I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman novels, and have read them all, but I’d never read The Sandman, because I kind of dismissed it as being a graphic novel, and therefore not much to it (!) Well, I was clearly wrong, as this Audible original production of The Sandman is a rich and satisfying series of interconnected stories based around Morpheus, or Dream, one of ‘The Endless’ who are immortal anthropomorphic personifications of human concepts such as death, desire, destiny, or indeed, dreaming. The audiobook has a large cast of talented actors, as well as narration by Neil Gaiman himself and is very well done. Some of the stories are quite gruesome and horrific, and others are more gentle and even sweet, but all have the surreal quality of dreams. (Apparently, the audiobook is just an adaptation of the first three volumes of the Sandman’s ten volume series – wow, there is so much in the first three volumes and it’s only a third of the total!). I’ve read some reviewers who are upset by the books outdated casual exploitation of women or members of the LGBTQ community, but as it was written in the eighties, it has to be viewed in light of the cultural habitus or zeitgeist of the time. I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook – I was gripped by the narrative and found the conclusions of the various story arcs to be satisfying . I loved the actor who played Death – she was chirpy and upbeat but also wise and kind. I liked the story about Shakespeare’s players performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the faerie folk, and the story about Rose Walker from The Doll’s House, although I could go on and list most or all of the stories as the ones I liked most, since I enjoyed the whole experience! I’m very excited because I just read that they are making a Netflix TV series of The Sandman (delayed by Covid…) hopefully it will appear before too long.
Sarah Wray Writer 