Customer Reviews

Dream Country (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Sandman Collected Library (Prebound))

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yeah, I know it's not the first volume in the series. But I don't think Neil Gaiman really hit his stride until Dream Country. As this collection is a bunch of stand alone short stories, I think it makes an excellent book get people hooked on the Sandman.

There's Calliope, a one-hit novelist's muse really is one of the muses. He rapes and abuses his muse -- bad news when her ex comes to the rescue. Creepy, creepy story. Best of all, the collection includes the script to this story.

A Dream of A Thousand Cats... A charming tale that shows what cats dream of, and why those dreams will never be reality.

A Midsummer Night's Dream .. The real Oberon, Titania and Puck (and other fairies) attend the first performance of Shakespeare's classic play. Simply magical with superb art by Charles Vess.

Facades ... The life of a has-been superheroine. It takes a silly and forgotten character and makes her painfully human.

All of these stories are must-reads -- each told with different styles. What a wonderful way to sample what comics can be.

"Dream Country" contains 4 unrelated stories about Dream and Death. The first story, "Dream of a Thousand Cats" is an amusing tale, but it does not deserve an entire issue to tell. It could have easily been one of the stories told to Rose by the old women in "Kindly Ones" and taken up only a few pages.

The second tale "Calliope" is much better, but is still missing that Gaiman magic. It does however, introduce us to one of Sandman's great loves and mother of his only child. It's a good story, but it's unoriginal.

The third tale is the real treat. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" takes off from a chapter in "Doll's House" where Dream tells William Shakespeare to write 2 plays for him. Shakespeare and his troop of actors perform Midsummer Night's Dream on a grassy hill in the English Countryside for the actual fairies that are represented in the play. It's a wonderful story and the art is just breathtaking.

The last one, "Facade", doesn't include Dream. Instead it focuses on an obscure super-heroine of the 60's and how she longs for a normal life which is granted by Death. It's a moving story, the kind of super-hero tale that only Neil could write. Super powers may be great, but being a normal person would be much more appealing sometimes.

All in all, Dream Country is not the best collection of Sandman stories, but "Midsummer Night's Dream" is the single best Sandman issue and actually won a slew of awards. It's worth checking out for that tale alone.

This collection contains two of Gaiman's best short stories. "Dream of a Thousand Cats," with its gorgeous artwork by Kelley Jones and Malcolm Jones III, is one of the great ironic cat stories. And "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which actually won a World Fantasy Award. The Award committee was so chagrined by the notion of a comic book winning the prize that they changed the rules to prevent such an abomination from ever happening again. Ah, what fools these mortals be. The collection also includes, as a bonus, a copy of Gaiman's script for another story, "Calliope," in which the magician shows us how the illusion is created. In one of his panel descriptions we see the key to his method: "NOW I WANT TO GET ACROSS THE RAPE, AND THE HORROR AND THE DOMINANCE, FAIRLY SUBTLY, DOING ALL THE WORK IN THE READER'S HEAD." Yes, indeed. That's where Gaiman always does his best work. In the reader's head

Others have written enough about the story content, so I just want to add an additional annoyance with this volume: the last 40 pages (out of 160) are just for the script of 'Calliope'. All text. No pictures... The book was already short enough compared to the others. And that script took even more away from it...

"Mythologies take longer to die than people believe. They linger on in a kind of dream country that affects all of you."
- Death of the Endless, in "Facade", herein

"Calliope" in some ways is the most interesting entry; Gaiman has also included his script for Calliope, as annotated during his conversations with the artist. Gaiman emphasizes that this isn't the One True Way of scriptwriting - but a student would have to look long and hard to find a better published example. The script supplies both dialogue and detailed descriptions of the accompanying visual images the artist should capture, also documenting their origins. (Failing author Rick Madoc's workspace, for instance, is based on Gaiman's own, without the Groucho Marx statue.)

Calliope and Dream were once lovers, but the fate of their son (one of the key elements of the Sandman mosaic, in FABLES AND REFLECTIONS) caused a rift between them that never healed. Like Dream, Calliope has spent much of the 20th century as a mortal's prisoner - in her case, Erasmus Fry captured her as she made a nostalgic visit to Greece in 1927, and rather than wooing her, forced her to provide inspiration. Now an old man, Erasmus as the story opens has sold her to Rick Madoc, who wants to break his writer's block before the deadline of his second novel falls due. (Forced inspiration involves Madoc raping Calliope, telling himself she's not really human.) Tasting success, Madoc gets greedy, and continues to exploit Calliope as he rises to fame and fortune - and enough time passes for Dream, an ultimate source of inspiration with a gift for epic vengeance, to escape his *own* unfortunate incarceration.

"A Dream of a Thousand Cats" is the message preached by a mother who learned the true depths of the falsehood of feline independence, when her humans drowned the litter sired by her first lover, a stray tom whose bloodline wasn't 'good enough' for a purebred Siamese. In her grief, she sought the heart of the dreaming for justice, revelation, and wisdom. A dead crow there, denying first justice and then wisdom, directed her to the king of dreams - another aspect of Dream, just as Nada and the last Martian saw him differently than the usual artist's portrayal. The truth the nameless mother brought back from the dreamworld - of how humans came to dominate cats, and what it *really* takes to change the world - is very powerful, despite the savage irony of the long odds against her.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" (by Neil Gaiman and William Shakespeare) picks up the thread of Dream's working relationship with Will Shakespeare, begun in "Men of Good Fortune" in THE DOLL'S HOUSE. (The bargain is concluded in the last story of THE WAKE.) The artist, Charles Vess, later collaborated with Gaiman on his full-length novel of Faerie, STARDUST.

Lord Strange's Men - the acting company in which Shakespeare worked as both actor and playwright before joining the Lord Chamberlain's Men - have left London to tour the provinces after their patron's death (historical fact; Gaiman cannot typically be caught out in any continuity error). Here at Wendel's Mound in Sussex, Dream has called in one of the chips owed him by Shakespeare in exchange for inspiration. (Dream sees nothing unusual in the choice of stage, as this was a theatre long before the coming of Shakespeare's people to the island. "The Normans?" "The humans.")

A performance of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for the *real* Auberon and Titania, whose people have long since left the mortal plane, but who have accepted Dream's invitation to a single night's entertainment, in thanks for the diversion their people have provided for Dream in his eternal existence. This story marks the first overlap between Faerie and the Sandman storyline, introducing not only the royals, but the shadowy figure (noted, with a most-wanted flavor, as being still at large) of the Puck. [As the real Peaseblossom says, "'I am that merry wanderer of the night'? I am that giggling-dangerous-totally-bloody-psychotic-menace-to-life-and-limb, more like it.'" "Shh, Peaseblossom. The Puck might *hear* you!" The by-play in the audience is well written.]

The characters of Lord Strange's Men are dead-on accurate, with Richard Burbage (technically the best actor) taking Oberon's part, Shakespeare as Duke Theseus, and Will Kemp (the strongest comedian, whose insistence on ad-libbing eventually caused his break with the company, as Shakespeare preferred people to stick with his scripts) as Bottom the weaver. The *real* price Shakespeare has paid for his inspiration, though, can be seen in his relationship with his young son Hamnet, experiencing a rare few weeks of his father's company - in the silent part of the boy servant over whom Oberon and Titania quarrel in the play, an irony that deepens as we see the reaction of the real Fair Folk to him. The Puck can't resist the temptation of playing himself on stage...

"Facade" Urania Blackwell was once the superhero Element Girl, long forgotten by the intelligence agency that persuaded her to use the Orb of Ra to trade her humanity for superpowers, then shelved her. The one shape she can't take for long is that of an ordinary human; 'putting on her face' involves forming short-lived clay masks from her own substance, to be able to pass. She has lost the will to live, existing as a shut-in on a "company" pension, and has only 2 kinds of dreams - bad and terrible. (Ordinary nightmares are only bad dreams; the *terrible* dreams are those in which she lives a normal life, then wakes to find that she's still a metamorph.) Death, not Dream, appears in this one, but not to end Urania's life - she heard Urania crying while collecting a neighbour woman who'd fallen from a ladder. After all, as Death points out, she just has a job to do; people make their own fates, and put their own interpretation on her job, whether as gift or punishment.

By this point in Sandman, Neil Gaiman had hit his stride as a writer and was doing some high quality stories, including, notably for this volume, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the first comic to win the World Fantasy Award.

As a run-down, "Calliope" delves into Dream's past and present, allowing him to encounter a former lover, the muse Calliope, who like him is being imprisoned by a greedy mortal. This issue more than the others offers some insight into future Sandman stories, as Calliope and Dream's coupling led to the birth of Orpheus.

"Facade" may have been the weakest entry, though any chance to see Death shine and offer advise is generally worth the price of admission as Gaiman uses the opportunity to dig up a long-forgotten minor superheroine and her horrifying loneliness.

"Night of a Thousand Cats" is a charming little tale, not unlike a lot of Gaiman's single issue stories, like those seen in the "Fables and Reflections" volume of this series.

And finally, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a real charmer, where Gaiman works historical figures in with mythological ones. Anyone familiar with either the play or English folklore will probably get a stupendous kick out of this. And even if you aren't, there's enough charm in the tale, and the full ramifications of Shakespeare's deal with Dream become apparent.

The only real complaint I had about this one was that it was too short. For the price I paid, and given the length of other volumes, I think I was expected more than four stories.

I just want to offset these other reviews a little and point something out about them: Even though they all say that it's the worst of the series, or at any rate, not the best, and they use some pretty disappointed language to speak of it, the lowest anyone gave it was three out of five stars. That's still pretty high, and I don't think that all the reviews remembered to point out that even a low-quality Sandman collection is still an amazing work of fiction. Put simply, the Sandman is one of the most amazing stories I've ever read. I would argue that someone who wants to read the entire Sandman story should read the collections of shorts in addition to the stories which directly serve the greater plot. Dream Country and Fables and Reflections help create atmosphere, and they reveal things about Dream's past and personality. Also, it must be noted that "The Kindly Ones," in wrapping up the story line, uses at least one element from every single one of the eight collections before it, including this one-- Puck's in it, remember? So this does serve the greater plot. I thought that "Midsummer Night's Dream" was a brilliant story, and I say poo to all the reviewers who weren't as impressed by it. The idea is brilliant, the writing is fantastic, that final scene is incredible... and the story contains arguably the best quote in the entire Sandman series: "Something need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow truths that will endure long after mere fact is but dust and ashes, and forgot." Dream Country is worth buying for that story alone, and the others are also strong, particularly "Dream of a Thousand Cats." It's worth buying so that you understand Puck's involvement in "The Kindly Ones." Plus, wouldn't you want to own the whole collection?

The earliest two Sandman collections are good but the third, Dream Country, is great. The book features four single-issue stories in which the saga's title character, the mystical king of dreams, moves to the background (he is not even in one tale). His preeminence will not be missed, however because one cannot read stories this smart, imaginative, creepy and all around superb and feel that anything is lacking.

The first story is "Calliope," in which a one-hit novelist enslaves an actual muse and becomes as productive and popular as Stephen King. The author is not a cruel person, but he cannot set her free if he wants his flow of ideas to continue. Gaiman provides a thoroughly creepy dissertation on the madness of writers and Kelly Jones' darkly astounding drawings of attics, faces and shadows perfectly complements the tale.

The second is "Dream of a Thousand Cats," in which a feline prophetess shares her vision of a cat-ruled world; one that is open to her brethren if they only believe. Gaiman creates a religious outlook perfect for these slinky, self-satisfied animals and, just as in "Calliope," Jones' art is a major asset. Personality and mystique are translated wonderfully in his cat eyes and cat body language. This is Dream Country's best story and one of the best issues of a comic book series I have ever read.

The third, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," famously won the World Fantasy Award for best short story, the first and only time a comic book has done so. In that tale, Shakespeare and his troupe perform the title play in front of the fairy creatures it is based upon. It is a wonderful parody/tribute to the renowned playwright.

The fourth, "Facade," is one of two times the use of a superhero in a Sandman story works (The other is the story acrh The Kindly Ones, which practically stars Lyta Hall, formerly The Fury). The hero is Element Girl, a sidekick to Metamorpho who vanished in the late 1960s without much notice. "Facade" tells of how her super-powers turned on her, how she became a tormented agoraphobe and how she finally found release.

Dream Country is Sandman at its best; an intelligent and unique series that not only represents comic books at their best, but speculative fiction in general. I cannot recommend this volume more highly.

This book goes beyond art. It goes beyond mere imitation of life. It has a life all its own. The stories contained within this graphic novel will make you think. If you're satisfied with life and don't want your happy little world order upset, don't read this. This book is for the dreamer in all of us, the part of us that longs for the fantastic. My favorite Sandman issue, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," is contained within these pages. Shakespeare performing his play for the actual denizens of Fairie - what could be better? Gaiman's Puck is unbelievable, a creature of horror and humor. The creatures of fairie are vibrant, real people, despite their fantastic nature. Gaiman, however, does not leave the humans dully on the sidelines. Oh no, we also have a story of Shakespeare's son and his view of his famous father. This story is not about any one thing. It's about dreams and relationships, the nature of truth and the passing away of an older age. But this story is not all seriousness; it also has some wonderfully funny moments, such as a mortal actor's reaction to an audience straight out Fairie. This is the comic story that was so good it won a World Fantasy Award. This is the story that scared the comittee so much that they changed the rules so a comic could never win again. It is that good.

This was also my introduction to the art of Charles Vess, one of the best artists living, in my estimation. He is the consummate fairy tale artist. His delicate, elfin faces and wonderful depictions of facial expressions bring the world of Fairie to life, along with the mortal players in this drama. He handles both the uproarious humor and the sensitive moments of Gaiman's script superbly.

And that's only one of the four stories contained in this graphic novel. Read it. It'll open your heart and touch something deep inside your soul. You'll never be the same.

It must have occurred to Neil Gaiman that a character like The Sandman presented an infinitely difficult challenge. I mean, here's a character that is all powerful... all the time. Oh sure, the first Sandman collection (Preludes and Nocturnes) gave us some brief moments of un-Sandmanlike frailty. There was a distinct possibility at the beginning that dear old Morpheus might come to some serious harm. With "Dream Country", however, it's perfectly clear that our hero is impossible to defeat. This places his author in an interesting position. Instead of your usual good-guy-fights-bad-guy-and-almost-loses-then-at-last-wins, the story has become more focused on far more infinite matters. Suddenly we're reading stories in which muses are the prisoners of writers, where cats used to be gods, and the origins of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are explained. When your hero has supreme powers, things can get a lot more interesting.

This particular collection contains four stories, all varying in type and quality. The first is the most disturbing, and probably also the best. In it, the muse Calliope has been captured and imprisoned by a writer for sixty years. Now he's just traded her to an upcoming new author and her torment begins anew. Fortunately her one-time lover, Morpheus, has recently been freed from his own prison. And he doesn't look kindly on jailors. The second story, "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" opines the theory that once cats were the rulers of the world until humans dreamed themselves into control. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" shows the true source of Shakespeare's brilliant creation and promises future and highly amusing sequels. Finally, "Façade" (the weakest of the bunch) shows Element Girl seeking Death's help.

Stronger than the previous collection "The Doll's House", this book is an interesting series of conjectures. Though the first story hurt to read, it was well thought through. Gaiman has even added, at the end of this book, the original script as he wrote it for that story. Unfortunately, artists Kelley Jones and Malcom Jones III decided that in spite of Gaiman's requests that his tortured Calliope be more like a Holocaust victim than a supermodel, this is the comic book world and the supermodel idea won out in the end. Which sucks and almost ruins the story (once you know Gaiman's original intent). So naughty naughty to the Joneses. Other tales fare better. The one involving cats, in some ways, shows why "The Sandman" has always been the one graphic novel read by as many women as men. And no one can deny the enticing "Midsummer". I haven't read any Sandman comics past this book, but I am truly hoping for a "Tempest" based story to come up at some point as well. As for "Façade", it's weak. One of those in-jokes for people who enjoy old comic book superheroes. If you're not familiar with Element Girl then the story doesn't make a heckuva lotta sense. Why include it? Because, I suspect, someone was clamoring for that hottie Death to make another appearance. But it's just a mildly depressing story that ends oddly. I didn't know what to make of it. I just knew it was poorly thought out.

Nonetheless, the tales in this book still hold together well in the end. I wouldn't hand this book to someone trying to decide whether or not to even read "The Sandman", of course. This is not a good Sandman starter novel. But for those already hooked fans, it has its charms. A fun dwelling on the nature of our own R.E.M. cycles.