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Gaiman ties it all together in a fascinating arc involving a young girl descended from a minor character in Preludes who is on a search for her missing brother, himself a victim of Morpheus's escaped nightmares. And it's not in his willingness to take chances.
To be fair, it's not like there aren't other standouts - where else can you read about a serial killer convention that manages to be so hilarious and so frightening all at once. The middle chapter of The Doll's House, entitled "Men of Good Fortune," leaves behind the main story for a short tale about Morpheus's recurring meetings with a man who chooses not to die - and the gamble pays off magnificently, creating the best and most compelling moments of the book.
Having established the basis for his world in The Sandman Vol. Gaiman effortlessly conjures nightmares and dreams, spinning together styles and ideas in such a way to dazzle the reader all while illuminating the psyches of his characters.
No, if there's a flaw, it's some gaps and difficulties with the specifics of the plot, but even the characters seem a little bewildered.and in dreams, isn't that okay. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes, Gaiman starts to stretch his wings a little, introducing us to more inhabitants of Morpheus's strange world, including some of his siblings, his servants (of a sort), and waking nightmares like The Corinthian.
If there's a flaw in The Doll's House, it's certainly not in the scope or the imagination on display.
Go ahead and buy this and Dream Country together, because you're going to fly through this one. While this book isn't quite as good as Prologues and Nocturnes, it tells a story that is almost just as good, and was actually the first Sandman graphic novel to be published, though it covers issues #9-#16. You will probably only be reading this if you've already read Preludes and Nocturnes, and really no review would matter to you at this point, becuase you are hooked.
'The Doll House' finds Gaiman really engaging his character and discovering his place in the history of mankind. In this sense, he has begun to develop into a truly otherworldy entity. It's the sort of book you want to read in one sitting. Gaiman continues his epic narrative of the dream lord with this second volume. I say epic because both of the volumes find the Sandman moving through a series of realms and plots, through time and space, his character developing through and exploiting with panache with subplots of Gaiman's comics.
Jed, however, falls into the hands of the Corinthian, a serial-killer nightmare. Dream then offers the man a meeting, 100 years from that night, at the same bar. Gaiman grows the universe of the Sandman in the second volume, The Doll's House. The Corinthian is on his way to a serial-killer convention, and this is part of the volume is one of the reasons The Sandman is under the horror genre, as descriptions and depictions of the serial killers and the Corinthian are quite horrific.Part four (The 13th issue), Men of Good Fortune, is an interesting deviation from the other chapters, as Dream meets a man in a tavern in the 14th century who tells his friends he won't ever die because he thinks everyone else does it to fit in with the norm. This continues for many meetings, each a century apart, and shows an interesting transition and growth in the man - and growth in the Sandman at the end. Collecting Sandman issues 9-16, Dream resumes picking up his life and kingdom, attempting to recover several of the nightmares who left his kingdom during his absence - Brute, Glob, and the Corinthian. During his searching, Dream discovers another vortex in the dream-world, this one being a young girl named Rose Walker.Rose is looking for her younger brother, Jed, who she hasn't seen for many years.
The rivalry between Dream and Desire is revealed here, as well as Desire's dubious talents. One of the best books in the Sandman series. - and a few characters make their first appearance here in small roles. Overall a great book in the Sandman series for its weird and interesting plot - one of the main points being a convention of serial killers. Unity Kinkaid - previously mentioned in Sandman vol 1, is one of the main characters in this book. Not so much main in taking the center stage, but she is a important character nonetheless.
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