The Books of Magic

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite things about him is his unabashed, genuine, passionate love of story and myth. The Sandman is his greatest work because it allowed him to delve deep into this love and while I love or at least enjoy almost all of his other work, The Books of Magic is really the only thing I've read that captures that same magical enthusiasm that made The Sandman so captivating and thought-provoking so long ago.

In typical Sandman fashion this story is low on conflict but high on powerful themes. Basically, a group of DC characters with magical leanings decide that it's time to teach a boy about magic, because he could be the greatest magician of his age, and because others are eyeing the show more boy with envy and they want to make sure he knows all the choices laid out before him (obviously hoping that he will choose to use his magic for good).

What follows is, quite simply, magic. Pardon the pun, but really, it is. Between the illustrations, the themes, and Gaiman's beautiful prose this book made me feel like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole.

They show the boy how the universe was born, and how it ends. They show him the various planes of existence that exist beside our own: Faerie, Hell, The Dreaming, etc. Dream, Death, Destiny, Cain, and Abel from The Sandman all make an appearance. Many other DC characters I wasn't familiar with do as well.

My favorite line from the book was from Titania, queen of faerie, and perfectly shows off Gaiman's masterful prose which washes over you like a waterfall and smashes into you like a tsunami:

"You wish to see the distant realms? Very well. But know this first: the places you will visit, the places that you will see, do not exist. For there are only two worlds--your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy...These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power, provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters." show less

Rather a who's who of the DC comic world of magic, mixed with a bit of real magic.

What? Real magic? As in great storytelling, great art, a big portion of myth and a much more huge portion of fascination? You bet!

A kid very much like Harry Potter might have been starts a journey of discovery, with four wise(ass) men from the magical side of Detective Comics, ostensibly to see if he wants to keep upon the path of a magical destiny. Give him the principles and a feel for the cost, show him the dark side, let him hope for the light, and put him in constant peril while keeping an eye on him... or not.

All told, it's one hell of a journey less like the Inferno and more like a dive into the human psyche to revel in our imagination and our sense show more of wonder.

For all that, it works brilliantly.

Whatever happened to our sense of wonder, anyway? Perhaps it's just slumbering, waiting for that one good story to kiss us and shock us awake after long last?

This one feels like a genuine Gaiman even though it's filled to the brim with stock DC franchise characters. The point is the journey, after all, not the reiteration of the franchises. :) show less

Neil Gaiman and illustrators John Bolton, Scott Hampton, Charles Vess, Paul Johnson, and Roger Zelazny take readers on a journey through the magical realm of the DC Universe in The Books of Magic. When twelve-year-old Timothy Hunter shows signs of becoming the most powerful magician in the DC Universe, John Constantine, the Stranger, Dr. Occult, and Mr. E. show him the past, present, alternate worlds, and future of magic, with appearances from Etrigan, Zatanna, Titania of Faerie, and three of the Endless: Dream, Destiny, and Death. The story shows both the beauty and price of magic, as Timothy faces the choice between being a part of the magical world or rejecting it. This story is Gaiman at his best, with a sense of the mythic and show more beautiful that also has an underlying current of danger, which only makes the world more enticing.

This 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition comes in a lovely hardcover and includes excerpts from Neil Gaiman’s script notes, pencil work, and thumbnails from Books III and IV. Since DC retired its Vertigo imprint, the book features the DC Black Label imprint and The Sandman Universe Classics banner on its cover livery. show less

Timothy Hunter is potentially most powerful magician in current era. As such he represents the ultimate weapon for both Good and Evil forces and whoever brings him onboard will gain the upper hand.

This is why four mystics - Constantine, Dr. Occult, Phantom Stranger and Mister E - decide to introduce the wonderful (and extremely dangerous) world of magic to Timothy and in doing that bring him to the Good side (although what exactly is good and what is bad is left for interpretations - Mister E is one very scary guy and proof that not everyone standing on side of Angels is actually an angel).

Story is collection of "travels" that Timothy takes with each mystic - to the past, present, world of faeries and finally trip to the future to the show more very end of the time and space.

Dialogs are great, and it is clear this was written by the novelist. While Timothy is amazed at what he sees and people and creatures he comes across it is clear he is very wary of responsibilities and possible high cost of messing with magic. This brings him in discussion with the four mystics (or as Constantine calls them TrenchCoat Brigade (since he considers them to be reckless as a famous charge of Light Brigade)) that reveal to him complexity of the magic worlds, rules that binds the magic world and great dangers lurking in the shadows.

I wont go into more details, I can only say if you want very rich narrative with gorgeous art (to be honest one of the reasons ..... scratch that, main reason I bought this graphic novel is because of John Bolton - quality of the story and ambient were a huge plus overall) filled with occult and mystery then this is book for you.

Highly recommended. show less

Four stars for the artwork, two for the story. This is a beautifully illustrated meandering mess of a story. Precocious 12-year old Tim Hunter is chosen to get an introduction to magic so he can make a decision about his life, but somebody would have to tell you that, as the other characters frequently do, because from the story line itself you would never guess it. Tim is escorted to various fantastic places, including a very unmagical future at times, but shown very little magic performed. What little story there is here revolves mainly around Timothy not being able to follow instructions (the dire consequences he is warned about sometimes do and often don't come true).

The best book in here is the Vess illustrated "The Land of show more Summer's Twilight." It has the closest thing there is to an actual plot and real menace. Vess is always the illustrator, along with McKean, most in tune with Gaiman's storytelling. The rest is a padded meandering mess without any substantial plot or direction. How Hunter would get any idea about a life of magic from this is beyond me.

Gaiman exhibits all his weaknesses (he usually overcomes them) here. The story is a random series of incidents that just don't fit together very well. It feels like either a dash-off or something he just made up in five minutes each day. Name checking a host of DC supernatural characters was also pointless. John Constantine was good though. The only real fleshed out character. He almost has more page time than Hunter.

I think Gaiman intended to rev us up for the subsequent books, but if all I knew was this one this one, I wouldn't bother seeking them out.

I bought this book as a gift for my daughter because she is a Gaiman nut, but I wish I'd bought her another Sandman GN volume instead. show less

So, a 12 year old boy, dark haired, bespectacled, finds himself inducted into the world of Magic, picking up a pet owl on the way.....sound familiar? But Neil Gaiman's tale of the boy wizard, Timothy Hunter, was published seven years before JK Rowling's Harry Potter tales. While similarities exist it is more a case that both authors were playing with archetypes rather than out and out plagiarism.

Gaiman was asked by DC Comics to come up with a story that featured some of their mystical, magical characters. What he eventually produced was a four issue mini-series that explored the very nature of magic itself, through the eyes of Timothy, who has the potential to be the greatest wizard of his age. Four men serve as his guides : John show more Constantine, Mister E, The Phantom Stranger and Doctor Occult. Magic, past, present and future is explored as Timothy is faced with a choice between the magic world, and cold, rational science.

Gaiman's imagination is as powerful as ever, and there are the inevitable cameos from The Endless from the pages of The Sandman, his ongoing series at the time. The imagery is sometimes brutal, disturbing, the subtext that Magic is a very dangerous thing. Timothy's guides are enigmatic, ambivalent presences, and there is the added problem that someone wants Timothy dead.

Though well written and cunningly constructed, this is still a minor work in the Gaiman canon. Indeed the character was taken up by other writers after the initial four issues. But don't let that put you off. Minor Gaiman is still well worth reading. show less

Twelve-year-old Timothy Hunter, potentially the world's greatest magician, is given a tour of the (DC) magical universe by Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult, and Mister E to show him the possibilities and the cost of wielding magic. This is one of my all-time favorite comics, one that I reread ever so often when I want to be transported to a world where magic is a real possibility, even for an inner-city boy like Timothy. Of course, if you know his guides beforehand from their own DC series, it adds another layer of meaning, but it's not a necessity - their characters and personalities are very well presented in just a few lines of dialog or drawings. The one I know the best is John Constantine and he is flawlessly true show more to character, so I have to trust that the others are thus as well. And if not, it doesn't really matter since they fulfill their roles in this story-line perfectly. show less