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Post by Ozymandias on Nov 24, 2015 13:20:31 GMT -5
Nah, changed my mind. Endless Nights. I didn't even think of it as an option but "What I've Tasted of Desire" is by far my favorite Sandman thingy (and I love everything Sandman!) And everything else ranged from interesting to great. 1. Endless Nights 2. Game of You, assuming they fixed the messed up art 3. Kindly Ones 4. Doll's House (I might be putting this a little high 'cause it was the first volume I read.) 5. Season of Mists 6. Dream Country 7. World's End 8. The Wake 9. Brief Lives 10. Fables and Reflections 11. Preludes and Nocturnes 12. Dream Hunters Haven't read: Overture I don't see Sandman Midnight Theatre in your list. BTW, you're the second forum member to include The Kindly Ones in their top 3, but it still doesn't get any vote. |
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Nov 24, 2015 17:36:17 GMT -5
I love it all, but Season of Mists, by far!
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Post by coke & comics on Nov 25, 2015 22:56:04 GMT -5
Oh, man, now people want a whole ranking?
Fables and Reflections
Dream Country
Brief Lives
Season of Mists
A Game of You
The Wake
World's End
Endless Nights
Dream Hunters
Doll's House
Preludes and Nocturnes
Kindly Ones
Only read Midnight Theatre once, and a long time ago, so no opinion.
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Post by byronlomax on Dec 6, 2015 20:24:09 GMT -5
I have a three-way tis of "A Doll's House," "Season of Mists" and "The Kindly Ones." But if I have to pick one and only one, I pick "A Doll's House" because I've read it so many times. There must be a reason that I used to read it once a year. I've only read "The Kindly Ones" twice. Same three-way tie for me! Except my favourite of those three is "Season of Mists" - it's just a top notch story in every way. I was kinda on the fence about Sandman, but that story made me a fan. I'm really undecided about "A Game of You". When I first read it, it really moved me, especially the ending. But on second reading, it didn't really seem to hold up.... oh well. Let's see how it fares on third reading! "Fables and Reflections" is my favourite short story collections, but I find it difficult to compare them. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 6, 2015 23:17:47 GMT -5
The truest one, the one that really gets down to what the series is really about, is Brief Lives. It's not as cosmically "cool" as Seasons of Mists, but the entire series is explained in microcosm in Brief Lives, including the events that would come afterward in the series. And we see the "out" that Morpheus will never take, and after that, the event that gives the whole series meaning as a classical/cosmic drama. So much of that arc is Morpheus deluding himself, Delirium being his travelling companion, but in the end, that thread of fate couldn't be more evident.
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 6, 2015 23:25:29 GMT -5
Nah, changed my mind. Endless Nights. I didn't even think of it as an option but "What I've Tasted of Desire" is by far my favorite Sandman thingy (and I love everything Sandman!) And everything else ranged from interesting to great. 1. Endless Nights 2. Game of You, assuming they fixed the messed up art 3. Kindly Ones 4. Doll's House (I might be putting this a little high 'cause it was the first volume I read.) 5. Season of Mists 6. Dream Country 7. World's End 8. The Wake 9. Brief Lives 10. Fables and Reflections 11. Preludes and Nocturnes 12. Dream Hunters Haven't read: Overture I don't see Sandman Midnight Theatre in your list. BTW, you're the second forum member to include The Kindly Ones in their top 3, but it still doesn't get any vote. I wouldn't include Sandman Midnight Theatre in the overall discussion of Sandman as a series as a whole simply because it doesn't add much to Sandman as a story. It's a great aside and certainly important to Sandman Mystery Theatre, but for the story of Morpheus, it's an eye blink. By that standard, you might as well include Love Street, a Sandman Presents mini about John Constantine that's little more than a aside to the series that plays the same formative game for JC's character. I don't see it as part of Sandman proper, but completely essential for Wesley Dodds and SMT. |
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 6, 2015 23:49:37 GMT -5
I guess if I have to rank them-- setting aside Fables and Reflections and Endless Nights, which I feel are short stories related to the Sanmdan mythos, but not necessarily an important part of the main story:
Brief Lives
Seasons of Mists
Kindly Ones
A Game of You (which I guess you could argue could fit into the same qualification I've given F&R and EN)
Overture (informs the whole series, but really, best consistent art for a storyline)
The Doll's House
The World's End (arguably the same qualification as with F&R and S:E, but the end is essential)
The Wake (I have to consider the art, which is spectacular)
Preludes and Reflections
Dream Country (the stories inform the series, but can easily be excluded-- almost everything but the Element Woman story can be excluded from the overall plot of the series, but the Element Woman issue is the series in microcosm, if often misunderstood--- the other stories can be filed under "theme" or "back story" ( and yes I know I'm discounting the single most significant Sandman story as far as critical recognition)
Dream Hunters ( probably more important for artistic reasons that the actual story, but at least Morpheus is a central figure_
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Post by fanboystranger on Dec 7, 2015 0:03:22 GMT -5
I have a three-way tis of "A Doll's House," "Season of Mists" and "The Kindly Ones." But if I have to pick one and only one, I pick "A Doll's House" because I've read it so many times. There must be a reason that I used to read it once a year. I've only read "The Kindly Ones" twice. Same three-way tie for me! Except my favourite of those three is "Season of Mists" - it's just a top notch story in every way. I was kinda on the fence about Sandman, but that story made me a fan. I'm really undecided about "A Game of You". When I first read it, it really moved me, especially the ending. But on second reading, it didn't really seem to hold up.... oh well. Let's see how it fares on third reading! "Fables and Reflections" is my favourite short story collections, but I find it difficult to compare them. is excellent, no matter what. I just don't know how to place it within the overall context of the series as the stories are peripheral. They are important to the whole, to be sure, but how they fit in isn't quite clear. Unlike The World's End, they aren't part of linear flow of the story, so I like to think about them separately. Game of You is interesting. In some ways it is Gaiman's kiss-off to the overall DCU-- or at least the Berger books-- but at the same time, it's such a personal story. To be quite frank, I was lukewarm to it the first time I read it, but upon re-reading, I began to understand the layers that were there. One of the things that isn't discussed much is that it was foreshadowed in Swamp Thing and other books, but those threads would be completely ripped away by the end of the story. (I've always had a sense that this may have been an Abby story that got transformed when Gaiman and Delano decided that they wouldn't follow Rick Veitch on ST after he quit. I'm not sure that this theory has ever been confirmed, but it has a lot of traction among people who were following those books at the time.) |
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Post by Ozymandias on Dec 10, 2015 18:06:13 GMT -5
I don't see Sandman Midnight Theatre in your list. BTW, you're the second forum member to include The Kindly Ones in their top 3, but it still doesn't get any vote. I wouldn't include Sandman Midnight Theatre in the overall discussion of Sandman as a series as a whole simply because it doesn't add much to Sandman as a story. It's a great aside and certainly important to Sandman Mystery Theatre, but for the story of Morpheus, it's an eye blink. By that standard, you might as well include Love Street, a Sandman Presents mini about John Constantine that's little more than a aside to the series that plays the same formative game for JC's character. I don't see it as part of Sandman proper, but completely essential for Wesley Dodds and SMT. To me, "Sandman proper" would be restricted to just the original series. I wanted to include everything, Gaiman has done on the character, for this poll (I even contemplated the Death minis, but refrained from doing so). |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 10, 2015 19:46:23 GMT -5
I'm the voter for Dream Country. I really feel that those stories built on issue 8 to really solidify what Sandman was about. And every one of them is simply an outstanding short story.
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Post by Ozymandias on Dec 11, 2015 2:57:33 GMT -5
It could easily be the best one, if not for A Midsummer Night's Dream. Having the characters talk in a Shakespearean way, isn't everything.
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 13, 2015 16:36:16 GMT -5
I'm the voter for Dream Country. I really feel that those stories built on issue 8 to really solidify what Sandman was about. And every one of them is simply an outstanding short story. You'll notice I put it as a my #2 and could easily have called it #1. To me Midsummer Night's Dream is the cornerstone issue of the series. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 14, 2015 19:51:49 GMT -5
I should reread it. Neither the first of the second Shakespeare story did much of anything for me.
But I tend to like the issues which are philosophical diversions rather than stories that reitterate the core themes of the rest of the series. Like the stuff that "Game of You" did with adult identity was a lot more interesting to me than the thematic repetition of Brief Lives.
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Post by Ozymandias on Dec 20, 2015 14:27:01 GMT -5
To me Midsummer Night's Dream is the cornerstone issue of the series. How would the series collapse, if you take away/skip that story? The way I remember it, you can basically make a synopsis without even mentioning the events, which took place there. My memory isn't great, so even though I read it about a year ago, I could be wrong. I should reread it. Neither the first of the second Shakespeare story did much of anything for me. Are you speaking about the one, where Death and Dream grant immortality to that guy in a tavern? |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 21, 2015 13:55:19 GMT -5
No, the last story in The Wake or the last issue of Sandman proper. I waited for....e....vverrr... Sandman # 75 was months and months late.
And then thought it wasn't very good. Ah well.
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