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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You
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List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $13.59
Your Save: $ 6.40 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vertigo
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741
EAN: 9781563890895
ISBN: 1563890895
Label: Vertigo
Manufacturer: Vertigo
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: 1993-09-03
Publisher: Vertigo
Release Date: 1993-09-03
Studio: Vertigo
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Editorial Reviews:
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You may have heard somewhere that Neil Gaiman's Sandman series consistedof cool, hip, edgy, smart comic books. And you may have thought, "What the helldoes that mean?" Enter A Game of You to confound the issue even more, while at the same time standing as a fine example of such a description. This is not an easy book. The characters are dense and unique, while their observations are, as always with Gaiman, refreshingly familiar. Then there's the plot, which grinds along like a coffee mill, in the process breaking down the two worlds of this series, that of the dream and that of the dreamer. Gaiman pushes these worlds to their very extremes--one is a fantasy world with talking animals, a missing princess, and a mysterious villain called the Cuckoo; the other is an urban microcosm inhabited by a drag queen, a punk lesbian couple, and a New York doll named Barbie. In almost every way this book sits at 180 degrees from the earlier four volumes of the Sandman series--although the less it seems to belong to the series, the more it shows its heart. --Jim Pascoe
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Graphic SF Reader
Comment: A messed up girl named Barbie has created a dream world with some serious problems. After blocking this out of a mind for her time, and not dreaming, eventually her dream world gets to her.
This drags in her friends and neighbours, who happen to include an immortal witch, and an agent of her dream foe.
Through a drawing down the moon ritual, the women involved enter the dream world to try and rectify things and find Barbie.
Needless to say, Morpheus is not at all amused, when he finally has to act.
This part really has little to do with the Endless.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not your grandad's comic book . . .
Comment: This is one my two favorites in the 11-volume "Sandman" series, which has proven Gaiman to be a genius storyteller. I think I like this one especially because it's a full-length continuing story, not a collection of short pieces, and because the characters are terrific (all of them are just ordinary people, including the witch and the princess), and also because Gaiman is a master of poetic dialogue. The story begins in a New York tenement for mostly women, all of them genuine characters, and several of them with connections to characters in earlier volumes. Then Barbie -- Princess Barbara -- is threatened and three of her friends set off on the Moon Road to help her. But Barbie is on a quest of her own, to seek out and defeat the Cuckoo, through a land of her own dreams and imaginings. The Endless are actually rather minor characters this time, but the story doesn't suffer for it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exellent
Comment: Gaiman's earlier work with the characters of the Sandman Universe is very good, and the later books continue the trend. I would recommend this to any fan of the earlier books.
For those unfamiliar with the series, I would suggest starting at Volume 1, "Preludes and Nocturnes", which sets up the premise of the series and introduces many of the characters.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I think I saw Martin Tenbones on the streets yesterday...
Comment: Like a huge boulder that cannot be stopped, Gaiman continues to plow through the journeys of the characters we first were introduced to in the spellbinding introduction entitled "Preludes and Nocturnes" with his fifth collection aptly titled "A Game of You". Like no other artist that I have seen in the past, Gaiman impresses yet again by taking a smaller character from his "Doll House" collection and expanding darkly into her dreams and past. That small character is Barbie - of Ken & Barbie - and the elaboration of her fantasy dream world that includes large hairy beasts, an inspector rat, a bird, as well as a monkey with a circus suit. It sounds nearly dream-like, but what Gaiman does (like no other) is give these characters moments of emotion, human traits, and a drive to see what they believe in succeed. Gaiman takes us from our physical Earth to this dream-created world with comfort and ease, nearly making us more excited to be in this fictional world than in our own. He does this through sympathetic creatures/characters, through the unknown, and through the unhinging power of Dream.
Our story follows Barbie as she attempts to reconnect with her world after her relationship with Ken soured. She has made a few friends in her apartment - one a transvestite named Wanda, a gay couple named Hazel and Foxglove that harbor a surprising secret, then there is Thessaly, an unknown neighbor that seems to know more of what is happening then the rest of our players. None the less, as it seems to be in this series, a character from Barbie's dreams escapes onto the streets of New York. Barbie sees it, realizes it, and retrieves a pendant from it before it is gunned down by the NYPD. She is struck by the idea that her dreams could become a reality. She takes the pendant home with her and deeply falls asleep only to awaken back in her dream world where she is asked to save it from the evil grip of the Cuckoo.
(Now, for the quick - quick - quick version...)
As she makes this journey with her supposed friends, Thessaly sets into motion a way to retrieve her from the lost dream world. She kills a neighbor George (who was oddly giving everyone nightmares in the apartment) and hangs the skin of his face on the wall so that he can talk to the saviors about what is happening to Barbie. Thessaly calls down the Moon God so that she, Hazel, and Fox can travel to Barbie's dream world to save her. Barbie finds the Cuckoo, but it is not who she expects it to be. Due to traveling, Thessaly has disrupted the physical Earth causing peril to Wanda - and just when we think that all is going to be lost, our heroine Dream takes his powerful step forward, wrapping up a phenomenal story that continues to build upon the world we still know little about.
This is another great collection by Gaiman in the expansion of his Dream world. I enjoyed the inception of a character that we already knew about, that we already knew her dreams, and Gaiman just wanted to grow upon it to demonstrate the overall power and depth of Dream. In a prior review, I was upset that we didn't have the opportunity to see much of Dream in a certain collection which ultimately created animosity with this avid reader, but in "A Game of You", I didn't mind. I liked not having Dream arrive until it was absolutely necessary because (unlike the past collection) there was this sense of fantasy that kept your attention throughout the book. The actions of Thessaly, the arrival of Martin Tenbones on the streets of NY, and the entirely creepy, yet bizarre world that Barbie enters that reminded me of a slanted Narnia. Gaiman gave us enough to wrap our minds around that Dream just seemed to be a mediator instead of a main character, and in this collection that worked. The eclectic collection of "real" people kept a strong balance between the realities that Barbie lived in and the dream world she created, it is only when the two combine together that we are provided with a climax like no other. While the other collections followed a similar path, I felt this one was Gaiman's strongest developed story yet. I say this mainly because he takes a similar structure as he did in "Seasons of Mists" - the onslaught of several different characters from several different walks of life - but expands it in a way that only he can develop. Gaiman is at the top of his game with this volume, and I cannot wait to see where he will take us next.
Overall, I was extremely happy with this collection. Yet again, I have no complaints as Gaiman does not seem to be slowing down at all. He brings imagination, creativity, and this layer of unrepentant darkness to the table with each page that I turn. I especially loved the insertion of Rose Walker into the finale of the story as well as seeing Dream's sister make a cameo appearance. This collection blended well, giving us yet another scope of just how big Dream's world is and how easily he has control over it. This is one of those collections that you finish, take a deep breath, and then quickly jump into the next realizing that you do not want to skip a beat at all. I strongly suggest this book to anyone that can get their hands on it. I still say you need to begin with "Preludes and Nocturnes" and follow the course, but one could read this chapter and still become an instant fan of the series. Gaiman proves yet again that this is the pinnacle of his graphic novel career.
Grade: ***** out of *****
Customer Rating:
Summary: I like it a lot, but I'm not sure I get it
Comment: I did like this book. I really have enjoyed all the Sandman books so far. But as much as it galls me to admit it, I'm not sure I understand quite what the big deal is. I keep hearing about and reading about how fabulous they are. And yeah, they're interesting. It's an interesting world that Gaiman has created and I think the character of the Sandman is intriguing/fascinating. And the Sandman is good-looking in some of the panels. But I don't understand what about these novels/comics draws people in so much. I don't understand why the Midsummer Night's Dream one won that prestigious award which ticked the other authors off so they had to change the rules to specifically exclude a graphic novel from being entered ever again. I don't understand why this series is supposed to grab women readers in a way that other comic/graphic novel offerings haven't. It's a bit like David Bowie music, to me. I like it a lot. But partly, that's because I Want to like it. I think it (the music, or the graphic novel) is really weird and I don't understand why everybody else, with no inner urging, likes it so much. And then I read the preface to this book and the guy talks about all these layers and all this depth that I guess I'm really just not getting at all. Which also bugs me because I like to think that I'm smart. But, granted, I've only read it one time and that kind of stuff does usually become more apparent with multiple readings.
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