Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Mister Sandman, bring me a dream

My review of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: Endless Nights is now live over at RevSF.
But the Sandman's greatest strength was always the serialized nature of the ongoing story. Sure, Gaiman was an early practitioner of the extended story arc, a feat that lent itself nicely to the collection of the series in neatly self-contained reprint collections, each one featuring another chapter in the ongoing saga of Morpheus. But these books, whether they collected The Wake or The Doll's House were always part of something bigger. They fit within a greater whole, were a part of a greater tale that grew in the telling. In that sense, Gaiman was a latter-day Dickens, only his Nicholas Nickleby was published monthly in 22-page funny books rather than 32-pagers with green covers in the 19th century.

It's good stuff, although it isn't the best of the Sandman stories. Too episodic for that. Personally, I'm still waiting for the story that explores Delight's transformation into Delirium.

Now Playing: The B-52s Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation

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