Sandman, The: The Doll's House - Book II (Paperback)

This book compiles a sequence of regular-sized comic books. The first story here stands by itself - a tribal tale of a place that could, some day, descend from our own time.

The rest of the book takes a very ordinary young woman and puts her in an extraordinary world. Taken part by part, it sounds fragmentary and disorganized: a nursing home, a bizarre convention, befriending a place, and facing mortal threat in an immortal world. The pieces all fit, though. They sustain a pace and a visual variety that makes this book hard to put down.

Best, however, is the glimpse of intrigue in the Sandmnan's world. We see a little of his own realm, and the plotting of his own minions. We also see his larger world, his sisters, and their covert push against the walls of his domain. This is just the second of a dozen or so collections - there is enough material here to drive that many volumes or more.

If you're new to comics, or just new to the Sandman, give this a try. If you already know the Sandman, you're in for one of the best books in the series.

You want to know the truth? The Doll's house is probably the best volume of Sandman that there is.

I have read it four times. Yet there are moments in The Doll's House, where I find myself literally sweating from tension as my eyes follow the words on each page. When Dream finally catches up to the Corinthian, I still applaud. Whenever Barbie and Ken share the page, I still laugh, and then shudder as I think of their future. When I see the horrible things happening to Rose Walker's brother, I still have to look away, and when The two siblings are finally reunited, I still shed a tear. It's that good.

All of you people calling it "unfocused", and "flawed" have completely missed the boat, and need to do some serious swimming to catch up to the rest of us.

Doll's House introduces us to so many memorable characters, so many fascinating insights of humanity, and so much memorable dialogue, that it cannot be labeled as anything less than the pinnacle of the series. Whether it shares this spot with the likes of "Brief Lives" and "Season of Mists" can be debated, but no other episode of the Sandman series can capture every human emotion and channel it so perfectly.

Please do not start with this. Wade through Preludes and Nocturnes first, and consider this one your dessert.

Gaiman was new to his series, and he did not have very much direction. Preludes and Nocturnes leans towards classic horror, whereas other volumes, such as The Wake, and A Game of You, are closer to fantasy. So Preludes and Nocturnes is different then all the others. So what? There are so many classic moments that are contained within its pages, moments that stick in your mind and don't leave. Moments such as Dream's escape from his prison and the logic that followed, the introduction or Cain and Abel, John Constantine and his quest to find the pouch of sand, Dream's journey to Hell and his battle with Choronzon over the helm, the ENTIRE FRIGGIN CHAPTER OF 24 HOURS, and the final introduction of Death at the end--the sweet, good natured goth girl who just happens to be the same person we often see personified as a dark cloaked figure with a scythe. The list goes on and on and on.

Of course the same could be said for any of the other volumes, but that is exactly my point. Preludes and Nocturnes is not better then Brief Lives, nor is it worse. It exists to advance the story to its eventual conclusion, and it does a great job. There are some flaws--but everyone will find something they don't like in each of the volumes. Don't listen to those people who say "if you read this one first, you'll get the wrong impression of Sandman". Bull. If you don't like this volume, then Sandman is not for you, end of subject.

The worst thing you can do is skip this volume in favor of another, later chapter, such as Season of Mists. Start at the beginning--Gaiman did, and his work turned out just fine in the end.