07. Absolute Sandman Vol 4/5, by Neil Gaiman.

Absolute Sandman 4 contains issues #57-75. It is dominated by The Kindly Ones, and The Wake. The book as a whole is very focused on Dream, and you can see the mechanisms turning from the first few chapters, once you know what to look for, drawing the book to a very interesting showdown. Spoilers ahead, so proceed at own risk.

What I liked most about this book was that it was the story of a Dream, but not necessarily the Dream. It really is a story about stories, and it makes sense that Dream is most closely followed throughout the series, because Dreams are, in effect, stories that parts of our brains tell to other parts of our brains.

I also really enjoyed that the end of the book and the end of the series evoked very similar emotions, and they amped each other up really well. The end of the series was regretful but optimistic, in a way, and it definitely made you look forward to a new story that, while it wouldn't be Sandman, might be as evocative as Sandman. Different stories not being worse than each other has come across as sort of a theme that I've picked up from Neil Gaiman's vast array of characters, too. There are many different types of character, and many different stories within the framework of Sandman, and it's never implied that any of them are, at their essence, any more desirable or worthy than any other. Which I like.  

People who know me will no doubt already know of my dislike for endless character-saving deux ex machina, and my liking to see that major characters aren't safe just by virtue of their necessity to the story. So I very much enjoyed the ending. It made me very sad, being that Dream is nearly my favourite character, but I enjoyed the thought that it was just one aspect of the essential concept of Dream that died, and not the idea itself. And I enjoyed seeing them farewell him in such a fitting manner. I haven't started the fifth volume of Sandman yet, but it will be very interesting to see what it adds to the main body of the series.

06. Absolute Sandman Vol 3/5, by Neil Gaiman.

Absolute Sandman 3/5 covers issues #40-56, which is Brief Lives, Ramadan, and a collection of stories set in the tavern at the end of the world. Brief Lives follows Delirium's plan to find her brother Destruction, and convince him to resume his caretaking of his role as a member of the Endless. She asks her siblings for assistance in turn, and eventually finds an ally in Dream. Brief Lives really fleshes out a lot of the Endless, and you see a lot more of how their inter-sibling dynamics works. It's really interesting to see, and it made all of the Endless rather closer to one another in the end. Certainly, it makes it harder for me to definitively say 'This one is my favourite' and have it be true all of the time. Additionally, it was really interesting seeing how the different aspects have different personalities that fit with their core areas of control. Dream is aloof and not quite real; he seems insubstantial and as though he could decide to end encounters at any moment. Death has a reverence for life that makes her treat everyone with respect and kindness. Desire is, in itself, fueled by the desire for more, more, more. Destiny is implacable and controlled, and believes in the rigidity of structure. Delirium is constantly flitting from one thought to another - everything she does follows a plan, but it's a loosely structured plan that will change in an instant if she needs it to. She can, and does, pull herself together if she needs to, but her concentration prefers to be split into many fragments analysing many different things, rather than focused all on one. Despair, like Desire, emulates her aspect. She despairs of despairing, but it is in her nature. Destruction is very interesting, what with the whole leaving-the-Endless thing. He cares so much about the limits of destruction that he was unable to face being the cause of too much destruction, which humans seem to be adept at. Instead he abdicates, and allows destruction to control itself while he wanders the world. Potentially my favourite story arc in Sandman so far.

The tavern at the end of the world business is also really, really well done. I enjoyed seeing how a lot of very different characters were brought together for a bunch of short stories that all revolved around a common theme. It was done really well, and Gaiman's characterisation is as always impeccable. There's something to relate to about everybody, and everyone feels thoroughly fleshed out - and for relatively minor characters who only really stand out for a brief time, that makes a big difference to the feel of the whole story. It feels like everyone's life is worth looking at - not just the Endless, but run of the mill people, too. It allows him to touch on things he would have difficulty working into bigger stories, and give them the attention they deserve.

All in all, the whole book has been a big hit with me. I'm currently almost at the end of Sandman 4 (been a bit lazy getting this up) and I'll be really sad when it finally comes to the point where I've read all the stories. Of course, then it'll be time to start at the beginning again, but it'll be sad to be 'done'.

05. American Psycho, by Brett Easton Ellis.

American Psycho was recommended to me by a few people, so it got bumped up the list a bit. Also it's one of those classic books-everyone-should-get-around-to-reading-at-some-point, so I felt like I really should give it a go at some point. It follows Patrick Bateman, a rich businessman who spends most of his time doing anything but work, and has a nasty habit of murdering people on a whim. Half of the point of the book is that it wants you to look at society in a different manner to the usual, given how people just gloss over how bizarre things are in order to keep up with the Joneses. Outfits and meals are listed in meticulous detail (lest we fall behind the trends), and Bateman flies into pieces over his difficulties attaining reservations at the coveted Dorsia. Juxtaposed with the rape/murder/torture that he gets away with on what seems like more or less a weekly basis, and his flat-out confessions to multiple people (on tape, even) that are laughed off as a joke, because, he couldn't possibly be a serial killer (not Bateman, he knows what to wear with argyle socks, we have lunch with him, he's just a yuppie).

And granted, it does a very good job of doing so. The ending keys in with that, the fact that his nosedive into insanity isn't picked up by anyone, the careful, detailed, brand referencing, his anger when others don't follow the trends as closely as he does, all keys into what a caricature society can be. Technically, and in its execution, this is a marvellous book. I can't say you should not read it, because you should. It shows you a different part of society that most people don't think to look at, and I think that's a valuable experience for people.

However. I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, even though I can appreciate how well it was fulfilling its function. I was really hoping for a book that left my skin crawling, that had me spooked at the end of a few hours of midnight I-Must-Finish-This-Book-Now reading, and it did not fulfil that role. The portrayal of power-hungry society bored me. Real-life power hungry society bores me as well, so I can't say I was particularly surprised, but I found the products and brands and the constant effort to record those things to be tedious and grating after a while. I didn't care what suit anyone was wearing. I didn't care that they ate this specific thing, or about what precise order his showering routine was. I can see that it helped make a point, but I got that point fairly early on, and it felt very yes-yes-I-know after a while. I didn't have any sort of affinity with that lifestyle. And because I didn't relate to the violence either, I had no real, personal, connection to the book. Which meant that I didn't like it very much in the end, technically competent though it may be.

02: Absolute Sandman vol 2/5, by Neil Gaiman.

Absolute Sandman Volume Two contains issues 21-39, and tells a couple of major stories with a few minor story arcs thrown in between. Season of Mists recounts the story of what happens when Lucifer quits his job as Master of Hell and gives the key to the realm away to Dream, who is then beset by envoys from many different realms, all seeking audience to cajole, demand, threaten, or bribe their way to becoming the new keepers of Hell. Dream is unimpressed by their petty manoeuvring, and awards the key as he sees fit, in a move that dismays almost everyone while still following a fairly prescribed 'right thing to do' path. In A Game Of You, Barbie gets unexpectedly sucked back into the dream-world of her childhood, somewhere that got taken away from her by the Cuckoo without her even realizing it. Her friends and neighbours from the real world become increasingly caught up in her events, leading to the introduction of a new (hopefully) repeat character, Thessaly, and a little more knowledge about what Dream's world contains.

I was very impressed with this collection of Sandman. Volume Two has confirmed for me that it is definitely a series that I very much enjoy, and is one that I'm sure I will continue to very much enjoy for some time. It contains a lot of elements that I enjoy, and it is written in a way that I find fascinating. There's fantasy, violence, whimsy, surreality, mystery, horror, and other bits and pieces that are all twined together and threaded through to make the storylines interesting, unique, and enjoyable. It always feels like they run just a little bit out-of-kilter with reality, and that it'd be easy to just...turn that four or five degrees sideways and find yourself in a whole new reality.

I've also found out a few things through these books. Firstly is that I really must make more of an effort to get physical copies of books I really enjoy. It's much more gratifying to read a good story when it's well presented, and the copies I have are hardcover, fake-leather-bound, glossy, and really damn heavy, but it makes it a much more tactile pleasure to read, as well as a mental one. Additionally I just really dislike reading comics on a screen, since they're inevitably portrait styled, and landscape size screens make them difficult to work with. My eventual plan is to have a physical library of my favourite books, and electronic copies of a wider range, and I'm going to start trying to add to that collection now, costly or no. As I get more good books, I'll weed out the ones that I don't read or don't like any more.

Secondly is that I should try to divorce my idea of people from my idea of the value of their recommendations. Several times now, I've had a series or TV show or comic or thing recommended to me by someone I don't care for in some fashion, be that their attitude, or appearance, or a facet of their beliefs,  but I let my distaste for them as a person interfere with my idea of the item they are recommending. Doctor Who was first recommended to me by someone I used to be friends with, and subsequently was not, and so I never tried to watch the series, because I thought it would be boring. Turns out I like it a lot. Same thing with Sandman - someone I used to live with was a huge fan, and said I'd like it, but I ignored the recommendation because deep down, I didn't want to think such a jerk could have good taste. And that was even though I knew that we liked several other similar books! It took recommendations from several other, better, friends, and a bored moment where I flicked through the first issue late at night, for me to take the steps to immerse myself in the comic. I'm sure this has happened to me before (but without the qualifying recommendations from more trusted sources) and as such, I've missed out on books or series or movies or shows that I may have really enjoyed. Problem then comes down to how to balance recommendations from others with the things I stumble across myself, and with the things that I want to rewatch or reread, in order to maximise my output of Good Material. Perhaps I'll come across a way to balance these things eventually. For now, I guess I have to acknowledge that I'm missing out on some good things, whilst trying to keep in mind that the time I spend missing out on some good things is almost always spent on other good things, too.

102. Airman, by Eoin Colfer.

Airman is about Conor Broekheart, a young nobleman born in an aeronautical balloon and raised as a scientist as the world races to invent a proven method of flight. He is privileged with a progressive king and willing mentor, loving family, and ideal prospects to woo and win the princess of the islands, until treacherous underlings deprive him of mentors, family, and freedom in a few vicious strokes. Shattered, he clings to his dreams of flight to survive his time in the diamond mine prison of Little Saltee Island.

Airman is a good read by a favoured author. I've read several of the Artemis Fowl books, and a few of Eoin Colfer's other books, and I'm fairly sure I moderately enjoyed all of them. Eoin Colfer has a very straightforward manner of explaining things, and his plots are all unusual enough that they captivate the interest - helped along by his amusing portrayals of even the grimmest characters. Definitely worth a read, as a young adult or an old one.

100. Horns, by Joe Hill.

Ig Perrish stands accused of the rape and murder of his girlfriend following a very public split. On the one-year anniversary of her death, he wakes up from a blackout drunk with horns protruding from his skull. Horns that, when seen, encourage everyone to spill their innermost secrets and ask permission to commit secret sins. As he tries to come to terms with this new identity, he finds out some startling things about Merrin's demise.

This book was very, very good. I enjoyed it immensely. If this is anything to go by, his books are definitely going to become a staple of my reading diet. His story's fairly unusual, and his characters are seen from an interesting point of view. Lee in particular is very well executed, both in form and in function. Definitely a book I recommend to anyone who likes darker fantasy (or fantasy, or good books) and I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more by this author.

98. Absolute Sandman, volume 1/5, by Neil Gaiman.

This volume is the first of five, and collects issues 1-20 of the comic in a hardback cover, which is awesomely presented. My American friend (yes, you) suggested this to me a while back, but it took me a while to get my paws on a copy, since I wanted to read it in physical form and not off my computer screen, and thus needed to wait in a rather long waitlist to get one from my library. However, it finally arrived, and I got about halfway through before going online and purchasing copies for myself. I love stories like this - strange fantasy that's not necessarily strictly nice, odd little snippets that make you think of things from a different perspective. Sandman is very much like that, so it's a very good fit for me.

Volume one covers Dream's capture and escape from the mortal realm, introduces us to some of his sibling Endless, and some of the denizens of the Dream realm, and others. I particularly liked the story about cats dreaming of a new reality.

97. Matilda, by Roald Dahl.

Matilda seems like a book I would have absolutely loved to bits in childhood, but amusingly enough, never got around to reading until now. Although I've seen the movie, and liked that. She's a precociously intelligent child born into a family of numbskulled crooks, who teaches herself to read ridiculously early, devours books at an incredible rate, and develops telekinetic powers due to her undertaxed mind's frustration with never being able to use its full potential. These come in very handy for hijinks and mischief, although she only uses these with good reason.

I quite enjoyed finally reading this story. It's been a while since I've thought about it much, but it's one of those books that I always promised myself I'd get round to eventually. And eventually turned out to be now, since I finally had a copy near to hand, and some spare time at lunchtimes to sit down and read it.

95. George's Marvellous Medicine, by Roald Dahl.

George's Marvellous Medicine is another childhood favourite of mine. George is left alone with his horrible grandmother, and resorts to making her a new and improved medicine, since her old medicine is clearly not helping her temper at all. He collects a variety of articles from around the house in a giant saucepan, and boils it up, before giving her some and watching in dismay as she grows taller...and taller... and taller.

Another funny and entertaining read. Roald Dahl is very good at finding light-hearted ways to deal with odd topics (especially the ending) and I especially like the fact that most of these books have pictures to go alongside the writing, even if they're little sketchy-pictures as opposed to full colour. It makes these books a nice sort of transition from picturebook reading to more grown-up reading. Definitely recommend to younger readers.

93. The B.F.G, by Roald Dahl.

I was lucky enough to spot a box set of Roald Dahl books going relatively cheaply in a fundraiser box at my work. 15 books for $50 sounded like an excellent excuse to indulge my nostalgia, so...I did. As you'll see over the next few entries.

The BFG is about a little girl, Sophie, who is awake late in her orphanage one night, and spots a giant blowing dreams through bedroom windows. When he realises he's been spotted, he takes her away to giant country, where they find out that he's the Big Friendly Giant, as opposed to one of the other giants that like to eat people. Sophie is determined to put a stop to this after hearing about how the others go galloping off each night to gobble up people by the dozens, and enlists the help of the Queen to do so.

This was one of my favourite books in primary school. I remember sitting in the library reading it multiple times, and Roald Dahl is probably one of the authors that really got me hooked on reading from a young age. The story's bizarre enough to be funny, yet it's still set out clearly and is easy to understand. He has a great gift for involving the reader's imagination.

88. Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier.

Based heavily on the fairytale about the maid that saves her brothers, cruelly transformed into the guise of swans, by sewing shirts of nettle thread, woven by hand and in silence, in order to thwart a witch's spell.

Fleshed out and expanded upon, this story closely follows the markers set down in the fairytale, but segues off into new information extrapolated from smaller elements. The baseline is all present - swans, a spell, six brothers, a beautiful youngest sister, a handsome stranger - but the extra information is all very much worthwhile also. The story evolves nicely, and the characters relate to each other well, which can be a struggle. Interesting read, and definitely enjoyed it.

84. Song of the Lioness 2: In The Hand Of The Goddess, by Tamora Pierce.

Alanna has survived her years as a page, and is training as a squire, deception still intact. This book covers her years as a squire, her first war, and her ongoing struggles with some very prominent smiling noblemen.

After sorting my bookshelves and being thoroughly distracted by the first book of this series, I decided it had been enough years since I read them to make a reread worth my while. I chewed through this one in a similarly abrupt fashion, reacquaintancing myself with familiar characters and old friends. Much like the first book in the series, it's written for young adults and uses simple language and plot themes to get the ideas across. Lots of nostalgic value, but also a decent read, particularly if you're after something  reasonably easy to follow.

83. Song of the Lioness 1: Alanna: The First Adventure, by Tamora Pierce.

Alanna is determined to become a knight. Only problem is, she's female, and that's just not done. Due to some lax parenting and a mischievous twin brother, she is able to swindle her way into training, masquerading as 'Alan', and pretending to be male. Training to be a page is hard enough for most, but it's even harder when the gods are taking a special interest in your case. This book covers Alanna's training as a page, and the adventures she has therein.

This was one of my favourite books as a child. It's got a strong heroine, it's fantasy based, the characters are set out simply and concisely, but with depth and meaning hidden behind every sentence. The story's interesting and the pace is fast enough to prevent boredom. Even on the umpteenth re-read, I was able to sit down and finish this book in one session of reading, and I'd gladly do the same again.

80. The Redemption Of Althalus, by David and Leigh Eddings

The Redemption of Althalus follows the key character of Althalus on a number of brief adventures before he is hired to steal the Book from the House at the End of the World. Upon his arrival there, he is greeted by a talking cat, and concludes that he has gone mad, or died without noticing. Emmy disabuses him of this notion after a while, and he returns to the world to seek out those who may help him and Emmy in their quest to preserve the universe and current version of history.

I'm quite a fan of this book. I like most of the characters, and I think it has some interesting ideas put forth in the text. One of the characters appeals to me rather a lot, and those who know me well may be able to pick them out based on a few obvious physical characteristics. I enjoy the story because it plays around with some neat mechanics and keeps your attention through almost all of the book. I do find that one of the last sections gets a bit tedious, but that could just be me being finicky. Overall definitely worth a read for any classic fantasy fans.

79. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

(I am aware that this is a comic rather than a book, but I'm counting it nevertheless because it was equivalent time-wise. And look! The cover even refers to it as a novel.)

Watchmen depicts the adventures of a few masked vigilantes towards the end of their socially acceptable reign of power. Nuclear war draws ever closer, both pushed forward and impeded by the presence of Dr Manhattan, a true super hero. Society is very unstable, and there are some out there that want to take advantage of that to tip the future into the channel they prefer.

Several of my friends are comic fans, but I've never really gotten that involved with them before. I really enjoyed reading Watchmen, not only because the story was chaotic enough to be interesting while still being straightforward enough to understand, but because I enjoyed the medium as well. Comics are much more visual than books, and it's quite fun to read a story mostly through dialogue and images. I had a bit of trouble reading this at first due to computer display issues, but once I had located a paperback copy at my local library, I was able to dive right in to the story. Definitely worth a look.

77. Knife, by R. J. Anderson

Knife is a young adult faerytale about Bryony, a faery girl that is growing up in the tattered shreds of a once-great faery Oak, while the rest of her society slowly decays around her for lack of input. Everyone is confined to the tree for fear of humans, but Bryony is more alert and more curious than many of the older faeries, and refuses to stay within the boundaries. Once she's appointed as a Hunter for the tree, it becomes even more difficult to keep her away from the humans.

This book was an interesting read. Bryony/Knife (as she calls herself later in the book) is a fairly typically wilful young adult, and I can see how the book would appeal to teen readers quite a lot. The ending is somewhat expected, but also a bit...odd...in a few ways. And it leaves a lot hanging open to interpretation. Apparently also the first of a series (I have a bad habit of picking these up and never getting the rest), so I may have to read the others, should I come across copies. I want to know what happens next!

76. Gifts, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Gifts is about two Upland children, who live in a settlement where most people are Gifted with a power that travels through their families. Gry's family calls animals, whereas Orrec's family has the power of Unmaking. But Orrec can't control his power, and Gry refuses to use hers to call animals to slaughter.

Gifts was another of my $1 bargain books that I've finally got around to reading. Previously I've been a little ambivalent towards her books - they're interesting, and good fantasy, but they weren't catching my fancy as they could have. Gifts was a good read though, and I'd definitely give another of her books a chance, should one tweak my interest. Her characters are interesting, but I would have liked to see a bit more fleshing-out of how their magics came to be and such. This isn't really covered in the book, but it's also quite clearly the first in a series (works alright standalone, but it's clear the story continues) so perhaps that's something that is more fully described later. In any event, it was an interesting book, and I enjoyed reading it.

75. Hunter's Run, by Daniel Abraham, Gardner Dozois, and George R. R. Martin.

Hunter's Run is about an independent miner on a small human colony world, just as humanity is starting to branch out amongst the stars with the help of a mostly indifferent alien race for dispersal. Ramon is crude and angry, and enjoys his time spent out in the wildnerness more than the time boozing and fighting in the cities...although that's always good for some light exercise. After he kills a man, he needs to make a quick trip out. And as luck would have it, this is the trip that he finds something remarkable.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. It was a $1 bargain from the library, and it had three authors, and I was thinking 'ehhhh...maybe I'll give it a go' when I started reading it, but it really blew my expectations out of the water. Ramon is a very interesting character, and I really enjoyed the storyline. Unusual, just predictable enough in places to be enticing, and a really good look at an interesting method of character depiction and development. Totally satisfied my classic-sci fi need that the Shadow series was lacking, and I'm definitely earmarking this one for re-reads in the future. Definitely a fitting book to hit for the three-quarters mark.

71. The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi.

The Windup Girl is a sci-fi novel where biotechnology has become the major source of energy and power. It's set in near-future Thailand, where calorie companies are prying their way into a mostly self-governed, if wildly corrupt, nation. It follows a variety of characters, and uses them to show different facets of the same city.

This book was a pleasant surprise. It's one I've had on my lists for a while, but I never got round to checking it out. I'm glad I did pick it up, because it kept me entertained on a fair number of long bus rides. The characters are all interesting, and their thought processes hook into your attention. I liked the setting immensely, and the storyline was complicated, but also came together really nicely at the end. Not many loose threads to tug at, which is satisfying. I really liked it.

69. Night Shift, by Stephen King.

Night Shift is a book of short stories written by Stephen King. It probably has the scariest of his stories in, at least in my opinion. The Mangler, Jerusalem's Lot, and Graveyard Shift are particularly worrisome, and The Last Rung On The Ladder is sad but sweet.

Most of the stories in this collection gave me that uniquely horrified yet fascinated feel that the good King books manage so well. They're stories about some terrible things, but at the same time, it's very difficult to prise yourself away. Not really a night-time read, unless you want to have some interesting dreams.