Dominike Stanton

a plague escapes from Erzulie's voodoo realm into this world, and it sends the souls of its victims into the Dreaming, from which they must be recovered and restored. there's something joyful about the colour and tone driven by the art and story of the romp that ensues. and so the comics masterpiece comes to life again for a new generation in this new incarnation called Sandman Universe. hey, all about resurrection, after all. kinda linear, though. not much nuance, not intricately woven. that's the trouble with following Neil Gaiman as a storyteller. oh well, early days yet, give it time.… (mere)

With every volume of this expanded Sandman Universe, the stories seem to keep getting stranger and stranger. Is that the nature of dreams, or are we trending towards a madness in the Dreaming as the major theme throughout? In this volume we are introduced to the House of Whispers, the home of deity Erzulie Freda where the party is apparently always happening as it is affected by an accidental(ish) plague of secrets and an unexpected trip to the rifted Dreamlands. Now, I can't claim a full understanding of the African lore that drives most of the story (though I am very intrigued by it, and it's on my longer list of mythologies to explore), but the story set some interesting premises populated with well-written characters that I definitely wanted to get into. In typical Dream fashion (or at least the Dream of the expanded Universe as we've come to know it), the story was rather fragmented and more random than I would have liked, but I guess that's what we get for trying to introduce a whole bunch of ideas at once. I still have a handful of the newer Sandman Universe to read, so maybe once those are done things will make a bit more sense. Until then, we must accept the randomness of the Dreaming and revel in the new characters that we're being introduced to.… (mere)