Name: Courtney's review of Unnatural Creatures by Neil Gaiman
Item: Unnatural Creatures
Rating: 3
Author: Courtney

Neil Gaiman

A collection of sixteen stories introduces a host of strange, wondrous beings that have never existed anywhere but in the imagination, with stories from Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones, and E. Nesbit.

Short Stories Selected by Neil Gaiman

Unnatural Creatures

Cookie

The griffin, the sunbird, manticores, unicorns ­- all manner of glorious creatures never captured in zoos, museums or photographs are packed vividly into this collection of stories. Neil Gaiman has included some of his own childhood favourites alongside stories classic and modern to spark the imagination of readers young and old. All contributors have given their work free to benefit Dave Eggers' literacy charity, 826DC. Also includes a new Neil Gaiman Story.

Courtney

All these stories are pretty good and interesting choices, but none to surpass the his literary eminence Neil Gaiman himself... but he liked these stories, so I liked them too.

cheyenne 

Some of these I liked, some of these I didn't like. That could be more of a me thing though because I do have a difficult time getting into books about short stories.

Maria Dahvana Headley

Chosen and introduced by Neil Gaiman, this thoroughly beguiling collection of short stories is inhabited by an amazing menagerie of creatures from myth, legend and dark imagination. Now available in paperback.

Natalia Hernandez

Dejé una reseña en mi blog en español: http://natified.com/2015/03/20/libros...

Unnatural Creatures is a book that includes different stories selected by Neil Gaiman. One of his stories, previously not published, makes it to the book along with stories by old and new authors.

There are all kinds of extraordinary creatures: werewolves, witches, zombies, sirens... some stories are set in the past, some during WWII, some in the future, some in Europe and a few in Africa or a made-up world.

I think you have to be in a certain mood to read this type of book, a compilation. It's not easy to sit down and read about one world that is going to be over in 20 pages and then begin learning about something completely different that might last even less time. Some people prefer to read one story a day, to give it time to sink in, to appreciate it, and I think that's really cool. I chose to read a couple of stories a day, while I read a completely different book on the side, but I did feel like I needed to give a bit of time to each story. Some were so much fun to read, I needed time to mourn their ending. 

I did love some of these stories. I can see their influence on Gaiman's writing and that was really cool to see. If you want to read short stories BY Neil Gaiman, then I recommend Fragile Things or Smoke & Mirror. He never counts M is for Magic as a short stories compilation but I do, I love that book. 


You can find Unnatural Creatures here: http://www.bookdepository.com/book/97...

Erin 

My feelings about this collection changed with each new story that I read, which is a bit of a rollercoaster of a ride. After realising that this wasn't going to be completely authored by Neil Gaiman, I appreciated the effort and skill it took to curate a collection such as this. I liked how it was a mix of old and new, and established and up-and-coming. Stories that have been around for over 70 years, mixed with stories that were published for the first time in this collection. There were a few authors in here I of course had heard of, but never read anything they wrote, and it's nice to be able to experience them for the first time in these smaller pieces of writing, particularly because it may not be what they are most famous for. Of course, like any collection, there were some that I was not a fan of, but there were also some that I wish I could read again for the first time. Overall, I really enjoyed this.

An individual break-down and the occasional comment:
Story #1: 4.5 stars
The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees: 3.5 stars
The Griffin and the Minor Canon: 4 stars
Ozioma the Wicked: 5 stars
Sunbird: 4 stars
The Sage of Theare: 3.5 stars
Gabriel-Ernest: 2.5 stars
The Cockatoucan; or, Great-Aunt Willoughby: 3 stars
Movable Beast: 2.5 stars
The Flight of the Horse: 4 stars
Prismática: 2 stars
The Manticore, the Mermaid, and Me: 5 stars
The Compleat Werewolf: 5 stars - This was excellent. It kept me on my toes for all 70-some pages, which I didn't think would happen. Definitely one of the best in the collection.
The Smile on My Face: 3 stars
Or All the Seas With Oysters: 4 stars
Come Lady Death: 5 stars - This was a great story to end the collection with. While I was of course familiar with the author, I hadn't read any of his work, but now I think I will definitely be searching for more.

zaynah

Chrystal Giordano

Sam Bell

Cat Josephson

rex chekal

Jasmine

tabata gallina

Stephanie Ridiculous

Marius Masalar

Ryan Hagerty

Unnatural Creatures is a collection of short stories about the fantastical things that exist only in our minds—collected and introduced by beloved New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman. The sixteen stories gathered by Gaiman, winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, range from the whimsical to the terrifying. The magical creatures range from werewolves to sunbirds to beings never before classified. E. Nesbit, Diana Wynne Jones, Gahan Wilson, and other literary luminaries contribute to the anthology. Sales of Unnatural Creatures benefit 826DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students in their creative and expository writing, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

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Unnatural Creatures by Neil Gaiman

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