Is there a general Sandman discussion thread? I've been reading straight through the trade paperbacks and enjoying the hell out of them. I'm in the middle of Kindly Ones now and getting excited to see where it goes.

No question, no profound observation, just wanted a general place to talk Sandman should I feel the need to ramble as I wrap up the series. And I do have a few questions, but I'll have to go back in the books and find them again. That and read the Companion (which was my intent, to read it with the TPBs, but I got so into the books that I just kept reading rather than jumping into the Companion between chapters).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JP,

I've decided to buy one every month, but I read it in two days (I constrain myself as hard as I can ), now I'm almost on the end of Anansi boys. I've only just read the second collection and every issue leaves me with so many questions, I'm going crazy (in a good way)

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
Is there a general Sandman discussion thread? I've been reading straight through the trade paperbacks and enjoying the hell out of them. I'm in the middle of Kindly Ones now and getting excited to see where it goes.

No question, no profound observation, just wanted a general place to talk Sandman should I feel the need to ramble as I wrap up the series. And I do have a few questions, but I'll have to go back in the books and find them again. That and read the Companion (which was my intent, to read it with the TPBs, but I got so into the books that I just kept reading rather than jumping into the Companion between chapters).

There will be. Soon.

ALRIGHTY! I just finished reading The Wake over the weekend. Actually finished half of The Kindly Ones and then all of The Wake this weekend I just couldn't put it down. I have now read all of The Sandman, and I must say, very very very cool.

I changed the name of the thread to include spoilers because I want to talk about stuff and stuff and if you haven't read it, you might not want to read much.

Anyhoo ... I realize that anything we talk about is likely discussed in the companion and I'm reading that right now (realized last night that I stopped reading with Seasons of Mist). I still just want to ramble on about it

First thing I'll say, in response to a question raised (by Eldi?) in another thread ... WOW Morpheus and Thessaly?! I didn't see that coming at all! Anyone want to explain it to me, 'cause it seems a bit off the wall.

Also, is our red balloon tradition from the little Chaos girl?

And is the motivation for Puck and Loki explained in the Companion? Other than being mischief makers by nature, it seems there was a bit more to it than that.

There are technically Six Endless, plus The Prodigal, right? Destiny, Death, Dream, Despair, Desire, Delirium plus Distruction. Delirium was Delight. Is there supposed to be a secret eight? For some reason in the back of my brain I thought there was some unknown eight endless, but then I started thinking about Distruction being The Prodigal, and now I'm confused.

It took me until finishing The Wake to realize that Rose Walker's story did infact get wrapped up. I was expecting some meeting between her and her grandmother, to get her heart back, but then realized that her grandmother was distroyed by Dream. It wasn't until the end of The Wake and there was no seeming resolution to her that I realized that Desire giving her the heart lighter or pendant or whatever it was was her getting her heart back.

Well, I've been pulled away from this twice now at work, so I'm just going to post now.

A few more thoughts while they're popping into my head.

I thought Preludes was only okay. It was good, not great. I really enjoyed The Doll's House, I think it was that volume that put me into a groove to read the series. Dream Country, for all its accolades, didn't hold much for me. The cat story was fun. Bits like meeting Orpheus and seeing Dream's relationship with Will were neat, but overall it left me wanting a bit.

Season's of Mist was way nifty, and I really enjoyed A Game of You (though I understand from the Companion that this was the least popular arc). Fables and Reflections was solid and fun. I liked the Emperor of America story muchly, and the Joanna Constantine/Orpheus story. Oooh and the Marco Polo story, I like how that linked with the story in The Wake.

I liked Brief Lives a lot, not much to say other than it was good (Endless) family fun

World's End may be my favorite arc, the Necropolis Letharge story being my the best, followed by Hob's Leviathan. Just great story telling throughout.

I've been talking to Smaug about this as I've been reading, so, finally getting to The Kindly Ones. I thought the story was great, and the art didn't jar me as much as it did Smaug. There were actually times where I thought the art really conveyed a message, a submessage to the text. There were a few times I thought it was 'meh', and on the whole it's not the sort of art I go after in my comics, but I thought it was fine and worked in spots.

I thought The Wake was beautiful and over way too fast.

will try to get back to this when i have real internet time, but glad you enjoyed them.

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
Is there a general Sandman discussion thread? I've been reading straight through the trade paperbacks and enjoying the hell out of them. I'm in the middle of Kindly Ones now and getting excited to see where it goes.

No question, no profound observation, just wanted a general place to talk Sandman should I feel the need to ramble as I wrap up the series. And I do have a few questions, but I'll have to go back in the books and find them again. That and read the Companion (which was my intent, to read it with the TPBs, but I got so into the books that I just kept reading rather than jumping into the Companion between chapters).

Oh, JP, this is so cool! The Kindly Ones was the story line that finally hooked me hard (we talked about this, I think, before the Chicago signing). I can't wait to read your reaction when you get to the end.

love,
grace
edit in -- I should read the whole thread, huh? more later . . .

I loved the art in The Kindly Ones...it might have been my favorite art in the series, although the art in The Wake was fantastic, too. I think the Companion said that at one point, Neil wanted to get Mike Mignola to illustrate the Kindly Ones. That would've been really cool.

It took me a while to get into the Sandman as a whole (I discovered Neil through his books). Seasons of Mists really intrigued me, but I think the collections that I absolutely fell in love with was World's End, probably because of all the different kinds of stories told in it.

One day, I'll have to go back and reread them all together.

quote:

Originally posted by JP:
First thing I'll say, in response to a question raised (by Eldi?) in another thread ... WOW Morpheus and Thessaly?! I didn't see that coming at all! Anyone want to explain it to me, 'cause it seems a bit off the wall.

And is the motivation for Puck and Loki explained in the Companion? Other than being mischief makers by nature, it seems there was a bit more to it than that.

If you read the story "Soft Places", fiddlers green says something to the same effect about that reletionship. The idea was that it didnt make sense. That is also explored in her speach at the wake about how he cared for her and she never really returned the feelings.

I don't know about punk, but Loki was indebted to Sandman when he makes a dream version of loki to stay in the pit with the snake. Though its never really said if Sandman arranged his death, or if loki was trying to get his way out of being in debt to sandman.

Most people think it was all Dreams planning. I am one of those people.

(SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS AHEAD)

I did think it was Dream's idea that they would get the child for him, but I'm not that sure about the other stuff. I think Puck and Loki acted totally on their own when they burned away his mortality (why they did that? Dunno... maybe they thought it would be fun to upset their mother, coz they're sadistic like that, and maybe they had lanned to keep the child for themselves and raise him themselves for amusement).
But I do think Dream saw it coming all along (trusting such delicate a mission to Loki and Puck is not the wisest idea ayway) but never did anything to stop it, coz he wanted it all to end. I see his actions as those of someone who just can't be bothered with consecuences anymore and is secretly hoping everything will go to hell, but is too "proper" to put an end to it.

quote:

Originally posted by cloverheart:
(SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERS AHEAD)

I did think it was Dream's idea that they would get the child for him, but I'm not that sure about the other stuff. I think Puck and Loki acted totally on their own when they burned away his mortality (why they did that? Dunno... maybe they thought it would be fun to upset their mother, coz they're sadistic like that, and maybe they had lanned to keep the child for themselves and raise him themselves for amusement).
But I do think Dream saw it coming all along (trusting such delicate a mission to Loki and Puck is not the wisest idea ayway) but never did anything to stop it, coz he wanted it all to end. I see his actions as those of someone who just can't be bothered with consecuences anymore and is secretly hoping everything will go to hell, but is too "proper" to put an end to it.

I dunno, it seems more logical he TOLD them to burn away his mortality, everybody knew he was going to be the new dream.

Finally read it myself this past week! All the way through, fast as Amazon could ship the suckers. It's the best thing Neil's ever written. Now I understand where he gets the ideas for his other stories, and where he comes up with those neat little phrases he uses, or the types of charactes that appear in his stories. It's all there. [SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS, of course.]

quote:

Eldi: Most people think it was all Dreams planning. I am one of those people.

I agree. In Wake, Dream tells Daniel's mother that the parts of him that were mortal were burned away, and he's the immortal Dream now. He doesn't seem at all surprised. Other clues: Morpheus's conversation with Odin implies that Morpheus freed Loki to fulfill a task. Morpheus's re-creation of the Corinthian, just in time for this task. Also the way Morpheus talks about responsibility, and his conversations with Destruction, and his willingness to die - all point to the meticulous preparation of his successor.

In other news, I'm convinced that the other raven (before Matthew - who was, by the way, my favorite character) besides Lucien was Merv the Pumpkinhead.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Uskglass,