Book Review: Trigger Warning

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If you’re not an obsessive Neil Gaiman fan, you probably know one, and as the fantasy author’s cult following grows, so does his diverse bibliography, which includes novels, comics, Doctor Who episodes, and an appearance in The Simpsons. Those struggling to keep up with everything Gaiman should be pointed towards Trigger Warning, a collection bringing together many of his short stories from recent years, plus two original pieces.

The big selling point of Trigger Warning is Black Dog, a new novella continuing the exploits of Shadow, the ex-convict with a supernatural secret from the author's acclaimed novel American Gods – it's an intriguing progression of its world as well as a clever and meaningful story in its own right, with thought-provoking rumination on the nature of depression.

There’s also Doctor Who story Nothing O’Clock, which pits the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond against the terrifying Kin, A Case of Death and Honey, which asks why Sherlock Holmes would really take up beekeeping in his old age, The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury, a touching tribute to the sci-fi legend who sadly died in 2012, and so much more.

If there's one thing to criticise, it's that only two of the stories are original to this volume, and so Gaiman fans will be already familiar with much of the material. Nevertheless, all the stories old and new showcase Gaiman’s masterful command of the English language, over themes as grand as mythology and as personal as heartbreak, and over what really keeps us awake at night, wondering about that word we can’t remember or that creaking in the floorboard.