The Sandman: A Game of You

And this is where I part ways with Sandman. I've had mixed feelings about the series since the first volume and the gruesome levels in this one pushed me firmly into the "not for me" camp. While I thoroughly enjoy the creepiness of Gaiman's other works, the graphic novel format takes away the distance my brain can create between me and horrifying images that are done solely in text. I also found the inconsistent art (not just between issues but within them) increasingly frustrating.

I'm still working my way through the series (as of this writing, I'm on Vol. 9, which is shaping up very nicely), but this is so far the most engaging, most complex, and most rewarding of the Sandman series. Gaiman had been working with a rich mythology already, drawing in every pantheon and legend and scripture he can find in the library, and though his success at blending these is uneven, here the stories he weaves around--or out of--or into--his various allusions and his previous tales are perfectly orchestrated to produce a profound literature of identity, sexuality, psychology, and faith. And Samuel Delany's carefully analytical introduction to the book, though at times overly politicized, is a reward in itself (spoiler alert of show more sorts: save the introduction until after you've read the book); his insight has made me want to reread this volume, and once I finish the initial ten-volume series, I might do just that. show less

SPOILERS

In Volume 5 of the Sandman series, we are taken in a different direction as it steps away from mythology and offers only one story for the whole book. We rendezvous with some characters that have showed up previously and follow a confused Barbie into her dream world. We are also introduced to some new, and fabulous characters, a drag queen, a lesbian couple, and a pair of seriously strange neighbours.

I loved the story of Barbie’s dreamland, how she came there as a child and now has to return to try and set things right. This seems to be recurring theme in the Sandman, real life characters coming to their inner dream world to wage battle. In A Game of You, “The Cuckoo” is Barbie’s nemesis and is a clever invention and show more one that we can all identify with (don‘t we all feel as if somewhere in our dreams the child we used to be dwells?). This book with it’s female leads and princess dream concept felt very feminine and fresh, yet this is a dark and at times violent tale.

Gaiman often gives the reader a nod and a wink with a reference to a past event or character. He keeps his readers on their toes and I love the feeling of satisfaction when you do recognize something from a previous book. I hesitate to say this issue is my favorite, but for me, this one stands beside The Doll House as two of the best (so far). show less

Most people have nightmares. They are horrible experiences, but the most frightening aspect is that they are our own creation. We may dream our greatest fears, of fanged and clawed beasts, public speaking, or something dreadful happening to our loved ones. Maybe we awaken in a fright, repulsed by what we saw or what we did, but it was our own minds that spawned the images. No matter how horrifying the images we might be presented with, they ultimately came from somewhere within us. In some ways it's like a betrayal, of a sort.

In typical creepy Sandman fashion, A Game of You explores the idea that this perhaps shouldn't be there after all but instead is an orphan entity that has latched onto our dream worlds and is possibly plotting show more against us. Gaiman draws comparison to the Cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in the nest of other birds, where their offspring will hatch and destroy the other eggs to ensure its own survival. Just don't think about that before you nod off to sleep.

This series continues to improve, with every completed book I think it is my favorite so far and this one is no different. It probably helped that the characters are a cast of complete oddballs, many of which I utterly adored. I also appreciated that Barbie, who was previously depicted as hopelessly normal, is given a bit of depth and fits in so well with the crazy (wonderful) people populating her apartment building.

The art in this edition is pretty typical comic book fair. One book in particular does look quite horrendous, but beyond that it's good. The story is what you are reading this one for, and it offers all the depth you would expect from the series. It most certainly gets a thumbs up and a nod of approval from me, plus 4 stars to boot. show less

In which Morpheus, the Dream King, the Sandman, won't even appear until the very end - another installment in the series that makes the very brave move of hardly including its main character. Not only that, the majority of the story doesn't even take place in the real world - most of the action takes place in a dreamer's mind. Barbie's childhood fantasy of being a princess in a faraway land turns out to be not a fantasy at all and when the Cuckoo threatens to take over, the princess' loyal friends call her back into their world to deal with the threat.

Although about many different things - friendship, loyalty, and what it entails to be female - the main theme in this installment is the question of identity and most, if not all, of the show more characters are different than they appear to be, whether by choice or by nature. Its main character is after all Barbie, whose ex, Ken, has left her for a woman called Sindy (the name of the British version of the Barbie-doll), so it should be assumed that the character would have no depth to her at all, when in fact, she has created a dreamworld so vivid it affects the real world more than any dream should.

Since they all are, I needn't point out that this is one of my favorite installments. Fairy tales will easily win me over and this one has the princess, the quest, the betrayal, and some sort of happy ending, although not perfect - it wouldn't fit the story if it was. It also has one of the saddest moments ("My princess? I came for you..."), one of the loveliest ("Do you know how much a baby is going to cost us?"), and one of the funnier ("New age? No. Quite the opposite, really."). I do appreciate that the magic in this one isn't nice or clean, but rather nasty and bloody, and that it does have real repercussions for all involved, which does raise the stakes quite a bit. Overall an extremely enjoyable story for its introduction of a group of characters that I feel the richer for having been introduced to. show less

Man, my reviews of this series are all over the place. My memories of it being universally wonderful are wrong.

So. This is the story of Barbie, who we met in one of the earlier volumes, after she broke up with Ken and stopped dreaming. Her dreams continued on without her...Martin Tenbones et al. still trying to find princess Barbie to destroy the Cuckoo. Martin Tenbones shows up in real life to bring her back, to continue their righteous journey, and Barbie's friends (and one witch who just wants revenge on the Cuckoo for trying to hurt her) all go into the Dreaming to try and rescue her. The story is interesting, there's a bunch of queer people, so that's nice.

Why I gave this story 2 stars is because of the transphobia that apparently show more never occurred to me when I read it before. It feels like she was supposed to be empowering, a good example of a trans* character, but it just ended up failing. Wanda seems like a great person, and she constantly fights against anyone who would call her a man or points out her "thingie" (uugh). She also DIES at the end, the only one of the group of friends who has to die. Great. At her funeral, her family insists that her name is Alvin and that she was a boy and blah blah. Barbie uses Wanda's favourite lipstick to cross out Alvin and write Wanda on her tombstone. Which is great, and we're supposed to agree with Wanda and think that her family is wrong to reject her etc., but so much of her story is cringe-inducing. The worst part is that the lady moon magic doesn't work for her because "gender isn't something you can pick and choose as far as the gods are concerned". So fuck alllllllllll of that noise. It just perpetuates the idea that trans* women aren't real women, and it's being validated by no less than THE GODS of this universe. The moon goddesses are TERFs. And it's not made better by how angrily Wanda rejects the notion, because it's built in to the universe now. show less