Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Book - Incredible series
Review: It's a little sad after reading the Sandman books because you know you will never quite recapture the same feeling of going through such a great story for the first time when you pick them again. And trust me, you will be rereading these.But the flip side of that is once you have read the series and go back, you see how fully realized Neil Gaiman's vision is. What seems like almost arbitrary bits of exposition are the seeds of future story arcs. "Season of Mists" the fourth book in the series, being just one example. The main story begins when a necromancer who, intending to capture Death, captures her little brother Dream instead. He and his son keep him locked up for the better part of the 20th century. Once "Sandman" breaks out, he must restore his dream kingdom and reclaim his talismans of power. That takes him to London, Hell and a 24hr diner outside of Gotham. What I love particularly about this series is that it is esoteric without being pretentious. This is what happens when someone who is remarkably well read is also a comic fan. Gaiman manages to invoke The Old Testament, William Faulkner, old DC Comic mythos, Shakespeare, Bobby Darin, Victorian Literature and Greek Tragedy, makes it relevant to the story, and then makes the concepts comprehensible to a fifteen year old. And that's just in this volume. I say the last because that's how old I was when I started to read these. At the risk of sounding overzealous, it has since challenged me to become as well read as the author. I've read other reviews arguing that this is not the best one. I disagree only because I know that each volume speaks differently to different people. My humble advice is to start with this one and read them in order the way the author wrote them. I have bought this particular volume three times over the years due to lending it out to friends and not getting it back. Treasure this as well, enjoy and don't lend them out!
Rating: 
Summary: Sandman gets off to a great start
Review: Preludes and Nocturnes collects the first eight issues of Sandman, Neil Gaiman's acclaimed adult orientated comic book series about a morose mystic entity who controls the "realm of dreams." In its earliest inception, Sandman was hardly the grand, Tolkien-ish neo-myth into which it would blossom. Instead, it was a smart, imaginative and genuinely scary horror series that obviously had the potential for greatness. In Preludes and Nocturnes, the title character, also called Morpheus or Dream, is captured by a sorcerer and imprisoned for more than seventy years. After breaking free, he searches for tools that were taken from him by his captors: a helmet, a ruby and a pouch of sand, all of which were stolen and/or traded away long ago. During the quest, Morpheus encounters other DC characters such as supernatural con-man, John Castatine; the Justice League's resident escape artist, Scott Free and the demented, skull-faced villain, Dr. Destiny. In these issues, Sandman is a horror series. Likewise, the standard issue is a single story (although each makes-up a part of an underlining storyline involving Morpheus' lost tools) that has some chilling ending awaiting one of its characters. While Gaiman's stories are rarely clichéd and always frightening (it is hard to imagine anything more frightening than issue six, in which Dr. Destiny uses Morpheus' ruby to force out the dark sides of an unsuspecting group of diner patrons), the prerequisites (gruesome imagery, bloody deaths, raving maniacs) sometimes seem forced. Similarly awkward is the inclusion of outside DC characters. The series is at its most haunting when it involves actual beliefs and myths of mankind. It gains a degree of campiness when characters like Scott Free are involved. Despite these minor flaws, Preludes and Nocturnes has a lot of good things going for it. The art is remarkable; the stories are unpredictable and, as stated earlier, original and wholly frightening; and Gaiman shows a mastery of characterization and the little details that bring it out. All in all, no one can say Sandman did not get off to a great start.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good indicator of what the series would become
Review: Don't get me wrong. I love the Sandman. I started on it by the last volume (the Wake), which wasn't the smartest thing to do, but heck I didn't know. Afterwards, puzzled, I proceeded to read the whole series more or less in order (depending on the stocks in my local comic store, mainly). If I hadn't had an idea of what the later story arcs would evolve into, I would have closed the first volume almost as soon as I opened it. Why? Because the wake was clearly fantasy. Whereas this is horror a la Clive Barker (and I can't stand horror).
The story, briefly: a group of magicians attempt to capture Death, and snare her younger brother, Dream, instead. After many years in captivity, Dream manages to get free, and spends the rest of the book trying to rebuild his kingdom, which grew pretty ruined in the years he wasn't there.
This is not for the faint-hearted. It is worth remembering that Mr Gaiman was writing a horror comic, rather than the fantasy, mythology-ladden stories the series would later evolve into. There are some fairly gruesome moments, with the necessary drawings. I would advise you to skip it altogether (with the possible exception of 'The Sound of Her Wings' which introduces the brilliant character of Death), except that you won't understand the later volumes if you do. So maybe flick through it, and through the next one, the Doll's House, which is somewhat messy and equally gruesome (except, again, for one particular section involving Hob Gadling, a man who strikes an odd bargain with Death). Don't let the gory bits deter you from Gaiman. Start the in-depth reading with volume three and read all of them to the Wake. Trust me, it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Sandman
Review: I love this series and am slowly acquiring all the books in it. It's fairly expensive, but, if you like the Sandman series, it's a lot cheaper than buying each individual comic. This book isn't the best in the series, but it's still very good. It's not like most comic books. There's no superhero intent on defeating an evil supervillain for the good of mankind. A group of magicians want to capture Death but instead capture Dream. He stays caged for decades, and, when he finally escapes, he has to find his tools (a bag of sand, his helm, and his Dreamstone). This first book relies too much on guest appearances made by DC characters, but Gaiman does manage to move beyond that by the eighth issue, "The Sound of Her Wings". I really enjoyed that issue, which has the first appearance of Death. She's the reason I started reading the Sandman series. I'd read The High Cost of Living, and I loved the idea that Death could be a perky goth girl who you could really get to like. Mike Dringenberg, who does the pencils for the eighth issue, does an excellent version of Sandman and Death. I don't really like Sam Keith's version of Sandman that much, but his depictions of horrific things, like Hell, are wonderful. I also liked "Dream a Little Dream of Me", in which Dream has to find his bag of sand and is getting help from John Constantine, and "24 Hours", in which Doctor Destiny has Dream's Dreamstone and is driving the world mad. I consider both of those issues to be top horror. It's definitely worth it to get this book.
Rating:
Summary: An Introduction to a Legacy
Review: To start - Neil Gaiman is an immaculate genre writer, who blends in sophistication with the bizarre in almost all of his projects. The Sandman Series is certainly one of his best works and , of course, keeps getting better. I must admit, I'm currently on the Seventh Chapter, but the first book: "Preludes and Nocturnes" deserves a lot of recognition. I had been warned that the first collection of his comics was one of the weaker installments. But so far, I must disagree. "Preludes and Nocturnes" is a fantastic introduction to the character of Dream. For those who have not yet read started this series, the book opens with a underground society of necromantic cultists, in England, the early 1900's. In an attempt to capture the divine personification of Death - they accidently capture her brother, Dream. Though, this doesn't ensure immortality to the cultists anymore, they keep him bound in hopes of bargaining his freedom for power. After imprisonment for almost a century, Dream finally escapes and takes his revenge on his captors. The rest of the book, finds Dream severly weakened and missing his three artifacts, and sources of his power: his bag of sand, helmet and amulet. Because of his absence, the items have fallen into the hands of others and his kingdom and responsibilities, having been neglected during his imprisonment, have all crumbled. He spends the rest of the book reclaiming his lost possessions and reestablishing his authority as the Lord of Dreams. For a writer who really didn't know where his story was going, Gaiman has given us an intriguing world to visit. He intergrates the modern world and ordinary mortal characters with elements of the supernatural and mythology. One cannot help but be fascinated by such scenes as Dream challenging a deamon to a duel of spoken words and image, while in a 1930's style bar in Hell. The book contains a variety of colorful characters and an original storyline that really sets the stage for the rest of the series. Also, being a graphic novel really adds to its presentation. The images are sometimes beyond literary comprehension and now I just couldn't imagine just reading this story. Gaiman has a way of creating images to vivid for words, so it seems quite appropriate these stories are told in a comic book style. In addition, the book closes on a scene between Dream and Death, who is pictured as a flamboyant happy-go-lucky Goth girl. He accompanies her as she collects the souls of the dying and brings an interesting sense of closure to Dream's experience. The world has changed in his absence and there is much more for him to learn and to explore. This is an essential book in the Neil Gaiman universe. If anything, it acts as a much needed foreward to the rest of the Sandman graphic novels and sets the stage for our expectations. But it stands on its own, the story rivaling the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Terry Pratchett. Happy Reading!
Rating:
Summary: Not Representative of the Entire Sandman Story
Review: And Neil Gaiman is given more praise than is healthy for most human beings. Sandman Library Volume 1 reproduces the first 8 issues of the Sandman comic book, serialized in a total of 75 monthly issues. In the first seven, the author wrote what basically were horror stories. He found the voice for writing Sandman in issue 8 with the introduction of the Sandman's older sister, Death. This issue is so important (and an absolutely fabulous read) that it is also printed again in Sandman Library Volume 2. I liken Sandman to Cowboy Bebop because it's a lot of fun if you know what the creator's roots and influences are. Gaiman references the world's literature, mythology, historical figures, and other comic books left and right all throughout the Sandman. Catching these things is fun, but not necessary to enjoying the story. This isn't the best place to start reading the Sandman if you've never been exposed to it before. I would reccomend "Death: The High Cost of Living" as an introduction. This volume can be skipped in favor of the second and still have very little lost in the way of the main plot for the entire series.
Rating:
Summary: Good series, slow start
Review: I'm a late-comer to the Sandman series, but it's become one of my favorites. I read these collections of the original comics out of order, as I encounter them, and started with some of the later collections. That's why I found this Sandman such a surprise. I really didn't like it that much. I think it suffered from two big problems. First was a problem of the comics business: there's nearly no such thing as a new series. The big publishers, at least when Sandman first came out, felt the need to graft new characters onto old story lines, perhaps to spark initial sales. Sandman really didn't benefit from that surgery. Second and more understandable is that a new series, esp. something so different from DC's usual, needs a little time to find itself. The good news is that, by the end of this collection, the Sandman story line really did seem to come into its own. The last piece in this book, 'The Sound of Her Wings,' is the Sandman I've come to enjoy. I'm just worried that new readers might be disappointed by this book and not come back to the later, better work. This isn't bad by any means, it's just a fitful start to an exceptional series. After this, it just gets better.
Rating: 
Summary: For fifteen-year olds and under only
Review: Get this: there's a convention for serial killers, and its disguised by calling it a "Cereal" convention. Then a bunch of them get together and do bad, spooky things. I guess that's a great idea for a story if you're in early adolescence, but considering that tripe like that is what wins awards for the unimaginably overrated Gaiman in the funnybook world, and that Sandman doesn't get any better than that, the over-fifteen crowd can safely ignore this. And the art is horrible; pedestrian commercialism taken to an extreme.
Rating:
Summary: Here your learning begins
Review: This review is directed mainly at those of you who are not widely experienced with modern (one can hardly use the word 'adult' without erotica coming to mind) comics, because I do not know many comics aficionados who are not familiar with the Sandman saga - the Citizen Kane of comics, or the Sgt. Pepper, or the War and Peace - and have not read, at the very least, this first installment in the series. So - you haven't read comics in a long time, have you? Sure, you read it when you were a kid, like everyone else, but then you outgrew them. You went on to read real books with no pictures. But suddenly a couple of people tell you that there have been some interesting things going on in comics in the last twenty years, and you should check it out. You decide to give the ol' funnybooks a chance. In that case, this book right here is one of the half-dozen masterworks you should start with to get a general idea of what comics are capable of, at least in the English speaking regions of the world (there are some fascinating things going on in Japan and France that I won't even begin to discuss). The Sandman, the ENTIRE Sandman saga, altogether ten books long - collected from magazine-form comics that were published regularly throughout most of the 90s - is one of the truly glorious, shining, perfect creations of, I'll say it, adult comics. That Preludes & Nocturnes, the first story-arch in the series, is the only one that can stand rightly by its own right, other than being a convenience for new readers which may make it easier for them to deal with the size of this saga, is a sure sign of the wisdom of the creator, the brilliant Mr. Neil Gaiman. While completely revolutionizing what people though about comics, Neil started doing so in small doses to make it easier to swallow for audiences and editors alike. Thus, he started here with a story that is a classic folk tale, of a dethroned monarch who goes through a series of quests and challenges in order to earn back his rightful place in power. More help is given by cameo appearances of old and popular characters from the DC Comics universe - such as the Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, the Scarecrow and John Constantine. Such appearances will become quite rare as the series continues, and the story becomes, rather than a folk tale, a mythology as grim as any Greek tragedy - which, doubtlessly, was in the author's mind from the very beginning. However, though the storyline of Preludes & Nocturnes is schematic and the drawings are often bland, Gaiman's already famous storytelling skills are fully developed, and the books is one of the most fantastic stories he had penned. The hero of the series is, simply, Dream. His identity is a rather philosophical matter, as he is not so much a god of dream, but rather, the embodiment of the very concept of dream itself. At the beginning of the story, Dream is summoned by a human mystic, and caged. Seventy years later, when he escapes from his prison, he finds his kingdom in ruins, and must return to himself the symbolic garments of his reign to rebuild it. Along the way we have the pleasure to meet some of the most fantastic and fascinating characters in any literary creation, and also some characters who, small though their part may be now, will be crucial in the complete creation of the saga, such as Lucifer Morningstar, Cain and Abel, and the three Furies (also known as the Graces, the Fates, or the Kindly Ones). Though much more fascinating as part of the whole, Preludes & Nocturnes by itself is a perfect piece of fantastic storytelling. However, it is the final magazine issue in this collection, titled 'The Sound Of Her Wings', that gives it more worth than the rest of it put together. Sam Keith's surreal, deformed image of Dream and dark, heavy, brooding lines move over to make place for Mike Dringenberg's realistic backgrounds, light-hearted lines and recognizable human faces. Dream's flowing black robes make way for a t-shirt and a black jacket; the dark and towering Sandman is given a whole new perspective. He now seems like a depressed, bored teenager, sulking in the park and feeding the pigeons. He is then granted a visit by none other than his sister - Death, which is the single most brilliant creation in Gaiman's universe. Death is a perky, cheerful, beautiful, wise, mature goth-girl who confronts Dream and show to him his own pettiness. Completely without any action or suspense, it is this story that paved the way for the revolution that the Sandman series began. And this story alone remains one of the handful true perfect masterpieces of the medium. It is this story alone that makes this book a milestone in modern comics - and literature - and essential reading for everyone interested in the medium. And, oh, I said half dozen masterworks, right? So, to complete the list, let's say: Alan Moore's 'Watchmen', Art Spiegelman's 'Maus', Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics', Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight Returns' and Kurt Busiek's 'Marvels'. Or, to make it a top ten, let's add Peter Kuper's 'The System', Garth Ennis's 'Preacher', Grant Morrison's 'Arkham Asylum', and anything by Robert Crumb. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: "What Power Would Hell Have If Those Who Occupied It...."
Review: "Could Not Dream of Heaven." The preceding quote is one of the many thoughts that mmake up a brilliant character, The Sandman.
This graphic novel is both beauty and wit. Most of the art is breathtaking as well as descriptive.This novel begins with Morpheus,another name for the Sandman or Dream King, trapped. Stripped of his powers and life he spends nearly a cenntury trapped. When he finally does escape, he finds his home in taters and his servants nearly destroyed. He then beggins a journey to collect his tools again. His first tool to recollect is his bag of sand, which he finds with the hellp of John Constanntine, a dectective. Once he has found his precious sand, he travels to hell to reclaim his helmet. There he finds a demon who he must battle by trumping the demon with a larger from the the demon's last. Once he has recovered his helmet the demon is banished from hell and the Sandman continues his journey in seach of his last tool, a red jewel. JUst as he finds the jewel,Dr.Dee,a mad man driven by the power he posses to make dreams real when he has the jewel, takes the stone and Morpheus is left powerless. The rest of the story is good but I refuse to give away the WHOLE thing. The ending comic is the best in which Dream meets up with his siter Death, who tells Morpheus of Mary Poppins and rebukes him for being gloomy. This is a great piece of work which I highly recommend. Though I'm told the rest of the series is much better.
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