Shelly V.

“She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.” You've got to love an author that can write a sentence like that.

I'm actually currently re-reading this title. It was a delightful read the first time around (though slow going at first. I find it more entertaining if I imagine that the narrator is Emma Thompson - then the book's wit shines through.)

And upon finishing it again, I have to say I think I'm even more in love with it than the first read. I just wish its size didn't make it such an intimidation factor for first readers...it's hard to convince the uninitiated to take the plunge!

This includes the first 20 issues of the Sandman, covered by Preludes & Nocturnes and Dream Country in the graphic novels, re-colorized (a much-needed task) and presented in “prestige format” (the new slightly over-sized style of hardcovers).

An added bonus is the inclusion of all the Charles Vess pencils for the World Fantasy Award-winning story “A Midsummer Night's Dream” (issue #19).

The price might seem a bit high for some, but a devoted Gaiman fan (or comic book fan, for that matter) really should think about adding this to their collection.

I wanted to love this book. It definitely left a sense of impending doom, and creeping dread, on my psyche. But I wish that the cause of the strange occurances would have been explained more...surely it's not all just “insanity fuss”. And I don't care if that puts the reader in the same place as the characters, not knowing. I want to know. Final verdict: bejabber-making, but flawed.

If Monty Python decided to re-make “The Omen”...

3.5/5 stars

It was an odd sensation, reading the story of leaving the Big Woods of Wisconsin for the Indian Territory of Kansas as seen through Caroline Ingalls's eyes. The book covers some of the same ground that I have found so troubling when re-reading the series as an adult: the attitudes of settlers to the native peoples who already had such a long, deep tie to the land that was being usurped. I appreciate that the author did not shy away from revealing those prejudices, but didn't excuse them, either. The one thing that struck me in the reading was how truly alone the women were while participating in these ventures. The fears that had to be faced seem great even (especially!) to a modern reader like me.

All in all, not a bad read, especially for fans of the original books.