(The Sandman Volume 1) by Neil GaimanRead: 5/18/09
LibraryThing tags: Graphic Novel, Fantasy, Mythology
I can't refresh my memory too much on this one because I already returned it to Joi, but it's not all that hard to remember the main points for review. This introduction to the Sandman series tells of the accidental capture of Dream, aka Morpheus, aka Sandman (well, accidental in the sense that they were trying to capture Dream's sister, Death; not Dream); the horrible results for our world, and the quest that follows after. It's a very structured volume, which I like. I love the mix of mythology and the epic with our contemporary world -- I'm not quite sure why, since stories which begin in our modern world normally bore me; I suppose it's because, like Buffy, there's plenty of fantasy mixed into our world, it's not a story of escape from our doldrums into a parallel world. Yes, come to think of it, it's perfect because it takes mythology which really is awesome in all its resonances and symbolism and whatnot, and frees it from what even C.S. Lewis in The Discarded Image admits can be the biggest weakness of medieval and renaissance literature -- "sheer, unabashed, prolonged dullness."
So yes: it's awesome, and I've heard later volumes are better! Squee!
I especially liked this quote, from a scene in which havoc has errupted in the dreamscape: "The quakes and lights send the keepers of the stories scurrying for cover. Their monsters hide with them, under the bed." Tee hee. Okay, maybe it needs context. Meh.
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