The Sandman
by Neil Gaiman
This is volume six. Morpheus and several of his siblings vie to claim the soul of a morose man. The Dream King assists a man everyone thinks is crazy to proclaim himself emperor of the United States. A Roman ruler sits on the pavement in the guise of a beggar for a day. A young Marco Polo gets lost in a sandy waste and meets two other men plus some ghosts (I think). Morpheus' grown son marries the beautiful Euridyce, but she tragically dies on the wedding day and the distraught Orpheus follows her into the underworld. In another story Morpheus' baby son Daniel visits the dreamworld during naptime and is told some wacky versions of bible stories by Eve, Cain and the raven Matthew (it was amusing to see a kid-version of the Dream King and his sister Death). My favorite of all the tales was the one where an old man tells his granddaughter a story of "the old country": a boy of the forest people comes into possession of some very valuable objects, and goes on a journey trying to find the beautiful woman featured on a necklace. The story of Orpheus and Euridyce- which spanned several chapters here- was somewhat familiar to me from mythology, and so was Baba Yaga who makes an appearance in the grandfather's tale. But other of the stories just did not make a connection with me, either I didn't understand their references or just found them dull. So again, my impression of a Gaiman book is muddled. I really only liked a few of them, and skipped several when they failed to hold my interest...
rating: 2/5 ........ 264 pages, 1993
more opinions:
Richardmbray
Such a Book Nerd
Hi, Jeane! This is my favorite volume of Sandman! The stories are just so rich and so varied. It's very surprising at every page.
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