The Sandman Vol 3 | Books and travelling with Lynn

The Sandman, Vol 3, Dream Country by Neil Gaiman

Posted On 25 August 2012

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Dream Country, Neil Gaiman, The Sandman Vol 3

The Sandman – Wikipedia definition:

The Sandman is a mythical character in Northern European folklore who brings good dreams by sprinklingmagical sand onto the eyes of children while they sleep at night.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m an obsessive person however when I find something I like I can go over the top just a little. Currently I’m having one of my ‘moments’ in relation to the work of Neil Gaiman. Thanks to other bloggers recommendations I finally came to read Neverwhere last year and absolutely loved it. I’ve since read another couple of his books and more recently have decided to look at his Sandman work. Now – there are a lot of these and frankly I didn’t really know where to begin (doh! the beginning, probably) but whilst I was in the library last week they actually had volume No.3, Dream Country, available so I thought it would be rude to pass it by!

So, just finished reading Dream Country. Now I realise that I probably should have read these in order but this was the only edition in the library so… basically, beggars can’t be choosers. And, that being said I think this is probably not a bad place to start as this particular edition has four separate, short unrelated stories as follows:

Calliope – a story of a writer suffering from writers’ block who comes into possession of an ancient muse. A dark tale of torment and captivity.

Dream of a Thousand Cats – a strange tale of a cat who travels to the realm of Dreams in search of answers.

Midsummer night’s Dream – a tale in which Shakespeare’s company really do put on a royal performance for some very distinguished guests.

Facade – a story of a young woman, who visits the Sun God Ra – with, for her, disastrous results.

I don’t normally read short stories, not sure why, probably because I don’t feel like I have the opportunity to connect and also I rarely read comics – the most recent being the first few editions of Game of Thrones.

However, I enjoyed this experience the tales were all a little creepy and the graphics were just fascinating to look at – in fact it took me far longer than it should have done to read this because I was mesmerised by the artwork. It really is a visual treat. I realise this isn’t probably the best of the Sandman series and probably not representative of how the rest of the series plays out but I thought it was really good. It was like visiting the Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt and being given a few dark and twisted stories to give you the shivers and make you reflect on things.

My favourite was the Midsummer Night’s Dream which was without a doubt a joy to look at and entertaining to read.

I’ve only had a small taste of the series but it was definitely enough to make me want to read more. Although I think I’ll go back and read them in order, take my time and savour!