiar with his work will be drawn into stories they already know and might find something they haven’t previously read. For the beginners, this hefty book will give representation of the multifaceted, often fantastical literature of Neil Gaiman.
If nothing else, who doesn’t want a book with Neil Gaiman’s face on the cover on their coffee table?

This is a fantastic collection! I'll read anything by Gaiman. I'll be recommending this book to patrons and friends.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. Neil Gaiman is one of my all time favorite authors, and I was so excited to see what stories were going to be included in this collection. Including stories from the start of his career to some of his most recent, The Neil Gaiman Reader is a fantastic collection. Perfect for long time fans, who are familiar with is work or for someone picking up one of his stories for the very first time. The short stories included were selected by a vote from readers, meaning that there is a fantastic range of stories included. Also included are excerpts from five of Gaiman's novels,, perfect snippets of story to entice those who may not have read them and great reminders for those that have. The Neil Gaiman Reader is a collection of short stories not to be missed.

This was a fantastic read. I didn't realize Mr. Gaiman had written so many short stories. I highly recommend this book for purchase, and will be buying it for the my library. Thank you so much for letting me read it early!

I had no idea that this included exerpts from —Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane and over fifty short stories as well! These were also all chosen by fans of Neil Gaiman and they chose well. I've loved his short stories and his novels and having them all in one book is incredible. Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for providing this book for me to review.