Customer Reviews
Great Storytelling!!! 
2008-08-20
Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses
From a review published originally by SavageNight E-zine
The Sandman: The Dream Country, Volume 3
Written by
Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by
Various Artists
Reviewed By
B.L.morgan
5 Stars
I am in awe of Neil Gaiman.
The Sandman: Volume 3, The Dream Country takes the series in different directions that no one could have seen coming. Some of these stories are set in the modern day. Other stories are set in Medieval Europe. One is even told through the eyes of a cat. All of the stories are thought provoking.
I highly recommend this entire series.
If you want graphic novels that are inventive, entertaining and different then check out The Sandman Series.
A Collection of One-Shots 
2008-07-04
After reading Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll's House, I began to wonder if the hype behind Neil Gaiman's long-running "The Sandman" series had any substance to it. Both volumes had their fair share amount of good points and bad points, evening out at a 7/10 each. I saw none of the astonishing writing people were talking about, but I did notice one thing. Gaiman is way, way better at writing one-shots than he is at writing story arcs. So I was very pleased that "Dream Country," the third volume, wouldn't just feature one one-shot like the previous two books did... it is entirely composed of four very different one shots.
Calliope: I liked this story a lot. The art is a big sketchy and at times even ugly, but Gaiman's script is able to keep the issue afloat. The tale is tragic and really creepy, delving into the darkest corners of a writers mind and what that writer will do to get recognition. It's a disturbing tale, but also one of my favorites.
Dream of a Thousand Cats: This might be the single most original concept I've ever read about. It's fantastically written and drawn well too, and is easily the best Gaiman story I've ever read. Finally, I'm starting to see what everyone is gushing over.
A Mid-Summer Night's Dream: It's a good concept that Gaiman got a bit carried away with. In this story, Shakespeare performs A Midsummer Night's Dream for Morpheus and the various fair folk that are featured in the play. It's interesting watching the fair folk's reaction to their depiction, but that's about as far as the issue goes. It's tedious and filled with "Alright, I get it" moments. Some praise it is Gaiman's best, but for me it felt like a surprisingly soft spot in an otherwise solid work.
Façade: Like he did in "Preludes and Nocturnes," Gaiman gives a very dark take on a DC superhero here. Element Girl is the star of this comic, and Gaiman utilizes her horrified appearance (think the female version of Metamorpho) to craft a story about self-loathing that really hits a tender note. The end felt a bit fast, as if Gaiman should have cut down on the "woe is me" narration a bit from the beginning so he could really sell the end, but other than that, this is a very solid story.
This edition also includes Gaiman's script to "Calliope" which is, the say the absolutely least, a very... unique way of scripting comics. It's mildly interesting to read, and anyone who really loves Gaiman's writing will be thrilled to get a glimpse (actually, "a long stare" is more appropriate) into his writing process.
Overall, this is the best volume in the Sandman series thus far. If the comics are able to maintain this level of quality, I'll definitely stick around to the end.
8/10
Graphic SF Reader 2007-09-03
A few stand alone stories are in this volume. William Shakespeare produces the first play that Morpheus has requested, and puts on a live performance in the wild for Titania and Auberon.
A man literally gets his muse from another writer, we see the Dream of Cats, and the final fate of an Element Woman who has had enough.
Highly original and beautifully written 2007-07-17
Gaiman is an original in every sense of the word. The first couple of volumes I read in the "Sandman" series didn't impress me all that much, I have to admit. At least, not uniformly. But the average quality in this one is very high indeed. The four stories all share the theme of dreams, from a novelist enslaving Calliope the muse to provide ideas for his books, to a cat's revelation of what the real world used to be like, to a piece about a woman who only wants to die but can't (the only "comic book" story you'll find here, and the least successful, in my opinion), and the award-winning story of the first performance by Will Shakespeare's company of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" -- for an audience from Faerie (and that one alone is worth the price of the book).
Dream Country 2007-07-07
Excellent book, it is a few seperate stories but there is some background of the main characters not to be missed.
I dreamed that this volume didn't exist in the series... 
2006-10-20
The third book of the Sandman collection is a series of four short comic book stories. What's remarkable here (considering the publisher and the time that this was originally published) is that the main character of the book--the Sandman, King of Dreams--serves only as a minor character in each of these otherwise unrelated stories. (Actually, he's not even in the last story.) This signaled a couple of important things in the development of what is considered one of the great comics of the second half of the century. First, it marked a distinct move away from the horror genre and into a more fantasy-rich, classical mythology-laden environment. And secondly, it solidly cemented Neil Gaiman as a storyteller. One of the stories here, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," took home the World Fantasy Award for best short story--the first time a comic was given that honor. But for my money, another story in Dream Country has it beat hands down. "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" has such hope, beauty, and good old-fashionedchills that rereading it becomes a welcome pleasure. --Jim Pascoe
An Excellent Introduction to Comics' Greatest Series 2006-10-17
Let me just say that I have kids. They do things that kids are wont to do; make noise, make messes and generally prevent me from reading, my favorite pleasure. So I made a compromise; I wanted to read, but I couldn't get into a book, then I decided to get back into comics. Needless to say, I am a long time comic reader. Superhero stuff mainly. Characters from the DC universe (Batman is my favorite) and Kurt Busiek's Astro City were pretty much it for me.
But I got restless. I needed a change. Not that I've quit reading about superheroes, but I needed to broaden my outlook.
I've long known about Gaiman's classic Sandman series, but at the time, it just didn't seem interesting to me. But I asked a young woman who worked in a comic book store about it. She praised it and recommended the series. Since I didn't know anything about Morpheus or any of his siblings in the endless, she suggested starting off with Dream Country, in what is the third volume of the series.
To veteran Sandman readers, it's a brief collection of four short stories and the shortest book of the lot. But for the novice, it's a superb introduction to Neil Gaiman's brilliant storytelling and a nice way to ease into his fantastic world. I read the collection in a day. I then got the rest of the series. If you like good stories well told, superb characters you want to feel for and a taste for the different, look no further.
I would recommend Sandman to even the most jaded reader. I'd be genuinely shocked of they weren't won over.
A different way to enjoy an excellent series 2006-04-02
Neil Gaiman's great strength as a storyteller is how he weaves intricate plotlines into satisfying conclusions, and future setups. So it may seem unusual at first blush, to experience this collection of short Sandman stories instead of Gaiman's long story arcs. Yet, Dream Country invites us to come along on an enjoyable ride, as Gaiman explores his smaller side ideas. More a collection of "what if" supernatural scenarios, than a part of the Sandman saga...it is still very much uniquely Sandman. The stories revolve around the complex character of Morpheus (even when he is removed from center stage)...and Death's tale truly begins once she appears. Dream Country doesn't advance the larger Sandman plot, but even casual readers will still find it satisfying.
The best example of contemporary literature 2006-02-03
Of all the Sandman books, I'd have to say this is one of my personal favorites. The individual short stories, may not have a lot to do with the overall Sandman storyline but are each emotionally powerful in their own right.
Besides the Shakespearen classic A Mid-Summer Night Dream, I'd had have to say that the best stories are a Dream of a Thousand Cats and Facade. The thousand cats storyline deals with a cat preacher who tries to convince her followers that if a thousand of them would dream of a better life (a life where cats rule humans) then their dreams would come true. While it proves to be a little hokey in concept, the story does have a powerful element of truth in how dreamers change the world.
The story Facade in my mind brings to light the painful truth, of what it is like to be a superhero in modern day society. I thought Alan Moore was good at humanizing his characters but this one really hits home in terms of what it's like to be alienated and alone. In it, Element Girl (A former superhero known as Urania Blackwell) lives a meager existence in a run down apartment building, afraid of going anywhere in public or doing anything. It shows us what it is like to be so different from her fellow human beings that she can no longer exist among them. I praise this story for piercing the naive fantasy children have when dreaming of superheros. Usually they think about how good it would be to jump buildings, to fly and have laser vision. But for Urania this is a nightmare. There are some particularily moving moments in this story, particularly when her former best friend, being unaware of her condition, calls a girl born with no legs a freak. Each night, she dreams of a better life, one where she is normal and very happy only to wake up crying to find out things are not so. This is something everyone can identify with and relate to.
Double filler 
2005-12-29
Others have written enough about the story content, so I just want to add an additional annoyance with this volume: the last 40 pages (out of 160) are just for the script of 'Calliope'. All text. No pictures... The book was already short enough compared to the others. And that script took even more away from it...
