Rating: 
Summary: Snooze fest
Review: I love a lot of Gaiman's stuff, but this is really bad. No action at all, almost no "magic", a completely unlikable supporting character, and supposedly touching ending. It's really short, and besides a witty line or two there's just nothing there. It's not like I have to have muscle popping heroes in leotards, to enjoy a graphic novel but this is just really good stuff to fall asleep to. Try anything by Alan Moore or Warren Ellis instead.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great 1st Taste of Neil Gaimen's "Sandman" Series
Review: While not an integral part of the series, "Death: The High Cost of Living" is a peripheral story that serves as a great introduction. It does so because of a well written story that could be equally adapted into 'Astro City', 'Planetary', 'Tom Strong' or the pages of the X-men. The story is simple: death manifests on earth (as it must once every 100 years)as a teenage girl and saves a suicidal boy. No, wait...a traumatized teen girl thinks she's Death and befriends a suicidal boy. Does it matter if this precocious goth girl is really Death? No, she's adorable anyway and that's why the story works so well. The art is not Alex Ross, but nicely complements the tone of the book.
Great! Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Death is a Sweetheart
Review: First off, I very rarely read American\British comic books, I tend to read Japanese manga, so it is really something for me to be reading this book in the first place. Second I have not read The Sandman series, so my entire knowledge of the series is picked up from conversations and articles. However, let me say that I love the two death books. This volume tells the story of Sexton Furnival, a 16 year old boy who has decided to kill himself. Whether he is really serious about killing himself, or if he is just mad at the world is left up for the reader to decide. On the day he decides to go kill himself, Sexton goes to a garbage dump, and the trash he was standing on collapses and his legs are caught beneath the debris. Luckily for him a cute goth girl comes along and helps him. She says her name is Didi. Didi of course is Dream's older sister Death. Death is a bubbly petite thing who decides to take Sexton out for a night on the town. They run into some interesting characters, including a 250 year old witch, a crazed blind man who has dark magical powers, a lesbian chef whose girlfriend is performing her first gig that night. Really good stuff. Death will touch your heart. Her over all sweetness might be corny at sometimes, but it will win you over in the end.
Rating:
Summary: I never knew Death could be so amazing.
Review: Literally, I just finished reading this. I was never so aware of how a person, a character, anyone could be so cheerful and yet so level headed. And to top that she's dead cool. She should be an inspiration for everyone.
Rating: 
Summary: " I'm Death. "
Review: Heh. Making the embodiment of death a slightly crazy and sweet Goth chick; the only thing that equals here is Pratchett's Death. (Who wants to see a crossover? ^_^) And here she gets her own outing, and what an outing it is! All I'll say is that it is fun and leave with this: "It would be nice if Death was like Didi... someone funny, and friendly, and maybe a little crazy."
Or brooding, protective and slightly confused by humanity like Pratchett's version but hey; either works for me.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy to be named in the same sentence with Sandman
Review: This book is a very good attempt to isolate one of the members of the Endless (The main characters of Sandman) and tell a little more about her, while at the same time another story loose from her is also developping along the road. The credit here should be partially given to Neil Gaiman who is not incidental also the writer of Sandman, but the very clear and nicely flowing artwork of Chris Bachalo isn't exactly hurting either. Art that is perfectly suitable for a "suggested to mature readers" title. Focused and telling the story without taking the attention of the story itself. A thing I also need to mention to give the book the credit it deserves is that, although it obviously being heavily related to Sandman, knowledge of the Neil Gaiman success-series isn't a neccesity. You can enjoy it without that knowledge without missing out on any vital part of the storyline. For those who DID read Sandman there are some little references to the series, not essential ones, but they're fun to spot.About the story: When his mother decides to do a spring clean-up a young boy named Sexton Furnival decides he'd better go out of the house for a while. Sexton is a depressed boy who doesn't see the point in all of it that they call 'life' and wouldn't mind being dead either, a thought that has been plaguing him for a while now. He wanders around aimlessly a little untill he gets at the garbage-dump. Lost in his thoughts he gets involved in a small accident and a young girl named Didi turns up to help him. Since his jeans are ruined Didi offers him to come home with her so she can fix his jeans. Meanwhile a strange old woman called Hettie is searching for Didi and when she finds her she has a strange request. Didi decides to help her with it and takes Sexton with her for a night on the town. A time in which Sexton gets to see many other perspectives and variations of the life he thinks so boring. And a time in which he gets to think of Didi as a very strange person, mainly because she thinks she's the incarnation of Death on earth. And she doesn't seem to have to pay for anything ! Another person who calls himself the Eremite is also looking for Didi at that time, for mysterious reasons, and HE doesn't seem so friendly. And who or what exactly IS Didi ? Sandman is over and we will have to live with it. But when stories like this one pop up every once in a while we have no reason for complaints. A story that stands on his own perfectly well. It's not the best story ever but it's a competitor for the sub-top, and wouldn't be a shame to many bookshelves.
Rating:
Summary: Ah, sweet mystery of death, at last I've found you
Review: Much as I love this comic, I find (after reading the other posted reviews on Amazon.com, as well as letters published during the series' initial publication) that most of the affection seems to stem from Death's visual and verbal appeal. This is not to diminish these characteristics (I like them myself!) but the people who are in love with Death ought to remember that Death is a nasty thing too --- cancer, car wrecks, murder --- not just the slightly goofy, Goth-styled "Quietus" that's being portrayed here. The point I'm trying to make is that the vast majority of readers seem to miss the irony of Death's attractiveness. The flip side of the coin is that she's the lure of the glittering blade to the suicide, as well as the nice, sane, take-each-day-as-it-comes-because-it-might-be-your-last heroine that Gaiman and Bachalo delineate so perfectly. In short, I'd like to add a touch of salt to all the sweetness and spice with which this comic has been overloaded by its fans.
Rating:
Summary: Ah, Sweet Death!
Review: If I could, I would give this book as many stars as are known to human astornomy! Death, the sweet little goth sister of Morpheus, here shines on her own. She is Death in the most benevolent manifestation. Her job is to teach those about to die how to get their life in order before they pass on. In this story, she helps out a young man with some definate karma to purge. I love Death, and recommend you get to know her too.
Rating: 
Summary: Glam Trash
Review: European imports Clive Barker & Neil Gaiman have spoken of their dislike of Tolkien in print, Barker whose initial fame has worn thin over the years mistakes political correctness for depth (like his fellow "special interest" fantasist Ursula Le Guin) that his literary themes will soon parallel theme parks in Disney Land just confirms the superficial nature of much of his writing. Gaiman billed as one of the top post-modern writers reveals the cut & paste method of character development and his works are ideally suited for video game developers and Quentin Tarrantino. Both are limited to the London rave scene and U.S. equivalents in their appeal. And both lack the numinous "extra literary" qualities of Tolkien & C.S. Lewis and their successors like Stephen R. Donaldson or even Stephen King.
Rating:
Summary: One of the more likeable comic book characters.
Review: I bought this on the merit of the reviews here at Amazon.com recommending it and I wasn't disappointed. You won't find glamorous superheroics or brightly coloured spandex costumes here. Instead you'll read the story of Death spend a day among mortals and changing a few lives in the process. All of the characters here are so human and believable it would be impossible to not be caught up in their individual stories. Death herself is immensely likeable being perky and smart, never coming across as an all knowing god (or goddess) who deigns to spend a day with normal people. Pick this book up and you will no doubt read it over and over again, enjoying it more each time.
|
