Sandman, Bd. 5: Über die See zum Himmel (1993)

Better than previous numbers. More entertaining throughout and ultimately more profound. Shifting realities, not necessarily between parallel universes, more like intertwining realities, make for a bewildering plot at times, but it all makes sense in a way in the end. Issues of gender and strong female characters are pretty much the norm here. The only real guy here, the evil George, is made small work by Thessaly and abused after death (No cute chick visits him). I think Gaiman kind of copped out by killing the only transgender and elderly woman in the end but it is sort of necessary for it to make as much sense as it can.

That happy chick Death, Morpheus's little sister, shows up again. I don't think Death is a cute woman personally but again Gaiman is trying to turn the norm upside down. Not sure why Gaiman is obsessed with the dreadful Tori Amos (Death's inspiration, I think). At least he saw the light and hooked up with Amanda Palmer.

Delaney forward is worth the price of admission alone (read it last, then read the book again). ( )

This one didn't grab me as much as the last volume, Season of Mists. It was okay, but I found it didn't pick up steam until the second-last chapter, which I enjoyed immensely. And the epilogue, though subdued, was fitting.

My biggest issue is with the constantly rotating stable of artists. I find the stories become much more nuanced when a single, dedicated artist has time to become emotionally invested in the stories and characters as they evolve. That's not the case here. Instead, one artist starts the story, then others are chained to those likenesses and settings. Not as much fun, and it was a particular annoyance in this volume.

Still, Gaiman always has some good stuff to say, and he did so here as well. ( )

This time around, I think I'll just start with the summary from Goodreads:

Take an apartment house, mix in a drag queen, a lesbian couple, some talking animals, a talking severed head, a confused heroine, and the deadly Cuckoo. Stir vigorously with a hurricane and Morpheus himself and you get this fifth installment of the Sandman series.

Where else would you see anything nearly that nuts? In Sandman, that's where!

If you really think about it, the idea of cuckoos is already kind of terrifying. When you taken a Cuckoo in mystical humanish form...



Things get alltogether weirder.

Add to that travelling into Barbie's realm (last seen a few books ago) to save the Princess and you have quite a story. We don't actually get that much of Dream himself, but plenty of dreams. And it works out all the better.

Spoilers/pictures:



She's wonderfully blunt. Oh woman powered magic. It ends up an odd combination of accepting and damning of different lifestyles all at the same time. About how life works out.



Oh the magic of dreams. And weird fonts. At least these are much easier to read than the angels' in the previous book.



Heh. It's funny because it's another book. But they of course have spiders here (it's a dream!). ( )

Flying through this series! This one was really interesting as it had a number of female characters leading the story, exploring the idea of childhood imagination. ( )

Barbie cannot dream, but one night she dreams and cannot wake up. Her neighbors task themselves to find her in the dream world, but it is a highly dangerous land between the living and the imaginary. It's a complicated volume, and I won't do it justice by talking about it. But it was worth the read, even if a few parts made me a bit squicky inside. ( )