The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil GaimanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I started this because The Sandman series is now filming on Netflix, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about before it aired.
Well....I do see what all the fuss was about, but at the same time this collection of the first 8 issues is definitely a collection that's floundering a bit, trying to find its way. Neil Gaiman admits as much in the afterward. He says the last issue, "The Sound of Her Wings," where Death is introduced, is the first one where he felt he was really finding his voice, and I think I agree with that. (Although I think issue #4, "A Hope In Hell," where Dream journeys to Hell to meet Lucifer Morningstar and try to get his helmet back, is another highlight. It's sad that David Bowie didn't live long enough to see the adaptation or maybe even play Lucifer, since the character was so clearly modeled on him.) Still, this tale of the Dream King is clearly a story about stories, and as such it plays out on as broad a canvas as one could imagine, pulling in Shakespeare, Bowie, the Doors, Cain and Abel, the Maiden/Mother/Crone, John Constantine, and many other fragments from Neil Gaiman's apparently boundless imagination. In the final issue, that imagination, and Gaiman's storytelling ability, is obviously taking off, whetting my appetite for the volumes to come (and I intend on getting all of them). I hope Netflix's adaptation can live up to it.
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