Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Sandman

This was part of the Included catalogue on Audible for a limited time and I decided why not listen to it as part as of my October/Halloween read.

Side note: for days I had the song "Mr. Sandman" stuck in my head.

The production value is really good. I liked the sound effects (it helped visualizing scenes that's originally a graphic novel) and I liked the intro song.

I loved James McAvoy's voice. He's an excellent narrator. Though I did not picture Morpheus as the image on the cover but as James McAvoy.

I didn't realize the beginning would have a slight MacGuffin Plot. Even so, it was entertaining.

Some things I liked:

- Michael Sheen as Lucifer. I pictured him as Aro in the Twilight Saga.
- Episode 10: "Men of Good Fortune".
- The Vortex / Rose Walker

I hated:
- "24 Hours" - way too sick and disturbing. I fast forwarded that story.
- "Collectors" - I didn't see the point of this one.

If Part 2 is ever available in the Included catalogue then I'll listen to that.

3.5 our of 5 Dreams.

Content Warnings

ggcd1981's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Rating: 4.0 estrelas

TRIGER WARNING: Death, Murder, Moderate Gore, Child abuse, Anxiety, Depression, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Sexual Assault, Addiction, Confinement

The Sandman foi minha primeira leitura de Neil Gaiman e talvez eu não tenha começado pelo livro certo pois, apesar de ter gostado, o livro foi uma leve decepção para mim. Porém é necessário acrescentar que esta decepção se deve a questões de gosto pessoal, The Sandman em si é um bom livro.

Meus problemas com The Sandman, Volume I foram: Primeiramente eu acreditava que se tratava de um Graphic Novel com uma história continua, porém é na verdade uma coletânea de histórias curtas sobre o personagem Sandman em suas várias formas. Coletâneas de contos não são algo que me agrada, prefiro histórias longas, mas nesse caso foi falta de informação minha; Em segundo, algumas histórias estavam interligadas com o Universo de quadrinhos da DC. Assim houveram várias referências a acontecimentos dos quadrinhos dos quais eu não tinha conhecimento. Desta forma nessas histórias tive a impressão de ter compreensão apenas superficial do que era mencionado. Novamente, falta de informação minha e não culpa do livro.

Tenho que falar dos pontos positivos do audiolivro que foram fortes: As performances do elenco foram ótimas com destaque para James McAvoy como The Sandman (McAvoy é sempre ótimo); como toda coletânea de contos alguns foram melhores que outros, mas em geral todas as histórias mantiveram a atmosfera Dark e caprichosa pela qual Gaiman é conhecido; por último, personagens intrigantes que contribuíram para o clima do livro e em alguns momentos despertaram sentimentos em mim (Abel por exemplo, apesar de ter um papel menor me fez sentir sua angustia e medo por ser assassinado de novo e de novo por seu irmão Cain).

Em geral uma adaptação com excelentes performances, atmosfera e personagens fascinantes. Os problemas que tive foram por meu próprio desconhecimento do formato da obra e do universo em que a história existe. Dou 4 estrelas e tenho interesse em ler o Volume II.

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kiwiknitter's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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thecatsmother's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Sandman Audible Original is a multi-cast audiobook adaptation of the graphic novel series by Neil Gaiman. It was Audible’s free book of the month recently, and covers Act 1 of a series, with Act 2 coming out soon. I’ve never been into graphic novels - I don’t think I’ve read a comic since primary school - they just don’t interest me, so I didn’t know the main character, but have seen most of the recent DC Universe movies and some of the TV series. We wanted a change from our usual thrillers for our most recent car journeys - and it certainly is different! It’s exceptionally well read by the huge cast, including Gaiman himself as The Narrator, and supported by various sound effects which complemented the voices rather than getting in the way. Overall I enjoyed it - some parts rather more than others - but definitely would’ve got more from it if I already knew the series.

During WW1, Sleep, the Lord of Dreams, who goes by multiple different names, including Morpheus, is captured by the leader of an arcane cult and kept prisoner in the mansion’s basement for 70 years, despite never ceding any of his powers. His absence leads to global consequences - including an epidemic of Sleeping Sickness, and the release of horrific Nightmares into the world. Finally Sleep escapes, but before he can restore his kingdom, he must reclaim three objects invested with his power. Over twenty chapters across three volumes, we meet characters variously affected and interconnected by Morpheus throughout history - human, deity, superhero and myth - some brief self-contained stories, some extended plot arcs, many where he appears only briefly, but all linked in some way to the world of dreams & stories.

So what did I think? Considering this isn’t really my genre and I don’t know the source material, I was still able to follow and appreciate most of this. I didn’t like all of the stories - I suppose I was expecting a more traditional narrative arc, there’s a beginning but no end as this is only Act 1 so don’t expect a conventional story structure. The first part, about Sleep’s capture and subsequent escape, was brilliant. I did NOT like the Dr Destiny chapter - too dark and nasty for me (rape, necrophilia, self-mutilation...) and found some of the random ones like Hob the immortal soldier or the African coming of age story a bit tedious and pointless. Rose Walker’s quest to find her brother and gate-crashing the serial killer convention lifted my interest back up, and I was rapt by the Cat story (of course) until the traumatic scene with the kittens 😿

The voices - including some very well known actors - were superb: James McAvoy is perfect in the lead role, and there were wonderful surprise cameos like Joanna Lumley as John Constantine’s ancestor. I’m not sure if we’ll continue to Act 2 - I’ll see if The Cats’ Father is keen, but am definitely interested to see the upcoming TV adaptation, although hope it’s not too gory - we gave up on American Gods for that reason! Recommended to fans of the series even if you don’t normally listen to Audiobooks - having the creator tell the story himself is a definite coup!

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glorious_purpose's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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georgiarybanks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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niharikapasi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Content Warnings

malin12ccf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

#CBR12 Bingo: Happy (I never thought that Sandman could be adapted into an audio story, so this made me very happy indeed)

In July 1998, my life changed forever. In those days, I still lived in a suburb of Oslo and didn't necessarily visit the centre of the city all that often. When I did, I always took a trip to Avalon, the dedicated fantasy/sci-fi/all things nerd book shop there (the book shop sadly closed long ago now). On a display table near the front of the shop was Fables and Reflections, by no means the first volume in the long-running Sandman series, but an excellent introduction. I think Neil Gaiman had recently visited Oslo for the first time, and the shop was promoting his most famous work. I had never read any graphic novels before but was drawn by the description of the series. I bought the book, started reading it on the bus on the way home, and my mind was blown. I had never read anything like it before, and I was utterly hooked on the stories of dreams and nightmares, the family dramas with references to all manner of mythology, classical literature, comic books, and the like.

This was a time when Norwegian libraries were not particularly well-stocked with fantasy of any kind, and certainly not English-language comic books and graphic novels (I'm happy to say that that's changed massively over the last 20 years - one of the public library branches in Oslo is now dedicated entirely to comics and graphic novels in different languages. Hence, I had to buy each volume before I could read the full story. My records show that it took me about a year to get all ten volumes of trade paperbacks, some of which I've now had signed by Neil Gaiman himself.

Funny story, one of them isn't actually signed to Malin, because my dear friend Ben was a bit of an idiot back when he took my copy of Preludes and Nocturnes to a signing in Newcastle. This was back before I really knew him, and he was still just my then-boyfriend, now-husband Mark's school friend. See, Ben and another of Mark's school friends, Ruth, had initially joked that his Norwegian girlfriend's name was Helga. By the time Ben was taking one of my precious trade paperbacks to Newcastle to get it signed as a favour, he'd met me several times, and knew my name was Malin. But when he got to the front of the signing line, and Mr. Gaiman asked him who to sign the book to, Ben (lovable moron) blurted out Helga, and only after he'd left the shop remembered that it was not, in fact, my actual name. This is also why I have a signed copy of Anansi Boys, where Neil Gaiman apologizes to me for getting my name wrong.

Anyway, the long and rambling introduction to this review is included to show just how long Sandman has been part of my life, and how much it means to me. It was my introduction to graphic novels and the writings of Neil Gaiman. It showed me a whole new way of storytelling. I never thought it could be adapted well in a million years (I'm still skeptical about the Netflix series). I've rarely been so happy to tell you I was wrong. This was an excellent adaptation, and I think I liked parts of it a lot more than the actual original comics issues (while a lot of the artists and artwork used in the series was state of the art back in the 1990s, it's sometimes a bit "grimy-looking" now - unless you have the stunning Absolute Sandman volumes, that cost a small fortune).

So how do you successfully adapt what is both a written and a visual medium, you ask? You hire an excellent ensemble cast, so that all of the various characters we meet in the pages of the first three volumes of the graphic novel opus are voiced by different and distinct voices (there's a huge ensemble of people who do multiple voices over the course of the audio drama, but never in the same scenes, making it much easier to keep track of who's speaking at any given time). You also get someone to narrate and describe the various scenes and characters in them (or occasionally add descriptions of the setting and characters to the inner monologues of one or several of the people in a scene), so the listener is told what they would have seen on the page if they were reading the comic. That the narrator here is Neil Gaiman himself (whose voice I find very soothing) just seems extra fitting.

I read several reviews of this audio drama that complained that with very few exceptions, everything is kept exactly as it was in the original 90s comics, with no attempts to adapt or bring it more up to date. This was mentioned as a criticism, I didn't think it was a problem. I also know the source material being adapted exceptionally well, having read the comics multiple times. Even so, as I kept listening, I actually pulled my trade paperbacks off the shelf to halfway follow along. To someone who's never read the original graphic novels, it may be harder to follow the plot, even though the team who adapted did a very good job in filling in with background sounds to give you an idea of action and plot.

Each issue of the comic is one approximately 30-minute long episode, with little audio credits and everything. It felt like I was listening to an old-fashioned radio play, and I loved it. How well the adaptation works for you may also depend on how you feel about James McAvoy. I love him and his voice, and think he did a splendid job voicing Lord Morpheus. Kat Dennings worked surprisingly well as Death. The only one I wasn't entirely happy with was the guy playing Desire, whose voice just didn't "fit" with my mental image of what it should be.

A brief trigger warning towards the end. In both Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll's House and Dream Country, there are elements of horror. The issue 24 Hours, for instance, where a number of people are kept trapped in a diner by an escaped Arkham Asylum inmate in control of Dream's ancient ruby and are slowly driven increasingly more insane over the course of the story was even more horrifying than it is on the page because all the various people got their own voices and felt more real than they do when you just read them. It was harder to stay detached. There are also stories of serial killers, and child abuse and women being raped and beaten - so be aware of that.

Now I'm left impatiently waiting and hoping that this becomes enough of a success for Audible that they'll choose to adapt the rest of the series as well. Recording audio dramas must be something that should be perfectly doable even now, with production halted on so many things due to Covid-19.

While I'm choosing to use this for my "Happy" square for this year's bingo, it could just as easily have fit with "Nostalgia", since this was such an important part both of my adolescence and so ground-breaking for comics in general during the 1990s.

Judging a book by its cover: I have tried to track down the name of the cover artist for the dark, broody image of Dream, without any luck. It's a good depiction of Lord Morpheus, and I like that it looks like he himself is made up of sand or dust and kind of blurring at the edges a bit.

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