Time for a little Sunday book review...

The first thing that throws people off about Sandman is that it's a graphic novel, also known as a comic book. But that only determines form, not content.

The main - but not always central - character is Sandman, more often referred to as Dream or Morpheus. There is a main story arc with many branches and subplots. Sandman is a collection of stories inspired by a great number of sources. Greek, Egyptian and Norse mythology, Bible and Christian myth, Shakespeare, old African and Arabian stories, modern urban myths, plus a number of original stories. There are of course occasional hat tips to comic book heroes, but not too many of those.

Dream and his siblings are the Endless - far older and more powerful than gods, although not omnipotent (after all, having more than one omnipotent entity inevitably leads to trouble). They are, roughly in order if seniority, Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Destruction, and Delirium (formerly Delight).

Death is one of the more prominent characters in Sandman - she is Dream's older sister and she's... rather unorthodox. She's not evil or even threatening, she's actually very nice - if inevitable. And she usually looks like a goth chick, although like the other Endless, she can look any way she wants to if she wishes to blend with the crowd.

Many of the stories are about humans, from purely mythological (Orpheus) to real historical personages (Emperor Norton). Much of the plot is set in contemporary (ie. circa 1990) America and Britain, as well as in the Dreaming, the domain of Lord Morpheus. There are plenty of excursions to other times and places, both real and imagined.

The stories were all written by Neil Gaiman, but the drawing and coloring was done by a number of different artists. The main characters are always recognizable, and the distinct visual styles add to the variety.

Originally, Sandman was published by Vertigo as monthly issues between 1989 and 1996. There are ten volumes total, each encompassing about 10 issues. Some of the volumes contain a single storyline, others are collections of very loosely connected stories.

Sandman is clearly meant for adult readers. To fully appreciate the stories, it helps to have at least cursory knowledge of the many sources it draws upon. The stories are - like most of Gaiman's work - quite original and unpredictable, even when the author recycles well established characters and plots. Definitely not what might be called conventional.

That is no doubt part of the reason why Sandman won many accolades and is reportedly the only comic book to have made it to the NYT hardcover bestseller list to date. Norman Mailer is quoted describing Sandman as "a comic book for intellectuals".

The only drawback is that the entire Sandman, either hardcover or paperback, is outrageously expensive. I don't know if it's just a rip-off or if full color printing is really that costly.


I should also mention another book by Neil Gaiman (text only, no graphic novel) called American Gods. Compared to Sandman, American Gods is structured very differently with far tighter storyline (it wasn't written and published over the period of eight years, after all) but is similarly packed with myth. The premise of the book is that all immigrants to America brought their gods with them... and the gods are still around, disguised as ordinary people.

The book is also a kind of a road trip across America, no doubt inspired by Gaiman's own travels (Neil G. lives in the US, but is British). American Gods is truly a pantheon, with characters based on Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Egyptian, Indian, Slavic, and West African mythology (and more).

Interestingly, there are several puzzles - or clues - hidden in plain sight. The names of several characters give them away, if you know how to decode eg. "Mr. Wednesday".

In my opinion, American Gods is longer than it needs to be but not at all bad, and certainly chock full of myth and a good read overall. Recommended reading for anyone interested in myth, especially blending of ancient and modern myth.

Discuss.