Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions 📖

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions

Neil Gaiman
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fantasy dark fantasy / magical realism past tense third limited POV ~404 pp high worldbuilding

Vibe

grotesque absurdist melancholic

A fantasy. Expect rich worldbuilding, epic scope. Ends on an unresolved note. Contains notable violence, sexual content.

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Style Fingerprint

Prose density 45
sparsedense
Pacing 60
slow burnpropulsive
Emotional tone 30
darkhopeful
Worldbuilding 85
minimalmaximal
Char / plot 40
character-drivenplot-driven
Interiority 50
externalintrospective
Ending 20
unresolvedcathartic
Stakes 90
intimateepic

Content

Violence 90%
noneextreme
Sexual content 60%
noneexplicit
Humor 40%
seriouscomedic
Romance 30%
nonecentral
Speculative hardness soft/vibes → hard sci-fi / rigorous magic

Structure & Cast

Structure
Word count100,913
Page count~404 pp
Prologue—
Epilogue—
Tensepast
Cast & World
POVthird limited