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For fans and non-fans alike, Netflix's 'The Sandman' is a dream come true

Glen Weldon

Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) blows you a kiss in The Sandman . Netflix hide caption

Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) blows you a kiss in The Sandman .

First, to the many nervous fans of The Sandman among you:

Relax. They nailed it.

Yeah, it took forever, and a slew of assorted aborted attempts, but the Netflix adaptation of the landmark comic book series just ... works .

It succeeds as a faithful presentation of the look, feel and story of the Lord of Dreams as presented in the comics, which was written by Neil Gaiman, with art by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and many other pencilers and inkers over the years.

Far more importantly, however, it succeeds as a work of adaptation.

Where recent audiobook versions strictly adhered to every infinitesimal detail of the 1989-1995 comic run (and as a result ended up feeling both dated and overwritten), the Netflix series' grip on the source text is gratifyingly looser. It breathes.

Changes, big and small, have been made to characters and storylines that streamline, update and focus the narrative, now honed to fit the specific propulsive demands of serialized television.

Now, to everyone else coming to these stories and characters fresh: Okay, I have absolutely no idea how you're gonna take this. The show, like the comic, throws a lot at you out of the gate. But I think there's a better than average chance you might finally begin to understand why the rest of us have been pestering you to read the comic, all these years.

It's a fixer-upper: Dream (Tom Sturridge) surveys his throne room. Netflix hide caption

It's a fixer-upper: Dream (Tom Sturridge) surveys his throne room.

Like sands through the hourglass ....

The Sandman is the story of Morpheus, aka Dream. He's one of The Endless — a handful of abstract concepts (Dream, Death, Desire, Despair, etc.) that assume the anthropomorphic shapes of bickering siblings. While immensely powerful and immortal, they are bound by rules and duties as they oversee aspects of human existence. Morpheus, for his part, controls The Dreaming, a vast realm of adventures, delights and horrors that humans visit when we sleep.

The comic begins in 1916, when a self-styled British occultist traps Morpheus within a magic circle and robs him of his tools of office. (The magus was aiming to capture Morpheus' sibling Death, but must have transposed a rune or two, the poor sap.)

How Dream escapes after many years of captivity, and how he sets about repairing the damage done in his absence to both his realm and to the waking world, is the first story arc of what became a 75-issue series. The second arc deals with his attempts to round up dreams and nightmares that have escaped The Dreaming. The 10 episodes of the Netflix series cover both of these first storylines.

From horrific to mythic

Now, look: The comic is beloved, and has accrued richly-deserved awards and acclaim. But it helps to keep in mind that everything the comic became over the course of its 75 issues — a sweeping, sprawling epic of myths and monsters that takes as its subject nothing less than the power of stories to change the world — was not what it was at the beginning.

The Sandman was envisioned and promoted as a horror comic; marketing materials featured an image of Morpheus cradling a pile of sand in his palm alongside a line from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land : "I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

Sunday in the park with ... (L to R) Tom Sturridge as Dream, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death. Netflix hide caption

Sunday in the park with ... (L to R) Tom Sturridge as Dream, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death.

It was also created by a young writer still finding his voice, still stepping out of the shadow of writers like Alan Moore and Stephen King. Take its sixth issue, set in a diner where a character uses one of Morpheus' tools to cruelly torment the staff and customers. It was widely praised at the time, as was a later storyline involving child abuse, sexual violence and serial murder.

Reading these issues over now, they remain harrowing, albeit in a kind of facile, unearned way. Their lurid shocks read like a writer trying to see what he could get away with, favoring glib cleverness over emotional truth. There's an essential emptiness that flattens the characters into so many writing exercises meant to elicit our reflexive disgust, instead of our empathic connection.

Those horror-story elements remain in the Netflix series, but producers Gaiman, David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg have made choices in adapting them for the screen that dig more deeply and resonate more truly. Where the comic, like so many narratives before and since, used violence against children, women and marginalized communities to spur its white-knight protagonist into action, the Netflix series is eager to allot such characters more agency, more independence, more roundedness, more life.

In fact, every choice made in the process of adaptation bends the narrative toward a more sincere, more humane and more emotionally expansive telling. Writing that was originally bound up in self-satisfied cleverness here feels deeply engaged and thoughtful.

Which means the series is effectively setting itself up for the long term. Should The Sandman get all the subsequent seasons it deserves, its central narrative will become an intimate and deeply emotional one, about a man whose sense of duty and inflexible, preconceived sense of self keeps him from engaging with others, and from experiencing the kind of emotional growth necessary to adapt to a changing world. In the comic, the writing eventually grew past its familiar, reductive horror trappings to embrace and meaningfully engage such deeper truths. The Netflix series is already doing that work.

The devil you know: (L to R) Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, Tom Sturridge as Dream. Netflix hide caption

The devil you know: (L to R) Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, Tom Sturridge as Dream.

The series rests upon the bony shoulders of its hero

What's more, all of that good, chewy, satisfying work is aided immeasurably by the casting of Tom Sturridge as Morpheus. Sure, he looks the part, with his alabaster skin, sculpted cheekbones, lean frame and Robert Smith hair.

And yeah, he delivers most of his lines in a throaty whisper that recalls both an ASMR Youtuber and Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending (non-shouty bits only). But how else would you imagine giving voice to the Morpheus of the comics, whose striking word balloons (ingeniously designed by the great Todd Klein) were rendered as solid black with white lettering?

What's important is that Sturridge captures the competing aspects of Morpheus that are forever roiling under his impassive surface — his haughtiness, his wounded vulnerability; his stiffness, his longing for connection. Also, his brittle anger, his ability to — almost, not quite, but almost — laugh at himself.

The series smartly beefs up the role of Dream's librarian, played here by Vivienne Acheampong; we learn that unlike in the comic, her loyalty is not borne solely out of blind duty – it's informed by her own deeply personal sense of purpose.

Boyd Holbrook's take on the rogue, eyeball-chomping nightmare The Corinthian — whose role is also greatly expanded from the comic, to good effect — oozes a malicious Southern charm. As two of Dream's immortal siblings, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Mason Alexander Park evoke the iconic elements of their characters, while making the roles distinctly their own. And David Thewliss, playing a would-be supervillain, shifts fluidly between pitiable wretch and malicious manipulator — and he's outfitted with a motivation that clarifies his character's goals, which are a bit muddier in the comic.

Shall we repair to the library?: (L to R) Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Stephen Fry as Gilbert. Netflix hide caption

Shall we repair to the library?: (L to R) Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne, Stephen Fry as Gilbert.

The comic, distilled

The main thing that will strike readers familiar with the comic as they watch these 10 episodes unfold is this: How much more cleanly and clearly the story emerges, now that it's been freed of the DC Comics editorial mandates Gaiman and his collaborators had to navigate back in the day. Without, for example, having to find a way to squeeze in a cameo by members of the Justice League, or pay obeisance to a shakeup of Hell's ruling hierarchy taking place in another writer's comic, or untangle various pre-existing DC characters' backstories that had been pummeled into dust by a string of company-wide reboots, retcons and relaunches, the Netflix series simply unspools Dream's travails and triumphs, confidently collapsing characters and storylines together, to keep things rolling along.

To fans of the comic, the changes introduced into the adaptation offer intriguing new variations on now-familiar themes without erasing what we love. In fact, they make even more satisfying those moments when characters from the comics leap to the screen. (Every time I re-read the comic I am thrilled when the Fates appear in corporeal form; they're some of Gaiman's most fascinatingly creepy, inscrutable and darkly funny creations — and their Netflix versions do not disappoint.)

The comic only got richer, bolder and more immersive as it went, issue after issue, until it reached its profoundly satisfying conclusion.

The Netflix series deserves the chance to do the same. Here's hoping it gets to.

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The Sandman: Act II audiobook review – Neil Gaiman’s dreamworld

The author takes on the role of narrator alongside a Hollywood cast as Morpheus comes face to face with his arch enemy

The second audio instalment of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, the mind-bending DC series deemed “a comic strip for intellectuals” by Norman Mailer, is as close to an audiobook blockbuster as they come, and wisely arrives ahead of next year’s Netflix series . Listeners are once again plunged into the Dreaming to get reacquainted with the goth-tastic Morpheus, AKA the Lord of Dreams (James McAvoy), who is rebuilding his nocturnal kingdom after a period of incarceration.

He is joined by a stellar cast including Andy Serkis as Matthew the Raven; Brian Cox as Augustus; Kat Dennings as Death; Emma Corrin as Thessaly; and Regé-Jean Page as Orpheus. Gaiman, who has adapted the comics with the help of audio supremo Dirk Maggs, takes on the role of Narrator, his voice drifting between menace and glee.

The first chapter opens with a vision of the Garden of Destiny, a place “distinct from time and space where the potential becomes the actual”. With great solemnity, Morpheus announces he must abandon his motley subjects in order to return to hell to rescue a queen, Nada, who he cruelly consigned to thousands of years of imprisonment. In doing so he will come face to face with his arch enemy, Lucifer, voiced with suitable relish by Michael Sheen . As the story unfolds, new realms are revealed and scores of new characters arrive played variously by Aidan Turner, Adrian Lester, Paterson Joseph and Siân Phillips. This is a spectacular ensemble piece that, aided by smart sound design and an atmospheric soundtrack, will truly occupy your dreams.

The Sandman : Act II is available on Audible, 13 hr 47 min.

Further Listening

A Carnival of Snackery David Sedaris, Hachette Audio, 17hr 8min The American essayist deploys his customary dark humour and comic timing in the audio version of his second book of diaries.

Apples Never Fall Liane Moriarty, Penguin Audio, 18hr 4min The Australian actor Caroline Lee reads the latest mystery from the Big Little Lies author in which a woman goes missing, prompting her family to unravel.

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THE SANDMAN

Book of dreams.

edited by Neil Gaiman & Edward E. Kramer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1996

Top-flight fantasy collection based on Gaiman's character The Sandman, developed in a series of graphic novels for DC Comics, as reimagined by a strong group of fantasists. Long-lived comics readers will remember fondly the original "Sandman" from the 1930s and '40s, with his fedora, googly-eyed gas mask and gas gun; Frank McConnell discusses this precursor in his preface while hauling in Joyce, Nietzsche, Ibsen, Jung, and Wallace Stevens to dress up Gaiman's stow-parentage. Inventing his own lore for the character, Gaiman (1990's hilariously naughty Good Omens, with Terry Pratchett) wrote 75 installments of The Sandman before closing shop. Awash with watercolors and supersaturated with acid, The Sandman stories are stories about storytelling, celebrations of the outr‚ imagination. The central character of Gaiman's work evolved into a figure variously known as Dream, or Morpheus, or the Shaper, or the Lord of Dreams and Prince of Stories, and his surreal family is called the Endless, composed of seven siblings named Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium. Drawing on Gaiman's inkwell are Clive Barker (frontispiece but no story), Gene Wolfe and Nancy A. Collins, and a number of lesser lights, all in top form. George Alec Effinger invents a long tale inspired by Winsor McCay's classic comic strip "Little Nemo" ("Seven Nights in Slumberland"), while Colin Greenland ("Masquerade and High Water"), Mark Kreighbaum ("The Gate of Gold"), Susanna Clarke ("Stopt-Clock Yard"), and Karen Haber (in the outstanding "A Bone Dry Place," about a suicide crisis center) mainline directly from the ranks of the Endless. Rosettes to all, but especially to John M. Ford's "Chain Home, Low," which ties an onslaught of sleeping sickness to the fate of WW II fighter pilots, and to Will Shetterly's "Splatter," about a fan-convention of serial killers who lead their favorite novelist (famous for his depictions of psychopathic murderers) into the real world of serial-killing. Fancy unleashed on rags of moonlight.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-06-100833-8

Page Count: 304

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1996

GENERAL FICTION

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More by Dan Watters

BOOK REVIEW

by Dan Watters & Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Max Fiumara & Sebastian Fiumara

by Si Spurrier & Neil Gaiman ; illustrated by Bilquis Evely

by Neil Gaiman

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah ( The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

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by Kristin Hannah

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen ) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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by J.D. Salinger

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Thoroughly Modern Reviewer

REVIEW: Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman” – Volumes 1-3

From the first time I read Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman in 2013, I adored the series. It felt like this beautiful mixture of traditional prose literature and graphic novels and it was something I hadn’t seen in any of the comics I’d read to that point. The series is as much a story about Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and his other siblings as it is about stories, themselves. It’s one of those series that has remained popular over the 30 years since it first debuted – and for good reason. So, in light of the imminent release of Audible’s audio adaptation of the series, I felt it a good time to go back to those first few volumes (those that are being adapted for the series) and take a look at how they read seven years after I first read them. In short, they still hold up remarkably well, even if parts of them haven’t aged the best. The Sandman is a great series and it’s impressive how much of its magic is present in these first twenty issues.

(NOTE: There will be mild spoilers for the first 20 issues/three volumes of The Sandman .)

A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, THE SANDMAN follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic–and human–mistakes he’s made during his vast existence.

The Sandman: Volume 1 – Preludes & Nocturnes (written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg It’s interesting rereading this first volume of The Sandman years after I first finished the season. It’s a bit of a mixed bag for me, with the plot a little scattered and some very uneven artwork. But it’s also immediately clear just how much of the magic that the series is known for is present from its first issue. Gaiman has always had a gift with words, a talent at spinning truly poetic descriptions of characters, things, and places we’ve never seen. His work in these first eight issues shouldn’t be undervalued – there’s some great stuff here (particularly in the sixth and eighth issues). The plot is fairly simple and surprisingly episodic – after being captured by a magician and imprisoned for 80 years, Morpheus must go on a quest to recover three artifacts that were stolen from him and contain pieces of his power. The rest of the story follows him as he goes from place to place, in search of these artifacts. It’s not the most complex of storyline, but it works for what it has to do: introduce us to the world of the comic. It’s rather impressive how little of these issues feel like exposition dumps; instead, Gaiman uses this quest as a way to explain the various aspects of the series to us in a naturalistic way. And it works extremely well and proves very entertaining, even if I wouldn’t say this first volume is a high point of the series. The artwork, though, is a bit less enjoyable for me. The first five issues are illustrated by Sam Kieth while the latter three are illustrated by Mike Dringenberg. Neither Kieth nor Dringenberg’s styles proved to be ones that I enjoyed. It’s not that their artwork is bad – far from it, in fact – it’s just that it wasn’t really my style and it always makes it a bit difficult for me to fully immerse myself in the story. On top of that, the fact that Dringenberg takes over partway through the arc gives the whole thing a sort of visual mishmash. He does a solid job of match Kieth’s style, but you can still tell it’s a different artist doing the work and it detracts a bit from the experience for me. All that said, though, Preludes & Nocturnes is still a great read. It’s always fun to revisit the tale that begun The Sandman . So much of the magic the series is known for is present from its very first issue and it will always be enjoyable to sit down and experience this beginning again and again. It’s a great spot for the story to begin and it’s a great read.  (4 out of 5 wands.)

The Sandman: Volume 2 – The Doll’s House (written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Mike Dringenberg (9-11, 14-16), Chris Bachalo (12), Michael Zulli (13), and Sam Kieth (15) ) For me, The Doll’s House is where The Sandman first starts feeling like the series it’ll become known for being. A lot of seeds are sown for later arcs – Rose, Barbie, Desire’s beef with Dream, etc – and a lot of the series’ rules are first codified in these issues. But it also maintains some of the problems found in the series’ first arc as well and also manages to rank among the arcs that have aged the least well. The Doll’s House has a much stronger story than Preludes & Nocturnes . It’s a story about Rose Walker and her family, continuing to tie up story threads left dangling from the previous arc. While everything takes a bit of time to get moving – the arc starts with one of those one-shots The Sandman is famous for having, which ends up being a muse on the very act of storytelling, a central theme of the series – once the story gets going, it never really stops. We’re taken from England to Florida to Georgia (and a serial killer’s convention) all the way back to the Dreaming as Rose Walker tries to unravel the threads of her family history. I still find the narrative to be a pretty good one, but there are elements of it that haven’t aged well. For a start, Desire is frequently referred to by the “it” pronoun. I understand that it was the early 90s when this was published and the singular “they/them/their” pronoun wasn’t as widely used as it is today, but hearing an explicitly androgynous character like Desire referred to as an “it” hits in an unfortunate way. I don’t think there was any mal intent on Gaiman’s part, but it’s something that hasn’t aged well. The same is true for some of the scenes depicted in the serial killer’s convention plot. To be fair, Gaiman never comes close to sympathizing with these killers, but some of those scenes are so disturbing that it’s almost not fun to read them. Perhaps that’s the point, but I think it’ll be hard for some modern readers to fully get behind that. Still, there’s a lot to love in The Doll’s House , though, including its artwork. This time, the bulk of the issues are illustrated by Mike Dringenberg, giving more of the artwork a kind of uniformity that I felt was missing in the first arc. A few of the issues are illustrated by other artists – Chris Bachalo tackles issue #12 while Michael Zulli illustrates issue #13 – but both of these issues act more as side plots of the main story and so their differing art style feels intentional and appropriate. Dringenberg’s art style is still not my favorite, but it certainly does the job. There are some beautiful images in this book – often a mixture of reality and surreality – but they are deftly balanced with the kind of artwork needed to ensure the story is visually understandable. At the end of the day, The Doll’s House inches The Sandman closer to what the series is known for. It features a main storyline that, while featuring some elements that haven’t aged well, remains devilishly interesting and captivating to read. It’s impressive seeing just how much of the series’ overarching storyline is seeded in these early arcs and it’s clear, even from this early on, how well Gaiman understands the world and the characters he’s created. I think that if readers can make it to this arc, they’ll be hooked into the world of The Sandman . (4.5 out of 5 wands.)

The Sandman: Volume 3 – Dream Country (written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Kelley Jones (17-18, Charles Vess (19), and Colleen Doran (20)) Dream Country is a bit tricky to review as it’s less of an arc and more of a collection of one-shots – though all of the one-shots are great. There’s no storyline to follow here, no characters to track. Instead, this volume is more akin to a short story collection, where each issue has to be looked at as a complete story – and it’s a lot of fun. Dream Country is the volume where it becomes apparent just how varied The Sandman can be. First up is “Caliope,” one of those stories with a great idea that’s a bit difficult to read. The idea of a writer capturing a muse is a great one, but having to see the awful things done to Caliope doesn’t make for a very fun read. Still, it falls into that common Sandman trope of Morpheus coming by to give a bad person their just desserts and that remains as satisfying as ever. Plus, Kelley Jones’ artwork is gorgeous. “Caliope” is one of those stories that probably worked when it was first published but hasn’t aged so well. Second is “A Dream of a Thousand Cats,” the first of many Sandman issues that could be considered classic. Here, a cat tells the tale of when she met the cat Dream and all that she learned from him. It’s a delightful little tale with some more gorgeous artwork from Kelley Jones. It’s interesting reading this directly after the previous issue and seeing how this series can so deftly go from a dark story about a writer capturing Caliope to a story about cats wanting to dream a world where they are the dominant species. It’s a testament to the malleability of the world Gaiman has created that these issues can work back-to-back like this at all. Up third is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” my personal favorite issue of the volume. Here, William Shakespeare and his troupe of actors perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream for a rather unusual audience – the fae that inspired the very play. In a collection of one-shots that are all about the power of stories, this particular story might be the one that best touches on that theme. Plus, it’s paired with the gorgeous artwork of Charles Vess, who creates paintings on each page that perfect capture the majesty of the fae. If you only read a single issue of The Sandman, I’d argue this is the one to read. Lastly, there’s “Façade,” the odd story out. Dream doesn’t appear in this one at all, rather it’s his sister, Death, who visits the story’s main character, Urania, in a moment of darkness. It’s an interesting premise – Urania is basically a superhero who hates the loss of her normal life. She desperately wants to return to a life of normalcy, but she is unable to. It’s this desire for death that we track throughout the comic. The highlight, of course, is the conversation between Urania and Death. It’s a weird story, though, accompanied by some suitably surreal art from Colleen Doran, but it’s an enjoyable one nonetheless. All in all, Dream Country is a weird installment in The Sandman series, but it’s also one of my favorites. It’s nice, after an arc as heavy as The Doll’s House , to take a moment and explore some of the other corners of Gaiman’s world. Each of the stories are super interesting and well worth a read on their own. The artwork for each issue fits perfectly with the story being told and it all coalesces into what might be my favorite of the first three volumes of The Sandman . (4.5 out of 5 wands.)

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I love Dream Country, for me it was the point I really knew I was reading something special

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The Sandman audiobook is a wasted opportunity to update a classic

The Audible adaptation is faithful and fascinating, but it should have lost something in the translation

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Audible’s exclusive audiobook version of The Sandman is a well-produced, fascinating experiment. That’s fitting, given that the original story — a comics series about the king of Dreams — was also a weird experiment.

Back in 1988, up-and-coming comics writer Neil Gaiman was offered the chance to reboot the Sandman, a classic DC Comics superhero who never quite made it big. The resulting juggernaut of a series, illustrated by more than two dozen artists over seven years, was a masterclass in mythopoetic storytelling, with barely any superheroes in it at all.

The Audible version is a remarkably faithful adaptation that keeps virtually every line of dialogue and narration from the first three volumes of The Sandman , while adding only what was minimally necessary to replace the comic’s imagery. I found that accuracy delightful, often pulling down the original comics off my shelves to check against them as I listened.

But it’s also the audiobook’s biggest weakness. The Sandman in audiobook is an adaptation where nothing has been lost in translation, except the opportunity to make a story about eternal stories more timeless.

The Sandman (audiobook) adapts the first three volumes of the complete 10-volume set DC Comics has been printing for decades now. This includes the comic’s opening arc, “Preludes and Nocturnes,” in which the King of Dreams is imprisoned, escapes, and recovers his artifacts of power; the second arc, “The Doll’s House,” in which he seeks out several rogue dreams who escaped his realm in his absence; and every one of the chapter-long stories included in those two volumes and the third.

Along the way, we meet a sprawling cast of characters, including a handful of Dream’s siblings, the Endless — members of a family of anthropomorphic personifications of ideas that start with the letter “D.” John Constantine, William Shakespeare, Lucifer Morningstar, and even a few superheroes and villains show up as well.

The audiobook itself is beautifully produced, and from the casting announcement , it should come as no surprise that the voices are, on the whole, extremely good. I was particularly pleased by Taron Egerton as John Constantine, Bebe Neuwirth as the Siamese Cat, and, of course, the chocolate-voiced James McAvoy as Dream. Ironically, the biggest sore thumb in the cast is Neil Gaiman himself, in the role of the Narrator.

I’ve listened to plenty of Gaiman’s audio work before, from books to short-story readings to radio plays, and enjoyed them. But in The Sandman , where each chapter kicks off with a Doctor Who -like musical fanfare, and actors are crying and hissing and roaring, his storybook monotone sticks out. I wanted a narrator to do more, well, illustrating with his tone. Ironically, the task of illustrating The Sandman has never fallen to Gaiman before.

Fortunately, Gaiman isn’t always the Narrator, and even when he is, the audiobook still has lovely stretches of achievement. The whole opening arc comes off great — the cameos from John Constantine, original Sandman Wesley Dodds, and superhero Mister Miracle are bright highlights. The series also shines in adaptations of Sandman ’s single-issue tangent tales, like that of the accidental immortal Hob Gadling, the dreams of cats, and the original 1605 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream .

It may seem odd to call The Sandman (audiobook) an adaptation. Audiobooks are, after all, translations: readings intended to preserve an unaltered text. But The Sandman isn’t a book, it’s a comic book , and its audiobook isn’t just translating textual words to spoken ones. It’s an adaptation masquerading as a translation — it’s a product of writers and audio artists making choices about how to present purely visual information. It would be a disservice to the many artists who crafted the comic to pretend otherwise. The flaw of the audiobook is that it’s an adaptation where the creators don’t make enough choices.

And that flaw is nowhere more conspicuous than in its word-for-word reproductions of The Sandman ’s casual violence against queer people and women. These are plot-inessential background elements that easily could have been softened or diminished for a 2020 adaptation.

Take the character of Judy, a doomed lesbian woman on the outs with her girlfriend, who appears in one issue only. Did we need to keep the detail that the first queer couple in the story is physically abusive? Did we need the multiple fleeting, florid references to the brutalization of queer, underage, male sex workers? Did we need to create an audioscape of a man “nervously” raping the muse Calliope? Or to painstakingly, without edits, retell the plot-inessential one-shot story “Facade” — the moral of which can be read as “Suicide isn’t tragic if you’re freakish enough”? And could we have taken a second look, perhaps, at the suggestion that “it” is just as appropriate a pronoun as “he,” “she,” or “they” for Dream’s genderfluid sibling, Desire?

I would love to hear audio productions of later arcs of The Sandman , like “Season of Mists,” in which a conclave of gods petitions Dream for the keys to Hell; “Brief Lives,” in which Dream takes his little sister Delirium on a cross-country road trip to find their lost brother Destruction; or the tragic, never-ending story of Dream’s son, Orpheus.

But I’ll firmly pass if that means we’re going to be revisiting the “A Game of You” arc without any considered updates made to the character of Wanda, a trans woman whose identity is denied at every turn — including by a god of the feminine! — until she dies along with most of the cast and her bigoted family buries her in a suit and with a short haircut, under a stone with her deadname on it.

The Sandman was written and set between 1988 and 1996, and was undoubtedly informed by contemporary events like the AIDS epidemic in America and England. Its treatment of queer people as sympathetic victims, rather than deserving ones, can be seen as progressive in its time. In that context, it’s perhaps easier to dismiss the comic’s use of homophobic statements as villainous chatter, easier to file its depiction of queer lives as often brutish and short under the umbrella of “contemporary realism.”

But the Sandman audiobook is a fresh new creation, and the choice to re-create inessential instances of rape, homophobia, and queer tragedy — especially when working directly with the series’ original writer — simply reads as callous. Gaiman himself has said that he would change aspects of the comic if it were written today . Audible’s edition doesn’t.

If I’m being blunt about this, it’s out of love; a deep affection and nostalgia for The Sandman and the quality of its storytelling when the series is at its greatest. Gaiman and his collaborators — a murderer’s row of industry giants like Kelley Jones, Colleen Doran, Chris Bachalo, and more — crafted one of the very best stories about stories that the canon has ever seen. I want that story to live as long as possible.

In The Sandman , stories birth gods, shape worlds, and confer immortality in ways both supernatural and perfectly mundane, even historically accurate. If the series has a secondary theme, it is that immortal things — whether they are stories, gods, superheroes, lucky humans, or even the so-called Endless themselves — cannot resist change. In fact, one of the audiobook’s only improvisations is an opening intro that includes Gaiman’s own unofficial summary of the story. “The Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his decision.”

And I just wish the Sandman audiobook had decided to change.

Behind the Pages

Book reviews and bookish thoughts.

• Jul 7, 2022

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman | Book Review

Book Review

Captured by a cult for nefarious reasons, the King of the Dream realm lies within a crystal prison. Morpheus bides his time, denying the cult even the sound of his voice. After all, what is a human life to one of the endless? But as Morpheus waits for his chance to escape, his realm is collapsing. When at long last the moment of escape arrives, Morpheus finds he has much work to do. Revenge is only the beginning of his tale. Morpheus must collect his stolen tools, rebuild the Realm of Dreams, and capture his freed nightmares.

The audiobook for The Sandman was remarkable. While the story is primarily dialogue-based due to its origins as a graphic novel, there was no confusion or lack of detail evident in the audio recording. The settings were created by a combination of ambient sounds and vocal clues from the characters within them. And the voice acting was so well done, bringing the various characters and creatures to life with unique dialects and accents. There were some moments I found it hard to understand certain characters due to their way of speech, but it made them feel all the more authentic.

The Sandman is not a tale for those faint of heart. Neil Gaiman spares no details as he dives into the dark side of humanity. From humans that will create nightmares to amuse themselves, to the nightmares themselves that use humans for entertainment. There are many facets of savagery and violence shown. Morpheus does what he can to amend the wrongs brought to those undeserving. However, if anyone so much as crosses Morpheus or brings harm to innocents, he will not hesitate to bring about his form of justice. Some may even find themselves living an eternal nightmare.

A few plot lines are left hanging in the balance by the end of this collection. Any story with planned sequels should have some amount of mystery left to solve. But there are characters introduced early on who did not quite line up with the story direction. For instance, there is the universe’s attempt at creating a Sandman when Morpheus is imprisoned. The new hero is a mortal who puts villains to sleep for a swift capture. But as Morpheus’ story progresses, the Sandman fades away. In later chapters, Morpheus takes up the title instead. I hope to see some of the loose ends tied up in later volumes. There is much left to explore in the world of The Sandman .

While I am not a graphic novel reader, I enjoyed the tie-in to the DC Universe. Fans of DC will certainly enjoy the cameo appearances of familiar characters. The Sandman is a thrilling and fast-paced adventure into the heart of humanity’s darkness. With much lore left to discover and a cast of characters yet to be fully realized, I look forward to the second audiobook.

To Purchase: Amazon | Author's Website

All or part of this book review may be used in marketing, I only ask that you reference Behind the Pages if you choose to do so.

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• Netflix’s The Sandman is a dream adaptation of a classic

Neil Gaiman’s beloved story comes to life on the screen

By Tauriq Moosa

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The opening moments of Netflix’s The Sandman are heart-stopping. We watch a beautiful raven fly from the waking world of humans into the realm of the titular Sandman (Tom Sturridge). Angles bend impossibly, light from unknown sources dazzles the grounds, creatures of nightmares and fevers intermingle, an eternal library folds on itself. Yet this is our world, too, the one we enter when we close our eyes. In his voiceover, the Sandman mocks humans’ presumption that dreams remain innocuous: are we not affected by our dreams, by what we yearn for and fear? 

The Sandman is a dark fantasy horror comic franchise written primarily by Neil Gaiman, who also served as an executive producer and writer on the Netflix adaptation. It tells the story of a powerful being who controls all dreams and nightmares and his interactions with the human world. We witness his journeys through history, influencing great events, as well as his travels to realms like Hell (a realm that only exists because of human fears). In this first season, Netflix adapted Gaiman’s first two The Sandman books: Preludes & Nocturne s and The Doll’s House . 

But “adaptation” is almost an insult to what the creators achieved. The series is perhaps the best-screen adaptation of big concept fantasy literature since Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Beat for beat, iconic frames, lines of dialogue, performers’ makeup and wardrobe — all of it followed the books, except for a few changes. 

I do not wish to spoil the episodes and so will be slightly vague about certain plot points and episodes.

In 1916 England, a power-hungry playboy, cult leader, and egotistical buffoon called the Magus (Charles Dance) yearns to control death. He conjures a spell to trap the embodiment of Death, the Sandman’s sister. However, instead of capturing Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), the Magus and his cult capture Dream, aka the Sandman — along with some of Dream’s powerful tools. With Death’s capture, millions are suddenly affected by a strange sleeping sickness: either unable to sleep or basically in a coma. 

Trapped and naked in a stunningly designed glass cocoon, Dream refuses to reveal anything to the mortals around him. For more than a century, Dream never utters a word, refusing to provide any details to his captors — whose lives are extended as a result of their proximity to his powerful tools. (There is an escape attempt by Dream’s closest ally, but my heart is too sore to describe what happens.) 

Upon his eventual escape, during the present day, Dream returns to his realm to find it abandoned, desolate, and broken. To fix the world of Dreams, he must recover the tools his human captors took from him. So begins the first arc and his adventures with everyone from a blue-collar exorcist to a manchild wielding the powers of the gods. In often brutal and gory scenes, battles between demonic and divine forces leave much blood in their wake. Dream is often picking up the pieces, trying to restore order that — through his absence — he caused. 

The second major arc details Dream’s attempt to find an entity called a vortex — a human, named Rose Walker (Vanesu Samunyai) who draws all dreams to herself, collapsing the waking and dream world and thus ending the universe. Here, you can expect childhood trauma, a serial killer convention (yes), and a wholesome and diverse group of housemates that includes lesbian spider collectors, a Ken and Barbie couple, and a drag queen. 

Rose is on a mission to find her missing brother, currently held as a prisoner by a cartoonishly evil foster father. At the same time, she is discovering her powers as the vortex.  

Dream, meanwhile, must face the fact that mending what is broken does not just mean restoring the world as it was before. Sometimes it means changing and adapting so breakage does not happen again. Even his own world demands change, as his subjects found reason to abandon their central purpose rather than wait for their master to return. His anger at their abandonment eventually engenders sympathy since it was his shortsightedness as a leader that made them leave. 

A psychological horror story painted on a canvas of the cosmic with a fragile brush made of hope

Dream’s somewhat godlike perspective on humanity allows us to reflect on human quirks and sensitivities: why do we fear death; why do we cling to obviously shallow dreams; why do we give up so much for love and friendship; why do we want immortality, when so much of life is pain? While these questions are never properly answered, Dream’s growing curiosity about what makes humans tick makes for engaging writing and conversations. 

This is all intermingled with, for example, managing Rose Walker turning into a vortex, a battle of wits with Lucifer, confronting nightmares, and preventing the universe’s inevitable doom. 

One of the reasons I loved the book franchise was that it is first and foremost a psychological horror story, but it’s one painted on a canvas of the cosmic with a fragile brush made of hope. Intimate stories occupy as much, if not more, space than the ones dealing with beings more powerful than gods. For example, Rose Walker is trying to find her missing brother, confronting serial killers and talking ravens, but is also on the verge of destroying the universe. 

This is nowhere better depicted than in episode six, “The Sound of Her Wings”, our first encounter with Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death, the second-eldest of these ancient embodiments. It will be Death who, as she says, stacks the chairs and turns the lights off when the last living being breathes its last breath in this universe. In this episode, the Sandman is moping and reflecting on his purpose. Death requests his company as she “does her work”: here, we witness people’s existence in its final moments, the full weight of their life crashing into the realization of its sudden end. Like her comic counterpart, Howell-Baptiste’s Death is a gentle, welcoming face, the kind you’d want to carry you to the next life. It’s a darkly beautiful episode, as Death reflects on her purpose and how it took her so long to figure out how not to be the ultimate terror. Just as life starts, it ends. But that does not mean it stops having meaning or impact. It does not mean that life is gone. She merely wants to turn that full stop into an ellipsis.  

It’s an episode focused on the blank canvas of ultimate nonexistence, but the episode dots it with bright stars of individual lives, lighting up a path through the darkness with vignettes of very human stories. This is what Sandman is all about as a franchise, and the TV series captures this. 

Of course, the series does make several welcome changes to the comics that longtime readers might find interesting. 

• John Dee (David Thewlis) is more child-like and less menacing and violent than his comic book counterpart. Longtime readers can, however, rejoice that the famous bottle issue in the diner (“24 Hours”) is almost perfectly reconstructed in episode five (“24/7”), with its gore and awfulness and weirdness. 
• Unlike the books, Hell is only ruled by Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) at this stage. 
• Instead of John Constantine — my favorite DC character — Dream engages the services of Johanna Constantine (which is Gaiman’s own creation). While not a smoker, she is a snarky, misanthropic bisexual like John, who views exorcisms as annoyances rather than world-shattering events. 

Speaking of casting, I won’t dwell on gender-flipped characters since the book character’s genders were largely irrelevant to their stories. But, in terms of casting, I was pleasantly surprised at how many Black women were cast, not simply as background characters but recurring on-screen roles: Rose Walker (Vanesu Samunyai), her mother (Andi Osho), and her grandmother (Sandra James-Young) are central to the story; Dream’s librarian and the dream world’s caretaker Lucienne is portrayed by Vivienne Acheampong; Death, as I noted, is played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste; Ann Ogbomo plays a nightmare that helps change Death’s mind about purpose. 

This is not to mention the casting of nonbinary performer Mason Alexander Park as Dream’s nonbinary sibling Desire. Furthermore, sexuality was constantly portrayed as a spectrum, with heterosexuality never presumed and queer relations or moments never commented on. 

In the end, The Sandman was not only better than I hoped but better than I… well, dreamed. There is great sadness, horror, and melancholy, but I never felt drowned in these emotions. Buoyed by trust, wholesomeness, and acceptance, it is a series that at once depicts the horrors of humanity and our place in an unknowable and terrifying existence, but it also shows us how our humanity unites us to confront the failures of the world and our fears of everything else. It is looking at the flame of hope in a black-painted glass jar. 

Sleep well.

The Sandman is streaming on Netflix now.

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Comic Book Review: The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

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Netflix’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s limited run The Sandman series coming this August got me thinking that it would be nice to read the source and see what the fuss is all about. Gaiman wove a very different kind of tale with The Sandman . His highly compelling tale of imprisonment, freedom, and revenge lacks the traditional save the world storyline of most comics, although we do get there in the end.

Gaiman’s non-traditional tale, paired with beautiful artwork from Sam Keith and Mike Dringen made for a haunting story that lasted in my head long after I finished reading.

[ Warning: My review of Neil Gaiman’s   The Sandman  contains some spoilers !]

The Sandman #1

In Issue #1 we meet the main character Dream, AKA Prince Morpheus. Morpheus isn’t a hero, a villain, or even an anti-hero. He is a powerful entity in charge of Dreamtime. As such, Morpheus has many responsibilities. But he has been imprisoned by a mystical order and his absence is having many negative effects on Earth. The comic begins jumping decades, checking in on different people around the world who are hurt by the imbalance in the universe caused by Dream’s imprisonment. 

Eventually, so much time passes that those watching Morpheus begin to become complacent. He is able to escape but he is very weak. He needs his pouch, his helm, and his ruby to help him regain his strength. His captors took them from him when they first imprisoned him but over the decades they’ve lost these powerful objects. Needing their power to recover, Morpheus begins searching for them…

The importance of Dream

I loved the imbalances in the universe caused by Morpheus’s absence in The Sandman #1. It spoke to how important dreams are to people. Without dreams we are hopeless, drifting through life without fully engaging in it. Similarly, people either fell into periods of sleep from which they couldn’t be awakened or became perpetual sleepwalkers, unable to interact with anyone around them. 

There were a few people who actually stopped sleeping. I believe these people reflect the other important function of dreams, a chance to unwind, relax, and disengage from the stresses of daily life. Without this release life becomes unbearable, and indeed those suffering from insomnia in the story end up committing suicide rather quickly if they do not find another release. 

I really liked Gaiman’s take on the importance of dreams. As the caretaker of Dreamtime Morpheus is immensely important to the universe and the people in it. I really wanted to find out more about his realm in later issues and how he might interact with people through dreams. I couldn’t wait to find out why his tools, a pouch, a helm, and a ruby were so important and how he would manage to find them. 

The Sandman #2

Neil Gaiman uses The Sandman #2 to lay out the rest of Morpheus’s quest. Morpheus is too weak to take back control of Dreamtime without his pouch, his helm, and his ruby. But he has no idea where they are. However, he knows who can help him.

Borrowed from many myths through time, Gaiman brings in the three-in-one, otherwise known as the fates. The maiden, the mother, and the crone allow him to ask one question, and only one, of each of them.  The Maiden tells him that the last person to purchase his pouch was good ol’ John Constantine. The Mother tells him that his helm was traded to a demon long ago. Finally, the Crone informs him that the League of Justice has his ruby.

We also meet an important character in issue #2, Dr. John Dee AKA Dr. Destiny. Dr. Destiny is in Arkham Asylum where he has been for a long time. He hasn’t dreamed in ages and Morpheus’s return has not helped him. Dee is a very creepy character with some major mommy issues to boot. He seems unimportant now but there is the fact that Morpheus’s return has not affected his dream problem that makes him seem like someone to keep tabs on.

The roadmap

Issue #2 was a fast read, but extremely important. Besides introducing a possible future baddy the main aim of Issue #2 was to lay out the path that Morpheus is going to walk as he regains his powers.

I have to admit, knowing that a visit to John Constantine, a trip to hell, and an encounter with the League of Justice were ahead made me want to hurry up and read the remaining issues, which is the whole point right? I do wonder who we’ll meet in Hell, after all, Constantine and League of Justice are obvious references to other DC properties but Hell is kinda generic. I’m sure someone will be there (Lucifer perhaps) and my interest is piqued, just like Gaiman intended. 

Despite some obvious name dropping the story is very strong in Issue #2. I like the fates, they’re mysterious and sassy, everything a trio of supernatural women should be! The time spent in Dreamtime is a little unfocused feeling but it’s Dreamtime, that makes sense. The clear outline for the rest of Morpheus’s adventure is nice, almost like a chapter list at the beginning of a book and I liked knowing where the plot was headed.

The Sandman #3

In The Sandman #3, Morpheus meets up with John Constantine to recover his pouch. However, it turns out that Constantine no longer has the pouch. It was stolen from him long ago by an ex-girlfriend. Upon hearing this Morpheus goes to leave but Constantine insists on coming with him to help. It turns out that Morpheus’s pouch wasn’t empty, it was filled with magic sleep sand. Constantine’s ex has become addicted to the sands and spends all her time in a sand-induced sleep. Her dreams have become real and overrun the house she stays in, trying to ensnare anyone who ventures within.

Gaiman’s story shows the folly of being too obsessed with dreams and forgetting to live. In the end, Morpheus is able to make the dreams infesting the house retreat but he cannot save the girl. I saw this as an allegory for how dreams will eventually fade if you don’t do anything to make them come true. Then you will be left broken and alone, with nothing to show for your life. 

The Sandman #4

After retrieving his pouch full of sands, Morpheus decides to head to hell to retrieve his helm. Here we run into another favorite character, Lucifer, Lord of Hell. Morpheus meets with Lucifer only to find that he is no longer the only power in Hell. Hell is now run by a triumvirate.

Once Lucifer is joined by his partners Azazel and Beelzebub they agree to help Morpheus. But when they find the demon with the helm he refuses to give it up. Morpheus challenges him and so begins a battle that visually was silly but was intellectually very satisfying.

When the battle begins the panels look like, I kid you not, a nightclub and I thought for a crazy second “Oh god, it’s going to be a rap battle, how stupid!” Then the battle began and I realized it was a wizard’s battle! I went from unenthused to ecstatic in a snap.

Battles of wit are always interesting to see and this one didn’t disappoint. The visuals remained a little jarring but the exchanges were amazing. In the end, Morpheus of course wins and regains his helm, ready to continue his quest.

Morpheus’s time in hell is meant to show the hope that is embedded in dreams. Without that hope we cannot grow and become more, we are just stuck exactly where we are forever. If issue #3 showed us the danger of being lost in dreams then issue #4 showed us the importance of dreams. It was a wonderful reminder to never stop believing!

The Sandman #5

In The Sandman #5, Morpheus tracks down his ruby but finds that it is somehow changed. It psychically attacks him and he collapses. Meanwhile, Dr. Dee (Dr. Destiny’s new name) has escaped and comes for the ruby as well. Turns out he is the one who altered it so it now only works for him. 

This issue was another very fast read, similar to issue #2. The main purpose seems to have been making a few name drops at the JLA and adding extra obstacles to Morpheus’s journey. It had a little bit of a feeling of filler to it, although if you skipped it you would be lost in later issues so it wasn’t really filler. I guess it was just a little low-key and not my favorite issue.

The Sandman #6

In issue #6 we see Dr. Dee trap six people in a diner and use the power of the ruby to twist them to his will for the next 24 hours. He starts off small but as time goes by he becomes more and more depraved and the things he makes them do become more and more sickening.

In the end, they all die. The whole world is suffering similarly, as told to us by a TV in the diner, but it is these six people that we really get to see and feel for.

Issue #6 is really a parable for when others control our dreams. The ruby gives Dr. Dee the ability to see and control the dreams of others and he uses it to make them do horrible things that they never would do otherwise. Similarly, if we allow others to tell us what our dreams are we will end up unhappy in the end (hopefully not as unhappy as those six but still).

I really like how Gaiman uses each of Morpheus’s tools to teach us something about dreams. The lessons are subtle but they are still being absorbed one way or the other as they’re read. It gives the story a depth far beyond just punching a bad guy and I love it.

The Sandman #7

Time to save the world! Morpheus never set out to save the world, that’s not what this story is about. But in order to fulfill his own quest of recovering his stolen property, he’ll have to regain his ruby from Dr. Dee and by default save the world. The battle between these two takes place in the land of Dreamtime, using dreams as their weapons. 

Because the ruby has been so altered by Dr. Dee, Morpheus cannot simply take it from him and the ruby has managed to steal more and more power from him. It looks like Morpheus might lose the fight when Dr. Dee wrongly comes to the conclusion that destroying the ruby, which contains so much of Morpheus’s power, will destroy Morpheus.

Instead, Morpheus regains all the power the gem has taken from him. He is stronger than he’s been in eons and Dr. Dee is left powerless. Morpheus returns Dr. Dee to Arkham and sends the world to peaceful sleep. When everyone awakens everything will have been like a very bad dream and life will return to normal.

The moral behind issue #7 is: set your dreams free and you can do anything. At the beginning of the fight, Dr. Dee has control over dreams with his ruby so he has all the power in the battle. As soon as the ruby is destroyed and the dreams are set free, Morpheus is in control again and the battle is over, just like that. I absolutely loved that.

The stories within the stories of The Sandman are so inspirational and uplifting that I think everyone should read them. It feels like something the world needs right now.

The Sandman #8

Time for the wrap-up. Morpheus has finished his quest and is left feeling unsure of what to do next. It’s something I’ve often wondered myself after reading a story, now that the hero has obtained whatever they’ve been trying so hard to achieve, what comes next?

As Morpheus struggle with this question, he meets up with his sister Death. She takes him along on her rounds and as he watches her deal compassionately with each soul he begins to feel his own purpose again. After a time he is ready to return to his kingdom and his duties as Dream. It was a neat way for Gaiman to tie his story up with a bow and give it away to all of us.

Bringing The Sandman to life through art

Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg bring the world of The Sandman to life through beautiful artwork. The covers are very ethereal. The edges are muted and blurred to invoke the world of dreams. Inside the pictures are more in focus.

The style is much more realistic and the colors are dark. Undoubtedly darker colors were chosen to convey feelings of nighttime and sleep to the reader.

Issue #8 is very different from the rest of the series. The cover is still amazing (possibly my favorite) and in the same style as the other seven but the inside is markedly different. Issue #8 contains lots of bright colors.

Even though the story is mostly concerned with death, the colors are the lightest seen in the series. I think this is because a point is being made that death is not a scary thing to be avoided but a necessary and, dare I say, beautiful part of life.

I also think the colors are so different because Morpheus entered the peace at the end of his quest. His imprisonment and the frantic search for his missing tools are behind him and he can relax and see the beauty of the world and his place in it now.

Ending the visit

This entire series was amazing. I really loved all the meaning hidden deep within the panels. Honestly, I want to see the English course devoted to the meaning behind The Sandman , it could be eye-opening for those that see comics as only for kids.

Gaiman weaves a tale that is entertaining and illuminating all at once. The art that accompanies the story enhances the overall story and adds layers to the meanings within. I am eagerly awaiting the Netflix series that inspired me to read The Sandman . If it is half as good as the source material, it should be spectacular!

Rating: 9.5/10

The Sandman  by Neil Gaiman , Sam Keith , and Mike Dringenberg is available via most comics and booksellers including DC Universe Infinite . 

Have you read The Sandman ? What did you think? Let us know over on Twitter or Facebook! If you haven’t already, check out my comic reviews for The Umbrella Academy !

Luna Gauthier

I've always been a bookworm and fantasy is my favortie genre. I never imagined (okay, I imagined but I didn't think) that I could get those books sent to me for just my opinion. Now I am a very happy bookworm! @Lunagauthier19 on Twitter

Luna Gauthier has 213 posts and counting. See all posts by Luna Gauthier

clock This article was published more than  6 years ago

Oh, the horror! Why it’s hard to look away, even when a book is full of gore.

When I was 9 or 10 and liked to go to Saturday afternoon horror movies, there was a kid named David who got so scared he’d pull his coat up over his head and watch the movie through the buttonhole. I felt like doing the same thing while reading the opening sections of Lars Kepler’s grisly parcel of Scandinavian noir “The Sandman,” a thriller so blood-soaked it leaves you asking the question, what’s up with those Swedes? And with the rest of us, too, since Kepler’s Joona Linna books — this is the fourth — are international bestsellers and have been translated into 40 languages.

I’m not sure what the appeal is of a mystery genre that might be called the un-cozy, or even anti-cozy. Reading these gory things is certainly less pathological than, say, seeking out images of actual beheadings on the Internet. But they fall into the same general category of physical-suffering-as-entertainment, and as I read, I asked myself a number of times: What’s wrong with me that I am not just setting this thing aside?

One reason is that Kepler — actually the husband-and-wife team of Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril — is really good at this stuff. The chapters are short, the characters are deftly drawn, and the action churns along. The protagonist, Detective Superintendent Linna, is a dour but utterly principled and likable fellow. And the main villain, Jurek Walter, is all too believable, given what we know about the ghastly family lives of so many real-life sadistic serial killers.

As the novel opens, a young man — ill, malnourished and near death — is found on a snowy railroad bridge near Stockholm. Mikael Kohler-Frost had been missing for 13 years and declared legally dead. Likewise his younger sister, Felicia. The official police verdict was that the children of popular author Reidar Frost had accidentally drowned near their home. Linna, however, had long believed — without real evidence — that Walter had something to do with the children’s disappearance. Now Mikael tells Linna that he and Felicia had been held captive in a cold, tomblike room he calls “the capsule” and that he managed to escape without ever having set eyes on his captor. The police must find Felicia before she dies or is killed, and so the chase is on.

Lars Kepler’s ‘The Hypnotist’: Thriller is a disturbing meditation on evil

Walter, meanwhile, is locked up in a high-security psych ward, having been caught shoving a woman back into the coffin he’d held her in for two years. Walter is considered to be so cunning and persuasive that the institution’s staff must wear earplugs in his presence, lest he recruit them in an escape attempt. Linna believes, correctly, that Walter knows where Felicia is, and he sends in Officer Saga Bauer undercover as a psych patient to connect with Walter, psycho to psycho, and elicit information. The ward’s incompetent staff doctor doesn’t know Bauer is a cop, and he plies her with psychotropic drugs. This leads to complications, all hideous.

In fact, there’s little in “The Sandman” that isn’t grotesque. The title is from traditional children’s tales of a sandman who comes at bedtime to toss sand in children’s eyes to put them to sleep. Many of the dozens of victims of Walter and an accomplice are children who die in horrible ways. If you think I am going to describe any of them in this newspaper, forget it.

A weakness of the novel is big things that go unexplained. Captives are provided food and water, but no mention is made of toilet facilities, especially for the woman who spends two years in a coffin underground. And what about haircuts for Mikael and Felicia? I am being only partly facetious. Kepler breezes by a lot of this kind of thing. And Linna does something incomprehensible. Because Walter has it out for cops and enjoys torturing their families, Linna stages fake deaths for his wife and children and sends them off to start new lives elsewhere. Then he takes up with a new girlfriend, and his family is rarely even mentioned again. Weird.

Fittingly, there’s not much sex in “The Sandman,” but what little there is can be puzzling. In his grief over the loss of his children and his wife’s subsequent suicide, author Frost embarks on a life of debauchery that he hopes will kill him. In one orgiastic scene at his country estate, he is involved in some foreplay in which he “strokes her thigh under her dress, feeling her nicotine patch.” I read this three times, thinking this might be slang I was unfamiliar with. I’m still not sure.

In an interview on the blog Killer Reads , Alexander Ahndoril said: “Our own books often scare us. Alexandra is always having nightmares during the writing process.” Read “The Sandman” and you’ll see why.

Richard Lipez  writes the Don Strachey private eye novels under the name Richard Stevenson.

Read more :

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‘Not a Sound’: A thriller worth staying up all night to finish

the sandman

By Lars Kepler, translated from the Swedish by Neil Smith

Knopf. 464 pp. $27.95

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The Sandman First Reviews: Neil Gaiman's Ethereal Comic Adaptation Is 'What Dreams Are Made Of,' Critics Say

An immersive world and impressive cast help elevate netflix's newest comic book adaptation, but a slow-burn story pace may turn away some viewers..

TAGGED AS: Drama , Fantasy , Netflix , streaming , television , TV

Over three decades after its comic book premiere, Neil Gaiman ’s groundbreaking The Sandman , referred by many as an “unfilmable” comic, has made its official television debut on Friday, August 5 on Netflix. The series stars Tom Sturridge as Dream (aka Lord Morpheus, aka the King of Dreams) the cosmic being who, after being held captive for a century, sets out on an otherworldly journey to reclaim his power, realign the balance between the realms, and save the universe (and humanity) from total annihilation, in the process.

Supporting Sturridge in the 10-episode first season is an epic ensemble cast including Game of Thrones alums Gwendoline Christie (who plays Lucifer Morningstar) and Charles Dance (Sir Roderick Burgess), with Vivienne Acheampong (Lucienne), Jenna Coleman (Johanna Constantine), Boyd Holbrook (The Corinthian), David Thewlis (John Dee/Doctor Destiny), Vanesu Samunyai (formerly known as Kyo Ra as Rose Walker), Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Death), Mason Alexander-Park (Desire), Stephen Fry (Gilbert), Patton Oswalt (who provides the voice of Matthew the Raven), and Mark Hamill (who voices Merv Pumpkinhead).

Needless to say, the buzz is quite high for the effects-heavy genre series. But does it deliver the goods? Here’s what critics are saying about season 1 of Netflix’s The Sandman :

How does it compare to the comic?

(Photo by Netflix)

Gaiman’s hand is felt throughout as it faithfully adapts the comic nearly issue-by-issue with each episode. There are some slight changes, particularly with regard to representation and modernisation, as one would hope for in a contemporary adaptation, even for a comic considered progressive for 1989 – Richard Newby, Empire Magazine

From smart casting and strong writing to exquisitely eerie, noir-meets-horror production design that makes thoughtful use of digital effects, this is easily one of the best small-screen comic adaptations ever made. – Judy Berman, TIME Magazine

Gaiman developed the streaming adaptation with prolific comic book adapter David S. Goyer and showrunner Allan Heinberg, turning it into what may be one of the most faithful comic book adaptations of all time. – Jamie Lovett, Comicbook.com

The series pays homage to the original comics, as it should. Much of the dialogue is taken verbatim from Gaiman’s source material, while several scenes from the first volumes are recreated almost exactly in the show, requiring a liberal use of CGI. – Vicky Jessop, London Evening Standard

How is Tom Sturridge as Dream?

Tom Sturridge is ethereal as Dream. Seriously, it’s actually unreal how good he is in this role. From his delivery and speech cadences to the tiny, almost unintentional smirk that comes when Morpheus finds himself amused in spite of himself… it’s impossible to imagine another in his place. – Amelia Emberwing, IGN Movies

What’s important is that Sturridge captures the competing aspects of Morpheus that are forever roiling under his impassive surface — his haughtiness, his wounded vulnerability; his stiffness, his longing for connection. Also, his brittle anger, his ability to — almost, not quite, but almost — laugh at himself. – Glen Weldon, NPR

Tom Sturridge, not yet a major name, is pitch-perfect in making Morpheus flesh and blood, deftly navigating his stoicism and distance with a sad, though not entirely charmless, sense of punk-Byronic loneliness. – Richard Newby, Empire Magazine

Sturridge has the right look, but his performance, unfortunately, leans into all of Dream’s inherent flaws as a dramatic leading figure. What could play as an intriguingly mysterious persona in other hands instead comes across as mildly irritated and dull. – Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

What About the Rest of the Cast?

The real standout and, frankly the savior of the series, is Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death. Howell-Baptiste gives a positively effervescent performance as the personification of Death, a sweet and kindly figure dressed as a cute goth girl whose appearance belies popular belief about the Grim Reaper. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

The best performance in the show, though, comes from Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian. The character is an escaped nightmare from Dream’s realm who was created to mirror the worst of humanity’s impulses, and he accepts his duties with a…big toothy grin. The Corinthian is supposed to be irredeemable, an unrepentant murderer who kills for fun, but his role in the story (and the amount of screen time he gets) requires him to be at least somewhat understandable, if not outright sympathetic. – Sam Barsanti, AV Club

As two of Dream’s immortal siblings, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Mason Alexander Park evoke the iconic elements of their characters, while making the roles distinctly their own. And David Thewlis, playing a would-be supervillain, shifts fluidly between pitiable wretch and malicious manipulator — and he’s outfitted with a motivation that clarifies his character’s goals, which are a bit muddier in the comic. – Glen Weldon, NPR

Lucifer Morningstar, the biblical fallen angel who rules over hell, was famously drawn to resemble David Bowie in his big-haired, late-’60s folk singer era. Here, the character is played by Game of Thrones ’ statuesque Gwendoline Christie, who embodies Lucifer’s winsome insouciance despite being, you know, a woman. – Judy Berman, TIME Magazine

Elsewhere, Jenna Coleman acquits herself so well in her brief appearance as troubled badass Johanna Constantine (a gender-swapped version of the John Constantine from the books, that NBC series and that Keanu Reeves movie) that she might as well be testing the waters for her own spinoff. – Angie Han, Hollywood Reporter

How is the world-building and character development?

And while it’s admirable that this version of The Sandman has incorporated women, nonbinary, and Black and POC actors into a tableau that was predominantly white and male in printed form, the series increasingly pushes Dream aside despite not developing him well enough to justify the time away. – Roxana Hadidi, New York Magazine/Vulture

There’s no substitution for the original artwork, though some designs and panels are recreated in remarkable detail by VFX artists, directors, and production designers, making for an apt and thoughtful visual translation. – Jamie Lovett, Comicbook.com

The imagery complements storytelling that stays true to Gaiman’s sensibility—a mix of fantasy tropes, literary and pop-cultural references, gothy aesthetics, and archetypes grounded in global mythology that is as thoughtful in its own way about how people use the omnipotent heroes and villains we invent through fiction as Watchmen. – Judy Berman, TIME Magazine

Any final thoughts?

“The Sandman” is slow to wake, but once it does, it starts to show potential to be the closest thing we might have to a great Neil Gaiman adaptation. – Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

The result is very middling, neither dream nor nightmare, just the vague reverie you have when you’re hungry and lunch is still an hour away. – Nick Hilton, The Independent (UK)

After a failed attempt at a film adaptation, writer Neil Gaiman has shepherded his comic book epic “The Sandman,” a stew pot of invented and borrowed mythological characters, into a highly satisfying 10-episode Netflix series. – Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times

With enough forward-facing momentum and the might of Gaiman’s ever-complicating lore behind, Netflix’s “The Sandman” justifies its existence — and the potential for so much more story to come — time and time again. – Caroline Framke, Variety

The Sandman isn’t perfect. But, goodness, it’s so, so much more than I ever thought I’d get. – Lacy Baugher, Paste Magazine

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