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The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman): Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman) | 
 enlarge | Author: Neil Gaiman
Creators: Sam Kieth, Etc., Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones Iii
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £8.99
You Save: £4.00 (31%)
New (3) Used (1) from £7.00
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 62251
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.7 x 0.5
ISBN: 1852863269
EAN: 9781852863265
ASIN: 1852863269
Publication Date: October 21, 1991
Availability: Usually dispatched within 2 to 3 weeks
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Amazon.co.uk Review
"Wake up, sir. We're here". It's a simple enough opening line--although not many would have guessed back in 1991 that this would lead to one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comics of the second half of the century. In Preludes and Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman weaves the story of a man interested in capturing the physical manifestation of Death but who instead captures the King of Dreams. By Gaiman's own admission there's a lot in this first collection that is awkward and ungainly--which is not to say there are not frequent moments of greatness here. The chapter "24 Hours" is worth the price of the book alone; it stands as one of the most chilling examples of horror in comics. And let's not underestimate Gaiman's achievement of personifying Death as a perky, overly cheery, cute goth girl! All in all, there is a roguish breaking of new ground in this book which is preferable to the often dull precision of the concluding volumes of the Sandman series. --Jim Pascoe
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
Promising start to an excellent series August 6, 2008
A. Whitehead (Colchester, Essex United Kingdom)
If Watchmen is the greatest graphic novel of all time, then a serious case can be made for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman to be the greatest on-going comics series of all time. Running from 1988 to 1996, the series incorporated some 76 issues, collected as ten graphic novels (and more recently, four large-format prestige collections). Although an ongoing series, it was bound together by a long-running story arc that spanned its entire length, and told the story of Morpheus or Dream, one of the seven Endless who are manifestations of universal concepts (the others are Death, Delirium, Desire, Despair, Destiny and Destruction). Preludes and Nocturnes is the first part of the Sandman saga, collecting together the first eight issues of the series.
In 1916, an English sorcerer named Roderick Burgess attempts to capture and constrain Death, so that all humans will become immortal. The spell goes awry, and instead he captures Death's younger brother, Dream. Dream refuses to help Burgess with his quest for immortality and is left imprisoned in a magic circle in the cellar beneath Burgess' home. The absence of Dream is soon felt, as thousands of people across the world slip into a 'sleeping sickness' and cannot wake up. One of these people, a young woman named Unity Kincaid, is even raped and bears a child without ever waking up. Years and then decades pass. Roderick dies of old age and his son Alex takes over as Dream's captor. Finally, in September 1989, Alex accidentally breaks the circle (by driving his wheelchair over it) and Dream is freed. After visiting an original form of vengeance upon his captor, Dream sets about reclaiming the 'tools' of his profession and restoring his realm, the Dreaming, to its former glory.
Preludes and Nocturnes opens the Sandman saga in style, introducing the titular character (who is unusually front-and-centre for the duration of the story: many Sandman stories are notable for not featuring him prominently) and the world he lives in. Gaiman weaves an interesting story here. The Sandman's quest to find his pouch of sand, his gemstone and his helmet is a traditional mythic device, as is the descent into Hell to confront Lucifer to find one of the missing artefacts (this in turn sets up the very end of the series, with Lucifer's vow that, "One day I shall destroy him," setting up future events). At the same time there's a lot of other things going on. Established DC Comics villain Dr. Dee abusing the Sandman's powers to torment a diner full of innocent people is one of the more disturbing things you're going to see in a comic. The story ends with a triumphant Sandman driven strangely morose by his success, and unable to think of something else to do, he goes to feed the pigeons in Greenwich Village, where he meets with his sister Death, probably the most popular character in the series. The collection ends on an upbeat note, as the Sandman begins the task of restoring his realm and his life.
Preludes and Nocturnes is a great story. It's clearly early days for Gaiman and the story creaks a bit in places. It's also rather more obvious than the later, more subtle collections, and the desire for a somewhat plot-driven narrative to hook in the readers means that a lot of the more reflective moments from the later collections are missing. At the same time, revisiting the collection reveals a host of details that crop up again later on, such as an early glimpse of Merv driving a bus (he doesn't reappear until The Kindly Ones, the penultimate collection) and the introduction of Nada, Dream's former lover whom he condemned to Hell for reasons that will later be revealed. The book also wears its influences a bit more obviously than later stories: The Devil Rides Out and the works of Alastair Crowley inform the Burgess sequences, whilst the gates of the Dreaming (the Gates of Horn and Ivory) are straight out of Homer and Virgil. Gaiman's use of established DC characters such as John Constantine and Dr. Dee was also an obvious strategy to attract other DC readers, but for those unfamiliar with the DC Universe, their appearance and the assumption of familiarity is a bit jarring.
Preludes and Nocturnes (*** ) is an intruging opening to the series, ranging from mythology to the occult to superheroes (and villains) and back again, taking in multiple times, worlds and characters. It is a powerful work of the imagination, but in places feels constrained by being part of the DC Universe and has a few rough edges, the result of a writer near the start of his career but already showing great promise.
 Excellent introductory background May 2, 2007
MB
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My introduction to Sandman began with Endless Nights, which I was given. I was hooked, and decided to read the rest. Having made a start, I was surprised to see negative comments on this book. Certainly, it is not as polished as the later books, but it is invaluable as a background to understanding them. The intro in Dolls House probably does quite well for providing this background, but it cannot possibly do nearly as well as does reading Preludes and Nocturnes. And, whilst it is not as polished, it is still very good indeed. [...]
A Dream Start February 6, 2007
Mr. Jamie Martin (uk)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The criticism that this is not the best of the sandman series is very much undeserved. Its not, however the comics it contains rate among the most important of the 20th Centuary, and helped to create what would become Vertigo comics, establishing itself in a trend started by Alan Moore on Swamp Thing and Jamie Delanos Hellblazer. Its dated a bit, but then so has Citizen Kane - And that is a worth comparison, because although both creators would do better in their career, their impact at those times would never be better'd.
Those were heady days, when this kind of Comic book was unheard of. This was a risk. Like the Watchmen before it, Preludes is special in that it dared to be different, and it succeded. Its not Gaimans best work on Sandman but it is his first work, and when it appeared it was unprecedented and unheard of. Moore, Miller and Morrison brought Graphic Novels into mainstream Bookshops, but Gaiman brought Book Buyers into the Comic Shops.
Its not something you can judge by comparison to later and now, but for what it was. If this had failed there would have been no later, people put their careers on the line for this.
Take it from someone who was there. This is the birth of the Modern Era of Comic Books. Sandman, Swamp Thing and Hellblazer are British Invasion of US comics.
Very Good December 28, 2005
1 out of 15 found this review helpful
So Sandman, this supposed to be one of the best comics in the world and this is the begging volume. Well this volume has recived some critcism which is upsetting. Not because the volume doesn't deserve the criticism becasue it does, it's not as good as other volumes. However I think this turns people of, of buying the book. I've only read one other Sandman so I can't say how good the rest it is. However I think people are giving this so low marks becasue they are comparing to the rest of the volumes, which are meant to be really good. I say this because this it's self is a really good read, maybe not as good as the other volumes, I don't know wince I've never read them. It is really good though. I wouldn't say brilliant becasue there are some bits that I didn't care for. Although I liked most bits fine, I won't tell you what they are because I don't want to ruin the plot. I will tell that the imagnation in this book is rivaled by none, never in my life have I read a book that is more imagnative then this one. The chracters are also very good, you can understand why there feeling as they are, eve though there not they seem to be very human which I like. Another great thing about this is it's not obsessed with violence, I like comics but almost always there resolved with people beating the crap out of each other, not in this one, in this one's diffrences are talked through. Okay I know that sounds boring but it really isn't. The art annoys me, I've never been a fan of this kind of art, it doesn't have the beuty of Jim Lee's, even so I will say it goes along with the story and fits it well. One other thing is that Neil Gaiman is kind of inbetween worlds when he was writing this. I'm not sure if he thought he was trying to write a horror comic or something more. Since there glimpses into things very in depth, but some of it is just nothing but horror. These two things knock the comic down, this is a very good read and I can only hope that the next volume entertains me more. Which would be a miracle since this one really did entertain me.
 Not the best to start on March 18, 2005
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
Personally as a hardened Sandman Fan, I gotta say that when I bought this, I was lookin forward to something, but I realised when I'd finished reading it, that if preludes and nocturnes, vol. 1 of the sandman library, was the first sandman graphic novel I'd read, I wouldn't have picked up another. It's a good one to read when you've read all the others, for those last snippets of information that still elude ye, but cos most of whats in it is explained in other volumes. but i'd recommend you start with volume 2 the doll's house.
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