The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House
Ratings280
Average rating4.4
The second installment of Neil Gaiman's seminal series, THE SANDMAN VOL. 2: THE DOLL'S HOUSE, celebrates its 30th anniversary with all all-new edition! New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision. During Morpheus's incarceration, three dreams escaped the Dreaming and are now loose in the waking world. At the same time, a young woman named Rose Walker is searching for her little brother. As their stories converge, a vortex is discovered that could destroy all dreamers, and the world itself. Collects THE SANDMAN #9-16.
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Series
75 primary books90 released books#9-16 in The Sandman
The Sandman is a 90-book series with 90 released primary works first released in 1988 with contributions by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, and Sam Kieth.
Featured Series
1 primary book#2 in The Sandman TPBs
The Sandman TPBs is a 1-book series first released in 1988 with contributions by Neil Gaiman.
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Part was a 2, part was a 4. I'll settle on 3 stars.
It still jumps around a lot, but now we have the basis for some of the characters. I really liked the character who cheats death, but don't see how he tied in with the rest of the story. The girl and her brother were interesting but the ending was lackluster. There's potential. It could either really improve our fall flat on its face. I'll try one or two more volumes. They're quicker reads than books.
Dream is one of the Endless. Picking up after he regained his home and power in the first volume, Gaiman dives deeper into the creepy gothic horror angle as we follow the seemingly-normal Rose, who is in fact a dream vortex, find an unknown grandmother and search for her long-lost younger brother. This was honestly the least intriguing part for me, with the many characters occupying her “doll's house” not being developed enough for me to be interested in them. However, I love how layered the story was, with a larger doll's house being seen from Desire's perspective (hearts pop up a lot in this graphic novel!), dreams themselves being structured as doll's houses, and whether the Endless are puppets of mortals or vice versa. The plot varied in personal interest, with the best issues being the oral tale from the ancient tribe in the prologue, the surprisingly profound century-woven interlude Men of Good Fortune, and the shiver-inducing Cereal Convention in later parts. Despite how trippy everything could be (art was amazing and sometimes flipped 90 degrees), I appreciated Gaiman retaining some structure through Sandman tracing his four missing servants Brute, Glob, Corinthian and Fiddler's Green. Also, loved that Edgar Allan Poe inspired raven/ dude Matthew.
Contains spoilers
Strange how the entire series turns away from the main character to explore these side characters so early. But it works out. Everytime Sandman crawled back into the story, I remembered that oh yeah, this is all about him pretty much.
A good followup to the Preludes and Nocturnes. Excited to see where #3 goes.
