Alright, now I listened to the full-cast audiobook and thought that was lovely. However, that meant that I didn't get to look at any of the lovely drawAlright, now I listened to the full-cast audiobook and thought that was lovely. However, that meant that I didn't get to look at any of the lovely drawings that everyone else is talking about in their reviews. From what I can find online, they're worth eyeballing. Free Lesson of the Day: Life is a series of trade-offs, kids.
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Okey-doke. Gaiman is very much hit or miss with me. I sometimes feel like he goes off on rambling tangents and I do not care to traipse along with him. But how much trouble can he get into with a short story? Not much, thankfully.
Spoilers Below!
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I like that he made the queen a badass, but more than that, I liked that she was the one who kissed the sleeping princess without it turning into some sort of crappy, jerk-off lesbian fantasy material. However. There's just not a lot here. Faux Snow White (now a queen) takes off with a few dwarves to go check out some odd happenings a few days (weeks? not sure, but it was a damn sight close) before her marriage. She ends up unraveling a mystery and saving the kingdom of Pseudo Sleeping Beauty. <--the kiss, remember? Then she decides she wants to have adventures instead of marriage and tromps off into the sunset and away from her kingdom.
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Except that was weird. Not her choosing adventure, just the way she did it. I mean, she was the boss when she left her kingdom. There didn't seem to be a valid reason to leave, you know? It didn't appear that she was being forced into marriage, even if she was only mildly fond of the prince and it was a political match. And if she leaves, what happens to all of her subjects? How are you going to guarantee that some tyrant isn't going to step in and take over? If you are the queen of a kingdom and you want to chuck it all and become a pirate, well...you do you. But common courtesy says that you should (as a responsible adult) at least make sure the kingdom doesn't end up getting turned over to someone who is twirling their mustache and cackling. I assume she thought it was all going to be ok, but I think you'd need a visual confirmation for something that big. Also, the prince deserved better than getting ghosted. There was nothing in the story that says he was anything other than a good guy. <--doesn't mean she needs to love him, but it does mean he should get more than a lifetime of wondering if his fiancee got eaten by a bear.
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Bitching aside, it was a good short story that gave the Snow White & Sleeping Beauty fairytales a nice little kick in the ass....more
A boy with glasses and a pet owl who finds out he's got magic? Yes. And the first issue came out in late 1990, so I don't want to hear anything from thA boy with glasses and a pet owl who finds out he's got magic? Yes. And the first issue came out in late 1990, so I don't want to hear anything from the Hogwarts groupies about this being a rip-off of Harry Potter.
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This was a lot of fun to read and even more fun to look at what with all the gorgeous panels of art. So Timothy Hunter gets a Christmas Carol(ish) experience when DC's top mystics pay him a visit and seemingly give him a choice as to whether or not he wants to be a part of their world. Led by the Trenchcoat Brigade, John Constantine, the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Occult, & Mister E., Tim meets up with some of the most powerful magic users in the universe, including but not limited to, Zatanna, Spectre, Madame Xanadu, Dream, and Deadman.
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He visits all kinds of different realms, traveling in the past, present, and finally the future, all the while being chased by a group called Cult of the Cold Flame who are out to kill him...for reasons. It's a great story for fans of DC Mystic. Highly Recommended....more
I've read the short story, I've listened to the amazing audio version, and now I've also read the graphic novel version of Snow, Glass, Apples. If you I've read the short story, I've listened to the amazing audio version, and now I've also read the graphic novel version of Snow, Glass, Apples. If you like creepy renditions of fairy tales, then this is the story for you.
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And the art is just fantastic. Loved it! The gist is that the Grimm Brothers got it wrong and that neither the Wicked Queen nor Snow White was quite what they seemed. And Prince Charming? (view spoiler)[<--Well, he liked to fuck dead girls. (hide spoiler)]
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Dear Neil Gaiman, I am now appropriately freaked out by Snow White. Thanks, Anne
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Highly Recommended
Read it free HERE OR listen to a highly creepy audio rendition acted out HERE....more
Black Orchid is more or less the same kind of thing I've come to expect from Gaiman. In other words, if you love his Don'tNeedToExplainEveryth3.5 stars
Black Orchid is more or less the same kind of thing I've come to expect from Gaiman. In other words, if you love his Don'tNeedToExplainEverything style of storytelling, then this will more than likely be a winner with you. I prefer to be told or shown what the author is trying to convey, and quite often I think Gaiman likes to leave things to the reader's imagination a bit too much for my taste. I'm not saying that this story was particularly confusing or that it leaves you hanging when the volume is over, but something about the way it was told just left me wanting more. And not in a good way.
But. I thought the art was stunning. The faces were drawn with so much detail and emotion in them, that it's hard to describe without showing you what I mean.
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I know, right?! Whoa!
It starts with the death of the 'original' Black Orchid, a crime-fighter who had been undercover in one of Lex Luthor's companies, and was subsequently killed by his right hand man. Her death triggers the next Orchid's birth, and although she is initially confused, some of the original Black Orchid's memories start to surface. (view spoiler)[Turns out, she's a genetic hybrid of a woman that Philip Sylvain (a botanist) had loved since childhood. The woman's name was Susan Linden, and she had fled an abusive marriage to an arms dealer who worked for Luthor. She ran back to childhood sweetheart, Sylvan, only to be gunned down by her ex-husband shortly afterwards. Sylvan had been working on a project to give humans the ability to filter air like plants (or at least, I think that's what he was doing). So when Susan died, he used her DNA to make...hybrids. (hide spoiler)] The majority of the book is Orchid trying to figure out who and what she is, while at the same time trying to avoid being captured by Luthor (he wants to experiment on her) and Susan's ex (he can't stand to look at her).
As a bonus, quite a few characters from the DCU make an appearance, including Poison Ivy, Batman, and Swamp Thing.
I didn't love it or hate it, but I certainly found it interesting. It was cool to read about one of origin stories for the Black Orchid, especially considering she's now popping up in the New 52's Justice League Dark. If you're a fan of Gaiman's graphic novels, I think you'd love this one....more
2022 Alright. This was the volume that originally ended my Sandman journey 8ish years ago. Over the years quite a few of my friends have urged me to go 2022 Alright. This was the volume that originally ended my Sandman journey 8ish years ago. Over the years quite a few of my friends have urged me to go back and give it a try again. So, here I am. Which just goes to say, you should never say never. And while this was still a weak volume, I found it more tolerable than I did the first time around. The Shakespeare story was still a time-suck that I'll never get back, and the others will still never go down as favorites, but I'm hanging in there in the hopes that it picks up.
2014 I quit. Sandman is not for me. I can honestly see why so many of you love it, but... I can't force myself to do this any longer!
I don't like the art. It reminds me of some scratchy shit that one of my kids drew. The difference is, the artist isn't one of my kids, so I don't feel the need to put this up on my refrigerator. Sorry, I know a lot of you love this style.
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There are a few different stories in this one, and I didn't like any of them. First one is about a writer who rapes a muse over and over again for inspiration. Delightful. Next up is some weird team-up between Dream and William Shakespeare. ZZZZZZZZZZ
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After that, it's the story about some ex-agent of some government sponsored superhero group. At least, I think that's what they were. It was honestly too bizarre/boring for me to actually claim I knew what was going on. Somehow, Ra (the Sun god) made this woman into Element Gal!...or something. Long story short, she's ugly and wants to die. Death showed up to give her some advice, which was the only bright spot in the whole book. Ironic, no?
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I'd like to pretend I'm cool enough to get it, but that would mean I'd eventually have to read more of these. And that's not going to happen. Ever....more
Ok, I didn't actually make it all the way through the Sandman series. It just wasn't my cuppa, but I loved Death and thought the character was brilliaOk, I didn't actually make it all the way through the Sandman series. It just wasn't my cuppa, but I loved Death and thought the character was brilliant.
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So, for people like myself who don't enjoy the gloomy weirdness of some of the source material, this is the perfect way to enjoy a portion of what all the cool kids rave about.
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In this, Death isn't evil, scary, or something to be feared. And why should she be? It's the next part of Life and we all do it eventually. Now, I'm not religious, but I think there's something after this. Not because I have any proof, I just prefer to think that. In fact, my secret hope is that we all get superpowers like the X-Men or something and then spend eternity going on adventures and righting wrongs in the afterlife. <--hey, it's not any crazier than any other version out there, so let me dream. Speaking of Dream, (nice segue there, huh?) he pops up in the first issue and mopes around for a few minutes, which should make all the Sandman fans squee a little bit.
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I guess the main thing I love about this one is the overall tone of the stories. As in, death is natural and there's no reason to be terrified of our inevitable ends, but at the same time, there's no reason to rush towards it. There's a good moral of the story in this without a lot of what I've come to think of as Gaiman's hallucinogenic ramblings. Recommended....more
Alright, I really enjoyed this one a lot more this time around. The first time I read this it just seemed to be a jumble of loosely connected, sometimAlright, I really enjoyed this one a lot more this time around. The first time I read this it just seemed to be a jumble of loosely connected, sometimes weird stories. Maybe it’s because I’m reading the volumes back to back instead of waiting a bit in between? Not sure. But the stories make more sense to me and the art style bothers me less.
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The storytelling isn’t necessarily linear, and as always, Gaiman tends to ramble a bit. But I’ve found that I can take his rambling within the confines of a graphic novel much better than I can when he’s given free rein with the page count of a book.
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The main plotline centers around a girl named Rose who is having strange dreams. She meets her biological grandmother for the first time (one of the sleepers from the first volume) and then goes on a trip to find her little brother. This was extremely odd to me. How does a mother just lose track of her son because of a divorce? In what world other than the Parent Trap universe are children split up between parents and then never heard from again? Fine, fine, fine.
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So, for contrived reasons, neither Rose nor her mother has tried to contact her little brother since the divorce. And let’s also pretend that when Rose’s father unexpectedly dies, no one contacts his mother and he is instead sent to live with his paternal grandfather. Who also dies. Again, no one tries to find his other parent, they just farm him out to hillbilly relatives who then keep him chained in a basement. However, all of this trauma leaves the little boy open to the nefarious schemes of a few of Dream’s less conscientious servants, who decided to take advantage of his absence and have a mini-vacation.
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Things happen. Weird things. Things like the Sandman falling in love for the first time, a Serial Killer convention whose special guest speaker has teeth where his eyeballs should be, Morpheus gaining an immortal drinking buddy, and also maybe killing a teenage Vortex. Mostly, I'm interested to see what's going to happen with the sibling infighting happening with The Endless. Very enjoyable in one of those don’t look too closely kind of ways. Recommended....more
I'd definitely recommend this version to reluctant readers. Yeeees. The real book is...a REAL book, but I'm talking about those kids who don't like to I'd definitely recommend this version to reluctant readers. Yeeees. The real book is...a REAL book, but I'm talking about those kids who don't like to read. I've got one of those, and she loved this thing. My feeling is that if you can get them hooked on a good story, no matter how you do it, it's going to show them the possibilities between the pages of a book.
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The graphic novel tells the same story as the book, but with the added bonus of pictures. Duh. Who doesn't like pictures? Blind folks and snobs, that's who.
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If you're blessed enough to have a voracious little reader, by all means hand them the novel. Otherwise, try this. Good story + creepy (yet child-friendly) art = unicorns farting rainbows!
Eh. These vary greatly by quality from story to story, with only one or two of them being (to me) worth reading. Despair's story was one of the worst aEh. These vary greatly by quality from story to story, with only one or two of them being (to me) worth reading. Despair's story was one of the worst as it was just paragraphs describing sad stories with painful artwork in the background.
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Desire's was the funniest. Drawn by Milo Manara, you get all the porn-face all the time. But that’s fair because DESIRE and that’s the look they were obviously going for. Still. When the witch ate the sausage all sexy-like I did a real LOL.
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Dream's issue was the only interesting one because you see his ill-fated romance with a chick from Oa before they walled themselves off and started getting nuts with the Green Lantern Corps.
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Bottom line, this is for people who are really craving more Sandman in any shape or form that they can get it.
Original 1 star review from 2009 Not my cup of tea....more
When I first read this back in 2009, I really hadn't been reading comics for very long. Because of my newbie status, a lot of the cRe-read 2022
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When I first read this back in 2009, I really hadn't been reading comics for very long. Because of my newbie status, a lot of the cool cameos and whatnot went completely over my head. And yet, I still thought this was a really awesome story. So it does stand on its own for those of you who aren't really that familiar with some of the faces you might see. Now that I get the references to this character or that character, it adds an extra layer of ah-ha! to the story that wasn't there before. Not a necessary requirement, though.
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The art style is very late 80s/early 90s and your personal mileage is going to vary with it. For me, it was ok. As in, I didn’t love it, but it did have a recognizable style all its own that (I thought) fit with this particular tale.
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The end with Dream's sister was still a lot of fun to read, and if you like this character, I’d suggest you check out Death. It’s good stuff.
2009 I liked the beginning when Dream was captured. The mystical elements held my attention. However, the middle of it kind of grossed me out. Especially the part with Dee in the diner. EWWWW. The end of Preludes and Nocturnes totally made up for it, though. I loved Death! How cool is she?! Making Death a peppy little goth girl was genius.
I read this back in 2009 and liked it quite a bit. It felt like a very cool What If kind of thing, the art was pleasant, and Bumping it up to 5 stars!
I read this back in 2009 and liked it quite a bit. It felt like a very cool What If kind of thing, the art was pleasant, and I understood most of what I was reading. However, I simply hadn't read enough comics at that point to fully understand everything. And I'm mentioning that now because I don't think a casual graphic novel reader will enjoy this as much as someone who knows all of the characters.
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If you don't already know, the premise is this: Something happened that caused the superheroes of our time to be born hundreds of years early. So, basically, this is our Marvel characters in 1602. Ta-da!
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Of course, their backstories are quite different, but everyone (with a few exceptions) is recognizable pretty much immediately. In my opinion, Neil Gaiman did a great job with this retelling. I can call it a retelling, right? It was varied enough to feel fresh, but there were enough familiar elements to the cast that I got to do that geeky little smile/nod thing quite a bit.
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This is one that I wouldn't mind looking at again, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting my hands on the spin-offs from this and reading about more of this pocket universe. I'm not saying this will be for everyone, but it's worth a peek for the hardcore Marvel fans out there.
The first time I read this I was a diehard Gaiman fangirl and I gave it 4 stars. This time around? Eh.
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It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly satisThe first time I read this I was a diehard Gaiman fangirl and I gave it 4 stars. This time around? Eh.
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It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly satisfying (to me) in any sort of a meaty story sort of way. It does, however, have that typical Gaiman smell to it. So, if he can do no wrong in your book, then you'll want to check this out.
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The Eternals are these super-powerful & immortal beings that were created before humanity, and they (I guess) act as our protectors when even bigger, more powerful, older immortal beings decide it may be time to end us. Ish.
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Due to vaguely explained happenings, the lion's share of these Eternals have been mindwiped and have no idea who or what they are anymore. They're living among us as humans and occasionally superheroes. The story takes place during the events of the Superhero Registration Act, so there are a few cameos with Tony & Co. that gives this a somewhat Marvel universe-y feel to it. But not really.
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At the end of this I was kind of left scratching my head, but maybe this isn't the whole thing? Is there more to their story? Preferably told by someone other than Neil Gaiman? Anyone?...more
Audiobook re-read 2020 I'm sticking with my original rating, but only because the voice cast is simply amazing. If you're on the fence about this versiAudiobook re-read 2020 I'm sticking with my original rating, but only because the voice cast is simply amazing. If you're on the fence about this version of the book, I'd highly suggest listening to it. It's long, it rambles, and it doesn't go anywhere very interesting. The actual plot of this book could have filled 100 pages, while the other 500 pages read like a mythological travelogue of the United States. There's nothing wrong with that, and it was exactly what Gaiman set out to do. I'm just letting you know upfront what you're getting yourself into because (even with the fantastic voices) I almost DNF'd this audiobook every single day for a week or so. I had to keep reminding myself that nothing lasts forever and this too shall pass. Plus, I couldn't quite remember how it all turned out in the end and maybe there was something cool waiting for me that I'd forgotten. Eh. At some point, I'm planning to listen to the original version of the book that his editor got hold of and see how it compares. This version was for me at best a rambly 2 to 2.5 star book. The audio is fantastic, though. Easily a 5 star audio! <--definitely recommend going this route
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Original review 2014
High 3.5 maybe 4 stars? I can't say this is one I would recommend to everyone, and I certainly won't be shoving it down peoples' throats. But I liked it. Now, somehow I ended up with the extended 10 year anniversary edition. So, maybe that's why it took me forever to finish this. But I don't think that was entirely the issue. It's just a loooong fuckin' book. And not much happens in it action-wise, so you're not exactly flipping the pages with any intensity.
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There's not even really (in my opinion) a slow-build up to anything super-exciting. And what I mean by that, is that I never once thought to myself, Oh! Something GOOD is gonna happen in the next few pages!, you know? Thing is, it has everything I could want in a book. Half-crazy gods, zombie ex-wife, tarnished-but-decent hero, missing kids, and unlikely friendships. However, it also has everything I usually despise in a book. Trippy/hallucinogenic dream sequences, random quotes from other pieces of literature, plodding storyline, and no action. But Neil Gaiman just oozes so much talent that somehow I still liked it. Which is saying a lot, because I'm normally a real asshole when I feel like a book needed to be chopped down by about 400 pages.
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Although, unless someone can tell me that Anansi Boys is an Awesome-Not-To-Be-Missed-Roller-Coaster-Thrill-A-Minute-Ride, I'm gonna have to say no to that one.
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