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The Sandman, The: Season of Mists | 
| Author: Neil Gaiman
Creators: Kelley Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £7.79
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 4978
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 10.2 x 6.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1852864478
EAN: 9781852864477
ASIN: 1852864478
Publication Date: September 1, 1992
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 A splendid story about Hell August 27, 2008
The fourth Sandman collection finally follows up on the promise that Lucifer made to destroy Morpheus back in the opening collection. Destiny summons the Endless to a meeting, where we meet Delirium (who used to be Delight) for the first time and get some more information about the missing brother of the Endless. During the meeting Desire baits Dream about the treatment of his lover Nada, whom he banished to Hell for spurning him. Dream realises he/she is right, and resolves to travel to Hell and rescue his former lover, despite Lucifer's vow.
Season of Mists takes Dream on a journey into Hell and a confrontation with the Morningstar...but not the type of confrontation he was expecting. Dream ends up, slightly bemused, as the keeper of the key to Hell, and is soon being petitioned by gods and representatives from many pantheons (including the gods of Chaos and Order, and deities from the Egyptian, Norse and Japanese pantheons) anxious to get their hands on the finest plot of real estate in the multiverse, at the same time as he is also trying to find his missing love, and Death is attempting to repair the damage caused by countless legions of the dead suddenly being released back into the mortal world.
After the short story interlude of Dream Country, it's good to be back to a solid, long story arc. Although it's a reasonably long tale it's not the most dynamic story in the Sandman canon, and unusually most of it takes place in the Dreaming with only a few scenes set in the real world, and a longer chunk set in Hell. This allows us to see a bit more of the Dreaming and its inhabitants, but the meat of the story is seeing how the different pantheons interact together and who actually has the best claim on Hell.
As usual, Gaiman fills the story with neat little details and touches. The notion of there being a library in the Dreaming where all the books writers dreamed of writing but never got round to it is a fascinating one, and it's amusing to see books there such as Tolkien's The Lost Road (which was supposed to be a big story about his island kingdom of Numenor, but he abandoned it after a few pages). Elsewhere there are nods back to earlier stories: when Dream fears he may be destroyed in Hell, he decides to make time for a brief drink with his friend Hob Gadling, although they are not due to meet for another ninety-nine years. He also looks in on the newly-born son of Hector and Lyta Hall and gives him a name, Daniel, to Lyta's rage and horror. Elsewhere there's nice touches about the various gods, such as Chaos being personified as a young girl and Order as a carboard box, and Thor trying to impress some of the female deities present with his hammer, which gets bigger if you rub it (which is mythologically accurate)! Finally, we get a glimpse into the Sandman's collection of artefacts he has accumulated over the years, and see the skull of the Corinthian, a city trapped in a bottle and an old pocket watch, all of which are explored in future stories, in some cases years down the line.
As with previous collections, Gaiman interrupts the linear narrative of the story to give us a self-contained story in the middle of the collection which nevertheless comments on the action around it. A young boy left alone at boarding school for the holidays (after his father is among the hostages taken by Saddam Hussein in the build-up to the Gulf War) is suddenly joined by all those who died in the school over the previous century or so. It's a rather grim story, but ends on an interesting, optimistic note.
Season of Mists (****) isn't quite up there with the best of the Sandman collections. It is a tad overlong given its relative lack of actual incident, but for expanding our knowledge and understanding about Hell and the Dreaming, for introducing important new characters (particularly Daniel, Cluracan and Nuala) and for resolving the Nada storyline, it does a great job. The graphic novel is available from Titan in the UK and Vertigo in the USA, and forms the opening part of The Absolute Sandman, Volume II, available from Vertigo in the UK and USA.
 Graphic Novels: A Newbie's Thoughts August 28, 2007
I'm new to the genre and so feel qualified to give an more lucid account of this series than the 'avid fan' who believes Gaiman can do no wrong.
They are potentially very good indeed: excellently drawn and presented and the story builds extremely well, introducing characters and even sub-plots that aren't directly to do with the main story, but give the context of the whole-a nice tool. What lets this down is the ending. It whimpers and limps to an unsatisfying ending that left me rather empty and cold. This is rapidly becoming my feeling about the whole Sandman series up to this point and it's such an all-pervading feeling that I'm considering not bothering to read the rest of the series. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I suspect not, because I find Gaiman's 'Death' graphic novels (a spin-off character) much more satisfying in every way an the most salient difference between the Death books and the Sandman series are the endings.
In conclusion, this is well presented in every way, but if you like resolute endings where you can sit back and feel contented, then I believe you'll be slightly disappointed with this book. If you like a vagueness to the conclusions of your reading-and some do- then jump in with both feet.
 Easily the BEST in the series! May 18, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I own the entire Sandman Library and in my opinion, this is the GREATEST volume of them all!I started as a fan of Mike Carey's "LUCIFER" and bought "SEASON OF MISTS" because it's the prelude to the Lucifer series. Not only was it terrific from a Lucifer fan's perspective, but the overall story blew me away. I'll even go so far as to suggest that new readers start here. You'll be treated to an EXCELLENT Sandman story, and a perfect introduction to all the other members of the Sandman's family (a group of god-like entities called "The Endless" who appear throughout the series). "Season Of Mists" is a tale of horror, revenge, trickery and fun. There's even a short story about a haunted Boarding School thrown-in as a kind of interlude from the non-stop action. Buy it... you won't be disappointed!
Fantastic July 21, 2000
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
Don't make the mistake most people do,this is not just a comic book.Neil Gaiman tells a very fine story,and one that will have you thinking for a long time after you have finished it.
Beyond the limits of the Endless June 1, 1999
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
If you read only one Sandman novel in your life, let it be this one. Although some background reading is advised it is not necessary, all you need is an open mind to accept the extreme intermingling of theology and mythology - past AND present, and an open heart to welcome the characters that will touch it in ways you would never expect "comic" book characters to ever do. You cannot help but feel sorry for Morpheus, as he wanders around his palace with his lonely wistful eyes. A romantic at heart, he desperately craves the comfort and solitude found in companionship, but his fate as set out by his brother Destiny, is to self-destruct any chance he has of finding true happiness before his end. It is this pain and stubborness that leds to the beginning of this beautiful tale, of cruelty, of the subconscious of man, and eventually to betrayl and redemption. God in this world, is cruel but loving, and will not hestitate to sacrifice one of his own to equalise the balance in the world. The resolution of the story is at once complete and incomplete. Although Gaiman's tale has been told, it leaves us aching for more, a very rare sign of an extremely good writer,which of course, is what Gaiman is.
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