The Sandman

Captured by a cult for nefarious reasons, the King of the Dream realm lies within a crystal prison. Morpheus bides his time, denying the cult even the sound of his voice. After all, what is a human life to one of the endless? But as Morpheus waits for his chance to escape, his realm is collapsing. When at long last the moment of escape arrives, Morpheus finds he has much work to do. Revenge is only the beginning of his tale. Morpheus must collect his stolen tools, rebuild the Realm of Dreams, and capture his freed nightmares.

The audiobook for The Sandman was remarkable. While the story is primarily dialogue-based due to its origins as a graphic novel, there was no confusion or lack of detail evident in the audio recording. The settings were created by a combination of ambient sounds and vocal clues from the characters within them. And the voice acting was so well done, bringing the various characters and creatures to life with unique dialects and accents. There were some moments I found it hard to understand certain characters due to their way of speech, but it made them feel all the more authentic.

The Sandman is not a tale for those faint of heart. Neil Gaiman spares no details as he dives into the dark side of humanity. From humans that will create nightmares to amuse themselves, to the nightmares themselves that use humans for entertainment. There are many facets of savagery and violence shown. Morpheus does what he can to amend the wrongs brought to those undeserving. However, if anyone so much as crosses Morpheus or brings harm to innocents, he will not hesitate to bring about his form of justice. Some may even find themselves living an eternal nightmare.

A few plot lines are left hanging in the balance by the end of this collection. Any story with planned sequels should have some amount of mystery left to solve. But there are characters introduced early on who did not quite line up with the story direction. For instance, there is the universe’s attempt at creating a Sandman when Morpheus is imprisoned. The new hero is a mortal who puts villains to sleep for a swift capture. But as Morpheus’ story progresses, the Sandman fades away. In later chapters, Morpheus takes up the title instead. I hope to see some of the loose ends tied up in later volumes. There is much left to explore in the world of The Sandman.

While I am not a graphic novel reader, I enjoyed the tie-in to the DC Universe. Fans of DC will certainly enjoy the cameo appearances of familiar characters. The Sandman is a thrilling and fast-paced adventure into the heart of humanity’s darkness. With much lore left to discover and a cast of characters yet to be fully realized, I look forward to the second audiobook.

SO edgy. So Bored.

Truly so much fun!



Dear Reader,
This is the first review I have done in a long time that comes with a massive disclaimer. I don't do graphic novels or D.C and usually feel out of place but I loved this. I'm a huge fan of audiobooks, I listen to them all the time – more than music and never podcast unless it is true crime. I was a little hesitant to start this Audible original. The music, sound effects and multiple players added to the enjoyment of this production. Many talented voice actors and all delivering Gaiman's splendidly surreal art. I have to say that having someone you enjoy spending time with read a book with you makes things so much more enjoyable. We have read the second installment, but I can't wait to tell you about that tomorrow. I have had my eyes opened to fantasy and I have enjoyed every minute immensely.

This is still an exceptional work that most listeners of this genre will appreciate. I know that this is the book that sparked my joy for this genre.

Audiobook was cool, book not really my thing though

3.5 maybe. I kind of lost steam at the end.

This was a LOT of fun!

I can't decide if it's a 4 or 5! I loved the cast for this audiobook and I enjoyed the various actors, background sounds, and pacing! And the fact that Neil Gaiman is narrating is also a plus. Some of the episodes were more intriguing and fun than others, some more disturbing than others.

This does also include many trigger warnings, so I would suggest looking those up before entering the Sandman world.

Some episodes I commented on in BLC:

Episode 6 (24 Hours): Gosh this was a very gruesome episode.. if it gets adapted into the show, I don't think I can watch it because of all the descriptions, gore, and death. Episode 8 (The Sound of Her Wings): How hilarious it is to find Dream in "casual" wear feeding pigeons! I found it interesting that Death is so perky and their relationship to be fun!Episode 10 (Man of Good Fortune): I think this might be my favorite episode! The idea of taking death away and Dream was the one to come back every 100 years, and Gaiman narrating what the pub looked like each time was also interesting. For Dream to admit Hob is his friend was cute and heartwaming.Episode 16 (Lost Hearts): I'm happy Rose is alive, Gilbert was so sweet and for Unity to take Rose's vortex was; and ugh, to know that her friend was a victim of the killings in the diner T__T

I love Neil Gaiman.
Not 5 stars, because it's not a novel, it's... comic books explained to people who cannot see. But every now and then, Neil Gaiman's... words, poetry, beauty comes through.

Great audiobook. Fantastic production values, interesting stories with such a good storytelling! :) Gaiman has really mastered this mystical style of diety-among-us kind of story. It is entertaining, smart and has a message as well at the same time. It maybe is not very deep, but some topics like life and death, its meaning, etc. which come here and there throughout the book are something more than just a cool story background.

Biggest cast imaginable.

It was like listening to a movie. I felt like I was missing that aspect the whole time because of it.

Ideally I would give this 3.5 stars, but I've decided to round up because it really was a hell of a ride.

The pros:
- The sound design was incredible. It was immersive and well-balanced (at least it was in my AirPods, can't speak to other sound options) and I loved the dimension of it.
- The voice actors were all very good. All of the characters felt incredibly alive.
- It's Neil Gaiman. ‘Nuff said.

The cons:
- It's a bit odd to binge through. It is very episodic, which makes sense coming from comics but can be jarring for an audiobook, especially when some of the episodes are very connected with seemingly no break in storyline while others jump decades or continents without warning and the characters only sometimes reappear.
- The mouth noises. One of the characters eats prominently in an episode and I almost had to turn it off. Very gross. (Although this does speak to the good sound design again, so...)

That said, I will definitely be continuing on to part two.

I don't think this audiobook adaptation works at all. You cannot simply translate a visual medium into audio by reading it out loud. There is very little description and clues about how characters and the surroundings of the events should look like. The characters don't get introduced too well and it's hard to know who they are based on only their voice. There is an accompanying pdf but it's not that useful. The voice acting is well made though and the dramatic symphonic theme music reminds me of the song intros of the Norwegian black metal band, Dimmu Borgir.

This was the first audiobook I've ever listened to/read and I had a really good time with it!
The performances were outstanding, the sound design beautiful and sometimes horrifying, and it very much felt like a comic book come to life (which is a good thing, I love comics).
That being said, if you expect this to be one big overarching story, you will be disappointed. I didn't mind, but I was a bit surprised when this audiobook went from Dream being captured, then escaping and getting his stuff back to fix the Dreamworld for like the first half to more of an anthology style story collection centered more or less around Morpheus or the other Endless. Again, I didn't mind, but I can see how this can be a bit of a letdown for some, especially since even I didn't find every later chapter all that interesting.
But I still very much enjoyed this experience, I loved Morpheus to bits, and I would definitely recommend The Sandman, especially to fans of DC comics.
Overall, 4 out of 5 stars (maybe 4.2 if goodreads would let me). ★

James McAvoy is a voice actor god. That is all.

Really, really good performances. I'm glad I was listening and not reading this. Some of the situations were very graphic.

Great production shame about the story. Slow & boring

This was such an amazing listening experience. So excited to have the incomparable graphic novels brought to life in my ears. Check out my full review here. https://youtu.be/u6gOu1ogzPU

A gorgeous production of a fantastic tale.

Amazing stories and performances. I've never heard an audio drama at this level of production. Incredible

Wow, what a transformation! Great comic book series to a wonderful audio play. I had forgotten just how dark some of these stories got - yikes! True horror tales. Overall, wonderfully produced and acted, worth the listen as a standalone work apart from the original source material.

Headphones on, sit back with a cold drink and simply enjoy this. Not since the original radio series of The Hitchhikers Guide have I enjoyed a full cast production as much, and Dirk Maggs has produced some other Gaiman ones like Neverwhere

It is a radio drama of The Sandman. They did in soundscape what the artist did with drawings. Thought it was not the complete work.

My favourite Sandman book by far

The first Sandman I've tried, many years ago, and still my favourite. I highly recommend reading them in order, though, this book builds delightfully upon the ones preceding it.