Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Review: The Sandman: Overture

The Sandman: Overture The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-galley copy of this book from Edelweiss (though I supplemented it with my local library's hardcover copy to get the full experience).

Gaiman's return to Sandman is a splended, fantastical journey on a cosmic scale, and Williams' art masters the galactic scope and still manages to create powerful, intimate moments. Reading this truly felt like walking through a dream.

The story takes place immediately prior to Dream's capture at the beginning of the first Sandman. An aspect of Dream has died, and all the aspects of him - who also all *are* him - gather to determine what needs to be done. Seeing the various Dreams all talk together was beautiful and playful, despite the serious danger the universe is in. Because something Dream did (or failed to do) in the past has put the entire universe at risk. We hear that a star has gone insane.

Dream goes to see the Fates (though I'm not sure why, since he doesn't take any of their advice, and their comment that 'if we were nice, we'd tell him not to look under the bed' seems to foreshadow Hope being bad for Dream, which is the opposite of what happens). Then, he looks under a bed and meets Hope - a young girl whose father was just killed in front of her. Hope is the worst part of this book, mostly because her raison d'être is painfully obvious: she is there to tug on heartstrings and provide hope. I think it's fairly heavy-handed and unsophisticated for Gaiman, using a small child named "Hope Lost Beautiful Nebula" to represent - you guessed it! - hope in a world that seems to have none. She holds his hand and Dream is ~moved~. It's all a bit groan-worthy and cloyingly saccharine - not to mention that sometimes Hope speaks in pretty standard English and sometimes she speaks in dramatic African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). He's hitting the tropes of 'innocent child sees hope in hopeless world' and 'magical POC' pretty hard here. In general, Hope's character is probably the weakest point in the story. She's obvious and unsubtle in a world that is generally nuanced, and she's grating and trope-y in a story where most of the characters are surprising and deep.

Dream - accompanied by Hope and by the aspect of Dream that rules over cats - is trying to visit the city of stars, so that he can help the star that has gone insane. Prior to his visit, though, he goes to see his dad: Father Time. The art in this section is beautiful art deco/art nouveau style, and Father Time is appropriately unconcerned with his son's dilemma. He is briefly interested when Dream offers to talk to his mother on his father's behalf, but ultimately leaves Dream and the world to their fates (mostly because Dream didn't return the saeculum he borrowed). Only Dream is allowed into the city of stars, and he discovers that the mad star seems to have infected the rest of the stars with its madness, as it now rules over the city. The universe falls into war and chaos and destruction, and Dream is cast into a black hole. But never fear! That was his intention all along - now, he gets to see his mother, Darkness. She

TBC

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