Rating: 
Summary: The Sandman develops
Review: It's never too late for a good story, and the Sandman saga is very good. This collection moves that story forward, mostly in the person of Rose. This book compiles a sequence of regular-sized comic books. The first story here stands by itself - a tribal tale of a place that could, some day, descend from our own time. The rest of the book takes a very ordinary young woman and puts her in an extraordinary world. Taken part by part, it sounds fragmentary and disorganized: a nursing home, a bizarre convention, befriending a place, and facing mortal threat in an immortal world. The pieces all fit, though. They sustain a pace and a visual variety that makes this book hard to put down. Best, however, is the glimpse of intrigue in the Sandmnan's world. We see a little of his own realm, and the plotting of his own minions. We also see his larger world, his sisters, and their covert push against the walls of his domain. This is just the second of a dozen or so collections - there is enough material here to drive that many volumes or more. If you're new to comics, or just new to the Sandman, give this a try. If you already know the Sandman, you're in for one of the best books in the series.
Rating: 
Summary: My own favorite
Review: The Doll's House is my favorite still out of all the other books in the series, and the first one I read. Gaiman has a way of crafting the human characters so they're unrealistically realistic (simple yet complex, childlike and cynical, insightful and ignorant, with an eternal late '80s - early '90s-ish air). Rose Walker has always been my favorite among those. Also Gilbert and the Corinthian make it more memorable (the serial killers' convention, Zelda and Chantell and the others, etc....) Morpheus never appeared kinder or more human(e?).
It means that we're just dolls. We don't have a clue what's really going down, we just kid ourselves that we're in control of our lives while a paper's thickness away things that would drive us mad if we thought about them for too long play with us, and move us around from room to room, and put us away at night when they're tired, or bored.
-- Rose Walker, in The Doll's House
Rating:
Summary: The best arc of the decade's best series
Review: THE DOLL'S HOUSE is the arc that Gaiman himself says is where he realised what he wanted to do with the characters and where he wanted to go with the SANDMAN story. This edition begins with two stories that both stand apart from the rest of the series, but that also both have significant influence on THE DOLL'S HOUSE storyline and beyond. The first, "The Sound of Her Wings" introduces Dream's big sister in a profound and moving tale about the value of spending a day with Death as she goes about her business sending people to their next life. The next tale introduces Nada, Dream's doomed mortal love, who will play a significant part in a later arc, SEASONS OF MISTS. Then, THE DOLL'S HOUSE begins, a tale involving escaped dreams and nightmares, a human vortex and her granmother who had spent the bulk of her life asleep (see the previous PRELUDES AND NOCTURNS), and Dream's quest to prevent the dissolution of his kingdom. What makes Gaiman's writing so unique is that not only does he reject the comic book obligatory of big fist-fights to SAVE THE WORLD (and all that), but that Dream is not even the central character in these stories. Instead, Rose Walker is. It is she, not Dream, who is threatened and who goes on the emotional roller-coaster and it is to find out what happens to her that the reader keeps reading. In fact, Dream - the "hero" of this title - at what point nearly kills her to save his kingdom! Magnificent writing, magical artistry, this story is an absolute must. Buy it. Buy several. It makes a great gift.
Rating:
Summary: Mister Gaiman...bring me a dream...
Review: The Doll's House of the title could be the house where Rose and her roommates live. It could be the antique dollhouse belonging to Unity. Or just maybe it's our universe, or maybe it's every universe. Gaiman makes you think with this one. The "Cereal Convention" is surreal, spooky, and just plain fantastic. And it's so great to look at, as SANDMAN novels tend to be. Neil and Co. are good people.
Rating:
Summary: NOT FOR "UNMATURE" READERS
Review: The only thing that would do fair justice to this book it's not fancy words about the psychologic insights of mr Gaiman's writting style...or the state of the art artwork gracefully diplayed here....or the baudelerian dialogos betwen the characters...no the only thing that could do justice to this book is that giant "wwwwwwwwwooooooowwww" exclamation when you are reading the book and the final words given to it "it was incredible" and that's it
Rating: 
Summary: The rougher, earlier Sandman
Review: The Sandman of the late eighties was not quite the majestic, surreal series that became the most celebrated comic book of the 1990s. Instead, it was an odd mixture of horror, fantasy and typical DC fare. They were loaded with potential but the early issues of Sandman seem rough and awkward compared to the brilliant material of a few years hence. The Doll's House, Sandman's second volume, presents Neil Gaiman's first attempt at a large-scale story arc (The series' first eight issues, collected in Preludes and Nocturnes, were interconnected but were, for the most part, individual episodes). Like most Sandman story arcs, The Doll's House is quite multifaceted. Later, Gaiman would master the art of unfolding intricate story arcs with masterful precision, but on The Doll's House, he has yet to reach his peak. Thus, this is not a great story arc but a cumbersome one that has occasional moments of greatness. It is difficult to recap the plot of The Doll's House, as it is a messy one that slowly unveils itself as the story moves along. The least one must know before delving into any Sandman volume is that the series focuses on the "realm of dreams," and its ruler, Morpheus, a God-like being with the attitude of a morose 20-something. The Doll's House finds the dream king tracking down several inhabitants of his dominion who fled during the decades he was imprisoned by a sorcerer (see Preludes and Nocturnes) and also dealing with a "dream vortex" that has manifested itself in a punk-ish young woman named Rose Walker. Rose is searching for her lost brother, Jed, who is locked in the cellar of his abusive aunt and uncle. Given his connection to the dream vortex, it is no coincidence that Jed is experiencing strange dreams involving The Fury and The Silver Scarab of the superhero team, Infinity Inc. Although the larger story of The Doll's House does not quite succeed, two episodes that stand somewhat independently of it do. One is "Collectors," in which Rose's search somehow brings her to a trade convention for serial killers. This tale is ingenious; a horror story that is somehow funny, terrifying and wholly original at the same time. The other is the prelude, "Tales in the Sand," in which an African tribesman indoctrinates his grandson into manhood by telling him the legend a queen and her tragic love affair with Morpheus. This chapter first demonstrated Gaiman's appreciation of indigenous folklore and his remarkable ability to weave it into the Sandman mythos. It is moments like these in which one can see Sandman shaping into something wonderful. However, when the focus is on the Walker siblings, the missing denizens of the dream world, a couple of obscure superheroes and the confusing connections between them, The Doll's House is a frustrating read at best.
Rating:
Summary: Scary, resonant, and wonderful
Review: The Sandman series got off to a good start with the eight issues included in the first collection, "Preludes and Nocturnes," but the series really hit its stride with the storyline collected in "The Doll's House." The story focuses on Rose Walker, a young woman whose life has become completely tangled with events in the Dreaming (she just doesn't know it yet). It's a great self-contained graphic novel, with themes of death and rebirth, and it also sets up things that will come back to haunt Morpheus several books later. There are moments of genuine terror, like the serial killers' convention, and some great laughs too, like the snarky reference to the 1970s DC Sandman (who is vastly different from Morpheus). Even if you read the first collection and didn't like it, you haven't really given Sandman a chance unless you take a look at "The Doll's House."
Rating:
Summary: Sandman still cleaning house
Review: This book depicts Dream going through collecting various dreams and nightmares which have escaped into the waking world. I found the most interesting parts were the independent short story about a man made immortal due to a boast in a bar, and the fairy tales told in their "original" form. I don't know if this really was their original form, but I liked them a lot. The corithian was an interesting touch, though the "cereal convention" (the conventions of serial murderers) was sort of lame. Still not Sandman at its best.
Rating:
Summary: This is the book that hooked me!
Review: This is one of the best story's I've ever been prevy to. It makes use of classical, timeless elements of storytelling to hip, new contempo storytelling with sylized visuals. This book from the incomparable mind of Neil Gaiman is the one that made sure I'd follow through with the rest of the series. Morpheus begins to take shape, and "The Sound of Her Wings" was beautifully written and a great installation, as was the story of the man who got his immortal wish, which while it may not have contributed much to the main story arc, it definetely let us peer a little deeper into the king of dreams and his sister Death. The prelude to the Doll's House was extremely well told and extremely believeable. Also, the continuity Gaiman managed to keep between the first book and this one makes one wonder if Gaiman's not a supernatural being himself...This book is filled with all the elements of a great story: Strong characters who never reveal too much, a chiling story, witty dialogue, and thought provoking statements that keep your mind busy long after you've read the last panel. Not to mention the fact that the chapter dedicated solely to Rose, Fiddler's Green, and the "Cereal Con" was genuinely frightening! A great read, and also a perfect introduction to Sandman, Gaiman, and the world of comics in general.
Rating:
Summary: The best arc in a great series . . .
Review: This is the best of the Sandman collected volumes. It is frightening, lyrical, and moving all the same time. Gaiman really knows how to tell a story, and the occasional cliched language in some of the other volumes is not apparent here. This is sharp writing--- and gorgeous artwork--- from beginning to end.
|
