It's difficult to come up with anything to say about a Neil Gaiman collection other than "Go read this right now. No, really, right now. Why are you still reading this? Oh, yes, because it isn't out for another week." In his introduction, Gaiman talks about the influences of Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison, which is appropriate, since those three authors are in my mind the best demonstration that fantasy/speculative fiction absolutely can simultaneously be literary fiction.
I don't remember having read any of these pieces before, but I had heard a couple of them read on "Selected Shorts." One of these, "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury," had been read on the program by Denis O'Hare, one of my favorite actors. I'm happy to say that it is equally beautiful in both the reading and the listening.
The collection also includes "The Spindle and the Sleeper," which has been released on its own in an illustrated edition in the UK and which attracted its share of attention. It is not the story that you might be expecting if all you know of it is the picture that most recently accompanied those discussions, but it is a fine adventure story on its own.
On a whole this collection is often beautiful, often startling, and always engrossing.
Overall: A
Trigger Warning will be available Feb. 3.