I think Fables and Reflections just might be my favorite Sandman book yet. It contains a series of vignettes that are not technically related but all somehow develop Dream’s/Morpheus’s character and complexity. I’m eager to continue the rest of the series, especially if Gaiman goes forward in several different directions at once. I’d like to talk about two of my favorite stories or episodes in this collection: “The Song of Orpheus” and “Ramadan.” Both involve a retelling of mythology in a way that seems new […]
Barbie’s return
Now that I’ve made it through several volumes of the Sandman series, I am beginning to understand the volumes that I like and those that I just don’t as much. I’m learning that I really, really enjoy the “disconnected” stories that make the collection feel like a collection of short stories more than I do when the volume is linked together by a series of building episodes. A Game of You featured a continuous story that “connects” Dream/Morpheus’s narrative, but it’s not my favorite in […]
More Dream, more weirdness, we all win.
After my deep enjoyment of Dream Country, I worried that I wouldn’t enjoy anything as much as that “Midsummer Night’s Dream” episode. But seriously, that’s foolishness on my part. Neil is a great writer, and I should just trust him, right? Right. While this serial was not my favorite in the series, I did find the enhancement of Dream’s personal narrative to be a worthy one. I think that it complicated the series and Dream himself. This volume seems to connect to Dream’s larger story […]
A series of unconnected dreams
I’ve really been enjoying Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel series, and this installment was no different. While the narrative did not necessarily build on the previous saga, I did enjoy the episodic tales told throughout this collection. I think that Gaiman is a master storyteller, and his short episodes help build up the nature and character of Morpheus/Dream. This time, Dream Country sees Dream in a series of seemingly unrelated stories that are each fascinating, frustrating, or horrifying. “Calliope” follows frustrated writer Richard Madoc who […]