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Summary: I Have Never Been Much For Comics..
Review: Like the title, never been much for comics. I always thought that they were boring and unrealistic. The adventures of muscle bound freaks with ungodly amounts of testerstrone was the very last thing I wanted to read.
But lo and behold, here was a comic series that had substance and a story beyond heroics. Neil Gaiman can really craft a story and the artwork was fascinatingly beautiful. The characters were great. I loved how Gaiman drew from mythology to tell his story.
All I can say about this series, is give me the next volume.
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Summary: The beauty of Dream
Review: Neil Gaimon has created a world that we all dream of. Incorporating fact and myth becomes a surprisingly intelligent as well as entertaining story. Don't read just one, start at the start with Preludes and Nocturns. Highly recommended as one of the most beautiful things ever created.
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Summary: Sandman's uneven tour of history
Review: One of many things that separated Neil Gaiman's Sandman from other comic book characters is that the foreboding but likable king of dreams has existed since the beginning of time and is supposed to be an archetype common to all cultures. Gaiman was free to visit any time and place he wanted to. However, he set all of Sandman's long story arches in the present. Tales from ancient Rome or Elizabethan England were limited to single issue stories bordering bigger epics. Fables and Reflections, placed sixth in the Sandman library, collects most of these. Another thing that separates Fables from other Sandman volumes is that it is a hodgepodge. These stories are from different points in the series' development and are collected here only because there is no other place for them. Due to this, Fables and Reflections is hit-or-miss. It contains some of Sandman's best moments and some of its worst. The collection starts off on a high note "Three Septembers and a January." The story shows the role of Sandman's family in the life of Joshua Norton, a San Francisco man who declared himself emporer of the United States in 1859. The story features terribly underdeveloped versions of Sandman's family (Despair talks like some Spiderman villain) but Gaiman's treatment of Norton (a real life person) is funny, heartfelt and wholly entertaining. In the next story, "Thermidor," Sandman hires Johanna Constantine, an ancestor of John Constantine of the DC series Hellblazer, for a rescue mission during Revolution-era France. Sandman's occasional overlapping into other DC series is usually awkward and this is no exception. After that is "The Hunt," in which an old man annoys his teenage granddaughter (and readers) with a banal fairy tale about a savage who finds one of Sandman's lost books. Next is "August," in which Sandman instructs the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, to spend a day disguised as a beggar. This story does not have the depth Gaiman obviously intended for it. The duds keep coming with "Soft Places," in which explorer Marco Polo finds a desert oasis where space, time and reality loose their meanings. The tale crumples into postmodern mush. Fables picks up again with "Song of Orpheus," which positions the Sandman mythos in ancient Greece for a haunting retelling of the myth of Orpheus. Fables' sole present day story, "Parliament of Rooks," is another winner. The tale sheds light of three denizens of Sandman's realm: the sadistic Cain, the stuttering Abel and the reclusive Eve, all of whom may or may not be the actual Biblical figures (as the story says, "the mystery endures, not the explanation"). Each character in the dream realm is half deeply symbolic specter and half twisted Disney character. In this story, Gaiman maximizes both their poignancy and their comedic value. The last story is "Ramadan," in which a king of ancient Baghdad becomes bored with riches, sex and opulence and considers making a deal with Sandman. This issue is justly considered one of the series' best. Gaiman's ability to assimilate the story-telling traditions of other cultures is always amazing and the illustrator's cities and castles are gorgeous. Add in lush computerized coloring and you have an extraordinary comic book. Because of its inconsistency, Fables and Reflections is a low point in the Sandman library (most volumes are wholly excellent). Yet some of these tales represent Sandman at its best so, for true aficionados, Fables and Reflections is a reluctant must.
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Summary: LET HIM COME INTO YOUR DREAMS
Review: So far I have read 1 to 6 in this series.And each time I have found a connection with my life.Each time I read ,I forget my existence in this world, find myself one of the dreams.Each time I learn something,I remember something,I dream something...
Neil is really good,he combines his knowledge of history,myths,art,language with his imagination so well.I like most of the comics,but this is special ,you can enjoy X-men or Spiderman,but you can never ever compare it with sandman.Let the lord of dreams welcome you.Let him come in to your dreams :)
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Summary: Legends and Icons
Review: Some recent contact with the more 'popular' versions of the graphic story aroused my curiosity and, when I happened on a copy of this series of stories by Neil Gaiman, I decided to take the plunge. I am a fan of Gaiman's novels, so I felt secure in the choice, although I did not quite know what to expect. Comic books, no matter how long and artful, are still a delivery mechanism for what is primarily plot and action. Gaiman, however, has gone several steps beyond this simplistic viewpoint. This is a cross between serious literature and fine design work. Perhaps the title of the book provides some clues to the over-arching themes of these stories. However, there is more at hand than the conflict between reality and fantasy that is to be expected in anything whose main character is the bringer of dreams. In 'Fear of Falling,' a young actor finds his courage in a frightening dream. And in 'Three Septembers and a January,' we are given the tale of Joshua Norton, the Emperor of the United States, who found happiness in the give of insanity. Then it suddenly is July in revolutionary Paris. Thermidor tells the story of a woman bearing the head of Orpheus, due to sing the song that will end one dream and begin another. Next, a book shows a werewolf lost in a dream of love the path to its reality love. In 'August,' a Roman emperor gains the secret of how to hide from his fears. 'Soft Places' finds Marco Polo wandering the desert separated from his caravan. Or perhaps, he is only wandering in his mind. The grand piece of the book is a lengthy retelling of the legend of Orpheus, which provides some explanation for the future wanderings of his disembodied head. In 'Parliament of Rooks,' the arguments of Cain and Abel invade the sleep of a young child. In the final story Haroun al Raschid, the ruler of Baghdad, bargains with the Lord of Dreams for a special kind of eternity. All the stories are linked by theme and variation, as well as the presence of the Sandman. Perhaps, intentionally, the relationships are vague and hard to pin down, using the touch of chaos to enhance the dreamlike quality. Of course, the advantage is to the author, who needs to tell only enough to keep the reader interested. In addition to the drawn illustrations, the book makes excellent use of digital and photographic work to enhance the effect of the stories themselves. The overall design, the product of Dave McKean, is remarkable, enhancing instead of competing with the stories themselves.
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Summary: Why comics ain't just for kids
Review: The best of the Sandman series. This book has nicer artwork than "The Kindly Ones" and the individual stories are more satisfying, especially "Thermidor," a great history lesson in and of itself. If you are interested in comics, you can't go wrong with this book.
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Summary: The medium of comic books has finally reached its potential
Review: The Sandman series is comic books as high literature and high art. Finally, the potential of the medium is being recognized. Historical figures galore make appearences: Augustus Ceaser, Marco Polo, Tom Paine, and more. Plus the best Werewolf story I've ever read.
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Summary: a good story or two, but as a whole a disappointment
Review: The story about Emperor Norton is a real gem, and possibly worth the price of the book in itself. None of the others are nearly as good. They range from the very enjoyable stories about falling and flying (which perhaps borders on trite but just manages to avoid it) and the other about the Caliph's deal with the dream king to the boring slog about werewolves and the overly long and didactic bit that takes place in the French revolution, which is so far the worst thing I've read that Gaiman has written. Gaiman's take on Orpheus and Eurydice falls somewhere in the middle; I'd call it workmanlike. If it wasn't so important for what comes later in the series it'd be pretty easy to forget. The problem with this book is that it's much weaker than the other collection of stories in the Sandman series that I've read, "Dream Country," but more important to the story as a whole. My recommendation would be borrow this one from a friend or read it in a book store if you don't have the whole set. Your money would be better spent on almost any other book in the series. It isn't bad, it's probably as good or better than anything Garth Ennis, to take a random example, ever wrote, but it is without a doubt the weakest of the Sandman series that I've read so far (I haven't gotten around to "A Game of You" or Worlds End).
Rating:
Summary: a good story or two, but as a whole a disappointment
Review: The story about Emperor Norton is a real gem, and possibly worth the price of the book in itself. None of the others are nearly as good. They range from the very enjoyable stories about falling and flying (which perhaps borders on trite but just manages to avoid it) and the other about the Caliph's deal with the dream king to the boring slog about werewolves and the overly long and didactic bit that takes place in the French revolution, which is so far the worst thing I've read that Gaiman has written. Gaiman's take on Orpheus and Eurydice falls somewhere in the middle; I'd call it workmanlike. If it wasn't so important for what comes later in the series it'd be pretty easy to forget. The problem with this book is that it's much weaker than the other collection of stories in the Sandman series that I've read, "Dream Country," but more important to the story as a whole. My recommendation would be borrow this one from a friend or read it in a book store if you don't have the whole set. Your money would be better spent on almost any other book in the series. It isn't bad, it's probably as good or better than anything Garth Ennis, to take a random example, ever wrote, but it is without a doubt the weakest of the Sandman series that I've read so far (I haven't gotten around to "A Game of You" or Worlds End).
Rating:
Summary: Nine stunning short stories
Review: This book is the first sandman book I have ever read and after reading it once, I am very fascinated by the stories and the plot such as the Three Septembers and a January. This book is a must-read and it will make you read it over and over again with the same fascination when reading the first time. A stunning book!
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