The Sandman: Season of Mists

Le pongo más pegas a las cosas que me gustan que a las que no, y por todos los diablos que le encuentro pegas a Sandman. Por primera vez, Sueño tiene que enfrentarse a las consecuencias de sus actos: liberar a su vieja amante Nada del infierno por un castigo injusto que él mismo le interpuso. Los actos de Sueño empiezan a tener consecuencias: Lucifer tiene asuntos pendientes con él así que no debería ser tarea fácil.

Bueno, pues lo es. Lucifer decide que está hasta la coronilla de ser el que manda ahí abajo y le cede el control a Sueño. Uno al principio piensa que es parte de un maquiavélico plan, pero el Príncipe de las Tinieblas va en serio: sólo quiere irse a Australia a vivir del cuento. Pero Sueño no tiene intención show more de quedarse con el terreno infernal, así que monta una reunión con todos los pretendientes al trono de azufre, o de lo que sea. Todos ellos personajes maravillosos, que es el verdadero fuerte de Gaiman.

La duda reconcome a Sueño hasta que el Creador le exime de la responsabilidad de tener que elegir, con un Deus Ex Machina literal que, bueno, tampoco es un problema. Sueño parece haber encontrado a su más temible adversario por el momento en Azazel, que amenaza con devorar a Nada. Pero como ya pasó con el Doctor Destino en el primer tomo, no dura ni cinco viñetas.

El regreso de los muertos a la Tierra da menos juego del que debería, lo que se agradece y no (ya hay suficientes zombies en el mundo), al mismo tiempo. Sólo conocemos la historia de un niño atrapado en un colegio interno invadido por fantasmas, pero las consecuencias en el mundo entero deberán haber sido enormes. Ya veremos si sale algo en el siguiente tomo.

Total, que el argumento se resuelve enseguida de nuevo por la casi omnipotencia de Sueño. La tensión que se crea con la difícil decisión se diluye demasiado rápido y no es todo lo satisfactoria que debería.

Y sin embargo, cuatro estrellas. No es tan tenso como "Casa de muñecas", porque ahí había seres humanos que corrían verdadero peligro, pero aquí uno piensa que Sueño tiene enfrente a un enemigo poderoso. El hecho de que no lo sea quita puntos del resultado final, pero no tanto del disfrute de la lectura. El trabajo con los personajes secundarios es de lo mejor hasta el momento, y además tenemos el inicio con la introducción al resto de los Eternos, que tanta expectación había creado. Así que, un poco como el resto de Sandman, arte y caracterización de élite; el argumento, original pero decepcionante. show less

WARNING - SLIGHT SPOILERS

There was much to like about The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists starting with the gathering of the clan, seeing how the Endless react with each other, and having Morpheus’s error of judgement pointed out to him by his siblings. We are taken back to the story of Nada and how Morpheus condemned her to Hell. Now he is on a quest to correct his mistake and in typical Gaiman style the story is epic and brings in the gods of mythology, as well as deities from various religions and even visitors from the fey. A typical mixed bag that this author seems to delight in writing about.

So what happens when Lucifer decides to quit, and the gates of Hell are closed? Where do the dead go? Where indeed does Lucifer go? These show more questions are all answered in Season of Mists, and answered to my great satisfaction. Gaiman has once again provided a story that makes the reader think on a wider scale, but he also never hesitates to give us an appreciation of the smaller moments in life, be it the birth of a baby or a beautiful sunset.

My biggest delight in Season of the Mists was probably my surprise in the direction that the story took. It started off looking like this was going to be a tale of epic battle. Showing Dream storming the gates of Hell, battling Lucifer to get back the women he condemned to be there. Instead, with a simple twist, the story is taken into another direction entirely, and Lucifer gets his revenge by trapping Dream into a responsibility that he did not look for or want.

I can't wait to see where we are going to be taken next. show less

Ahhh. Happy sigh. I feel like I got my reading mojo back a bit. I almost finished the next volume last night, but made myself wait til this morning. I am enjoying these graphic novels. I decided to get these ones (volumes 1-5) in paperback and now am wishing I had done the same with my The Dark Tower graphic novels, ah well. It was nice to visit Morpheus/Dream again. Gaiman also plays once more with Biblical figures (we have Cain, Lucifer Morningstar, Azazel) and then of course figures we have read about in Greek, Egyptian, and other mythologies. The story was quite moving in parts and I did like the final resolution with Nada.

"Season of Mists" begins with a gathering of the Endless family. FYI, they are all kind of a mess. Things get show more ugly though (for them) when Desire pretty much calls Dream out for what he did to his former lover Nada. Death takes Desire's side as well though because it is really [expletive] up that he sent his ex lover to Hell for 10,000 years to be tortured cause in his eyes she said no to him. So this volume follows Dream as he realizes this was a messed up thing to do and decides to do what he can to free Nada even though he knows that Lucifer will do what he can to take revenge against him. Things go haywire though when Lucifer decides to just quit Hell and gives Dream the key to it after tossing out all the demons, tortured souls, and whatnot that were there.

So Morpheus/Dream seems to be working things out in his way to understanding that some of the things he has done were just wrong. This volume has him thinking through the implications of what may happen after Lucifer throws a monkey in the wrench with his attempts to free Nada. I feel...sympathy for Dream in some aspects. He loves Nada (in his own way) and does not understand why she killed herself. In his eyes she rejected him and so him condemning her to Hell for eternity was a just punishment (it was not). I think though Death is the only one who can ever talk some sense into Dream and when they do Dream finally gets that yes, he was an ass. So he is ready to just say goodbye to many of his "friends" and others because he thinks he is walking to certain doom.

Of the other Endless, Death continues to be my favorite. Desire works my nerves. Destiny continues to freak me out.

The other characters in this one are well done, I maybe laughed a bit at the messed up family dynamics between Odin, Thor, and Loki. But it was interesting to play around in the fairy world along with some celestial beings as well.

The writing was very good and so was the flow of this volume.

The illustrations are top notch and several panels were really well done. My favorite was episode 4 following Charles Rowland which also features Death.

The ending leaves you surprised, I definitely did not see that coming, but it makes sense. Now I am wondering about what parts some characters have to play since we left some in some very different situations. Now onto volume 5. show less

do not think my love for this series can be any greater. If only I could afford it, I would buy up the remaining six volumes immediately and just gorge myself on them, because really? So. Much. Love. However, as it is, I have to put aside €5 from my paypacket every week so that I can afford to buy one every month or so. Maybe this will work out better in the long run, so that I can savour these properly, because they deserve that. I adore how Gaiman blends the deities of so many different pantheons in a way that makes them work, in a way that's often funny and tragic and thought-provoking. I don't think I can properly say that his characterisations of the gods are in-character, so to speak - they are deities, after all - but I grew up show more with myths and legends and folk-tales in the same way other people grew up with fairystories and Sweet Valley High books, and when I read this book, I recognised them again instantly, if that makes sense.

The resolution of the plot line was slightly... deus ex machina, I think; though I suppose that if you look at in a certain way, Gaiman certainly used the best possible of the dei, didn't he? *g*.

He also deserves full marks for the following exchange between Remiel and one of the souls in Hell, towards the end of the volume:

"No. That was the old Hell. That was a place of mindless torture and purposeless pain. There will be no more wanton violence; no further suffering, inflicted without reason or explanation. We will hurt you. And we are not sorry. But we do not do it to punish you. We do it to redeem you. Because afterward, you'll be a better person... And because we love you. One day, you'll thank us for it."

"But... you don't understand... That makes it worse. That makes it so much worse..."

I mean, that was visceral. Hello and welcome to one of Siria's major problems with organised religion in general and (Irish) Catholicism in particular.

And one of these days I am going to have to sit down and figure out exactly why it is that I adore Sandman so much, but can't find it in myself to like Gaiman's novels to the same degree. However, I think this entry is already long enough, and that's an issue for another post. *g* show less

This might be my favorite volume so far. Neil Gaiman thrives when he writes about mythology - Norse Mythology and American Gods are standouts. Here - he takes Western mythology for a spin - with Lucifer handing over the keys to hell to Dream. When Lucifer abdicates the throne of Hell, sending the damned back to earth, and turns the keys over to Dream. Dream doesn’t really want the property—he just wants to make amends with Nada - but a lot of other beings want hell, including demons, angels, fairies, and a ton of gods: Odin, Thor, Loki, Anubis, Bes, Bast, the Shinto storm god Susano-o-no-Mikoto, and the personifications of Order (a cardboard box carried by a genie) and Chaos (a little girl dressed like a clown). All the beings make show more their bid. One of these offers interests Dream greatly: a chance to rescue his lover Queen Nada from the consequences of his youthful anger. In the end, Dream goes with the choice that restores order, and what this order says about Western Christianity is horrifying.

And of course, in the end, Dream gets to reconcile with Nada. I still think he is a jerk for what he did to her but at least Nada has a chance at life again in the end. show less

Re-Read, 4/4/20:

Oh, honestly, I shivered throughout the re-read. This is SUCH an important volume for the rest of the tale. And I really can't top my original review, either.

What a great twist this volume is. :)


Original Review:

Now the good stuff really gets started.

Introducing most of the Endless, we discover intrigue with Destiny, some deep sadness in Delirium, friendship in Death, capriciousness in Desire, and maybe a bit of reasonableness in Despair. Dream is there, of course, and he's rightly annoyed with his siblings.

He is, after all, the one who had perpetrated a great crime. Who are they to taunt him?

Ah, Nada. Such a tragic figure.

And she's only a plot hook!

Oh Hell... I'm not going to spoil Hell, but Dream goes back to right his show more great wrong.

I was so surprised with the outcome. Delighted. Flabbergasted. The implications were enormous and made me giddy with anticipation.

If the Eternals weren't enough to make things interesting, we also get the Aesir, Angels, Chaos, Chinese Gods, Devils, Fae, and Order knocking on Dream's door to threaten, bribe, plead. So totally delicious.

I read American Gods before Sandman, so I was grooving to this tune and this twist in a big way. Hell, this Volume epitomizes everything I love about the Sandman Series. When it thinks big, it thinks BIG. Let's not piddle around the the little crap, shall we? Let's move Heaven and Earth.

Woo! Woo! If only all comics could get this grandiose! (Of course, I later learned that some could get pretty close, but this is my first taste of something really good.) show less

This is my favorite entry in the Sandman series so far!

Here we learn a lot-for instance, all the supposed stand alone stories in Sandman 3: The Dream Country, were NOT all stand alones. Some of them do have connections that are referenced here.

The introduction by the irascible Harlan Ellison was fantastic. I know he's a curmudgeon, but I adore the man. His description of what happened when one of Gaiman's comic book stories won the World Fantasy Award was freaking hilarious.

I didn't enjoy the artwork in this one as much as I did in previous volumes, but I loved and admired the stories and the writing so much, that I didn't mind. I would have enjoyed these stories with no artwork at all.

It is now becoming clear to me what an epic show more undertaking this series must have been. The story arc is HUGE and encompasses so much. We have hell and demons and all kinds of creatures from legends and myths and they're all mashed together in a story that somehow makes sense. It's truly impressive and I can't wait to continue on with this series.

Highly recommended to fans of fantasy, Neil Gaiman and graphic novels. show less