Sandman, Arc VI

Awhman, guys. Awhman. I'm still a buzz about this nine-issue-long arc because metaphysics. I loooooove it when metaphysics show up in writing, it's just-- it makes me so happy! I just want to run in a little circle out of pure joy~!

Anyways, this arc starts off with Delirium of all ethereals, just wandering about in a 1980'sish city, I think it's London. As usual, she's the embodiment of delirium, but she's thinking about her brother, the seventh Ethereal the readers have only heard whispers of in previous arcs. So she's a little bit out of it, and manages to work her way into a, well. I think it's a gay bar/BDSM club. But in that area, she runs into Desire, who's just doing their thing. Delirium, after returning to his realm, discuss the missing brother. As Desire wants no part in this, she attempts to talk Despair into it, but she's having none of this either and so Delirium wanders back to her realm for a while.

Over with Dream, though, he's just gotten dumped by another girl and so he's standing out on a balcony while it rains in his realm. Non-stop Abrahamic-god-flooding rains, seeing as they last twenty one days before Delirium shows up in his realm, and she's being adorable as Dream's wyvern gate keeper is swinging her in his mouth. A rather exasperated panel of Dream later, and now Delirium's discussing her plan to find their seventh sibling with Dream.

In the end, Dream agrees to help, if only to clear his mind of the person who just dumped him. Things progress, but everyone who knows what might have happened to the seventh ethereal-- who I'm not naming because hahahahah read it yourself-- but they all end up dying or just becoming not themselves.

This quest of theirs continues with some rather entertaining panels that really should be entertaining and some flashbacks of their sibling. Really, though, dream, why'd you think it was a good idea to let Delirium drive, even if Matthew the Raven was there to panic give advice? I've seen better driving in LA Noire, and that's saying something.

Also, more minor characters show up once more! Orpheus returns, and he's still just a head sitting there not doing much of anything. And so many old gods are minor characters! There's Pharamond, a Babylonian god, Ishtar, and Bubastion, although she's growing weak and frail.

Eventually, they find the seventh ethereal. And I really, really want to talk about what he says, but-- spoilers! I may tell some things, but I can't tell them all. I can say that the character changes in this are astounding. At one point Delirium becomes a bit depressed and gloomy. At that point, her usually rainbow speech bubbles become shaky with scrawly letters-- more so than usual, and the only colour to them is a thick gray border with white.

And at the end, time moves on. The tone, due to events, is sorrowful, but at the same time, well-- there's always creation. Things fade away with time-- everything does, but-- new things come up to replace the old.
Two sides to one coin, huh...?

As usual, though, Mr. Gaiman manages to weave an incredible tale full of shifting tones and tiny details that may mean nothing by themselves, but when as part of the whole add a new layer onto things.

Sandman, Arc V

Alright, so this arc is similar to one of the earlier arcs, as in it's a collection of one-shots. So, I'll be fawning over each in their own aspects for a while, while trying not to spoil anything.

First One-Shot
Okay, so this one starts off pure gold. It's a grandfather and his granddaughter bickering over a story being told. This is pretty much a universal conversation, and if you replace TV with Facebook, then hey, the tale's set in the modern era. Things I liked in this tale-- holy hell the tiny details are glorious again. Freakin' Baba Yaga shows up. And, if you read things carefully, that ending packs a punch. But seriously, the details in the story are really fun to notice.

Second One-Shot
First of all, young Marco Polo in the desert heading back to the current leader of the Khans. Second of all, holy crap that world mechanic. Imma borrow it for the novel-thing I'm writing. But yeah, Marco Polo gets lost in the desert and runs into his future companion and Fiddler's Green (Yay he showed up again~!) in the middle of the desert. They have a chat, and then the dream ends. But oh man, the characters. They all had their own personality to them, despite this being the first time most of them have shown up. And then the actual time this tale happened in-- in the very beginning of arc I! Also, damn that art style. I hadn't though of using thick lines to produce shadows like that.

Third One-Shot
So, this brings back Daniel, the child born in dreams that Dream himself claimed as his own. He's dreaming, and somehow his dreams places him on the outskirts of Dreams realm, where he runs into a Gargoyle, Matthias the Raven, Cain, Able, and I think it's Eve of all people. So, the child and the group of story tellers enjoy tea-time in Able's house of Mysteries. (Complete with Matthias getting a rat instead of crackers.) They each tell a tale, Cain speaks of a mystery of crows, Eve speaks of the story of Adam and his three wives, and Able, well.... He tells a child-friendly version of how he and Cain ended up working for Dream. And oh my god my heart at his imagining of a much younger Dream and Death. Oh my god they're so cute and I probably shouldn't say that but eh. Freaking adorable tiny Dream and Death. But still--! Throughout each tale, you can hear the voice of the story-teller behind them. Cain's seems harsh, Eve's is slightly meandering, and Abel's is a soft tale that children can hear and not realize it's about him being the first murder victim.

That's what I've got for now. For any new person reading this blog, I do ask that you at least skim the older posts.

Sandman, Arc IV

This entire arc starts off with one question, a few pages in. Lucifer, what the fuck are you up to?

And now, let me add to that. He's retiring from being Lucifer, king of hell to just Lucifer, wandering fallen angel who doesn't have any remaining connections to the place. Hell, he even leaves the key to Hell itself with Dream.
Who's promptly mobbed by all sorts of diplomats trying to get it for their own purposes. From all sorts of mythology, including two of God's angels, Remiel and Durma. I'm fairly certain about that. This arc is mainly filled with diplomacy, and the subtle kind at that.
It's at this point I realized what an utter dick Lucifer was to Dream in giving him the key. Dream doesn't want to deal with this shit, but nope! Here he has a metric arse-load of delegates wanting the key to hell.

As before, this tale is freakishly well written. Maybe one or two of the supporting characters is weak, but the main characters and the antagonists ring stronger than ever. I'd love to say more, but this is just one of those things where if I say too much, I'm spoiling it for others! And I don't want to do that, this arc is good!
...I will say that the end left me in tears, and Dream grew up a bit in admitting he was a butt in the past.

Sandman, Arc III

Alright, so this arc is interesting. The first four issues are short stories, really, and the last two are the start of another story arc. There's a lot of things going on, and as in the previous arcs of the world the details are stunning.

The first tale deals with the youngest of the Greek muses, Calliope, and issues going on with her being trapped in the human realm.
The second is one of my favorites-- A Dream Of A Thousand Cats. It's a tale that revolves around entirely around cats. Cats cats cats and more cats. I shan't spoil the ending-- I'm trying not to do so because wow I want y'all to read this-- but I ask you one question: What do cats dream of when their legs twitch in their sleep? Is is mice, or something else...?
The third short is also good. It's the first performance of A Midsummer's Night Dream, by Shakespear's troupe of actors themselves. Dream holds the performance on Midsummer's night, in a field, and the fey themselves join them.  Oberon, here called Auberon is there, along with Titania and all sorts of other characters. Puck is there, even Titania's attendants Peaseblossom, Moss, and Cobweb are there. It's really fun.
The fourth short is already faded in my mind, but I do remember that it is a good tale.
And then the fifth and sixth issue roll around and whoa. Damn. I was not expecting this to happen. Alright, for starters, almost all the Eternals are brought together, and wow they're a dysfunctional lot. Dream and Death passively fling shade at one another, Desire is a sass-master, Despair is just. Standing there doing her thing, whatever that may be, Delirium, a new introduction, is scatterbrained and creates things to un-create things. Destiny just stands there, following his set path in his eternal life.
Desire and Death actually manage to talk some sense into Dream via snarky remarks and a heart-to-heart, and Dream desides to fix a wrong he made a long time ago. So, after gathering all his creations, saying farewell to a friend, and saying a few last things to his closest companions, he heads off to hell. Again. And, from some scenes seen earlier, Lucifer of this Hell's Trimurative is not pleased. Dream humiliated him last time, and he wants revenge.
BUT IT'S A CLIFFHANGER.
AND OH GODS WHYYYYYYYY.
I want to keep reading, but I can't.
This cliffhanger was initially only a month,
I've heard there was one cliffhanger which was a killer that had a gap of about two/three years.
Yeeesh.
I can't wait until I get to the next arc.

Sandman, Arc II

Back again, with a general thought dump on the second arc of Sandman, the Doll's House.

It actually jumps around a bit this time, starting with a tale of the ancient past of a love story between Dream and a human queen. Of course, such things can't happen, so there's a bunch of strife afterwards. I really love the art shifts in this story-- they're very sudden yet fitting to the tale being told.
Anyways, it turns out that that entire event was sparked by Desire, another of the Eternals. Through a conversation with him and another Eternal, Despair, it's revealed that Desire is up to something again as, while this conversation is taking place, Dream is still trapped in that magical sphere from the first arc.
Ah, so at this point in time, readers will know of six out of seven Eternals. Dream, Death, Destiny, Desire, Despair, and Delerium. One's unknown and will remain unknown for a loooooong time, apparently.

We then get to the actual start of the plot with one of Dream's main aid taking a census of the dream realms. With the census completed, it turns out that four dreams are missing. Brute, Glob, Fiddler's Green, and the Corinthian. Keep that last name in mind.... Also, there's a Vortex going on in what I'm guessing is the sea of dreaming, and Dream's keeping an eye on it.
This is shown though this arc's human protagonist, a girl named Rose. She promptly wakes up and mutters about strange dreams to her mother. They're on their way to meet a mysterious benefactor, who turns out to not only be Rose's grandmother, but also one of the minor characters from the first ark, one of those affected greatly by Dream's imprisonment.
Some private conversations between Rose's ancestors and a freaky encounter with the three fates, or three whatever they are-- who warn her about dreams and the Corinthian-- later, Rose is given the quest to find her younger brother, Jeb, who's somewhere over in south-west America. So she gets there, and is lodging in a house with a bunch of strange people. You have the plastic average people, actually named Barbra and Ken (Snigger, snigger.) The strange pair of spider-obsessed women, the hose manager who's also a drag queen, and the man upstairs, Gilbert.

While all this is going on, Dream is trying to find where the four missing dreams have gone in the human world. He starts off with finding Brute and Glob, who were attempting something I shall not spoil here. Jeb is somehow involved, and he escapes the area after Dream states something to another character who showed up. He..... Runs into the Corinthian, however, who appears to be a perfectly normal human aside from wearing shades all the time.

Something I really enjoy about this story is that the minor characters matter. Asides from two of the minor character showing up in one form or another in this arc, a fragment of plot I read in a later arc brings back two characters introduced in this arc. And I have no idea how far in the future that later arc is from where I am now. All this attention to details, no matter how small, really makes me happy. I think I probably picked up my habit of writing all the details I do from the author of this tale.

And I cannot get over the art decisions. There's one scene, where all the residents of the hose complex Rose is staying at are dreaming. All of the dreamers have their own different style of art for their dream, along with their own text font! It just subtly adds so many more details to this tale!
And detail is a critical weakness of mine.

Rose ends up working with Gilbert, the man form upstairs, to find her brother. They become friends over time, working to find Jeb whilst Dream pursues his own goals-- and the two eventually end up at a convention for Serial Killers. Yes, that's right, a convention from and for Serial Killers. It turns out that's what the Corinthian has been doing in his years on Earth. Killing people.

I really want to say what happens next, but I'll restrain myself if only to get y'all to read this story some day. It is mature, so if your parents are those that want to always protect their child-- but you want to grow up-- I'd say look in a library for them and read them in your spare time. Either way, it's a good read.

Also, there's a time-travel story of sorts in the middle of things. It's a one-shot, and has no relevance to the plot, but it's still an impressive read. And I shall probably never stop fangirling over this series.
But yeah.

Good art style, good details, surprising connections from event to event, and just overall a fascinating story to read.
I can't wait 'till I get to read the next arc!

Sandman, Arc I

Sorry for the lot of y'all who were expecting more posts on Scorched, but I finished that book up and I just want to leave it behind. Overplayed romance triangles that serve little-to-no-point FTL!

But hey! I'm now reading one of the more legendary stories from the amazing Neil Gaiman, also known as the comic book series Sandman. And holy freaking crap it's amazing.
So, to clarify a few things before I start, my father has collected the actual comics as they were printed, so I have to read these at the dining room table on a mat because, hey, they're pretty freaking rare and valuable these days. Also due to the paper texture they feel lovely-- the texture of weathered yet sturdy paper. It's a nice feel.

But yes, I've read the first arc, which introduces one of this world's seven Eternals, beings who are living anthropomorphic embodiment of different aspects to life. The first arc follows Morpheus, more commonly known as Dream. It starts off with him being captured and stripped of his items of power by a human, who meant to summon death.
A human lifetime passes, taking Dream from the 1920's to the 90's before he can escape the magic trap he had be caught in. After taking care of the remaining captor by giving him the "gift" of eternal waking, he departs back for his own realm to start looking for his three lost items-- a pouch, a mask, and a ruby. This takes up the first fourth of the ark-- two of eight issues.

I have to say, the writing is really amazing! As always, Mr. Gaiman has just this certain way with words. Add to that the unique art style this series has, and just-- asjd;lfkja;lweb! It's a keyboard smash of things I can't quite place descriptors to! Hell, even the covers are intricately detailed. I think it's a nice touch that some ethereal beings such as Dream and Lucifer have their own style of text boxes. Dream speaks with a slightly wavering white script in a black and ragged box, whereas Lucifer's are rounded boxes with a very stylized text in them. Extra details like this help the characters to sound certain ways in one's mind. Dream sounds quiet to me, but his voice-- despite being rusting like book pages turning-- holds a deep amount of power to it.
It seems that in this work, like the others, I'm just going to spend most of it in wonder at the weaving of things together and asdfghjkl; this story!

Anyways, Dream has to go on this quest to go get his three items of power back so he can repair his realm/actually do things since his items have a part of his soul/power sealed into them. Two of them are relatively easy, with one of them being on earth and easily retrieved with the help of John Constantine (DC "hero" of sorts-- I don't know much about him but the fragment I saw was really cool!)) and the other being retrieved after a contest in Hell.
Yes, you read that right. Hell. Dream has to go to hell and win a contest against a duke of Hell to get his mask back. It's all types of cool, and Dream has this one line that just causes all the demons of hell to part before him and let him leave. I ain't going to tell you what it is, it's one of those things you really need to read for yourself.

The last item, his Ruby Moonstone,  is not that easy. It takes up 3/8 issues to get it and one of them, well.... I wouldn't recommend it for the weak of heart. There's some really messed up shit in there. We're talking more messed up than the Manhunt game series mixed with the manga Parasyte. (A game series about murder for the fun of it and the child poster for Body Horror, respectively.) It's not pretty. I might have nightmares and they'd be the worst kind of nightmares. But still, despite being a barrel of messed up, it's really well written and understandable despite twists and turns.

I ain't going to spoil the climax.

But afterwards, Dream is feeding some birds when his older sister, Death shows up. Yes, Death is a girl. She promptly throws a well-thought out sisterly lecture/tantrum-- more great moments I won't tell you about-- but it ends with Dream finally smiling, having found solace after his woes.

But yes-- this story is amazing so far! Apparently there's seven of these Eternals, and their names all start with D. Dream and Death have been seen, and Destiny and Despair have been mentioned in passing.
I cannot wait to read the second arc.

I keep talking about Dream. Here's an image of the Eternal to help y'all see what I saw, in a sense.

Book: Scorched, Part 2

Second post, same as the first. Not that much shorter if at all shorter, and full of similar complaints and comments to the last one. The last fifth of this book fell under ye old typical action-and-explosion filled ending. It flowed well, what with the pacing going at a decent clip with the different scenarios but still finishing up all the kinda loose ends that were there. So, good for the book in that case!

Other cases, not so much.

I could spend a good time listing out all the tropes that happened in the last fifth, but that'd be no fun whatsoever. Just know that there's a lot of them, but they're all the standard adventure book tropes so they fit in pretty well. The dragon is still freaking cool, as are all the other dragons that show up in totally-not-a-collective-unconsciousness-realm. And yeah, there were a few moments and things like that but they were surprisingly underplayed. I think they could have been touched on just a bit more then what they were, but eh.

Alright I'll put some of the tropes to digital paper. There's the heart-tearing reunion, the former-antagonist-of-sorts-debating-his-morals, the beast of chaos that learns to restrain itself, and the ever-used this-shall-be-a-series ending. There's quite a few besides these, though.

I do wish that this went on a bit longer in the end, if only because it seemed a bit rushed. The first few sections dragged on a bit too long, so why not cut out those not really needed pages (the romance scenes, obviously.) and add them on to the ending so things can slow down a bit and have some more detail. The scene where Trin was being beat down by the other potentials needed to go on just a bit longer instead of being cut where it was.

So, Scorched is a decent book. It ain't the new Harry Potter, but it certainly ain't the next Twilight. And thank gods for that. Sometimes it's just nice to read a book that's there, and if you're in the mood for that, I'd definitely recommend Scorched as a good read to pass the time if you like dragons and adventure and you can tolerate/ignore/like the seemingly obligatory love triangle.

I probably won't read this book again, though as I said earlier, it's just a giant meh to me.




...Snrk. Oh yeah, the lead villain's main hench-person has a name I seriously can't help but to chuckle at. Her name's Mara, and since I play a lot of SMT (Shin Megami Tensei) games, well, let's just say that Mara is a demon who happens to look a lot like something rude riding on a golden chariot. Viewer discretion is recommended, so be a bit warned if you want to look that demon up. It's a bit not safe for work.