After seeing (and loving) The Sandman series last year, I have wanted to revisit the books for some time now. Thankfully, I saw the whole series on sale at Blossoms Book House and decided to buy the first three books covered in the Netflix series – Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, and Dream Country.
These three books cover the first season of The Sandman Netflix series. And it makes a wonderful accompaniment to the series.
Preludes and Nocturnes
This is the first book in The Sandman series and introduces us to the Lord of Dreams (aka Sandman, Morpheus, Dream, and many other names that different cultures have given him throughout time). He is one of the Endless (along with Death, Destiny, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium), and the story begins with him being imprisoned and stripped of the tools of his office by a bunch of humans who were trying to capture Death.
Preludes and Nocturnes cover the story of Dream’s 70 years of imprisonment, his escape from imprisonment, and his journey to reclaim the tools of his office.
As an introduction to a series, this book is a corker. It’s a short quick read, but covers so much, and really sets up the Sandman universe perfectly. There is a dark, creepy vibe to the books (that I didn’t get from the show).
It’s also not easy reading by any means. I read these books in my early 20s, so my memory is definitely faulty, but I don’t think I got the complete context of what was going on. For example, I definitely hadn’t grasped the full horror of the diner story in the book (which was horrifically and brilliantly rendered on screen in full detail). Neil Gaiman definitely wants us to fill in a lot of gaps with our imagination – not a bad thing.
The Doll’s House
This is probably my favorite of the three books. By now, I was fully comfortable in the Sandman world and was picking up the nuances in the stories and appreciating Gaiman’s weird, wacky, dark style.
In The Doll’s House, the emergence of a Dream Vortex can destroy the Sandman’s entire realm. The Dream Vortex comes in the form of a young woman named Rose Walker, who is preoccupied with trying to find her missing brother and deal with the surprise of finding a long-lost grandmother. Between all this, there’s a convention of serial killers all gathered together in a hotel.
There are also a couple of seemingly unrelated short stories (maybe they will connect later on in the series?). In most books, I would be annoyed at these interruptions, but here, they work beautifully.
I especially loved the cameos of Chaucer, Marlowe, and of course, Shakespeare, who later appears in another comic in the third book. I hope he becomes a regular returning character.
Dream Country
This third book in the series slightly shifts focus from the intensity of The Doll’s House.
Dream Country is a series of short stories – seemingly unconnected but, of course, with a common thread of the Sandman.
There are four long-ish stories. The first one Calliope is disturbing, with mentions of rape, but it also provides some insights into the Sandman’s personal life. Oddly, I introduce trigger warnings very late into my review, but somehow the serial killers and the bloodbath in the diner (in the first and second books) did not disturb me as much as the repeated sexual assaults in Calliope.
Safe to say that this series is not for you if you do not want to deal with these topics.
If you can tolerate the gore though, each short story is a complete delight. My favorite was Dream of a Thousand Cats – about a cat’s dream of freedom. Another goodie was Midsummer night’s dream where Shakespeare takes on a leading role.
Two short stories from Dream Country
Last Thoughts
I loved these books. The quality of the art was fantastic, and I love Gaiman’s unpredictability. Each story was a delight – whether they were short stories, or longer epics. I plan to wait for the next season of The Sandman to land on Netflix, and then do a combined watch-read, to maximise the experience.
After reading these books, I am now a huge fan of the graphic novel/comic format, and I am now on the lookout for more such types of books. Do share any recommendations in the comments!
Yeah, the Calliope story is really troubling! I do really like the way comics allow for you to slip into other stories for a single issue and then get back to the main story. There’s a lot of those little digressions throughout Sandman, as I recall, and some of them came back later and were important, but mostly they were just cool interludes.
In terms of recs, have you read The Unwritten? or The Wicked and the Divine? Those are two long-running fantasy series that are very cool, very well-illustrated, and just a good read. If you want something lighter after the darkness of Sandman, maybe try Check Please! or Nimona?, two reliable comfort reads for me.
I am really getting into graphic novels, now. I understand the charm. I just put in an amazon order for The Dark Knight series. Will look into these as well. Thanks! You always have the best reccos!