Nathan Keeys Keeys من عند Tatiyakulagudem, Andhra Pradesh, الهند
** spoiler alert ** Taken as a whole, Neil Gaiman's series The Sandman is probably my favorite comic book series. On the surface it is the story of Dream, one of the seven immortal beings known as the Endless. Each one embodies a concept over which they have dominion: Destiny, Death, Dreams, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium (formerly Delight). This is really just the jumping off point for Neil Gaiman's storytelling though. Since his main character is the "Prince of Stories", Gaiman felt entitled to tell any story he wanted. Horror, comedy, high concept fantasy, mythology, and countless other genre's make an appearance. Yet despite this, all these disparate story arcs eventually connect and merge until at the end it truly feels as if it is the inevitable conclusion of everything that came before. Frankly, don't have the words to sum up the series. Thankfully, Neil Gaiman was asked to sum up the Sandman in one sentence and did so brilliantly: "The King of Dreams learns that all things must change or die and makes his choice". That brilliance is why I love this series. Even among the cornucopia of pleasures that The Sandman provides, Season of Mists stands out. It starts simply enough. After a family meeting, Death basically uses guilt to convince dream to free an old lover that he cosigned to hell. He knows to do that he must cross paths with Lucifer, who he had offended earlier in the series. He girds himself for battle and prepares to storm the gates of hell itself. Up to this point it is a pretty typical comic book plot. But when he gets to hell he finds it empty. He eventually finds Lucifer, only to find out that he has tired of his duties and decided to quit. He kicked all of the demons and tortured souls out of hell, which is causing no end of chaos. He then locks the gate and gives Dream the key, making him the new ruler of hell. The key proves to be as devious a revenge as any could imagine, since there are many gods, demons, and manifestations of abstract concepts who desire it. Dream is trapped by his overwhelming sense of responsibility to consider all who desire the key. Meanwhile, the devil relaxes on a beach.
This book was a great idea - a modern girl's how-to guide to everything - but I found it quite patronising. While it covers many topics it's obviously targeted towards extremely fashion concious girls that really only know about fashion labels and not much else. A shame, it could have been clever and useful.
The pictures in this book are so pretty to look at..I liked the dresses and the hairstyles! Sumi is a poor 15 year old whose older brother keeps bringing orphans home for her to take care of. They can hardly manage with no money for food or doctor's visits, on top of her brother's gambling. Sumi is offered a deal where in exchange of money, she will marry a nobleman (who ends up marrying her just so he can inherit his grandfather's fortune). The catch is that he will never love her...and Sumi ends up falling in love with her "husband's" friend. We only have Vol 1 and 2!
The 32-page bibliography alone is worth three stars. An excellent addition to any mythology library.