And Then What Happened?: Stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio (Audio)

cover image of StoriesIn his introduction to this short story collection by well-known novelists and short story writers, editor Neil Gaiman explains that the collection came about when he solicited fellow authors for stories that would make readers ask, “And then what happened?” He says that to him this is the hallmark of a good story, which I took to mean that a good story needs to have a strong plot, not just good writing or good characters, but it seemed to me as though some authors misunderstood and just left off the endings of their stories.

They did leave me wondering “…and then what happened,” but with annoyance rather than pleasure, as if I had been reading a Choose Your Own Adventure™ book with all of the possible plot permutations torn out of the back. After checking a few times to make sure I hadn’t messed up the track order on my iPod or missed transferring some of the stories’ endings onto it, I realized that some of the stories really did just end without a resolution. Ambiguous endings, fine, but these were beyond ambiguous. They were simply non-endings.

There were other really great stories that left me thinking about the characters and what may have happened next to them without making me feel as though the ending had been left off. Many excellent short story writers contributed to this collection, including Joyce Carol Oates and Neil Gaiman himself, but a best-selling novelist does not necessarily a good short story writer make.

Since I picked this audiobook out mainly because a couple of my favorite audiobook narrators read stories on it, I still enjoyed listening to Stories, though. Even the stories that weren’t as great as the others were still read very engagingly by star-quality audiobook narrators Katherine Kellgren and Jonathan Davis, along with two actor/narrators who were new to me on audio, but also excellent – Peter Francis James and Euan Morton.

All 27 stories have a fantastical element to them, and there’s a good representation of fantasy, s/f, and horror writers as well as authors like Carolyn Parkhurst, Jodi Picoult, and Chuck Palahniuk, and Stewart O’Nan, who aren’t known for writing in those genres.

Sample the audio edition of Stories: All-New Tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio here.

Read the AudioFile review here.

Stories: All-New Tales
Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio, eds.
HarperAudio, 2010
978-0-7927-7273-6
18.25 hours on

Disclosure: I borrowed this audiobook through my public library. Yay for libraries!

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Laura Fabiani
11 years ago

Non-ending? I think I would be frustrated too.

Laurie C
Admin
11 years ago
Reply to  Laura Fabiani

It was only a few of them. Not all of the stories had chopped-off endings!

bermudaonion(Kathy)
11 years ago

Those stories that left you hanging would drive me crazy.

aartichapati
aartichapati
11 years ago

Ooh, this sounds interesting but like the others, I think I would go crazy! I am one of those who likes neat endings to my stories.

Laurie C
Admin
11 years ago

I hope Neil Gaiman doesn’t get mad at me. His story actually had an ending, though.

Laurie C
Admin
11 years ago
Reply to  aartichapati

I’ve been on a short story kick this weekend, catching up on Selected Shorts podcasts that I’ve had on my iPod for ages. I think it was the Short Story panel at the Boston Book Festival last week that got me thinking about short stories.

Jonathan Davis
Jonathan Davis
11 years ago

I second your comment “Yay for libraries!” (My wife is a librarian.)

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