I listened to the BBC Radio presentation of this short story by Neil Gaiman.
I have an up and down opinion of his work.
I’m a huge fan of the Sandman series and have reread the series a few times and plan to reread them soon.
During college, I was also a fan of his novels, Neverwhere and American Gods. However, I reread them a couple years ago and realized that I don’t enjoy his prose.
I adore his inventive worldbuilding, but his writing came off stiff in the repeat. Gaiman is the first author where I’ve soured on their prose. I’ve ready plenty of bad authors, but none who I liked enough reread their books a two decades apart.
Fortunately, Chivalry doesn’t have this problem. It’s a cute short story, set in a lovely little world, and doesn’t overstay its brief welcome.
Even if I’ve soured on his novels, it’s hard to go wrong in 45 minutes. It’s a charming piece with an insightful introduction sharing nuggets on the difficulties of a professional author.
Well worth a listen.