A little on the short side, but still an excellent collection, 22 Aug 2008
The third Sandman collection represents a change of pace from the first two. Whilst the first two were unified by a central story arc that ran through each one, Dream Country is essentially a short story collection, featuring four tales that although self-contained, do illuminate parts of the backstory and the ongoing overall storylines of the entire series.

The first story is Calliope. A young writer, Richard Madoc, has a bad case of writer's block following the success of his first novel. In desperation he turns to the occult to find a way out of his problem and enlists the help of Erasmus Fry, an elderly author and successful playwright. It turns out that Fry owes his success to his imprisonment of Calliope, one of the nine muses of antiquity (and the former muse of Homer), and he passes control of Calliope over to Madoc. By holding her hostage and abusing her, Madoc gains the inspiration he needs and becomes a bestselling writer, churning out novels, a poetry collection, screenplays and even becoming a gifted director. Unfortunately for Madoc, he is unaware that Calliope is also the former lover of one of the Endless...

This is an interesting story. The notion of 'the muse' is explored here, although the literal personification of Calliope can be substituted for whatever a writer uses for inspiration. The abuse and over-use of the muse resulting in a horrendous case of writer's block, perhaps permanantly, is an interesting idea to use for a story, but it works well. We also get some intriguing backstory for The Sandman overall, including the tantalising revelation that somewhere out there Morpheus has a son (although those who know their Greek mythology will be way ahead of the game here). For those interested in writing graphic novels and comics, the complete script for Calliope is included in the book as well.

The second story is much more straightforward and fun. The Dream of a Thousand Cats sees a cat travelling the world, preaching a message to all the other cats, and we see the impact of that message on a young kitten. This story has been called 'cute' but it really isn't. The dream the cat is trying to bring into reality really isn't very nice (especially for humans) and the final line and image are brilliantly contrasted with what is going on in the cat's mind. This is as self-contained as Sandman stories come, and shows Gaiman's wit and imagination in full flower.

The third story is the legendary A Midsummer Night's Dream. Back in Men of Good Fortune (included in The Doll's House), Dream and William Shakespeare made a deal whereby Dream would give Shakespeare access to a font of imagination in return for Shakespeare writing two plays for him. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first, written for Dream to show as a piece of entertainment to the real faerie king and queen, Auberon and Titania, who return to the mortal plane with their retainers for the occasion.

This is a splendid, clever story which rightfully won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. As the play unfolds events offstage are illuminated by it: Titania's enchantment of Shakespeare's son (who died several years later), Robin Goodfellow (Puck)'s irritation at being portrayed by a mortal and the running commentary provided by several of the faerie court viewing the play, with some disagreement about whether they should congratulate the mortals for their art or eat them. There's also some more scene-setting for later stories (an invitation is extended to Dream who hasn't followed up on it by four centuries later). The highlight of the collection, this is an amusing story, although probably of most interest to established Shakespeare fans.

The final story is Facade, about an extremely obscure DC hero who finds herself lost and lonely, living in her apartment with a weekly conversation with the guy who signs her pension cheques as the highlight of her week. This is a somewhat bleak story about a hero with the power to save the world but who loses herself in the process, but it is given an uplifting ending by the arrival of Death, who is fleshed out a lot more here than in her previous brief appearances.

Dream Country (****) is an excellent addition to The Sandman mythos, although it can be criticised for being on the short side (collecting only four issues, compared to the previous two collections' eight apiece) and only padded out to a reasonable length by the Calliope script. But the quality of the actual stories more than makes up for it.

A Great Collection Of Short Stories......., 02 Jun 2005
As I said in my review of Sandman: "Fables & Reflections", Neil and the team would write short, self-contained stories between the big ones (in order to attract new readers).

The stories here are more horror-based than those of "Fables." My favourite is "Caliope" - the tale of a writer's need for inspiration, and the depths to which he'll sink to find it.

The other three stories star Lady Death, William Shakespeare and a Cat with a dream.

If you enjoyed the "Fables" collection then this is a must. Or check-out "Fables & Reflections" next if you like this volume.

On a side note, I should mention the size of this book. Compared to other titles in the series, this is by far the smallest. It wouldn't be so bad, except a big portion of the book is dedicated to reprinting one of Neil's story scripts. As a writer myself, I found this interesting. But most people buy Sandman for the stories, and I can imagine many being a tad narked since this precious space could have been used to squeeze-in another great tale.

That aside... DEFINITELY a superb read. Sandman is the business, folks!

the worst of an amazing series, 17 Jun 2003
I was pretty disappointed with this edition in the series as it is far too short! Four decent but emphatically short stories and a large section devoted to the script of the first of these stories is as somebody else noted, a huge cop out. You simply do not get value for money here. The stories themselves whilst perfectly enjoyable are far from the (extraordinarily high) standards which I have come to expect with the other Sandman novels. It is certainly worth reading but borrow a friends copy. Only for those who wish to complete the series.

Gorgeous., 07 Apr 2001
This is the one that hooked me on Sandman. I now have almost everything Gaiman has ever written. So this was a good starting point for me. There is a large portion of the book devoted to the script for Calliope, which is probably annoying if you are a first-time reader of Sandman, but brilliant if you're an obbsessive, like me! There are four short stories, each of which is a fine example of why Gaiman has become so famous now. My personal favourite is 'Calliope' which reveals a few things about Morpheus, the Sandman of the title. If you're a first time reader of Gaiman's graphic work, then I'd start off with 'Preludes and Nocturnes', the first in the series, but if you've already read his work, you won't be disappointed. I only direct you to the first in the series because its annoying to read things backwards, and once you've read a bit of 'The Sandman' you'll read all of it. I guarantee.

Disappointing, 19 Mar 2001
I loved the first 2 in the Sandman series but I found this very uninteresting. Maybe I was expecting too much with the first two books having set the scene so well but I just found all of the stories somewhat pedestrian and aimless. The last fifth of the book (the original script for the 1st story) is one of the biggest cop outs that i've ever come across. These books are more expensive than most and don't last that long so to see such a large portion of the book devoted to satisfying the curiosity of a small proportion of the readership is scandalous.

A little on the short side, but still an excellent collection, 22 Aug 2008
The third Sandman collection represents a change of pace from the first two. Whilst the first two were unified by a central story arc that ran through each one, Dream Country is essentially a short story collection, featuring four tales that although self-contained, do illuminate parts of the backstory and the ongoing overall storylines of the entire series.

The first story is Calliope. A young writer, Richard Madoc, has a bad case of writer's block following the success of his first novel. In desperation he turns to the occult to find a way out of his problem and enlists the help of Erasmus Fry, an elderly author and successful playwright. It turns out that Fry owes his success to his imprisonment of Calliope, one of the nine muses of antiquity (and the former muse of Homer), and he passes control of Calliope over to Madoc. By holding her hostage and abusing her, Madoc gains the inspiration he needs and becomes a bestselling writer, churning out novels, a poetry collection, screenplays and even becoming a gifted director. Unfortunately for Madoc, he is unaware that Calliope is also the former lover of one of the Endless...

This is an interesting story. The notion of 'the muse' is explored here, although the literal personification of Calliope can be substituted for whatever a writer uses for inspiration. The abuse and over-use of the muse resulting in a horrendous case of writer's block, perhaps permanantly, is an interesting idea to use for a story, but it works well. We also get some intriguing backstory for The Sandman overall, including the tantalising revelation that somewhere out there Morpheus has a son (although those who know their Greek mythology will be way ahead of the game here). For those interested in writing graphic novels and comics, the complete script for Calliope is included in the book as well.

The second story is much more straightforward and fun. The Dream of a Thousand Cats sees a cat travelling the world, preaching a message to all the other cats, and we see the impact of that message on a young kitten. This story has been called 'cute' but it really isn't. The dream the cat is trying to bring into reality really isn't very nice (especially for humans) and the final line and image are brilliantly contrasted with what is going on in the cat's mind. This is as self-contained as Sandman stories come, and shows Gaiman's wit and imagination in full flower.

The third story is the legendary A Midsummer Night's Dream. Back in Men of Good Fortune (included in The Doll's House), Dream and William Shakespeare made a deal whereby Dream would give Shakespeare access to a font of imagination in return for Shakespeare writing two plays for him. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first, written for Dream to show as a piece of entertainment to the real faerie king and queen, Auberon and Titania, who return to the mortal plane with their retainers for the occasion.

This is a splendid, clever story which rightfully won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. As the play unfolds events offstage are illuminated by it: Titania's enchantment of Shakespeare's son (who died several years later), Robin Goodfellow (Puck)'s irritation at being portrayed by a mortal and the running commentary provided by several of the faerie court viewing the play, with some disagreement about whether they should congratulate the mortals for their art or eat them. There's also some more scene-setting for later stories (an invitation is extended to Dream who hasn't followed up on it by four centuries later). The highlight of the collection, this is an amusing story, although probably of most interest to established Shakespeare fans.

The final story is Facade, about an extremely obscure DC hero who finds herself lost and lonely, living in her apartment with a weekly conversation with the guy who signs her pension cheques as the highlight of her week. This is a somewhat bleak story about a hero with the power to save the world but who loses herself in the process, but it is given an uplifting ending by the arrival of Death, who is fleshed out a lot more here than in her previous brief appearances.

Dream Country (****) is an excellent addition to The Sandman mythos, although it can be criticised for being on the short side (collecting only four issues, compared to the previous two collections' eight apiece) and only padded out to a reasonable length by the Calliope script. But the quality of the actual stories more than makes up for it.

A Great Collection Of Short Stories......., 02 Jun 2005
As I said in my review of Sandman: "Fables & Reflections", Neil and the team would write short, self-contained stories between the big ones (in order to attract new readers).

The stories here are more horror-based than those of "Fables." My favourite is "Caliope" - the tale of a writer's need for inspiration, and the depths to which he'll sink to find it.

The other three stories star Lady Death, William Shakespeare and a Cat with a dream.

If you enjoyed the "Fables" collection then this is a must. Or check-out "Fables & Reflections" next if you like this volume.

On a side note, I should mention the size of this book. Compared to other titles in the series, this is by far the smallest. It wouldn't be so bad, except a big portion of the book is dedicated to reprinting one of Neil's story scripts. As a writer myself, I found this interesting. But most people buy Sandman for the stories, and I can imagine many being a tad narked since this precious space could have been used to squeeze-in another great tale.

That aside... DEFINITELY a superb read. Sandman is the business, folks!

the worst of an amazing series, 17 Jun 2003
I was pretty disappointed with this edition in the series as it is far too short! Four decent but emphatically short stories and a large section devoted to the script of the first of these stories is as somebody else noted, a huge cop out. You simply do not get value for money here. The stories themselves whilst perfectly enjoyable are far from the (extraordinarily high) standards which I have come to expect with the other Sandman novels. It is certainly worth reading but borrow a friends copy. Only for those who wish to complete the series.

Gorgeous., 07 Apr 2001
This is the one that hooked me on Sandman. I now have almost everything Gaiman has ever written. So this was a good starting point for me. There is a large portion of the book devoted to the script for Calliope, which is probably annoying if you are a first-time reader of Sandman, but brilliant if you're an obbsessive, like me! There are four short stories, each of which is a fine example of why Gaiman has become so famous now. My personal favourite is 'Calliope' which reveals a few things about Morpheus, the Sandman of the title. If you're a first time reader of Gaiman's graphic work, then I'd start off with 'Preludes and Nocturnes', the first in the series, but if you've already read his work, you won't be disappointed. I only direct you to the first in the series because its annoying to read things backwards, and once you've read a bit of 'The Sandman' you'll read all of it. I guarantee.

Disappointing, 19 Mar 2001
I loved the first 2 in the Sandman series but I found this very uninteresting. Maybe I was expecting too much with the first two books having set the scene so well but I just found all of the stories somewhat pedestrian and aimless. The last fifth of the book (the original script for the 1st story) is one of the biggest cop outs that i've ever come across. These books are more expensive than most and don't last that long so to see such a large portion of the book devoted to satisfying the curiosity of a small proportion of the readership is scandalous.

A splendid story about Hell, 27 Aug 2008
The fourth Sandman collection finally follows up on the promise that Lucifer made to destroy Morpheus back in the opening collection. Destiny summons the Endless to a meeting, where we meet Delirium (who used to be Delight) for the first time and get some more information about the missing brother of the Endless. During the meeting Desire baits Dream about the treatment of his lover Nada, whom he banished to Hell for spurning him. Dream realises he/she is right, and resolves to travel to Hell and rescue his former lover, despite Lucifer's vow.

Season of Mists takes Dream on a journey into Hell and a confrontation with the Morningstar...but not the type of confrontation he was expecting. Dream ends up, slightly bemused, as the keeper of the key to Hell, and is soon being petitioned by gods and representatives from many pantheons (including the gods of Chaos and Order, and deities from the Egyptian, Norse and Japanese pantheons) anxious to get their hands on the finest plot of real estate in the multiverse, at the same time as he is also trying to find his missing love, and Death is attempting to repair the damage caused by countless legions of the dead suddenly being released back into the mortal world.

After the short story interlude of Dream Country, it's good to be back to a solid, long story arc. Although it's a reasonably long tale it's not the most dynamic story in the Sandman canon, and unusually most of it takes place in the Dreaming with only a few scenes set in the real world, and a longer chunk set in Hell. This allows us to see a bit more of the Dreaming and its inhabitants, but the meat of the story is seeing how the different pantheons interact together and who actually has the best claim on Hell.

As usual, Gaiman fills the story with neat little details and touches. The notion of there being a library in the Dreaming where all the books writers dreamed of writing but never got round to it is a fascinating one, and it's amusing to see books there such as Tolkien's The Lost Road (which was supposed to be a big story about his island kingdom of Numenor, but he abandoned it after a few pages). Elsewhere there are nods back to earlier stories: when Dream fears he may be destroyed in Hell, he decides to make time for a brief drink with his friend Hob Gadling, although they are not due to meet for another ninety-nine years. He also looks in on the newly-born son of Hector and Lyta Hall and gives him a name, Daniel, to Lyta's rage and horror. Elsewhere there's nice touches about the various gods, such as Chaos being personified as a young girl and Order as a carboard box, and Thor trying to impress some of the female deities present with his hammer, which gets bigger if you rub it (which is mythologically accurate)! Finally, we get a glimpse into the Sandman's collection of artefacts he has accumulated over the years, and see the skull of the Corinthian, a city trapped in a bottle and an old pocket watch, all of which are explored in future stories, in some cases years down the line.

As with previous collections, Gaiman interrupts the linear narrative of the story to give us a self-contained story in the middle of the collection which nevertheless comments on the action around it. A young boy left alone at boarding school for the holidays (after his father is among the hostages taken by Saddam Hussein in the build-up to the Gulf War) is suddenly joined by all those who died in the school over the previous century or so. It's a rather grim story, but ends on an interesting, optimistic note.

Season of Mists (****) isn't quite up there with the best of the Sandman collections. It is a tad overlong given its relative lack of actual incident, but for expanding our knowledge and understanding about Hell and the Dreaming, for introducing important new characters (particularly Daniel, Cluracan and Nuala) and for resolving the Nada storyline, it does a great job. The graphic novel is available from Titan in the UK and Vertigo in the USA, and forms the opening part of The Absolute Sandman, Volume II, available from Vertigo in the UK and USA.

Graphic Novels: A Newbie's Thoughts, 28 Aug 2007
I'm new to the genre and so feel qualified to give an more lucid account of this series than the 'avid fan' who believes Gaiman can do no wrong.

They are potentially very good indeed: excellently drawn and presented and the story builds extremely well, introducing characters and even sub-plots that aren't directly to do with the main story, but give the context of the whole-a nice tool. What lets this down is the ending. It whimpers and limps to an unsatisfying ending that left me rather empty and cold. This is rapidly becoming my feeling about the whole Sandman series up to this point and it's such an all-pervading feeling that I'm considering not bothering to read the rest of the series. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I suspect not, because I find Gaiman's 'Death' graphic novels (a spin-off character) much more satisfying in every way an the most salient difference between the Death books and the Sandman series are the endings.

In conclusion, this is well presented in every way, but if you like resolute endings where you can sit back and feel contented, then I believe you'll be slightly disappointed with this book. If you like a vagueness to the conclusions of your reading-and some do- then jump in with both feet.


Easily the BEST in the series!, 18 May 2005
I own the entire Sandman Library and in my opinion, this is the GREATEST volume of them all!

I started as a fan of Mike Carey's "LUCIFER" and bought "SEASON OF MISTS" because it's the prelude to the Lucifer series. Not only was it terrific from a Lucifer fan's perspective, but the overall story blew me away.

I'll even go so far as to suggest that new readers start here. You'll be treated to an EXCELLENT Sandman story, and a perfect introduction to all the other members of the Sandman's family (a group of god-like entities called "The Endless" who appear throughout the series).

"Season Of Mists" is a tale of horror, revenge, trickery and fun. There's even a short story about a haunted Boarding School thrown-in as a kind of interlude from the non-stop action.

Buy it... you won't be disappointed!

Fantastic, 21 Jul 2000
Don't make the mistake most people do,this is not just a comic book.Neil Gaiman tells a very fine story,and one that will have you thinking for a long time after you have finished it.

Beyond the limits of the Endless, 01 Jun 1999
If you read only one Sandman novel in your life, let it be this one. Although some background reading is advised it is not necessary, all you need is an open mind to accept the extreme intermingling of theology and mythology - past AND present, and an open heart to welcome the characters that will touch it in ways you would never expect "comic" book characters to ever do.

You cannot help but feel sorry for Morpheus, as he wanders around his palace with his lonely wistful eyes. A romantic at heart, he desperately craves the comfort and solitude found in companionship, but his fate as set out by his brother Destiny, is to self-destruct any chance he has of finding true happiness before his end.

It is this pain and stubborness that leds to the beginning of this beautiful tale, of cruelty, of the subconscious of man, and eventually to betrayl and redemption. God in this world, is cruel but loving, and will not hestitate to sacrifice one of his own to equalise the balance in the world.

The resolution of the story is at once complete and incomplete. Although Gaiman's tale has been told, it leaves us aching for more, a very rare sign of an extremely good writer,which of course, is what Gaiman is.

"Wake up, sir. We're here". It's a simple enough opening line--although not many would have guessed back in 1991 that this would lead to one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comics of the second half of the century.

In Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman weaves the story of a man interested in capturing the physical manifestation of Death but who instead captures the King of Dreams. By Gaiman's own admission there's a lot in this first collection that is awkward and ungainly--which is not to say there are not frequent moments of greatness here. The chapter "24 Hours" is worth the price of the book alone; it stands as one of the most chilling examples of horror in comics. And let's not underestimate Gaiman's achievement of personifying Death as a perky, overly cheery, cute goth girl! All in all, there is a roguish breaking of new ground in this book which is preferable to the often dull precision of the concluding volumes of the Sandman series. --Jim Pascoe

A little on the short side, but still an excellent collection, 22 Aug 2008
The third Sandman collection represents a change of pace from the first two. Whilst the first two were unified by a central story arc that ran through each one, Dream Country is essentially a short story collection, featuring four tales that although self-contained, do illuminate parts of the backstory and the ongoing overall storylines of the entire series.

The first story is Calliope. A young writer, Richard Madoc, has a bad case of writer's block following the success of his first novel. In desperation he turns to the occult to find a way out of his problem and enlists the help of Erasmus Fry, an elderly author and successful playwright. It turns out that Fry owes his success to his imprisonment of Calliope, one of the nine muses of antiquity (and the former muse of Homer), and he passes control of Calliope over to Madoc. By holding her hostage and abusing her, Madoc gains the inspiration he needs and becomes a bestselling writer, churning out novels, a poetry collection, screenplays and even becoming a gifted director. Unfortunately for Madoc, he is unaware that Calliope is also the former lover of one of the Endless...

This is an interesting story. The notion of 'the muse' is explored here, although the literal personification of Calliope can be substituted for whatever a writer uses for inspiration. The abuse and over-use of the muse resulting in a horrendous case of writer's block, perhaps permanantly, is an interesting idea to use for a story, but it works well. We also get some intriguing backstory for The Sandman overall, including the tantalising revelation that somewhere out there Morpheus has a son (although those who know their Greek mythology will be way ahead of the game here). For those interested in writing graphic novels and comics, the complete script for Calliope is included in the book as well.

The second story is much more straightforward and fun. The Dream of a Thousand Cats sees a cat travelling the world, preaching a message to all the other cats, and we see the impact of that message on a young kitten. This story has been called 'cute' but it really isn't. The dream the cat is trying to bring into reality really isn't very nice (especially for humans) and the final line and image are brilliantly contrasted with what is going on in the cat's mind. This is as self-contained as Sandman stories come, and shows Gaiman's wit and imagination in full flower.

The third story is the legendary A Midsummer Night's Dream. Back in Men of Good Fortune (included in The Doll's House), Dream and William Shakespeare made a deal whereby Dream would give Shakespeare access to a font of imagination in return for Shakespeare writing two plays for him. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first, written for Dream to show as a piece of entertainment to the real faerie king and queen, Auberon and Titania, who return to the mortal plane with their retainers for the occasion.

This is a splendid, clever story which rightfully won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. As the play unfolds events offstage are illuminated by it: Titania's enchantment of Shakespeare's son (who died several years later), Robin Goodfellow (Puck)'s irritation at being portrayed by a mortal and the running commentary provided by several of the faerie court viewing the play, with some disagreement about whether they should congratulate the mortals for their art or eat them. There's also some more scene-setting for later stories (an invitation is extended to Dream who hasn't followed up on it by four centuries later). The highlight of the collection, this is an amusing story, although probably of most interest to established Shakespeare fans.

The final story is Facade, about an extremely obscure DC hero who finds herself lost and lonely, living in her apartment with a weekly conversation with the guy who signs her pension cheques as the highlight of her week. This is a somewhat bleak story about a hero with the power to save the world but who loses herself in the process, but it is given an uplifting ending by the arrival of Death, who is fleshed out a lot more here than in her previous brief appearances.

Dream Country (****) is an excellent addition to The Sandman mythos, although it can be criticised for being on the short side (collecting only four issues, compared to the previous two collections' eight apiece) and only padded out to a reasonable length by the Calliope script. But the quality of the actual stories more than makes up for it.

A Great Collection Of Short Stories......., 02 Jun 2005
As I said in my review of Sandman: "Fables & Reflections", Neil and the team would write short, self-contained stories between the big ones (in order to attract new readers).

The stories here are more horror-based than those of "Fables." My favourite is "Caliope" - the tale of a writer's need for inspiration, and the depths to which he'll sink to find it.

The other three stories star Lady Death, William Shakespeare and a Cat with a dream.

If you enjoyed the "Fables" collection then this is a must. Or check-out "Fables & Reflections" next if you like this volume.

On a side note, I should mention the size of this book. Compared to other titles in the series, this is by far the smallest. It wouldn't be so bad, except a big portion of the book is dedicated to reprinting one of Neil's story scripts. As a writer myself, I found this interesting. But most people buy Sandman for the stories, and I can imagine many being a tad narked since this precious space could have been used to squeeze-in another great tale.

That aside... DEFINITELY a superb read. Sandman is the business, folks!

the worst of an amazing series, 17 Jun 2003
I was pretty disappointed with this edition in the series as it is far too short! Four decent but emphatically short stories and a large section devoted to the script of the first of these stories is as somebody else noted, a huge cop out. You simply do not get value for money here. The stories themselves whilst perfectly enjoyable are far from the (extraordinarily high) standards which I have come to expect with the other Sandman novels. It is certainly worth reading but borrow a friends copy. Only for those who wish to complete the series.

Gorgeous., 07 Apr 2001
This is the one that hooked me on Sandman. I now have almost everything Gaiman has ever written. So this was a good starting point for me. There is a large portion of the book devoted to the script for Calliope, which is probably annoying if you are a first-time reader of Sandman, but brilliant if you're an obbsessive, like me! There are four short stories, each of which is a fine example of why Gaiman has become so famous now. My personal favourite is 'Calliope' which reveals a few things about Morpheus, the Sandman of the title. If you're a first time reader of Gaiman's graphic work, then I'd start off with 'Preludes and Nocturnes', the first in the series, but if you've already read his work, you won't be disappointed. I only direct you to the first in the series because its annoying to read things backwards, and once you've read a bit of 'The Sandman' you'll read all of it. I guarantee.

Disappointing, 19 Mar 2001
I loved the first 2 in the Sandman series but I found this very uninteresting. Maybe I was expecting too much with the first two books having set the scene so well but I just found all of the stories somewhat pedestrian and aimless. The last fifth of the book (the original script for the 1st story) is one of the biggest cop outs that i've ever come across. These books are more expensive than most and don't last that long so to see such a large portion of the book devoted to satisfying the curiosity of a small proportion of the readership is scandalous.

A splendid story about Hell, 27 Aug 2008
The fourth Sandman collection finally follows up on the promise that Lucifer made to destroy Morpheus back in the opening collection. Destiny summons the Endless to a meeting, where we meet Delirium (who used to be Delight) for the first time and get some more information about the missing brother of the Endless. During the meeting Desire baits Dream about the treatment of his lover Nada, whom he banished to Hell for spurning him. Dream realises he/she is right, and resolves to travel to Hell and rescue his former lover, despite Lucifer's vow.

Season of Mists takes Dream on a journey into Hell and a confrontation with the Morningstar...but not the type of confrontation he was expecting. Dream ends up, slightly bemused, as the keeper of the key to Hell, and is soon being petitioned by gods and representatives from many pantheons (including the gods of Chaos and Order, and deities from the Egyptian, Norse and Japanese pantheons) anxious to get their hands on the finest plot of real estate in the multiverse, at the same time as he is also trying to find his missing love, and Death is attempting to repair the damage caused by countless legions of the dead suddenly being released back into the mortal world.

After the short story interlude of Dream Country, it's good to be back to a solid, long story arc. Although it's a reasonably long tale it's not the most dynamic story in the Sandman canon, and unusually most of it takes place in the Dreaming with only a few scenes set in the real world, and a longer chunk set in Hell. This allows us to see a bit more of the Dreaming and its inhabitants, but the meat of the story is seeing how the different pantheons interact together and who actually has the best claim on Hell.

As usual, Gaiman fills the story with neat little details and touches. The notion of there being a library in the Dreaming where all the books writers dreamed of writing but never got round to it is a fascinating one, and it's amusing to see books there such as Tolkien's The Lost Road (which was supposed to be a big story about his island kingdom of Numenor, but he abandoned it after a few pages). Elsewhere there are nods back to earlier stories: when Dream fears he may be destroyed in Hell, he decides to make time for a brief drink with his friend Hob Gadling, although they are not due to meet for another ninety-nine years. He also looks in on the newly-born son of Hector and Lyta Hall and gives him a name, Daniel, to Lyta's rage and horror. Elsewhere there's nice touches about the various gods, such as Chaos being personified as a young girl and Order as a carboard box, and Thor trying to impress some of the female deities present with his hammer, which gets bigger if you rub it (which is mythologically accurate)! Finally, we get a glimpse into the Sandman's collection of artefacts he has accumulated over the years, and see the skull of the Corinthian, a city trapped in a bottle and an old pocket watch, all of which are explored in future stories, in some cases years down the line.

As with previous collections, Gaiman interrupts the linear narrative of the story to give us a self-contained story in the middle of the collection which nevertheless comments on the action around it. A young boy left alone at boarding school for the holidays (after his father is among the hostages taken by Saddam Hussein in the build-up to the Gulf War) is suddenly joined by all those who died in the school over the previous century or so. It's a rather grim story, but ends on an interesting, optimistic note.

Season of Mists (****) isn't quite up there with the best of the Sandman collections. It is a tad overlong given its relative lack of actual incident, but for expanding our knowledge and understanding about Hell and the Dreaming, for introducing important new characters (particularly Daniel, Cluracan and Nuala) and for resolving the Nada storyline, it does a great job. The graphic novel is available from Titan in the UK and Vertigo in the USA, and forms the opening part of The Absolute Sandman, Volume II, available from Vertigo in the UK and USA.

Graphic Novels: A Newbie's Thoughts, 28 Aug 2007
I'm new to the genre and so feel qualified to give an more lucid account of this series than the 'avid fan' who believes Gaiman can do no wrong.

They are potentially very good indeed: excellently drawn and presented and the story builds extremely well, introducing characters and even sub-plots that aren't directly to do with the main story, but give the context of the whole-a nice tool. What lets this down is the ending. It whimpers and limps to an unsatisfying ending that left me rather empty and cold. This is rapidly becoming my feeling about the whole Sandman series up to this point and it's such an all-pervading feeling that I'm considering not bothering to read the rest of the series. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I suspect not, because I find Gaiman's 'Death' graphic novels (a spin-off character) much more satisfying in every way an the most salient difference between the Death books and the Sandman series are the endings.

In conclusion, this is well presented in every way, but if you like resolute endings where you can sit back and feel contented, then I believe you'll be slightly disappointed with this book. If you like a vagueness to the conclusions of your reading-and some do- then jump in with both feet.


Easily the BEST in the series!, 18 May 2005
I own the entire Sandman Library and in my opinion, this is the GREATEST volume of them all!

I started as a fan of Mike Carey's "LUCIFER" and bought "SEASON OF MISTS" because it's the prelude to the Lucifer series. Not only was it terrific from a Lucifer fan's perspective, but the overall story blew me away.

I'll even go so far as to suggest that new readers start here. You'll be treated to an EXCELLENT Sandman story, and a perfect introduction to all the other members of the Sandman's family (a group of god-like entities called "The Endless" who appear throughout the series).

"Season Of Mists" is a tale of horror, revenge, trickery and fun. There's even a short story about a haunted Boarding School thrown-in as a kind of interlude from the non-stop action.

Buy it... you won't be disappointed!

Fantastic, 21 Jul 2000
Don't make the mistake most people do,this is not just a comic book.Neil Gaiman tells a very fine story,and one that will have you thinking for a long time after you have finished it.

Beyond the limits of the Endless, 01 Jun 1999
If you read only one Sandman novel in your life, let it be this one. Although some background reading is advised it is not necessary, all you need is an open mind to accept the extreme intermingling of theology and mythology - past AND present, and an open heart to welcome the characters that will touch it in ways you would never expect "comic" book characters to ever do.

You cannot help but feel sorry for Morpheus, as he wanders around his palace with his lonely wistful eyes. A romantic at heart, he desperately craves the comfort and solitude found in companionship, but his fate as set out by his brother Destiny, is to self-destruct any chance he has of finding true happiness before his end.

It is this pain and stubborness that leds to the beginning of this beautiful tale, of cruelty, of the subconscious of man, and eventually to betrayl and redemption. God in this world, is cruel but loving, and will not hestitate to sacrifice one of his own to equalise the balance in the world.

The resolution of the story is at once complete and incomplete. Although Gaiman's tale has been told, it leaves us aching for more, a very rare sign of an extremely good writer,which of course, is what Gaiman is.

A strong improvement over the first volume, 15 Aug 2008
The second Sandman collection picks up from the last one, with the Sandman continuing the process of restoring the Dreaming to its proper state, and also introduces a whole slew of new characters and storylines that will continue to resonate within the series until its very end.

Rose Walker and her mother travel from the USA to the UK to mee an unknown benefactor who has paid for their trip. The benefactor turns out to be Unity Kincaid, a victim of the sleeping sickness that swept across the world between 1916 and 1989, whilst Morpheus was imprisoned by Burgess. Whilst she was sleeping, Unity was raped by an unknown assailant, and had a baby, who turns out to be Rose's mother. Rose and her mother are stunned by this revelation, but Rose also takes advantage of the financial largesse of her very wealthy grandmother to undertake a search for her brother Jed, who disappeared several years ago.

At the same time, Morpheus has detected the forming of a 'vortex', a dangerous focii of dream-energy that could disrupt the dreams of the entire human race and kill them. Before he can shut down the vortex, which takes the form of a person, he decides to use it as bait to lure out several inhabitants of the Dreaming who fled to the waking world during his imprisonment, such as the thoroughly amoral Brute and Glob, the personified dream-place Fiddler's Green and the Corinthian, created by Morpheus to be the 'ultimate nightmare'. This results in Rose and her family being placed in extreme jeopardy.

Several other stories are also wrapped around this one: we learn why the Sandman's former lover, Nada, was glimpsed in Hell in the opening volume. We learn that his younger brother/sister Desire is plotting something behind his back. We also meet arguably the Sandman's only true human friend, Hob Gadling, from whom the touch of Death was lifted in 1389, making him immortal. Once a century Hob and Dream meet at the same pub and compare notes on how their lives have unfolded over the past century. This story, Men of Good Fortune, is a stunning piece of work and one of the seminal chapters of The Sandman (alongside the likes of The Sound of Her Wings from the first collection and the forthcoming Midsummer Night's Dream, Three Septembers and a January, The Dream of a Thousand Cats and Ramadan). It also introduces Will Shakespeare, whose amazing writing skills are revealed to be the result of a pact made with Dream, in return for which Shakespeare agrees to pen two special plays for Dream. But more on them when they appear.

The Doll's House represents a quantum leap forward in Neil Gaiman's writing and storytelling abilities. So many storylines revisited in future stories are set up it's pretty breathtaking, from linking this version of the Sandman to the previous DC one (an ineffective, slightly bumbling human crime-fighter called Hector Hall) to the establishing of numerous characters we will meet again later (such as Lyta Hall) and the establishing of several new regular characters, such as Matthew, Death's new raven, and Fiddler's Green. It also features one of Gaiman's most effective moments of horror, with a convention for serial killers (inspired by the World Fantasy Conventions of the mid-1980s) giving rise to moments of both disgust and jet-black humour (panels on deconstructing the stereotypes of female serial killers or how to make money from your hobby). There's also some nice tributes to other comics: as well as the 1970s version of The Sandman we also get a pastiche of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland strips. As well as the obvious nod to Shakespeare we also get to meet Christopher Marlowe (who is dismissive of Shakespeare's first play, Henry VI, whilst his own masterwork Faustus is getting vast amounts of acclaim).

We also get some more clues as to what The Sandman is about. The legend of Nada shows that the Sandman has made some mistakes in his past and he needs to correct them, whilst Men of Good Fortune shows that the post-imprisonment Sandman is a slightly warmer person than before. A century spent alone has given him the chance to reflect on things and it's interesting seeing his cold, heartless side giving way more easily than before. The story ends with Dream confronting Desire and the immediate crisis solved...but Lyta Hall is living in mortal fear of what Dream told her (read and find out), which sets up events much later in the series.

The Doll's House (****) is a radical improvement on the first Sandman collection, Preludes and Nocturnes, and gives the series a sense of purpose and direction. With the story Men of Good Fortune Gaiman's writing reaches a strong new level of maturity and intelligence, whilst Collectors may be among the most disturbing comics ever created.

Promising start to an excellent series, 06 Aug 2008
If Watchmen is the greatest graphic novel of all time, then a serious case can be made for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman to be the greatest on-going comics series of all time. Running from 1988 to 1996, the series incorporated some 76 issues, collected as ten graphic novels (and more recently, four large-format prestige collections). Although an ongoing series, it was bound together by a long-running story arc that spanned its entire length, and told the story of Morpheus or Dream, one of the seven Endless who are manifestations of universal concepts (the others are Death, Delirium, Desire, Despair, Destiny and Destruction). Preludes and Nocturnes is the first part of the Sandman saga, collecting together the first eight issues of the series.

In 1916, an English sorcerer named Roderick Burgess attempts to capture and constrain Death, so that all humans will become immortal. The spell goes awry, and instead he captures Death's younger brother, Dream. Dream refuses to help Burgess with his quest for immortality and is left imprisoned in a magic circle in the cellar beneath Burgess' home. The absence of Dream is soon felt, as thousands of people across the world slip into a 'sleeping sickness' and cannot wake up. One of these people, a young woman named Unity Kincaid, is even raped and bears a child without ever waking up. Years and then decades pass. Roderick dies of old age and his son Alex takes over as Dream's captor. Finally, in September 1989, Alex accidentally breaks the circle (by driving his wheelchair over it) and Dream is freed. After visiting an original form of vengeance upon his captor, Dream sets about reclaiming the 'tools' of his profession and restoring his realm, the Dreaming, to its former glory.

Preludes and Nocturnes opens the Sandman saga in style, introducing the titular character (who is unusually front-and-centre for the duration of the story: many Sandman stories are notable for not featuring him prominently) and the world he lives in. Gaiman weaves an interesting story here. The Sandman's quest to find his pouch of sand, his gemstone and his helmet is a traditional mythic device, as is the descent into Hell to confront Lucifer to find one of the missing artefacts (this in turn sets up the very end of the series, with Lucifer's vow that, "One day I shall destroy him," setting up future events). At the same time there's a lot of other things going on. Established DC Comics villain Dr. Dee abusing the Sandman's powers to torment a diner full of innocent people is one of the more disturbing things you're going to see in a comic. The story ends with a triumphant Sandman driven strangely morose by his success, and unable to think of something else to do, he goes to feed the pigeons in Greenwich Village, where he meets with his sister Death, probably the most popular character in the series. The collection ends on an upbeat note, as the Sandman begins the task of restoring his realm and his life.

Preludes and Nocturnes is a great story. It's clearly early days for Gaiman and the story creaks a bit in places. It's also rather more obvious than the later, more subtle collections, and the desire for a somewhat plot-driven narrative to hook in the readers means that a lot of the more reflective moments from the later collections are missing. At the same time, revisiting the collection reveals a host of details that crop up again later on, such as an early glimpse of Merv driving a bus (he doesn't reappear until The Kindly Ones, the penultimate collection) and the introduction of Nada, Dream's former lover whom he condemned to Hell for reasons that will later be revealed. The book also wears its influences a bit more obviously than later stories: The Devil Rides Out and the works of Alastair Crowley inform the Burgess sequences, whilst the gates of the Dreaming (the Gates of Horn and Ivory) are straight out of Homer and Virgil. Gaiman's use of established DC characters such as John Constantine and Dr. Dee was also an obvious strategy to attract other DC readers, but for those unfamiliar with the DC Universe, their appearance and the assumption of familiarity is a bit jarring.

Preludes and Nocturnes (***½) is an intruging opening to the series, ranging from mythology to the occult to superheroes (and villains) and back again, taking in multiple times, worlds and characters. It is a powerful work of the imagination, but in places feels constrained by being part of the DC Universe and has a few rough edges, the result of a writer near the start of his career but already showing great promise.

Excellent introductory background, 02 May 2007
My introduction to Sandman began with Endless Nights, which I was given. I was hooked, and decided to read the rest. Having made a start, I was surprised to see negative comments on this book. Certainly, it is not as polished as the later books, but it is invaluable as a background to understanding them. The intro in Dolls House probably does quite well for providing this background, but it cannot possibly do nearly as well as does reading Preludes and Nocturnes. And, whilst it is not as polished, it is still very good indeed. [...]

A Dream Start, 05 Feb 2007
The criticism that this is not the best of the sandman series is very much undeserved. Its not, however the comics it contains rate among the most important of the 20th Centuary, and helped to create what would become Vertigo comics, establishing itself in a trend started by Alan Moore on Swamp Thing and Jamie Delanos Hellblazer. Its dated a bit, but then so has Citizen Kane - And that is a worth comparison, because although both creators would do better in their career, their impact at those times would never be better'd.

Those were heady days, when this kind of Comic book was unheard of. This was a risk. Like the Watchmen before it, Preludes is special in that it dared to be different, and it succeded. Its not Gaimans best work on Sandman but it is his first work, and when it appeared it was unprecedented and unheard of. Moore, Miller and Morrison brought Graphic Novels into mainstream Bookshops, but Gaiman brought Book Buyers into the Comic Shops.

Its not something you can judge by comparison to later and now, but for what it was. If this had failed there would have been no later, people put their careers on the line for this.

Take it from someone who was there. This is the birth of the Modern Era of Comic Books. Sandman, Swamp Thing and Hellblazer are British Invasion of US comics.

A suitable homage to Alan Moore, 07 Sep 2006
After being a little disappointed with Gaiman's opening gambit, Preludes and Nocturns I thought that Neil Gaiman was forever going to be in the shadow of Alan Moore, trying desperately to produce a story of the majesty of Swamp Thing. With this story, Gaiman finally comes to maturity in his storytelling, combining magic and dreams with murder and horror and finally reaches the peak he's been looking for. The beauty of the Dolls House is it works perfectly as a standalone novel but even better if read as a sequel to Swamp Thing. My advice? Read Swamp Thing first if you've not already read it, then take this on. It will be worth the wait.

A little on the short side, but still an excellent collection, 22 Aug 2008
The third Sandman collection represents a change of pace from the first two. Whilst the first two were unified by a central story arc that ran through each one, Dream Country is essentially a short story collection, featuring four tales that although self-contained, do illuminate parts of the backstory and the ongoing overall storylines of the entire series.

The first story is Calliope. A young writer, Richard Madoc, has a bad case of writer's block following the success of his first novel. In desperation he turns to the occult to find a way out of his problem and enlists the help of Erasmus Fry, an elderly author and successful playwright. It turns out that Fry owes his success to his imprisonment of Calliope, one of the nine muses of antiquity (and the former muse of Homer), and he passes control of Calliope over to Madoc. By holding her hostage and abusing her, Madoc gains the inspiration he needs and becomes a bestselling writer, churning out novels, a poetry collection, screenplays and even becoming a gifted director. Unfortunately for Madoc, he is unaware that Calliope is also the former lover of one of the Endless...

This is an interesting story. The notion of 'the muse' is explored here, although the literal personification of Calliope can be substituted for whatever a writer uses for inspiration. The abuse and over-use of the muse resulting in a horrendous case of writer's block, perhaps permanantly, is an interesting idea to use for a story, but it works well. We also get some intriguing backstory for The Sandman overall, including the tantalising revelation that somewhere out there Morpheus has a son (although those who know their Greek mythology will be way ahead of the game here). For those interested in writing graphic novels and comics, the complete script for Calliope is included in the book as well.

The second story is much more straightforward and fun. The Dream of a Thousand Cats sees a cat travelling the world, preaching a message to all the other cats, and we see the impact of that message on a young kitten. This story has been called 'cute' but it really isn't. The dream the cat is trying to bring into reality really isn't very nice (especially for humans) and the final line and image are brilliantly contrasted with what is going on in the cat's mind. This is as self-contained as Sandman stories come, and shows Gaiman's wit and imagination in full flower.

The third story is the legendary A Midsummer Night's Dream. Back in Men of Good Fortune (included in The Doll's House), Dream and William Shakespeare made a deal whereby Dream would give Shakespeare access to a font of imagination in return for Shakespeare writing two plays for him. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first, written for Dream to show as a piece of entertainment to the real faerie king and queen, Auberon and Titania, who return to the mortal plane with their retainers for the occasion.

This is a splendid, clever story which rightfully won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. As the play unfolds events offstage are illuminated by it: Titania's enchantment of Shakespeare's son (who died several years later), Robin Goodfellow (Puck)'s irritation at being portrayed by a mortal and the running commentary provided by several of the faerie court viewing the play, with some disagreement about whether they should congratulate the mortals for their art or eat them. There's also some more scene-setting for later stories (an invitation is extended to Dream who hasn't followed up on it by four centuries later). The highlight of the collection, this is an amusing story, although probably of most interest to established Shakespeare fans.

The final story is Facade, about an extremely obscure DC hero who finds herself lost and lonely, living in her apartment with a weekly conversation with the guy who signs her pension cheques as the highlight of her week. This is a somewhat bleak story about a hero with the power to save the world but who loses herself in the process, but it is given an uplifting ending by the arrival of Death, who is fleshed out a lot more here than in her previous brief appearances.

Dream Country (****) is an excellent addition to The Sandman mythos, although it can be criticised for being on the short side (collecting only four issues, compared to the previous two collections' eight apiece) and only padded out to a reasonable length by the Calliope script. But the quality of the actual stories more than makes up for it.

A Great Collection Of Short Stories......., 02 Jun 2005
As I said in my review of Sandman: "Fables & Reflections", Neil and the team would write short, self-contained stories between the big ones (in order to attract new readers).

The stories here are more horror-based than those of "Fables." My favourite is "Caliope" - the tale of a writer's need for inspiration, and the depths to which he'll sink to find it.

The other three stories star Lady Death, William Shakespeare and a Cat with a dream.

If you enjoyed the "Fables" collection then this is a must. Or check-out "Fables & Reflections" next if you like this volume.

On a side note, I should mention the size of this book. Compared to other titles in the series, this is by far the smallest. It wouldn't be so bad, except a big portion of the book is dedicated to reprinting one of Neil's story scripts. As a writer myself, I found this interesting. But most people buy Sandman for the stories, and I can imagine many being a tad narked since this precious space could have been used to squeeze-in another great tale.

That aside... DEFINITELY a superb read. Sandman is the business, folks!

the worst of an amazing series, 17 Jun 2003
I was pretty disappointed with this edition in the series as it is far too short! Four decent but emphatically short stories and a large section devoted to the script of the first of these stories is as somebody else noted, a huge cop out. You simply do not get value for money here. The stories themselves whilst perfectly enjoyable are far from the (extraordinarily high) standards which I have come to expect with the other Sandman novels. It is certainly worth reading but borrow a friends copy. Only for those who wish to complete the series.

Gorgeous., 07 Apr 2001
This is the one that hooked me on Sandman. I now have almost everything Gaiman has ever written. So this was a good starting point for me. There is a large portion of the book devoted to the script for Calliope, which is probably annoying if you are a first-time reader of Sandman, but brilliant if you're an obbsessive, like me! There are four short stories, each of which is a fine example of why Gaiman has become so famous now. My personal favourite is 'Calliope' which reveals a few things about Morpheus, the Sandman of the title. If you're a first time reader of Gaiman's graphic work, then I'd start off with 'Preludes and Nocturnes', the first in the series, but if you've already read his work, you won't be disappointed. I only direct you to the first in the series because its annoying to read things backwards, and once you've read a bit of 'The Sandman' you'll read all of it. I guarantee.

Disappointing, 19 Mar 2001
I loved the first 2 in the Sandman series but I found this very uninteresting. Maybe I was expecting too much with the first two books having set the scene so well but I just found all of the stories somewhat pedestrian and aimless. The last fifth of the book (the original script for the 1st story) is one of the biggest cop outs that i've ever come across. These books are more expensive than most and don't last that long so to see such a large portion of the book devoted to satisfying the curiosity of a small proportion of the readership is scandalous.

A splendid story about Hell, 27 Aug 2008
The fourth Sandman collection finally follows up on the promise that Lucifer made to destroy Morpheus back in the opening collection. Destiny summons the Endless to a meeting, where we meet Delirium (who used to be Delight) for the first time and get some more information about the missing brother of the Endless. During the meeting Desire baits Dream about the treatment of his lover Nada, whom he banished to Hell for spurning him. Dream realises he/she is right, and resolves to travel to Hell and rescue his former lover, despite Lucifer's vow.

Season of Mists takes Dream on a journey into Hell and a confrontation with the Morningstar...but not the type of confrontation he was expecting. Dream ends up, slightly bemused, as the keeper of the key to Hell, and is soon being petitioned by gods and representatives from many pantheons (including the gods of Chaos and Order, and deities from the Egyptian, Norse and Japanese pantheons) anxious to get their hands on the finest plot of real estate in the multiverse, at the same time as he is also trying to find his missing love, and Death is attempting to repair the damage caused by countless legions of the dead suddenly being released back into the mortal world.

After the short story interlude of Dream Country, it's good to be back to a solid, long story arc. Although it's a reasonably long tale it's not the most dynamic story in the Sandman canon, and unusually most of it takes place in the Dreaming with only a few scenes set in the real world, and a longer chunk set in Hell. This allows us to see a bit more of the Dreaming and its inhabitants, but the meat of the story is seeing how the different pantheons interact together and who actually has the best claim on Hell.

As usual, Gaiman fills the story with neat little details and touches. The notion of there being a library in the Dreaming where all the books writers dreamed of writing but never got round to it is a fascinating one, and it's amusing to see books there such as Tolkien's The Lost Road (which was supposed to be a big story about his island kingdom of Numenor, but he abandoned it after a few pages). Elsewhere there are nods back to earlier stories: when Dream fears he may be destroyed in Hell, he decides to make time for a brief drink with his friend Hob Gadling, although they are not due to meet for another ninety-nine years. He also looks in on the newly-born son of Hector and Lyta Hall and gives him a name, Daniel, to Lyta's rage and horror. Elsewhere there's nice touches about the various gods, such as Chaos being personified as a young girl and Order as a carboard box, and Thor trying to impress some of the female deities present with his hammer, which gets bigger if you rub it (which is mythologically accurate)! Finally, we get a glimpse into the Sandman's collection of artefacts he has accumulated over the years, and see the skull of the Corinthian, a city trapped in a bottle and an old pocket watch, all of which are explored in future stories, in some cases years down the line.

As with previous collections, Gaiman interrupts the linear narrative of the story to give us a self-contained story in the middle of the collection which nevertheless comments on the action around it. A young boy left alone at boarding school for the holidays (after his father is among the hostages taken by Saddam Hussein in the build-up to the Gulf War) is suddenly joined by all those who died in the school over the previous century or so. It's a rather grim story, but ends on an interesting, optimistic note.

Season of Mists (****) isn't quite up there with the best of the Sandman collections. It is a tad overlong given its relative lack of actual incident, but for expanding our knowledge and understanding about Hell and the Dreaming, for introducing important new characters (particularly Daniel, Cluracan and Nuala) and for resolving the Nada storyline, it does a great job. The graphic novel is available from Titan in the UK and Vertigo in the USA, and forms the opening part of The Absolute Sandman, Volume II, available from Vertigo in the UK and USA.

Graphic Novels: A Newbie's Thoughts, 28 Aug 2007
I'm new to the genre and so feel qualified to give an more lucid account of this series than the 'avid fan' who believes Gaiman can do no wrong.

They are potentially very good indeed: excellently drawn and presented and the story builds extremely well, introducing characters and even sub-plots that aren't directly to do with the main story, but give the context of the whole-a nice tool. What lets this down is the ending. It whimpers and limps to an unsatisfying ending that left me rather empty and cold. This is rapidly becoming my feeling about the whole Sandman series up to this point and it's such an all-pervading feeling that I'm considering not bothering to read the rest of the series. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I suspect not, because I find Gaiman's 'Death' graphic novels (a spin-off character) much more satisfying in every way an the most salient difference between the Death books and the Sandman series are the endings.

In conclusion, this is well presented in every way, but if you like resolute endings where you can sit back and feel contented, then I believe you'll be slightly disappointed with this book. If you like a vagueness to the conclusions of your reading-and some do- then jump in with both feet.


Easily the BEST in the series!, 18 May 2005
I own the entire Sandman Library and in my opinion, this is the GREATEST volume of them all!

I started as a fan of Mike Carey's "LUCIFER" and bought "SEASON OF MISTS" because it's the prelude to the Lucifer series. Not only was it terrific from a Lucifer fan's perspective, but the overall story blew me away.

I'll even go so far as to suggest that new readers start here. You'll be treated to an EXCELLENT Sandman story, and a perfect introduction to all the other members of the Sandman's family (a group of god-like entities called "The Endless" who appear throughout the series).

"Season Of Mists" is a tale of horror, revenge, trickery and fun. There's even a short story about a haunted Boarding School thrown-in as a kind of interlude from the non-stop action.

Buy it... you won't be disappointed!

Fantastic, 21 Jul 2000
Don't make the mistake most people do,this is not just a comic book.Neil Gaiman tells a very fine story,and one that will have you thinking for a long time after you have finished it.

Beyond the limits of the Endless, 01 Jun 1999
If you read only one Sandman novel in your life, let it be this one. Although some background reading is advised it is not necessary, all you need is an open mind to accept the extreme intermingling of theology and mythology - past AND present, and an open heart to welcome the characters that will touch it in ways you would never expect "comic" book characters to ever do.

You cannot help but feel sorry for Morpheus, as he wanders around his palace with his lonely wistful eyes. A romantic at heart, he desperately craves the comfort and solitude found in companionship, but his fate as set out by his brother Destiny, is to self-destruct any chance he has of finding true happiness before his end.

It is this pain and stubborness that leds to the beginning of this beautiful tale, of cruelty, of the subconscious of man, and eventually to betrayl and redemption. God in this world, is cruel but loving, and will not hestitate to sacrifice one of his own to equalise the balance in the world.

The resolution of the story is at once complete and incomplete. Although Gaiman's tale has been told, it leaves us aching for more, a very rare sign of an extremely good writer,which of course, is what Gaiman is.

A strong improvement over the first volume, 15 Aug 2008
The second Sandman collection picks up from the last one, with the Sandman continuing the process of restoring the Dreaming to its proper state, and also introduces a whole slew of new characters and storylines that will continue to resonate within the series until its very end.

Rose Walker and her mother travel from the USA to the UK to mee an unknown benefactor who has paid for their trip. The benefactor turns out to be Unity Kincaid, a victim of the sleeping sickness that swept across the world between 1916 and 1989, whilst Morpheus was imprisoned by Burgess. Whilst she was sleeping, Unity was raped by an unknown assailant, and had a baby, who turns out to be Rose's mother. Rose and her mother are stunned by this revelation, but Rose also takes advantage of the financial largesse of her very wealthy grandmother to undertake a search for her brother Jed, who disappeared several years ago.

At the same time, Morpheus has detected the forming of a 'vortex', a dangerous focii of dream-energy that could disrupt the dreams of the entire human race and kill them. Before he can shut down the vortex, which takes the form of a person, he decides to use it as bait to lure out several inhabitants of the Dreaming who fled to the waking world during his imprisonment, such as the thoroughly amoral Brute and Glob, the personified dream-place Fiddler's Green and the Corinthian, created by Morpheus to be the 'ultimate nightmare'. This results in Rose and her family being placed in extreme jeopardy.

Several other stories are also wrapped around this one: we learn why the Sandman's former lover, Nada, was glimpsed in Hell in the opening volume. We learn that his younger brother/sister Desire is plotting something behind his back. We also meet arguably the Sandman's only true human friend, Hob Gadling, from whom the touch of Death was lifted in 1389, making him immortal. Once a century Hob and Dream meet at the same pub and compare notes on how their lives have unfolded over the past century. This story, Men of Good Fortune, is a stunning piece of work and one of the seminal chapters of The Sandman (alongside the likes of The Sound of Her Wings from the first collection and the forthcoming Midsummer Night's Dream, Three Septembers and a January, The Dream of a Thousand Cats and Ramadan). It also introduces Will Shakespeare, whose amazing writing skills are revealed to be the result of a pact made with Dream, in return for which Shakespeare agrees to pen two special plays for Dream. But more on them when they appear.

The Doll's House represents a quantum leap forward in Neil Gaiman's writing and storytelling abilities. So many storylines revisited in future stories are set up it's pretty breathtaking, from linking this version of the Sandman to the previous DC one (an ineffective, slightly bumbling human crime-fighter called Hector Hall) to the establishing of numerous characters we will meet again later (such as Lyta Hall) and the establishing of several new regular characters, such as Matthew, Death's new raven, and Fiddler's Green. It also features one of Gaiman's most effective moments of horror, with a convention for serial killers (inspired by the World Fantasy Conventions of the mid-1980s) giving rise to moments of both disgust and jet-black humour (panels on deconstructing the stereotypes of female serial killers or how to make money from your hobby). There's also some nice tributes to other comics: as well as the 1970s version of The Sandman we also get a pastiche of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland strips. As well as the obvious nod to Shakespeare we also get to meet Christopher Marlowe (who is dismissive of Shakespeare's first play, Henry VI, whilst his own masterwork Faustus is getting vast amounts of acclaim).

We also get some more clues as to what The Sandman is about. The legend of Nada shows that the Sandman has made some mistakes in his past and he needs to correct them, whilst Men of Good Fortune shows that the post-imprisonment Sandman is a slightly warmer person than before. A century spent alone has given him the chance to reflect on things and it's interesting seeing his cold, heartless side giving way more easily than before. The story ends with Dream confronting Desire and the immediate crisis solved...but Lyta Hall is living in mortal fear of what Dream told her (read and find out), which sets up events much later in the series.

The Doll's House (****) is a radical improvement on the first Sandman collection, Preludes and Nocturnes, and gives the series a sense of purpose and direction. With the story Men of Good Fortune Gaiman's writing reaches a strong new level of maturity and intelligence, whilst Collectors may be among the most disturbing comics ever created.

Promising start to an excellent series, 06 Aug 2008
If Watchmen is the greatest graphic novel of all time, then a serious case can be made for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman to be the greatest on-going comics series of all time. Running from 1988 to 1996, the series incorporated some 76 issues, collected as ten graphic novels (and more recently, four large-format prestige collections). Although an ongoing series, it was bound together by a long-running story arc that spanned its entire length, and told the story of Morpheus or Dream, one of the seven Endless who are manifestations of universal concepts (the others are Death, Delirium, Desire, Despair, Destiny and Destruction). Preludes and Nocturnes is the first part of the Sandman saga, collecting together the first eight issues of the series.

In 1916, an English sorcerer named Roderick Burgess attempts to capture and constrain Death, so that all humans will become immortal. The spell goes awry, and instead he captures Death's younger brother, Dream. Dream refuses to help Burgess with his quest for immortality and is left imprisoned in a magic circle in the cellar beneath Burgess' home. The absence of Dream is soon felt, as thousands of people across the world slip into a 'sleeping sickness' and cannot wake up. One of these people, a young woman named Unity Kincaid, is even raped and bears a child without ever waking up. Years and then decades pass. Roderick dies of old age and his son Alex takes over as Dream's captor. Finally, in September 1989, Alex accidentally breaks the circle (by driving his wheelchair over it) and Dream is freed. After visiting an original form of vengeance upon his captor, Dream sets about reclaiming the 'tools' of his profession and restoring his realm, the Dreaming, to its former glory.

Preludes and Nocturnes opens the Sandman saga in style, introducing the titular character (who is unusually front-and-centre for the duration of the story: many Sandman stories are notable for not featuring him prominently) and the world he lives in. Gaiman weaves an interesting story here. The Sandman's quest to find his pouch of sand, his gemstone and his helmet is a traditional mythic device, as is the descent into Hell to confront Lucifer to find one of the missing artefacts (this in turn sets up the very end of the series, with Lucifer's vow that, "One day I shall destroy him," setting up future events). At the same time there's a lot of other things going on. Established DC Comics villain Dr. Dee abusing the Sandman's powers to torment a diner full of innocent people is one of the more disturbing things you're going to see in a comic. The story ends with a triumphant Sandman driven strangely morose by his success, and unable to think of something else to do, he goes to feed the pigeons in Greenwich Village, where he meets with his sister Death, probably the most popular character in the series. The collection ends on an upbeat note, as the Sandman begins the task of restoring his realm and his life.

Preludes and Nocturnes is a great story. It's clearly early days for Gaiman and the story creaks a bit in places. It's also rather more obvious than the later, more subtle collections, and the desire for a somewhat plot-driven narrative to hook in the readers means that a lot of the more reflective moments from the later collections are missing. At the same time, revisiting the collection reveals a host of details that crop up again later on, such as an early glimpse of Merv driving a bus (he doesn't reappear until The Kindly Ones, the penultimate collection) and the introduction of Nada, Dream's former lover whom he condemned to Hell for reasons that will later be revealed. The book also wears its influences a bit more obviously than later stories: The Devil Rides Out and the works of Alastair Crowley inform the Burgess sequences, whilst the gates of the Dreaming (the Gates of Horn and Ivory) are straight out of Homer and Virgil. Gaiman's use of established DC characters such as John Constantine and Dr. Dee was also an obvious strategy to attract other DC readers, but for those unfamiliar with the DC Universe, their appearance and the assumption of familiarity is a bit jarring.

Preludes and Nocturnes (***½) is an intruging opening to the series, ranging from mythology to the occult to superheroes (and villains) and back again, taking in multiple times, worlds and characters. It is a powerful work of the imagination, but in places feels constrained by being part of the DC Universe and has a few rough edges, the result of a writer near the start of his career but already showing great promise.

Excellent introductory background, 02 May 2007
My introduction to Sandman began with Endless Nights, which I was given. I was hooked, and decided to read the rest. Having made a start, I was surprised to see negative comments on this book. Certainly, it is not as polished as the later books, but it is invaluable as a background to understanding them. The intro in Dolls House probably does quite well for providing this background, but it cannot possibly do nearly as well as does reading Preludes and Nocturnes. And, whilst it is not as polished, it is still very good indeed. [...]

A Dream Start, 05 Feb 2007
The criticism that this is not the best of the sandman series is very much undeserved. Its not, however the comics it contains rate among the most important of the 20th Centuary, and helped to create what would become Vertigo comics, establishing itself in a trend started by Alan Moore on Swamp Thing and Jamie Delanos Hellblazer. Its dated a bit, but then so has Citizen Kane - And that is a worth comparison, because although both creators would do better in their career, their impact at those times would never be better'd.

Those were heady days, when this kind of Comic book was unheard of. This was a risk. Like the Watchmen before it, Preludes is special in that it dared to be different, and it succeded. Its not Gaimans best work on Sandman but it is his first work, and when it appeared it was unprecedented and unheard of. Moore, Miller and Morrison brought Graphic Novels into mainstream Bookshops, but Gaiman brought Book Buyers into the Comic Shops.

Its not something you can judge by comparison to later and now, but for what it was. If this had failed there would have been no later, people put their careers on the line for this.

Take it from someone who was there. This is the birth of the Modern Era of Comic Books. Sandman, Swamp Thing and Hellblazer are British Invasion of US comics.

A suitable homage to Alan Moore, 07 Sep 2006
After being a little disappointed with Gaiman's opening gambit, Preludes and Nocturns I thought that Neil Gaiman was forever going to be in the shadow of Alan Moore, trying desperately to produce a story of the majesty of Swamp Thing. With this story, Gaiman finally comes to maturity in his storytelling, combining magic and dreams with murder and horror and finally reaches the peak he's been looking for. The beauty of the Dolls House is it works perfectly as a standalone novel but even better if read as a sequel to Swamp Thing. My advice? Read Swamp Thing first if you've not already read it, then take this on. It will be worth the wait.

Packed With DVD Extras, 04 Oct 2007
Neil Gaiman's Sandman collects the first 20 issues of the comic series , and highlights one of the UK's brightest talents in the industry . The story focuses on an immortal being , Dream , who is one of the seven Endless . These demigods are eternally tied to all living things in the universe ( not just on Earth as is demonstrated in the first few issues ).

The book is presented in an enlarged "prestige" format , with high quality paper and binding , as well as recoloured artwork throughout the book . There is also the added extras of Neil Gaiman's initial pitch and plot synopsis for the first few issues , and a complete script for the award winning 'Midsummer's Night Dream' issue .

The book is beautiful , and as you read on ( almost three years worth of issues ) you can see the increasing maturity of Gaiman and his artists . It may be quite pricey , but is certainly no dearer than if you had bought each issue individually ( or even now in terms of the rarity value ) , and represents excellent value .

Thoroughly recommended .

Come on amazon!, 29 Sep 2007
This volume isn't out of print, and it's the start of a series the second of which is out this autumn... So why are you claiming you can't get hold of it?

Sandman rules!, 03 Jun 2007
I completely agree with the reader from leicester below in that this needs to b listed as ideal for older teens. i too started to read sandman and the death comics at this time and it totally opened up my world, not only to mythology but to the world of comics in general which i had before percieved to be only about superheros.

I think there is still great misunderstanding about what the comic medium has to offer and pointing people as young as possible in this direction may go some way to help sort that out!

P.S. Buy this book, if u like sandman and u like gaiman, u cant really go wrong (so long as its not gunna put u in the red ofcourse ;) )

Never have the words , 06 Feb 2007
First off, this is not an item you have to pay full price for so don't be daunted. Shop around and don't assume you have to fork over £70. I had to wait a bit, but in the end got it for about £[...] new from america.

Onto the book itself. I've only really begun to read comics recently (Personally I don't much like the term graphic novel, I think it was Neil Gaiman who said "Graphic novel is to comic, what 'lady of the night' is to prostitute) and what I've read has mainly been restricted to the darker comics: Sandman, Hellblazer, Lucifer, Sin City, etc. Sandman is by far the stand-out. Simply for the scope of the narrative (I'm a sucker for old mythology and high tragedy anyway), the quality of the writing, and the beautiful artwork.

That little intro established, I would like to say that while I object very much to the stereotyped view of the teenager with a comic book obsession, harping on about a spiderman villain in issue #91, I confess that reading Absolute Sandman brings out something of the anorak in me.

Effectively, what we have on our hands here is the equivalent of your favourite film, remastered, extended, on solid gold DVDs, with a leather slip case and about as many comentaries and interviews as you could wish. Not only is the first quarter of Gaiman's superb comic series reproduced here with early editions recoloured (the colouring on some of the early issues not being great), in large format, on beautiful quality paper, superbly bound, with a big presentation slip case, large amounts of concept art, Gaiman's original proposal, and so on and so on...

This books is quite simply a joy to read, even if you almost feel bad about touching it. It's that nice.

I won't really repeat anything about the comics themselves, as it has all been said in other places far more eloquently than I ever could. Anyway, if you're reading this chances are you're a fan, as few people would fork over this much for 1/4 of a comic series they didn't already know.

But to all you Gaiman fans out there: Start reserving your expendable income, the other volumes are coming.

Absolutely the best way to read Sandman, 04 Jan 2007
The quality of this volume is hard to beat, both in terms of content and packaging. The first 20 issues of Neil Gaiman's Sandman have been collected in the Absolute oversize format with new colouring that compliments the artwork.
I had no prior experience of Sandman and was blown away. Highly recommended.

A little on the short side, but still an excellent collection, 22 Aug 2008
The third Sandman collection represents a change of pace from the first two. Whilst the first two were unified by a central story arc that ran through each one, Dream Country is essentially a short story collection, featuring four tales that although self-contained, do illuminate parts of the backstory and the ongoing overall storylines of the entire series.

The first story is Calliope. A young writer, Richard Madoc, has a bad case of writer's block following the success of his first novel. In desperation he turns to the occult to find a way out of his problem and enlists the help of Erasmus Fry, an elderly author and successful playwright. It turns out that Fry owes his success to his imprisonment of Calliope, one of the nine muses of antiquity (and the former muse of Homer), and he passes control of Calliope over to Madoc. By holding her hostage and abusing her, Madoc gains the inspiration he needs and becomes a bestselling writer, churning out novels, a poetry collection, screenplays and even becoming a gifted director. Unfortunately for Madoc, he is unaware that Calliope is also the former lover of one of the Endless...

This is an interesting story. The notion of 'the muse' is explored here, although the literal personification of Calliope can be substituted for whatever a writer uses for inspiration. The abuse and over-use of the muse resulting in a horrendous case of writer's block, perhaps permanantly, is an interesting idea to use for a story, but it works well. We also get some intriguing backstory for The Sandman overall, including the tantalising revelation that somewhere out there Morpheus has a son (although those who know their Greek mythology will be way ahead of the game here). For those interested in writing graphic novels and comics, the complete script for Calliope is included in the book as well.

The second story is much more straightforward and fun. The Dream of a Thousand Cats sees a cat travelling the world, preaching a message to all the other cats, and we see the impact of that message on a young kitten. This story has been called 'cute' but it really isn't. The dream the cat is trying to bring into reality really isn't very nice (especially for humans) and the final line and image are brilliantly contrasted with what is going on in the cat's mind. This is as self-contained as Sandman stories come, and shows Gaiman's wit and imagination in full flower.

The third story is the legendary A Midsummer Night's Dream. Back in Men of Good Fortune (included in The Doll's House), Dream and William Shakespeare made a deal whereby Dream would give Shakespeare access to a font of imagination in return for Shakespeare writing two plays for him. A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first, written for Dream to show as a piece of entertainment to the real faerie king and queen, Auberon and Titania, who return to the mortal plane with their retainers for the occasion.

This is a splendid, clever story which rightfully won the World Fantasy Award in 1991. As the play unfolds events offstage are illuminated by it: Titania's enchantment of Shakespeare's son (who died several years later), Robin Goodfellow (Puck)'s irritation at being portrayed by a mortal and the running commentary provided by several of the faerie court viewing the play, with some disagreement about whether they should congratulate the mortals for their art or eat them. There's also some more scene-setting for later stories (an invitation is extended to Dream who hasn't followed up on it by four centuries later). The highlight of the collection, this is an amusing story, although probably of most interest to established Shakespeare fans.

The final story is Facade, about an extremely obscure DC hero who finds herself lost and lonely, living in her apartment with a weekly conversation with the guy who signs her pension cheques as the highlight of her week. This is a somewhat bleak story about a hero with the power to save the world but who loses herself in the process, but it is given an uplifting ending by the arrival of Death, who is fleshed out a lot more here than in her previous brief appearances.

Dream Country (****) is an excellent addition to The Sandman mythos, although it can be criticised for being on the short side (collecting only four issues, compared to the previous two collections' eight apiece) and only padded out to a reasonable length by the Calliope script. But the quality of the actual stories more than makes up for it.

A Great Collection Of Short Stories......., 02 Jun 2005
As I said in my review of Sandman: "Fables & Reflections", Neil and the team would write short, self-contained stories between the big ones (in order to attract new readers).

The stories here are more horror-based than those of "Fables." My favourite is "Caliope" - the tale of a writer's need for inspiration, and the depths to which he'll sink to find it.

The other three stories star Lady Death, William Shakespeare and a Cat with a dream.

If you enjoyed the "Fables" collection then this is a must. Or check-out "Fables & Reflections" next if you like this volume.

On a side note, I should mention the size of this book. Compared to other titles in the series, this is by far the smallest. It wouldn't be so bad, except a big portion of the book is dedicated to reprinting one of Neil's story scripts. As a writer myself, I found this interesting. But most people buy Sandman for the stories, and I can imagine many being a tad narked since this precious space could have been used to squeeze-in another great tale.

That aside... DEFINITELY a superb read. Sandman is the business, folks!

the worst of an amazing series, 17 Jun 2003
I was pretty disappointed with this edition in the series as it is far too short! Four decent but emphatically short stories and a large section devoted to the script of the first of these stories is as somebody else noted, a huge cop out. You simply do not get value for money here. The stories themselves whilst perfectly enjoyable are far from the (extraordinarily high) standards which I have come to expect with the other Sandman novels. It is certainly worth reading but borrow a friends copy. Only for those who wish to complete the series.

Gorgeous., 07 Apr 2001
This is the one that hooked me on Sandman. I now have almost everything Gaiman has ever written. So this was a good starting point for me. There is a large portion of the book devoted to the script for Calliope, which is probably annoying if you are a first-time reader of Sandman, but brilliant if you're an obbsessive, like me! There are four short stories, each of which is a fine example of why Gaiman has become so famous now. My personal favourite is 'Calliope' which reveals a few things about Morpheus, the Sandman of the title. If you're a first time reader of Gaiman's graphic work, then I'd start off with 'Preludes and Nocturnes', the first in the series, but if you've already read his work, you won't be disappointed. I only direct you to the first in the series because its annoying to read things backwards, and once you've read a bit of 'The Sandman' you'll read all of it. I guarantee.

Disappointing, 19 Mar 2001
I loved the first 2 in the Sandman series but I found this very uninteresting. Maybe I was expecting too much with the first two books having set the scene so well but I just found all of the stories somewhat pedestrian and aimless. The last fifth of the book (the original script for the 1st story) is one of the biggest cop outs that i've ever come across. These books are more expensive than most and don't last that long so to see such a large portion of the book devoted to satisfying the curiosity of a small proportion of the readership is scandalous.

A splendid story about Hell, 27 Aug 2008
The fourth Sandman collection finally follows up on the promise that Lucifer made to destroy Morpheus back in the opening collection. Destiny summons the Endless to a meeting, where we meet Delirium (who used to be Delight) for the first time and get some more information about the missing brother of the Endless. During the meeting Desire baits Dream about the treatment of his lover Nada, whom he banished to Hell for spurning him. Dream realises he/she is right, and resolves to travel to Hell and rescue his former lover, despite Lucifer's vow.

Season of Mists takes Dream on a journey into Hell and a confrontation with the Morningstar...but not the type of confrontation he was expecting. Dream ends up, slightly bemused, as the keeper of the key to Hell, and is soon being petitioned by gods and representatives from many pantheons (including the gods of Chaos and Order, and deities from the Egyptian, Norse and Japanese pantheons) anxious to get their hands on the finest plot of real estate in the multiverse, at the same time as he is also trying to find his missing love, and Death is attempting to repair the damage caused by countless legions of the dead suddenly being released back into the mortal world.

After the short story interlude of Dream Country, it's good to be back to a solid, long story arc. Although it's a reasonably long tale it's not the most dynamic story in the Sandman canon, and unusually most of it takes place in the Dreaming with only a few scenes set in the real world, and a longer chunk set in Hell. This allows us to see a bit more of the Dreaming and its inhabitants, but the meat of the story is seeing how the different pantheons interact together and who actually has the best claim on Hell.

As usual, Gaiman fills the story with neat little details and touches. The notion of there being a library in the Dreaming where all the books writers dreamed of writing but never got round to it is a fascinating one, and it's amusing to see books there such as Tolkien's The Lost Road (which was supposed to be a big story about his island kingdom of Numenor, but he abandoned it after a few pages). Elsewhere there are nods back to earlier stories: when Dream fears he may be destroyed in Hell, he decides to make time for a brief drink with his friend Hob Gadling, although they are not due to meet for another ninety-nine years. He also looks in on the newly-born son of Hector and Lyta Hall and gives him a name, Daniel, to Lyta's rage and horror. Elsewhere there's nice touches about the various gods, such as Chaos being personified as a young girl and Order as a carboard box, and Thor trying to impress some of the female deities present with his hammer, which gets bigger if you rub it (which is mythologically accurate)! Finally, we get a glimpse into the Sandman's collection of artefacts he has accumulated over the years, and see the skull of the Corinthian, a city trapped in a bottle and an old pocket watch, all of which are explored in future stories, in some cases years down the line.

As with previous collections, Gaiman interrupts the linear narrative of the story to give us a self-contained story in the middle of the collection which nevertheless comments on the action around it. A young boy left alone at boarding school for the holidays (after his father is among the hostages taken by Saddam Hussein in the build-up to the Gulf War) is suddenly joined by all those who died in the school over the previous century or so. It's a rather grim story, but ends on an interesting, optimistic note.

Season of Mists (****) isn't quite up there with the best of the Sandman collections. It is a tad overlong given its relative lack of actual incident, but for expanding our knowledge and understanding about Hell and the Dreaming, for introducing important new characters (particularly Daniel, Cluracan and Nuala) and for resolving the Nada storyline, it does a great job. The graphic novel is available from Titan in the UK and Vertigo in the USA, and forms the opening part of The Absolute Sandman, Volume II, available from Vertigo in the UK and USA.

Graphic Novels: A Newbie's Thoughts, 28 Aug 2007
I'm new to the genre and so feel qualified to give an more lucid account of this series than the 'avid fan' who believes Gaiman can do no wrong.

They are potentially very good indeed: excellently drawn and presented and the story builds extremely well, introducing characters and even sub-plots that aren't directly to do with the main story, but give the context of the whole-a nice tool. What lets this down is the ending. It whimpers and limps to an unsatisfying ending that left me rather empty and cold. This is rapidly becoming my feeling about the whole Sandman series up to this point and it's such an all-pervading feeling that I'm considering not bothering to read the rest of the series. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I suspect not, because I find Gaiman's 'Death' graphic novels (a spin-off character) much more satisfying in every way an the most salient difference between the Death books and the Sandman series are the endings.

In conclusion, this is well presented in every way, but if you like resolute endings where you can sit back and feel contented, then I believe you'll be slightly disappointed with this book. If you like a vagueness to the conclusions of your reading-and some do- then jump in with both feet.


Easily the BEST in the series!, 18 May 2005
I own the entire Sandman Library and in my opinion, this is the GREATEST volume of them all!

I started as a fan of Mike Carey's "LUCIFER" and bought "SEASON OF MISTS" because it's the prelude to the Lucifer series. Not only was it terrific from a Lucifer fan's perspective, but the overall story blew me away.

I'll even go so far as to suggest that new readers start here. You'll be treated to an EXCELLENT Sandman story, and a perfect introduction to all the other members of the Sandman's family (a group of god-like entities called "The Endless" who appear throughout the series).

"Season Of Mists" is a tale of horror, revenge, trickery and fun. There's even a short story about a haunted Boarding School thrown-in as a kind of interlude from the non-stop action.

Buy it... you won't be disappointed!

Fantastic, 21 Jul 2000
Don't make the mistake most people do,this is not just a comic book.Neil Gaiman tells a very fine story,and one that will have you thinking for a long time after you have finished it.

Beyond the limits of the Endless, 01 Jun 1999
If you read only one Sandman novel in your life, let it be this one. Although some background reading is advised it is not necessary, all you need is an open mind to accept the extreme intermingling of theology and mythology - past AND present, and an open heart to welcome the characters that will touch it in ways you would never expect "comic" book characters to ever do.

You cannot help but feel sorry for Morpheus, as he wanders around his palace with his lonely wistful eyes. A romantic at heart, he desperately craves the comfort and solitude found in companionship, but his fate as set out by his brother Destiny, is to self-destruct any chance he has of finding true happiness before his end.

It is this pain and stubborness that leds to the beginning of this beautiful tale, of cruelty, of the subconscious of man, and eventually to betrayl and redemption. God in this world, is cruel but loving, and will not hestitate to sacrifice one of his own to equalise the balance in the world.

The resolution of the story is at once complete and incomplete. Although Gaiman's tale has been told, it leaves us aching for more, a very rare sign of an extremely good writer,which of course, is what Gaiman is.

A strong improvement over the first volume, 15 Aug 2008
The second Sandman collection picks up from the last one, with the Sandman continuing the process of restoring the Dreaming to its proper state, and also introduces a whole slew of new characters and storylines that will continue to resonate within the series until its very end.

Rose Walker and her mother travel from the USA to the UK to mee an unknown benefactor who has paid for their trip. The benefactor turns out to be Unity Kincaid, a victim of the sleeping sickness that swept across the world between 1916 and 1989, whilst Morpheus was imprisoned by Burgess. Whilst she was sleeping, Unity was raped by an unknown assailant, and had a baby, who turns out to be Rose's mother. Rose and her mother are stunned by this revelation, but Rose also takes advantage of the financial largesse of her very wealthy grandmother to undertake a search for her brother Jed, who disappeared several years ago.

At the same time, Morpheus has detected the forming of a 'vortex', a dangerous focii of dream-energy that could disrupt the dreams of the entire human race and kill them. Before he can shut down the vortex, which takes the form of a person, he decides to use it as bait to lure out several inhabitants of the Dreaming who fled to the waking world during his imprisonment, such as the thoroughly amoral Brute and Glob, the personified dream-place Fiddler's Green and the Corinthian, created by Morpheus to be the 'ultimate nightmare'. This results in Rose and her family being placed in extreme jeopardy.

Several other stories are also wrapped around this one: we learn why the Sandman's former lover, Nada, was glimpsed in Hell in the opening volume. We learn that his younger brother/sister Desire is plotting something behind his back. We also meet arguably the Sandman's only true human friend, Hob Gadling, from whom the touch of Death was lifted in 1389, making him immortal. Once a century Hob and Dream meet at the same pub and compare notes on how their lives have unfolded over the past century. This story, Men of Good Fortune, is a stunning piece of work and one of the seminal chapters of The Sandman (alongside the likes of The Sound of Her Wings from the first collection and the forthcoming Midsummer Night's Dream, Three Septembers and a January, The Dream of a Thousand Cats and Ramadan). It also introduces Will Shakespeare, whose amazing writing skills are revealed to be the result of a pact made with Dream, in return for which Shakespeare agrees to pen two special plays for Dream. But more on them when they appear.

The Doll's House represents a quantum leap forward in Neil Gaiman's writing and storytelling abilities. So many storylines revisited in future stories are set up it's pretty breathtaking, from linking this version of the Sandman to the previous DC one (an ineffective, slightly bumbling human crime-fighter called Hector Hall) to the establishing of numerous characters we will meet again later (such as Lyta Hall) and the establishing of several new regular characters, such as Matthew, Death's new raven, and Fiddler's Green. It also features one of Gaiman's most effective moments of horror, with a convention for serial killers (inspired by the World Fantasy Conventions of the mid-1980s) giving rise to moments of both disgust and jet-black humour (panels on deconstructing th