Preludes and Nocturnes

Morpheus, one of the Endless, is kidnapped and upon escaping discovers the world has changed. The first volume is about him trying to regain his power. The book introduces characters, places, and plots.

There is something I need to confess. Neil Gaiman’s books have never really appealed to me. I am completely baffled by them. When he tells a story, I never know where it will go.

In this volume, there is an overwhelming amount of happening. Some characters (both new and recycled) ended up being flat and boring because there were too many. Although I didn’t find the main character to be bad, he became flat and boring as the story progressed. Among them, only John Constantine really appealed to me.

There was also a lot of confusion and overwhelming in the plot. The author presented many ideas, some of which were overlooked and left you wishing for more elaboration. I’ll be interested to see how the second volume improves on the overall story.

Whenever I review a graphic novel I have to begin by mentioning I'm not much of an enthusiast for the genre. But this was on the giveaway shelf in my building's laundry room and Neil Gaiman is pretty famous so I figure I'd take a look.

As graphic novels go, this one's pretty decent. The story kept me interested, it has some fine vignettes, and the drawing is quite good.

I know I'm rating this low relative to what genre fans give it, but for me, for a graphic novel, this is me saying it's good for what it is.

After re-reading this some 20 years later, I must admit the magic has somewhat faded. As has my general interest in Gaiman's fiction, to be honest. It's not bad in any particular way - it's just... vague.

As a reader, I'm never really invited to share the specific rules that govern the dreamworld. Morpheus' powers seem to vary from God-like to human, providing small possibilities for me to assess the threats posed by humans, madmen or demons.

Agreed, the grapic novel(s) can be seen as a grand tour of hitherto unknown worlds and universes. As such it really is magnificent. But that might be something to bear in mind when reviewing the complete series. As a standalone volume, I cannot help but to give it the standard three stars.

Sorry 'bout that, Neil.