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Dream Country (Sandman, Book 3)

Dream Country (Sandman, Book 3)

List Price: $14.95
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A compendium of wonderful short stories
Review: The volumes of short stories are really where sandman shines! This book starts with the story of an author with writer's block who obtains Calliope (the muse), then one about cats, and finally one involving a character from another DC comic book. The first two were extremely good, and justify the book, while the third was an OK story. I don't like the cross-overs to other DC comics, but what are you going to do? Highly recommended (for the first two stories).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This thing has no price.
Review: These covers contain four comic novels, which, officially, have nothing to do with each other. They may have one thing in common, however; the effect on the venturing reader. If you are in happy terms with your life, do not touch this book! If you are in love with life, do.

Why am i writing this? because i need money. Why? To buy Sandmans. And don`t you dare laugh!

This was the first Sandman i ever read. Lucky for me, it was in the library, and costed only the effort of carrying it home. I lay down on the bed and flipped through my treasure, in awe of the artwork. Idly i wondered if there was a law against taking copies of comic pages and hanging them on your wall. Then i went back to the first page, and started reading. It was an hour later that i finally tore my eyes from the last page. The feeling of air against my arms and the pull of gravity at my aching neck felt very, very queer. I had lifted my head, but it took some time before i understood i was seeing my own reflection in the mirror on the far wall. And i - just - stared

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Frozen Moments
Review: These short stories, especially the awardwinning Midsummer Night's Dream, are beautifully drawn, brilliantly written, and always a treat.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the best in the series (but that's no big deal)
Review: This book is not the best in the Sandman series, but that's because the benchmark was set so high with Brief Lives and Season of Mists. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was great, but I think other stories deserved the WFA more than it did. I would probably have enjoyed these stories much more if I bought them in the monthly format instead of the bound version, but Gaiman's structural play within "graphic novels" is unparallelled. These stories were meant to be read separately, and not bound in a single edition, or else integrated into a single plot. Compared to Brief Lives, they're just little bits of ideas, and not full ideas.

Summary? Calliope - 8

Dream of a Thousand Cats - 8

Midsummer Night's Dream - 10

Facade - 7

Altogether, that makes about an 8.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Superb
Review: This book, though not the best in the series, contains the best comic I've ever had the pleasure of reading - A Midsummer Night's Dream. Just read it, it's worth the price of admission.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Work in the Reader's Head
Review: This collection contains two of Gaiman's best short stories. "Dream of a Thousand Cats," with its gorgeous artwork by Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones III, is one of the great ironic cat stories. And "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which actually won a World Fantasy Award. The Award committee was so chagrined by the notion of a comic book winning the prize that they changed the rules to prevent such an abomination from ever happening again. Ah, what fools these mortals be. The collection also includes, as a bonus, a copy of Gaiman's script for another story, "Calliope," in which the magician shows us how the illusion is created. In one of his panel descriptions we see the key to his method: "NOW I WANT TO GET ACROSS THE RAPE, AND THE HORROR AND THE DOMINANCE, FAIRLY SUBTLY, DOING ALL THE WORK IN THE READER'S HEAD." Yes, indeed. That's where Gaiman always does his best work. In the reader's head

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Work in the Reader's Head
Review: This collection contains two of Gaiman's best short stories. "Dream of a Thousand Cats," with its gorgeous artwork by Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones III, is one of the great ironic cat stories. And "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which actually won a World Fantasy Award. The Award committee was so chagrined by the notion of a comic book winning the prize that they changed the rules to prevent such an abomination from ever happening again. Ah, what fools these mortals be. The collection also includes, as a bonus, a copy of Gaiman's script for another story, "Calliope," in which the magician shows us how the illusion is created. In one of his panel descriptions we see the key to his method: "NOW I WANT TO GET ACROSS THE RAPE, AND THE HORROR AND THE DOMINANCE, FAIRLY SUBTLY, DOING ALL THE WORK IN THE READER'S HEAD." Yes, indeed. That's where Gaiman always does his best work. In the reader's head

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Best individual issue...worst novel(but still great)
Review: This graphic novel is the worst of Gaiman's i've read so far. However, it's still better than almost anything NOT by him. The other story compilation, Fables and Reflections, is much better overall, though this is STILL a must have. Read it after the first two, because you need it.

The two features that fully redeem this novel are Midsummer Night's Dream, which is THE best issue of the Sandman i've read yet(there's a reason it got the World Fantasy Award), and the script. The script is of Calliope, which is basic Gaiman fare without any of the extra spark his works usually possess, though it's still a great story. The great thing about it is that the reader has the privilege of seeing inside Neil's head. ... Just remember: it's all in your head, and you wouldn't have it any other way.


Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The worst Sandman of the ten
Review: This was a disappointment from Neil Gaiman, but a very good read considering the competition. The highly-acclaimed "A Midsummer Night's Dream" failed to hold my attention to an extent that the Cereal Convention did in The Doll's House. It was a good story, but by no means exceptional. No, instead I preferred "A Dream Of A Thousand Cats". I thought that was very inventive. I bought this because I am collecting the entire series anyway, but if you're only interested in reading the Sandman story, you can give this a miss as there is absolutely nothing essential to the main plot in this entire book. The last 'chapter'[the raw script] angered me immensely. This was Neil's attempt at a gimmick. He must have just thought of anything that could occupy a few more pages to grant the book it's RRP without being called a rip-off. All in all, a good read, but disappointing considering the other Sandman books [contrary to popular opinion, Preludes and Nocturnes is actually one of the best].

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Like a Shaman Drawing on a Cave Wall
Review: We used to paint our myths and dreams on cave walls for our shamans to interpret. Now, our shamans create graphic novels to help us interpret ourselves. Neil Gaiman's stories are successful because they blur the distinction between waking and dreams. In doing so, he reveals that such concepts as 'truth' and 'reality' coexists equally in both states. This is the first book of the Sandman series that I've read. So I had to judge it on its own merits, and I can honestly say that I'd recommend it.


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